A post for Jenn...

[conuly]

Gotta love that nursery rhyme.

Unfortunately, somebody afterwards pulled out the story about "Ring around the Rosie" being about the Plague.

And again, I say, that's just an urban legend. I haven't done any firsthand research, and I don't intend to, because every last reference I've seen has scads of information of it's own, starting with the "nope, didn't see it written until centuries after the plague was gone" bit, through the "well, the older versions are very unlike the one we're used to now, and don't mention ashes at all, many of them also don't mention falling down in any sense whatsoever" information, with various versions collected both historically and from modern oral tradition.

No evidence for the plague story whatsoever.

The only interesting thing about it is that people do insist on telling their children about the plague story. That would make for an interesting study: why do we do this to our kids? It's bad enough we sing them songs about death (rock-a-bye-baby) and eyes being gouged out (hush-a-bye, don't you cry), but we turn honest-to-god innocent nursery rhymes into epidemics. I don't get it.

500 years from now, they'll be saying that the Hokey-Pokey (with slightly changed lyrics, of course) is obviously all about autism from that "horrible epidemic", see if they don't. Or maybe they'll pick epilipsy, but that's not quite common, is it? Bit of nonsense, when it's clearly all about sex.

Comments

[panda-cookie.livejournal.com]

I had heard that "Rock a Bye Baby" was about death, before! I guess it doesn't occur to some people because they don't pay attention to the lyrics.

[leora.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

I've never been formally told what rock-a-bye baby is about, but it clearly is about putting a kid in a cradle in a tree and then having it fall down out of the tree. Which while possibly not deadly is clearly not good. Whether it has a deeper meaning or not, that one seems clear.

But then, I can't listen to a song without paying attention to the lyrics - seems rather pointless.

[conuly]

You had heard, or you hadn't?

[leora.livejournal.com]

Because kids are guillable?

[conuly]

Adults are as well. My question isn't "why do we lie to our kids" but "why do we feel compelled to believe horrible things about... in this case, nursery rhymes"

[ursamajor]

and snopes confirms that ring around the rosie is indeed not about the plague. the things you learn!

[conuly]

Snopes' explanation isn't even the most in-depth one I've seen.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

I guess I've never heard these nursery rhymes/songs about eye gouging.

[conuly]

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby
When you wake, you'll have cake, and all the pretty little horses
Blacks and bays, dapples and greys, ten and six a little horses

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby.
Way down yonder, in the meadow, there's a poor little lamby
The bees and the butterflies, peckin' out his eyes, the lamby cried for his mammy.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! Connie has a Doctor Who icon and now she's my hero and I'm going to love her forever!!!!!!!!!!

[conuly]

I wasn't your hero before?

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

On a semi-related note, I love how Snopes managed to fool both TLC's "Mostly True Stories" (http://www.snopes.com/humor/mediagoofs/sixpence.asp) and the "Urban Myth" board game (http://www.snopes.com/humor/mediagoofs/sixpence2.asp) with a made-up legend about "Sing a Song of Sixpence" being a coded pirate message (http://www.snopes.com/lost/sixpence.htm).

[appadil.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised that Alouette has yet to be mentioned... it's a fairly sadistic little song if you know what the French means.

"Skylark, sweet skylark, skylark, I'm going to pluck you.."

[conuly]

Yes, but it's in French. English speaking children have no idea what it means.

My mom told me about one with a cheery little melody where a girl wants to go to a party in the next town, and her father says no. So her brother says he'll take her, and the father says no, neither of them can go. But they go anyway, and have fun, and as they're coming back over the bridge it collapses and they die.

And another one with the chorus "It's better than getting smallpox! It's better than dying of plague!"

[panda-cookie.livejournal.com]

I had heard that "Rock a Bye Baby" was about death, before! I guess it doesn't occur to some people because they don't pay attention to the lyrics.

[leora.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

I've never been formally told what rock-a-bye baby is about, but it clearly is about putting a kid in a cradle in a tree and then having it fall down out of the tree. Which while possibly not deadly is clearly not good. Whether it has a deeper meaning or not, that one seems clear.

But then, I can't listen to a song without paying attention to the lyrics - seems rather pointless.

[conuly]

You had heard, or you hadn't?

[leora.livejournal.com]

Because kids are guillable?

[conuly]

Adults are as well. My question isn't "why do we lie to our kids" but "why do we feel compelled to believe horrible things about... in this case, nursery rhymes"

[ursamajor]

and snopes confirms that ring around the rosie is indeed not about the plague. the things you learn!

[conuly]

Snopes' explanation isn't even the most in-depth one I've seen.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

I guess I've never heard these nursery rhymes/songs about eye gouging.

[conuly]

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby
When you wake, you'll have cake, and all the pretty little horses
Blacks and bays, dapples and greys, ten and six a little horses

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby.
Way down yonder, in the meadow, there's a poor little lamby
The bees and the butterflies, peckin' out his eyes, the lamby cried for his mammy.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! Connie has a Doctor Who icon and now she's my hero and I'm going to love her forever!!!!!!!!!!

[conuly]

I wasn't your hero before?

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

On a semi-related note, I love how Snopes managed to fool both TLC's "Mostly True Stories" (http://www.snopes.com/humor/mediagoofs/sixpence.asp) and the "Urban Myth" board game (http://www.snopes.com/humor/mediagoofs/sixpence2.asp) with a made-up legend about "Sing a Song of Sixpence" being a coded pirate message (http://www.snopes.com/lost/sixpence.htm).

[appadil.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised that Alouette has yet to be mentioned... it's a fairly sadistic little song if you know what the French means.

"Skylark, sweet skylark, skylark, I'm going to pluck you.."

[conuly]

Yes, but it's in French. English speaking children have no idea what it means.

My mom told me about one with a cheery little melody where a girl wants to go to a party in the next town, and her father says no. So her brother says he'll take her, and the father says no, neither of them can go. But they go anyway, and have fun, and as they're coming back over the bridge it collapses and they die.

And another one with the chorus "It's better than getting smallpox! It's better than dying of plague!"

[conuly]

Well, original is a funny word. I've read versions of them from various parts of Europe (remember that the Brothers Grimm didn't write so much as collect and edit, of course), but mostly just to see the changes.