KZN Nursery Rhyme Series

Lyrics, Origins & History

These caches have been created with the younger generation in mind, so please take them along and preferably let them find and open them.

The history and origins of most nursery rhymes reflect events in history and where available, includes the meaning, history and origins of everyone’s favourite nursery rhymes.  One example of these types of nursery rhymes history and origins is ‘Ring a ring a Rosie’ which refers to the Bubonic plagues.

Many of the words and nursery rhyme lyrics were used to parody the royal and political events of the day, direct dissent would often be punishable by death!

Strange how these events in history are still portrayed through children's nursery rhymes, when for most of us the historical events relationship to the nursery rhymes themselves, are long forgotten!  Help us to maintain the history and heritage through the words and lyrics of old Nursery Rhymes.

Most children love being told nursery rhymes. The most popular nursery rhymes have been turned into caches for you to find – perhaps these nursery rhymes will bring back fond memories of your childhood!  Can you remember the tunes to the nursery rhymes? Some of the most popular nursery rhymes are Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty. These examples of nursery rhymes have been passed down from generation to generation up to thirty times!

It's no wonder the historical origins of Nursery Rhymes have become obscure as, even though the nursery rhymes lyrics may have changed only slightly over so many re-telling’s, the English language itself has changed over the last six hundred years, as anyone reading Shakespeare for the first time could not fail to notice!

In the early 19th century printed collections of rhymes began to spread to other countries, including Robert Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826) and in the United States, Mother Goose's Melodies (1833).  From this period we sometimes know the origins and authors of rhymes—for instance, in "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" which combines the melody of an 18th-century French tune "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" with a 19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor entitled "The Star" used as lyrics.

Early folk song collectors also often collected (what were now known as) nursery rhymes, including in Scotland Sir Walter Scott and in Germany Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1806–1808).  The first, and possibly the most important academic collection to focus in this area was James Orchard Halliwell's, The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842) and Popular Rhymes and Tales in 1849, in which he divided rhymes into antiquities (historical), fireside stories, game-rhymes, alphabet-rhymes, riddles, nature-rhymes, places and families, proverbs, superstitions, customs, and nursery songs (lullabies). By the time of Sabine Baring-Gould's A Book of Nursery Songs (1895), folklore was an academic study, full of comments and foot-notes. A professional anthropologist, Andrew Lang (1844–1912) produced The Nursery Rhyme Book in 1897. The early years of the 20th century are notable for the illustrations to children's books including Caldecott's Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (1909) and Arthur Rackham's Mother Goose (1913). The definitive study of English rhymes remains the work of Iona and Peter Opie.

MEANINGS OF NURSERY RHYMES.

Many nursery rhymes have been argued to have hidden meanings and origins. John Bellenden Ker (1765–1842), for example, wrote four volumes arguing that English nursery rhymes were actually written in 'Low Saxon', a hypothetical early form of Dutch. He then 'translated' them back into English, revealing in particular a strong tendency to anti-clericalism.  Many of the ideas about the links between rhymes and historical persons, or events, can be traced back to Katherine Elwes's book The Real Personages of Mother Goose (1930), in which she linked famous nursery-rhyme characters with real people, on little or no evidence. She assumed that children's songs were a peculiar form of coded historical narrative, propaganda or covert protest, and rarely considered that they could have been written simply for entertainment.

Alchin, L.K. Nursery Rhymes Lyrics and Origins
Retrieved February 2015 from Rhymes.org.uk

Each cache in the rest of the series will be on one specific Nursery Rhyme.  The swag in these caches is specific to that nursery rhyme and should not be removed, as most of it has been attached to the container.  Please feel free to add your related swag.

We hope you enjoy finding these caches as much as we have had making them.  Let us know what your favourite Nursery Rhyme is ……. who knows, we might be busy creating it!

Well done to Technonut for FTF and thank you for advice on T rating. Also to JediJoe for STF.