Thursday, December 08, 2005

Lies my mother told me...

...That I pass on to my daughter

Or maybe it was my grandmother. I don't always remember.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All of the horses, and all the kings men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

But there was an additional line added to the poem.

But a kindly old doctor, with patience and glue,
made humpty dumpty as good as new.

Growing up, I always thought Humpty Dumpty survived the fall. We may have even had a book of nursery rhymes that had the doctor ending, although I don't remember for sure.

I bring Humpty Dumpty up because the other night I was reading to my littlest. She picked the Three Little Pigs, and sat next to me on the floor in her room as I read the story.

Be careful with that book, Veev had warned me, although I had no idea what she meant. I knew the Three Little Pigs story, and I knew that the three little pigs were going to eventually hide in the brick house, the wolf would land in the boiling pot, jump back up through the chimney, and run far, far away.

Except that this book didn't have the fairy tale ending I grew up with. After blowing down the house of straw, the wolf eats pig number 1. The wolf is pictured with a fat belly, clearly showing that he ate the pig. The wolf goes to the house of sticks, blows it down, and eats pig #2, again illustrated with a fat belly.

He cannot blow down the brick house, however, and tries to trick the third pig into meeting with him. The third pig is smart, and tricks the wolf time and time again. Finally, the wolf climbs down the chimney, and lands in a boiling pot of water, where he dies.

A quick, iuformal and completely unscientific survey of some Three Little Pig web sites seems to confirm that this is the original story.

And so, as I read the Three Little Pigs to my littlest, following the tradition of my mom, I changed the story, to make it more child-friendly. All three pigs survived, and the big bad wolf ran away where he was never heard from again.

6 Comments:

Blogger Just Shu said...

According to my mom, When Dad wa sin medical school, the Doctor ending was in one of the Medical Journals that Dad got. Mom liked that version, and that's what she taught us.

December 08, 2005 9:24 AM  
Blogger Rolling hills of green said...

'positively' mother goose is the title of one of our books, but in the inside cover is all the originals. Some people like the originals better.

December 08, 2005 12:46 PM  
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August 17, 2006 1:56 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

hey, can ya tell me which version (author) of "The three little pigs" did you read, please?

November 04, 2009 5:27 AM  
Blogger Air Time said...

N -

Its been four years since I read the book. I don't remember which version it was.

November 04, 2009 5:45 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

oh, i thought you have it at home.

December 12, 2009 3:32 PM  

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