Do You Know These 5 Terrifying Origins of Popular Nursery Rhymes?

We’re sorry to ruin your childhood, but Ring-a-ring o’ Rosies isn’t ‘innocent’ at all – it’s about the deadly plague.

Ring-a-ring o’ rosies
A pocket full of posies
Ashes! Ashes!
We All Fall Down!

You must have been about 6 years old when you first heard this. Did you, at the time, clapping in paroxysms of delight, picture yourself as a child, blotched and red, clutching a pair of flowers in her last moments of life while her desperate mother followed her to the garden where she ultimately fell dead?

We hope to God not. For 6 isn’t really the age to ruin the warm concoction of lilies and rainbows, of pixie dust and hope that kept you warm at night. We’re not saying now is either, but consider this – these rhymes were written at times of great oppression and terror. During the Victorian era, in particular, when voices against the state meant ready persecution, perhaps the best way to pay homage to these rhymes would be to know their origin stories.

But a word of caution to the unwarranted – it’ll be really difficult to watch second-graders dance to Mulberry Bush after you’ve read this. Just saying.

1. Ring-a-ring o’ Rosies

We don’t believe ANY rhyme/story or children’s tale has a more tragic backstory than this one. The merry little ditty is actually about the horrific Bubonic Plague which, in 1655, wiped out about 15 percent of England’s population. The plague manifested itself in some horrible symptoms, most prominent of which was ring-shaped red marks on the victim’s skin – which clearly explains the ‘ring-a-ring o’ rosies’. People afflicted by the plague – who knew their days were numbered, by the way – would walk around with a bunch of fresh herbs (‘posies’) in order to ward off the bad smell given off by the sores on their bodies. The last line is particularly ominous –“Ashes! Ashes!” makes a none-too-veiled reference to the number of diseased bodies being cremated all around England. The biggest irony? Children still perform this nursery rhyme with a dramatic fall to the ground at the end.

2. Humpty Dumpty

Sorry to disappoint you folks, but Humpty Dumpty is not about an egg. It is not even about an egg-shaped person! (There go all your sarcastic jibes aimed at well-rounded gentlefolk). Humpty Dumpty was (wait for it) a cannon! Yup, the potentially dangerous firebrand was owned by supporters of King Charles II and used to gain control over the city of Colchester during the English Civil War. On top of the highest church tower in the city was perched deadly Mr Humpty Dumpty – except that nothing prepared the ‘king’s men’ for what followed. A barrage of cannon-fire was aimed by the enemy at the base of the tower – down came tower, Mr Dumpty and all the soldiers with it.

Funnily enough, the idea of Humpty Dumpty as an egg was presented for the first time in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Alice is being introduced to Humpty Dumpty (till this point we have no idea what he/it looks like) and she says: “And how exactly like an egg is he?” And voila, our modern jumbo is born.

3. Baa Baa Black Sheep

This song has often been considered an ugly poster for racism and slavery – but truth is, the rhyme came out long before “black” discourses began. In the 13th century, King Edward I, desperate to compensate for the Crusades he’d been fighting, imposed a horribly crushing wool tax. In the rhyme, the poor farmer says that he does have wool to part with, but a third of it will go to the king (Master), another third to the Church (Dame) while the remaining will be his little profit. The poor shepherd boy (the farmer’s family) gets nothing.

4. Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush

There are many versions of this song, but most of them deal with personal hygiene (“this is the way we brush our teeth”, “comb our hair”, “sweep our floors”, etc.). So it’s a song about OCD at the worst? And could we leave it at that? Hardly. The rhyme actually meant: “do your chores or the guards will beat you”. In the mid-1800s, a prison in Wakefield, England introduced female inmates for the first time to its population. Rumour goes, these women would run around the mulberry tree with their children, singing this terrifying rhyme. After all, when you think of “sweep the floors or you’ll die of typhoid”, the song rather loses its charm, doesn’t it?

5. London Bridge is Falling Down

We can’t keep this from you any more – your six-year-old self was singing about children being buried alive in the bridge’s arches. While the theory has often been contested, the story goes that children in 11th century England (the time of the Vikings) would be entombed in many famous buildings’ arches to serve as the “eternal watchman”. This centuries-old tradition was based upon the horrible belief that human sacrifice would lead to stability of the iconic structure. Need more proof? Remember how you actually played to this song? A group of children stand holding hands to form an arch, while more children take turns to enter from underneath their arms. This ditty continues until the hands come down and the last child is captured inside. Gruesome much?