• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
People are shocked to discover Humpty Dumpty isn't an egg

Home> Community> Weird

Updated 14:45 10 Aug 2023 GMT+1Published 11:08 10 Aug 2023 GMT+1

People are shocked to discover Humpty Dumpty isn't an egg

The nursery rhyme has been lying to us our whole lives

Joe Harker

Joe Harker

Pretty much everyone knows the children's nursery rhyme 'Humpty Dumpty', since it's the sort of song we all hear when we're younger.

But just in case you forgot, the tune goes: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again."

You're probably picturing a giant egg-man creature falling off the wall and cracking, just like the rest of us, because obviously Humpty Dumpty is an egg, right? Nope.

There's never any mention in the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty being an egg, but we can explain where that image originally comes from.

Advert

People were pretty shocked to discover the nursery rhyme isn't about an egg at all.

Despite popular belief, Humpty Dumpty is not an egg.
Pixabay

Someone said finding out Humpty Dumpty wasn't an egg 'f**ked me up' and another admitted it had 'blown my MIND'.

Others pointed out the inherent ridiculousness of horses being tasked with helping put Humpty back together again, as they are notoriously quite bad at providing medical treatment or building things.

There are a few theories as to who or what Humpty Dumpty was supposed to be, since the nursery rhyme never actually provides any clues beyond him being something that fell off a wall.

Advert

But why an egg?

Surprise, Humpty Dumpty is not an egg.
Pexels

Well, that came about because an illustrator for Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through The Looking Glass decided to draw Humpty Dumpty as an egg and the depiction stuck.

Rather than traumatising kids with a depiction of someone or something horribly mangled by a nasty fall it's much better to imagine Humpty Dumpty as a kind of anthropomorphised egg creature, kids are used to eggs being cracked.

Some reckon the original Humpty Dumpty was King Richard III, with the last of the Plantagenet rulers of England apparently having a horse named 'Wall', which is a bit of a silly name for a horse.

Advert

Anyway, Richard III was hacked to death during the Battle of Bosworth Field and might have fallen off his horse in the fighting, and as if his day wasn't going badly enough he was buried beneath a car park in Leicester.

That's one possible explanation, that he had a great fall from 'Wall' the horse and was so thoroughly mangled to death that all his horses and men couldn't put him back together again.

Another suggestion is that Humpty Dumpty was a cannon used by the Cavaliers in the English Civil War which sat on the walls of the city of Colchester.

With the Roundheads blasting the walls to pieces the cannon fell and was so badly damaged that it became useless as a weapon.

So there you have it, Humpty Dumpty is either a cannon or a King but we do know he's definitely not an egg.

Featured Image Credit: Getty / Pixabay

Topics: Weird, Music

Joe Harker
Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

X

@MrJoeHarker

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

16 hours ago
a day ago
2 days ago
  • SWNS
    16 hours ago

    Mum who had baby using 'free sperm from Facebook' explains why she'd never do it again

    Laura certainly didn't go down the conventional route

    Community
  • Kennedy News and Media
    a day ago

    Woman shocked after 'ghost cat' she feeds disappears 'into thin air' in terrifying camera footage

    Maybe the cat was on its 10th life...

    Community
  • YouTube/ZackDFilms
    a day ago

    Simulation shows grim rodent torture method that caused maximum suffering for prisoner

    It was one of the more painful ways to go out in medieval times

    Community
  • Youtube/The Clairity Project
    2 days ago

    Woman who was placed into a coma explained reality of what you feel

    21-year-old Claire Wineland was placed into a coma at 13 when a surgery went very wrong

    Community
  • Americans shocked to discover US and Russia are actually less than three miles apart
  • People point out major thing missing from Donald Trump's arrival to UK and slam it as an 'insult'
  • Beer drinkers shocked to discover baffling fact about Birra Moretti and Madri
  • End-of-life nurse says there is one movement people frequently make that means they are close to death