Here Comes a Chopper to Chop Off Your Head: The Dark Side of Childhood Rhymes and Stories

by Liz Evers

The terrifying events that befell the first Sleeping Beauty when she finally woke up, how Snow White's stepmother really died, and who the wolf actually was in Little Red Riding Hood—the true stories behind beloved nursery rhymes and fairy tales Until recently, weird tales of fairy curses and flesh-eating ogres were considered suitable bedtime reading. And the strange-sounding and sometimes violent rhymes we learned by rote were often taught to us in school. But have you ever asked yourself what on earth they were about? And what exactly were the morals and lessons we were meant to learn from them? This book delves into the origins of the best-known rhymes and tales to uncover a legacy of folk superstition, rotten royal families, execution, child marriage, cannibalism, and the multitude of other random acts of cruelty that make up any classic treasury. You’ll learn about the bloody history of "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary;" why Margery Daw, the subject of an innocent-seeming seesaw game, was accused of being a "dirty slut;" how pretending to decapitate your little friends to the tune of "Oranges and Lemons" became an acceptable pastime; and the origins of other favorite bedtime rhymes and tales.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Research

230 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2014

About the author

Liz Evers is a writer and editor who has worked in the publishing industry in the UK and Ireland for many years and is the author of several popular reference books on diverse subjects, from Shakespeare to horology. She currently works as a researcher for the Dictionary of Irish Biography and is a graduate of University College Dublin and Dublin City University.

Reviews

[Migdalia Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of explorations and re-tellings of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, and this book did not dissapoint. Evers takes each story/rhyme and provides a background, analysis & describes related lore in detail. She does this all while keeping the pace quick and absorbing.

[Tanya Holman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! was reading it all the time. i didnt want to put it down. i was even reading it in the cinema while waiting for the new film into the woods to start. i totally recommend this to everyone

[Trisha O connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful read, well researched and well written. Thoroughly engaging and not to mention eye opening throughout.

[Fliss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book and so well researched. It looks into the origins of many classic fairytales and rhymes we are taught as children.

"Half a pound of tupenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That's the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel".

"This song has its origins in the extreme poverty of London's East End in the nineteenth centre. 'Weasel and stoat' was cockney rhyming slang for 'coat' and the expression 'to pop' means to pawn. At its most basic the song is about repeatedly running out of money and having to pawn a coat over and over to get by"...

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting short read but missing cohesion as it tends to jump around a bit. The breakdown of stories and rhymes are very short and sometimes the authors viewpoints are more conjecture than fact,

I finished the book a little disappointed as I felt some of the stories were not explained thoroughly enough, but saying that it is worth a read if you want something brief to get you started in this area of old stories and rhymes.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book is an interesting read, it doesn't go far enough into the lore of the tales, only giving fleeting glimpses into them and then moving on to quickly to the next one without a transition often jumping from one to another making the chapters choppy at best (pun intended 😆)

[Ern Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many interesting points made and overall it is a well-researched book. I just thought it lacked overall direction other than the message being that fairytales have dark histories. However, even that wasn't drummed in well enough in my opinion.

[Rachreads22 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I expected at all. I think I was hoping for a deeper analysis of the stories, with more explanations (or potential explanations) but instead it felt like a brief overview of each story before quickly moving on to the next.

[Deborah A. Eiermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

TERRIFYING history of child rhymes!

Interesting book. Unimaginable weird and terrifying history of our favorite nursery rhymes and fairy tales! I highly recommend this book.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, interesting read but I wanted it to go into a bit more depth. Would be great for someone who had no previous knowledge of the origins of fairytales.

[L.K. Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I didn't like, and actually was quite irritated with, was that she continuously threw in her own biased opinions which were so feministic it verged on repulsive and downright delusional and quite arrogant. For example, in the chapter that describes prince and princesses behaving badly.

A snooty prince who is unjust and cruel to his wife and his subjects gets his kumuppins when he is tricked by an intelligent subject or wizard or whatever, and, due to his rude behavior, is banished. The author (Evers) gives her own opinions and describes that he should've known better and this is a lesson to children that they should always be kind to people for whatever reason correlates with the story. Sounds just, right? Until the prince is a princess.

When the character is a princess instead of a prince, and the princess is cruel to her spouse, and vicious towards her subjects and an intelligent subject or wizard tricks her and is banished for her rude behavior just like the prince, Evers is suddenly appalled and spouts feministic dribble about how awful this was a female leader who should be respected and that she didn't deserve her kumuppins and that men are terrible.

So a prince who behaves cruelly deserves his punishment, but the princess who behaves the same way does not? I'm all about women's rights, for sure, but I care more about equality. Evers' biased opinions was just absolutely disgusting.

If you ignore her personal opinions this book would've been almost perfect for light historical reading.
Backgrounds and origins of many great fables and nursery rhymes, some I hadn't even heard of, are exposed in this non-fiction book that is both historical and literary. She writes the entire poems/lyrics or tells the fairy tale in a nutshell, then explains what is commonly believed about them, and then what is historically factual about them discounting our previous beliefs, and finally ends with describing why and how and for what reason the stories were written. She uses names, dates, political and social backgrounds and other causes that influenced the origin of these poems and fairy tales. She also goes in to describe the historical significance and the moral lesson of each.

For what it is, meant to be a nice, quick and easy, but informative read (with an attractive cover) is perfect, other than her terrible non-equality opinions. I would like to see another book published like this that's about 400 pages and contains a more detailed history, and written by an unbiased author who isn't a narcissist biased towards his or her sex organs.

[Nicola Montague · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to this sort of thing, some examples I was a little disappointed that were not included such as Rumplestiltskin or the Pied Piper. I also thought as it mentioned the rhyme in Nightmare on Elm Street as a contemporary example it might also include the rhyme from the Buffy episode "Hush" but alas, no. Likewise it mostly focused on European stories and rhymes and it might have been interesting to include more examples from around the world. That being said it is easy to read and did have a few details I did not know of. All in all I liked it but it could have been better.

[Mersini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, I suppose, but most of it was quick recaps of the fairy tales or rhymes, linking them to see versions or tropes. Much of it was speculation.

[Klaudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked more depth AND breadth, but in saying that this was a super quick read and pretty good if basic introduction to fairy tales and nursery rhymes.