On This Week last night..
We were jollied with a couple of renditions of nursery rhymes. The reason being that our great nanny state feels that not enough parents tell them correctly and feel that it might be in the best interest of children for parents to go to nursery rhyme classes!
As I cried in my bedtime brandy, I thought that it might be more appropriate for politicians to be taught that many nursery rhymes are a piss take of the stupid and powerful. So in the vain of getting it all wrong, here's the origins of Jack and Gill!
The rhyme comes from an ancient Scandinavian myth about the markings on the moon. The moon god Mani captured two Norse children, Hjuki and Bil, while they were drawing water from a well. When the moon was full, the children could be seen with a bucket on a pole between them.
We were jollied with a couple of renditions of nursery rhymes. The reason being that our great nanny state feels that not enough parents tell them correctly and feel that it might be in the best interest of children for parents to go to nursery rhyme classes!
As I cried in my bedtime brandy, I thought that it might be more appropriate for politicians to be taught that many nursery rhymes are a piss take of the stupid and powerful. So in the vain of getting it all wrong, here's the origins of Jack and Gill!
The rhyme comes from an ancient Scandinavian myth about the markings on the moon. The moon god Mani captured two Norse children, Hjuki and Bil, while they were drawing water from a well. When the moon was full, the children could be seen with a bucket on a pole between them.
posted by Etzel Pangloss at 11:57
2 Comments:
Jack and Jill went up the hill....." the 'jill' in this nursery rhyme refers to what we now call a 'gill', a unit of liquid measure equal to half a cup. A 'jack' was a 2 ounce measure of wine, and a 'jill' was twice the size of a 'jack'. When Charles I of England (1600-1649) reduced the size of the 'jack' so he could collect a higher tax, the 'jill' was automatically reduced in size also — “and 'jill' came tumbling after
Then why does Shakespear mention it in Midsummer Night's Dream?
It is anglicized old Norse.
Having checked an old source, it is to do with the waxing and waning of the moon and rainfall patterns. (Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. S. Baring-Gould)
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