h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This one relates to the dissolution of the monasteries. The story goes that Henry VIII had the deeds of 24 monasteries (the blackbirds) concealed in a pie and sent to a buddy of his (in the west country I think) by means of a messenger. But the messenger, who was called Jack Horner, opened the pie and stole the valuable contents. Apparently the property remained in the Horner family for generations.

I just thought I'd share the full version of the rhyme:
---Sing a Song of Sixpence---
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
Four-and-twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie!

When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Was not that a dainty dish
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting-house,
Counting out his money;
The Queen was in the parlor,
Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And snapped off her nose.

I actually have a receipe for blackbird (starling) pie. I got it from an old pioneer cookbook. It sounds interesting but I doubt I could eat it...

~KeltGrrl

As blackbirds are such nice birds to have in the garden and sing so sweetly, I wouldn't advocate eating them; starlings, however, could be another matter - why not share your starling pie recipe with us? And if we don't live to tell the tale, no matter. What a way to die - from a "surfeit of starlings"!

I checked out what I'd said in the Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes (an unlikely but useful tome); it wasn't very accurate.

The actual sender of the pie was Richard Whiting, last Abbot of Glastonbury, and he sent it to Henry, not the other way round. The deeds supposedly extracted by Jack Horner were those of the manor of Mells, where Horners live "to this day" says the book.

Children like it when you pretend you have snapped off their nose (your thumb), holding it between your fingers, but my little boy (aged two) also introduces further complexity by snapping off our noses and, by sleight of hand, putting them into his or our pockets. If we all lose our noses in quick succession it can be quite a game keeping track of which is whose! "Ring a ring of roses, A pocket full of noses"!

Better late than never I suppose.

An alternative suggestion put to me today by a cook.

In Herry VIII's time one of the entertainments at a banquet were novelty dishes including suprise pies.
to make these an empty pie case would be baked and then the "filling" (generally live animals) put in, probably through the bottom.
The pie would then be presented to a victim to cut at the table.
When the pie crust was cut the animals would escape causing chaos, and presumably much laughter from those in the know.
Thus it is possible that there were four and twenty blackbirds in a pie and that when the pie was opened the birds began to sing.

I wouldn't have fancied anyones chances who tried to make Hernry the victim of such a joke.!

Despite this somewhat practical answer I still think the political / religious metaphors are the basis for the rhyme.

All these messages really remind me of my childhood. My grandad used to do the snapping off noses thing with us. I was intrigued to see in the article that someone else's relative added 'Jenny Wren putting the nose back again'. For sure, this was a feature of the rhyme I was sung - but the words weren't quite the same. I have heard all the theories about 4 and 20 blackbirds before but would just like to add that my grandmother had a 'patty pan' - that is, a support for the crust of a pie - in the shape of a blackbird with its beak open and pointing up to release the steam.

It's not just the researcher's Auntie who added the extra verse about Jenny Wren. It is almost as common as the original rhyme. It definitely sounds like it was added later though.

I would have said "pecked off her nose" instead of "snapped off her nose", but that's a minor matter.

Is anyone aware of the 1920s verse of this rhyme, composed during Prohibition? It was recorded by the Duke of Windsor in his autobiography, and has been used in the nursery rhyme CD we bought our daughter.

"Four and twenty yankees, feeling rather dry,
Went across the border to get a drink of rye.
When the rye was opened the yanks began to sing.
God bless America - but God save the King!"