Ever wonder about the origins of nursery rhymes? Surprisingly, some originate from violent and bloody tales. 'Oranges and Lemons', is about prisoners "walking the green mile", 'three blind mice', is about Protestants being burned at the stake and 'Jack and Jill', is about Louis XVI and Marie Anoinette having their head chopped off by the guilotine.
And we sing these songs to babies. Preety scarry eh?
Check out more origins of nursery rhymes.
Hehehe. If you're ready, try looking for the original versions of the Grimm Fairy Tales. You'll find that most of them have sinister (and sometimes saucy) implications.
Not for kids indeed, but fun nonetheless.
Posted by: Ash.ox | Wednesday, April 07, 2004 at 12:07
Even fairy tales like the Grimm Brothers' stories have pretty dark backgrounds.
Scary. :D!!
Posted by: raZZbeRRy | Wednesday, April 07, 2004 at 12:10
hmmm...I wonder if Humpty Dumpty and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star has dark story behind it....
Posted by: sherrina | Wednesday, April 07, 2004 at 12:25
As long as the kids don't know about the gruesome origins of the nursery rhymes, I don't think they'll be bothered very much about it. And by the time they find out, they are already adults like us!! So, keep on singing the nursery rhymes!!!
Posted by: khalilur | Wednesday, April 07, 2004 at 13:08
Terrific link. Thanks for pointing it out!
Posted by: anis | Wednesday, April 07, 2004 at 15:26
Regardless...I still love Cinderella...:-)
Posted by: Zsarina | Wednesday, April 07, 2004 at 18:25
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gives me the creeps. Imagine, a pasty white face and jet black hair... and who would want to be taken care of by 7 short men! Creepy!
Posted by: Najah | Thursday, April 08, 2004 at 09:30
I am so in love with nursery rhymes! I know almost every mother goose' at the back of my head :D Anyway, I'm sure all of us know what Alice in Wonderland is all about ;-)
Posted by: Diarna | Saturday, April 10, 2004 at 23:10
y'know i heard a stand up comedian joke about how unsuitable nursery rhymes are for kids.. he made sense.. but i can't remember what he said.. just that it was all wrong! haha. luckily kids have not developed the capacity to decipher the meanings of this nursery rhymes like... how grown ups do. hahaghehaghhag
Posted by: Ben | Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at 05:54
i've always thought they originated from political situations, sex and stds
Posted by: sakina | Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at 23:57
Just goes to show how our ancestors thought and acted out on those thoughts and how they kept the
memories alive in oral cultures-sometimes to
merely record the historical event at others to
draw moral values from them-some to discipline the
ones of us with maybe darker sides than others
who knows in fact why these things survive while
others do not and they evolve to become nonsense
rhymes for children of another age and time
Posted by: jan | Thursday, May 13, 2004 at 00:35
Could never get the idea behind "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick." How tall was it? Did it contain a lit candle? Sounds more like a parlor game. I guess "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..." is a challenge, therefore, worthy. LOL
Posted by: Donna | Friday, May 14, 2004 at 02:53
Could never get the idea behind "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick." How tall was it? Did it contain a lit candle? Sounds more like a parlor game. I guess "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..." is a challenge, therefore, worthy. LOL
Posted by: Donna | Friday, May 14, 2004 at 02:53
I actually have heard of a secret meaning behind the Humpty Dumpty rhyme at this site here: http://www.merlinventor.com/rhyme.htm
Here's what it said about that particular rhyme,
"Humpty Dumpty was the nickname of a large cannon owned by the King's (Royalist) forces and which was installed upon the battlements of the defensive walls of Berwick during the English Civil War. The trouble with these battlements was of course that there was only a castellated barrier wall on the outside, while on the inside there was no barrier at all and one could easily walk straight off the wall and into space.
Well Humpty was fired, recoiled, and backed himself straight off the wall. After his great fall, he lay at the foot of the wall in fragments where the King's Cavalry and the King's Infantry vainly attempted to repair him."
Posted by: Martine | Saturday, May 29, 2004 at 14:09