Absolutely! The American version goes by 'Silver or Gold' and is about
'London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down, my fair lady'.
But in England this is 'Oranges and Lemons, Say the Bells of St Clements,
When will you pay me? Say the bells of Old Bailey, When I grow rich, Say the
bells of Shoredith, When will that be, Say the bells of St Mary, Brickbats
and tiles, Say the bells of St Giles, And here comes the candle to light you
to bed, And here comes the chopper to chip-chop off your head'. Here the
arched hands of two players come down on one of the children passing through
the arch and he/she must choose 'oranges or lemons' 'silver or gold',
becoming part of a queue between those two players. When all are so
'beheaded' in this game, a tug of war over a hanky on the floor ensues, the
winning team drawing the losing team over. Similar English singing games are
'Here we come gathering nuts in May, nuts in May, nuts in May, on a cold and
frosty morning,' which is nonsense, etc. Henry VIII is said to have composed
the very lovely 'Oh dear what can the matter be, O dear what can the matter
be, My bonny has gone to the fair. He promised to buy me a bunch of blue
ribbons, he promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons, For my bonny brown
hair'. 'Forfeits' is another, and that was being played on many levels in
_Sir Gawain and the Green_ and even in the scene with Gluttony in _Piers
Plowman_. Your Norwegian one reminds one of the great Irish cauldron.
I'd written the above before opening the next post on 'London Bridge'!
>Danger, danger, warrior
>The death you will suffer
>He who is last
>shall be put in the black cauldron
>
>Thomas Tsigaridas
>
>
____
Julia Bolton Holloway, [log in to unmask]
Hermit of the Holy Family
via del Partigiano 16, Montebeni, 50014 FIESOLE, ITALY
http://members.aol.com/juliansite/Juliansite.htm
And then God brought merrily to my mind David and other . . . Magdalen,
Peter and Paul, Thomas and Jude, how they are known in the Church on earth,
with their sins and it is to them no shame, but all is turned to worship.
Julian of Norwich, _Showings_, Paris Manuscript, fols. 68-68v.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|