One for Sorrow (nursery rhyme)

"One for Sorrow"
Roud #20096

Song
Written England
Published c. 1780
Form Nursery rhyme
Writer Traditional
Language English

One for Sorrow is a traditional children's nursery rhyme about magpies. According to an old superstition, the number of magpies one sees determines if one will have bad luck or not. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20096.

Lyrics

There is considerable variation in the lyrics used. A common modern version follows:

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told.[1]

Origins

One magpie at the birth of Jesus, perhaps presaging sorrow for Mary:[2] Piero della Francesca's Nativity.

The rhyme has its origins in superstitions connected with magpies, considered a bird of ill omen in some cultures, and in Britain, at least as far back as the early sixteenth century.[3] The rhyme was first recorded around 1780 in a note in John Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities on Lincolnshire with the lyric:

One for sorrow,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
And four for death.[3]

One of the earliest versions to extend this was published, with variations, in Michael Aislabie Denham's Proverbs and Popular Saying of the Seasons (London, 1846)

One for sorrow,
Two for luck; (or mirth)
Three for a wedding,
Four for death; (or birth)
Five for silver,
Six for gold;
Seven for a secret,
Not to be told;
Eight for heaven,
Nine for [hell]
And ten for the d[evi]l's own sell![3]

On occasion, jackdaws, crows, and other Corvidae are associated with the rhyme, particularly in America where magpies are less common.[4]

In popular culture

A version of the rhyme became familiar to many UK children when it became the theme tune of an ITV children's TV show called Magpie, which ran from 1968 to 1980. The popularity of this version is thought to have displaced the many regional version that had previously existed.[5]

In the 1995 Counting Crows song A Murder of One, the lyrics contain a modified version of the rhyme. The rhyme is also the origin of the group's name.[6]

Also mentioned in book four of The Mortal Instruments, City of Fallen Angels, by Cassandra Clare. The character, Simon, reflects on his mother teaching him the rhyme as a child.

It was recited in the popular Canadian television show, Lost Girl, when the protagonist, Bo, searched for The Wanderer.

Notes

  1. ↑ P. Tate, Flights of Fancy: Birds in Myth, Legend, and Superstition (New York: Random House, 2010), ISBN 1409035697.
  2. ↑ Finaldi, Gabriele (1 December 1992). "Picture Choice: Gabriele Finaldi on pictorial wisdom in Piero's relaxed Nativity". The Independent. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 I. Opie and M. Tatem, eds, A Dictionary of Superstitions (Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 235-6.
  4. ↑ J. M. Marzluff, A. Angell, P. R. Ehrlich, In the Company of Crows and Ravens (Yale University Press, 2007), p. 127.
  5. ↑ Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Discworld (London: Random House, 2010), ISBN 1407034243, p. 449.
  6. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20061115214844/http://www.monmouth.com/~jkochel/crows/articles/rolling.html

References