How Many Miles to Babylon?

This article is about the nursery rhyme 'How many miles to Babylon'. For the novel by Jennifer Johnston, see How Many Miles to Babylon? (novel).
"How many miles to Babylon"
Roud #8148
Song
Written Britain
Published 1801
Form Nursery rhyme
Writer Traditional
Language English

'How many miles to Babylon' is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 8148.

Lyrics

The accepted modern lyrics are:

How many miles to Babylon?
Three score and ten.
Can I get there by candle-light?
Yes, and back again.
If your heels are nimble and light,
You may get there by candle-light.[1]

  1. ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 73-5.

A longer Scottish version has the lyrics:

King and Queen of Cantelon,
How many miles to Babylon?
Eight and eight, and other eight.
Will I get there by candle-light?
If your horse be good and your spurs be bright.
How mony men have ye?
Mae nor ye daur come and see.[1]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Opie1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Various places have replaced Babylon in the rhyme, including London town, Barberry and Berry Bright.[1]

Origins

The rhyme was not recorded until the nineteenth century, but the reference to Cantelon in the Scottish version has led some to conclude that it refers to Caledon in the time of the Crusades.[2] Babylon may be a corruption of 'Babyland', but the city was a common allusion particularly in seventeenth-century England and 'Can I get there by candlelight?' was a common saying in sixteenth century.[2]

As a singing game

The rhyme was originally accompanied by a singing game in which two lines face each other, with one player in the middle. At the end of the rhyme the players have to cross the space and any caught help the original player in the middle catch the others.[1] The game seems to have fallen out of use in the twentieth century.[2]

In popular culture

In literature

In film

In popular music

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 E. H. Linscott and J. M. Carpenter, Folk Songs of Old New England (Courier Dover, 1993), p. 18.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3
  3. Can I get there by candlelight. Reprinted. London: Panther Books, 1971. 1971. ISBN 0586020942.
  4. "Magazine of Horror" #1. August 1963. Initiated by Robert A. W. Lowndes for Health Knowledge Inc.