'Ring around the rosies' cited in book about the plague

[mystic burrito]

I recently started research for a term paper about the plague in Medieval Europe. As I was skimming Norman F. Cantor's book In the Wake of the Plague published 2001, I saw he wrote this about the meaning of the rhyme Ring Around the Rosies:

The origin of the rhyme is the flulike symptoms, skin discoloring, and mortality caused by bubonic plague. The children were reflecting society's efforts to repress memory of the Black Death of 1348-49 and its lesser aftershocks. Children's games were -- or used to be -- a reflection of adult anxieties and efforts to pacify feelings of fright and concern at some devastating event. So say the folklorists and psychiatrists. page 5

Of course he never says which folklorists and psychiatrists say this and his bibliography is of little help in this regard.

I don't know if I will be using anything from this book, if I do I will make sure I cross reference the information. I just thought it was interesting and that I should post it.

mystic burrito

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Originally Posted by mystic burrito

I recently started research for a term paper about the plague in Medieval Europe. As I was skimming Norman F. Cantor's book In the Wake of the Plague published 2001, I saw he wrote this about the meaning of the rhyme Ring Around the Rosies:


Of course he never says which folklorists and psychiatrists say this and his bibliography is of little help in this regard.

I don't know if I will be using anything from this book, if I do I will make sure I cross reference the information. I just thought it was interesting and that I should post it.

mystic burrito

You know, as good a book as this is, it isn't really about the plague. It's about the longer term effects of the plague.

And I'm surprised you only caught one UL, since I caught two in the introduction alone (he also fell for the "people didn't bathe" UL--if they didn't, what were they making all that soap for?)

Seaboe

[mystic burrito]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

You know, as good a book as this is, it isn't really about the plague. It's about the longer term effects of the plague.

And I'm surprised you only caught one UL, since I caught two in the introduction alone (he also fell for the "people didn't bathe" UL--if they didn't, what were they making all that soap for?)

Seaboe

I had only started to thumb through the book when the UL caught my eye, I haven't done any in depth reading to find the others, but it just confirms I need to take what he says with a grain of salt (or just find better secondary source to start with). Also, I plan on having my paper focus on the links between the plague and discrimination against the Jews in Europe. I will probably centralize on the St. Valentine's Day massacre in Strasbourg. There is a chapter in Cantor's book about the massacre and the "Jewish Conspiracy" and that is what lead to pick up the book in the first place.

mystic burrito

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Originally Posted by mystic burrito

I had only started to thumb through the book when the UL caught my eye, I haven't done any in depth reading to find the others, but it just confirms I need to take what he says with a grain of salt (or just find better secondary source to start with). Also, I plan on having my paper focus on the links between the plague and discrimination against the Jews in Europe. I will probably centralize on the St. Valentine's Day massacre in Strasbourg. There is a chapter in Cantor's book about the massacre and the "Jewish Conspiracy" and that is what lead to pick up the book in the first place.

mystic burrito

I think his historic analysis is pretty much right on the ball. Where I think he falls down is in the details he adds to make the book attractive to a general audience. But that's just my opinion.

His discussion of Princess Joan is fascinating.

Seaboe