London Bridge is broken down--by Vikings?!

(photo: orig London Bridge - libwiki, 1616)



(photo: orig. London Bridge -wikimedia, 1745)


From: Nursery Rhyme History...

London bridge is falling down Nursery Rhyme Lyrics, History & Origins
The Wooden Bridge

"...Many disasters struck the bridges - Viking invaders destoryed the bridge in the 1000's which let to a fortified design, complete with a drawbridge..."

Link: www.rhymes.org.uk/london-bridge-is-falling-down.htm




(photo: current day London Bridge - topcityphotos)


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From: Wikipedia...

"London Bridge Is Falling Down" is a well-known traditional nursery rhyme and singing game, which is found in different versions all over the world

Meaning and origin

The meaning of the rhyme is not certain. It may simply relate to the many difficulties experienced in bridging the River Thame, but a number of alternative theories have been put forward.


(photo: Olaf II Haraldsson of Norway - The Big, then became St. Olaf - wikipedia)


The Viking attack theory

One theory of origin is that the rhyme relates to supposed destruction of London Bridge by Olaf II of Norway in 1014 (or 1009). The nineteenth century translation of the Norse saga the Heimskringla, published by Samuel Laing in 1844, included a verse by Óttarr svarti, that looks very similar to the nursery rhyme:

London Bridge is broken down. —
Gold is won, and bright renown.

Shields resounding,
War-horns sounding,

Hild is shouting in the din!
Arrows singing,

Mail-coats ringing —
Odin makes our Olaf win!

However, modern translations make it clear that Laing was using the nursery rhyme as a model for his very free translation, and the reference to London Bridge does not appear at the start of the verse and it is unlikely that this is an earlier version of the nursery rhyme. Some historians doubt that the attack ever took place.

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The game

The rhyme is often used in a children's singing game, which exists in a wide variety of forms, with additional verses. The most common is that two players make an arch while the others pass through in single file. The arch is then lowered at the song's end to "catch" a player. In America it is common for two teams of those that have been caught to engage in a tug of war."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_Is_Falling_Down

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(photo: wikimedia, old London Bridge now at Lake Havasu, AZ - USA)



(photo: old London Bridge, before it was moved to Arizona, 1831)


Note: not just a vague Viking theory it seems, because on the Original Bus Tour in London, England as of this past weekend the tour guide mentions this as "not" a theory but as if it's some kind of legendary fact to quote while we were indeed passing over the current version of the London Bridge up atop a typical red doubledecker bus & she added that one old London Bridge was bought & moved stone by stone to the USA, now over a river in Arizona...

And I'm not the only one that found out the London Bridge is "not" the Tower Bridge