Our childhood memories are bound to games and of course, singing of nursery rhymes. There are countless of these songs that we love to hear and to sing when we’re growing up. Who wouldn’t love those? It got some perfect lyrics and nice melodies to hear.
But behind the fun of these songs, do we have any idea what these nursery rhymes really tell? How was these songs even made? Where it was originated?
Unknown to us, these nursery rhymes are actually written based on some myth and real stories which are too morbid to even tell. Prepare your childhood to get messed up!
1. London Bridge Is Falling Down
This rhyme is about child sacrifice. There is an old European myth that holds that if a child is buried alive within a particular structure, this sacrifice will ensure that the structure remains stable. There are myths that this was done to keep the London Bridge sturdy.
2. Baa-baa Black Sheep
This sweet nursery rhyme is usually heard with the line “and one for the little boy who lives down the lane,” but apparently the line used to go “and none for the little boy who cries down the lane.” This rhyme is actually about how taxes were split in the 13th century between the crown, the farmers, and the church. The shepherd boy was not given anything.
3. Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater
In this children’s rhyme Peter “had wife but couldn’t keep her” so he put her “in a pumpkin shell.” If one looks closely at these lines, one realizes that Peter’s wife was being unfaithful, and Peter put her in a pumpkin shell after killing her.
4. She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain When She Comes
Most people think that this song is about a train arriving and bringing supplies and news to a community on the other side of a mountain. The song actually shares its melody and some words with an old spiritual song that was about the chariot which Jesus will ride when the world comes to an end.
5. Three Blind Mice
This rhyme actually comes from the very dark time of the rule of Mary I of England, or “Bloody Mary.” Bloody Mary was ruthless in her actions to prevent and expunge the practice of Protestantism in England, which she wanted to be a Catholic state. The “three blind mice” were actually three noblemen who were burned at the stake for plotting again Bloody Mary.
6. Jimmy Crack Corn
This song is actually about a slave-owner being thrown off of his horse and killed, all because a fly bit his horse. Once the man dies, an enslaved man who was ordered to follow behind, celebrates by drinking corn liquor. The words have shifted forms over time, but the lyric was originally “gimcrack corn,” in other words, “cheap corn,” a nickname for cheap liquor. Hence “Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care / My master’s gone away.”
7. Jack and Jill
This children’s song is rumored to be a euphemistic recounting of the deaths of French monarchs Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. By way of the terrible guillotine, Louis XVI lost “his crown” and Marie Antoinette’s head came “tumbling after.”
8. Blow The Man Down
“Hey-ho, blow the man down!” This is a song that children hear and associate with adventures sailing the seven-seas. In reality “blow the man down” means “knock the man down” in slang. This song could be about fighting amongst sailors, or the physical punishment inflicted on sailors who broke the rules or made mistakes due to inexperience.
9. Humpty Dumpty
This nursery rhyme is usually thought to be about a man-like egg or an egg-like man who falls off a wall. Evidently, this rhyme is actually about a very large canon used during the English Civil War that fell from its post, and no amount of men or horses could move it back into place. You can still think it’s about an unlucky egg-man, but really Humpty Dumpty was a murderous weapon of war.
Thank you so much for dropping by and reading this blog post. For more informative stories, feel free to visit our website more often.