#London Bridge is down

[itslenagain]

[watmalik]

WHY AO3 WHY???! WE HAD A DEAL!

[multifandomforthemostpart]

*slides to the floor* what do you mean HOURS. WHAT DO YOU MEAN HOURS. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SPEND THESE HOURS. HOW CAN I READ MY SLOWBURN HURT COMFORT FIX IT FICS NOW?!

[safireinakettle]

Sometimes you just gotta get a little gender envious of deranged characters with kill counts

It’s just part of being

[neige-leblanche]

my faves in a pokemon team

[pleasuresoftheharbor]

the notes on this post are actually going to make me sick from laughter THIS IS NOT TRUE 😭😭😭😭😭i've been reading all the reblogs of people believing this for like the past ten minutes it's so so funny to me i'm obsessed with all the people insisting that there is no london bridge in london. this is my new favourite post ever

[lovingtheroyals]

Buckingham Palace have released a photo taken of King Charles III, The Queen Consort, and The Prince and Princess of Wales. The photo was taken on September 18th, 2022 at the State Reception which was held ahead of the State Funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. The photograph was taken by Chris Jackson.

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

The Cambridge Family in 2022 ♛

Well, that sure was a year! First things first, I did in fact kill the Queen (sorry!), meaning we have a new King and a new Prince and Princess of Wales. As part of the events following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, we saw numerous public walkabouts (x, x), as well as many events with foreign diplomats and royals (x, x, x). The Queen's death followed her hugely successful Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which included a surprise George and Charlotte appearance in Cardiff, and Prince Louis stealing the show at the pageant. William and Catherine undertook a number of overseas trip this year: William began with a visit to Dubai; Catherine then visited Denmark as part of her work on the Early Years; the couple visited Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas in a controversial tour; and a final overseas visit to Boston, on behalf of the Earthshot Prize. The Cambridge family - now known as the Wales family - also experienced some personal highs. The family moved their main home from Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage, in Windsor, and George, Charlotte and Louis began their new school year at Lambrook School. William and Catherine also gained a new niece, as Catherine's sister Pippa gave birth to another daughter, called Rose. The couple were able to experience some sporting highs, with the Princess of Wales becoming Patron of the Rugby Football Union and Rugby Football League in February, and attending a Six Nations match shortly after. She also attended the Sailing Grand Prix. The couple also attended Wimbledon together twice (x, x) (with Catherine also going alone once), as well as the Commonwealth Games. William was also able to see football finally come home, with the Lionesses' winning the 2022 Euros. With Covid-19 finally beginning to retreat and the BRF experiencing a new beginning, I hope the Wales family continue to flourish next year.

[askunclejack]

I am glad that you are able to rest. I'll wait for your awakening and I wish you all the best. You have stolen my heart (platonically, of course). Waking too soon is nothing to force. I hope your dreams are sweet and no nightmares attack. I hope you rest well, Jack.

-Mr. F

🎵 London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, My fair lady... 🎵

[sailorplutoirl]

…But there is Halle!

Also! Halle day has been extended to 10 days! Take this time to appreciate Halle and appreciate that she decided to not go evil!

[magnificentlymagnet]

"Why are you short...?" - asked the mastermind as he was standing on a high chair, looking down at Magnet

“I’M NOT SHORT!!!” Magnet yells up at the mastermind, throwing his arms up in the air out of indignation.

He narrows his eyes in a glare before raising his voice again, “Why are you such a worm?!”

Magnet was fuming. How dare this Phantom, rubbing his stupid crazy tallness in his face! Magnet will show him!

“Take this!” He kicks the high chair out from underneath the mastermind.

[deityofhearts]

the child has combined the songs “ring around the rosies” and “london bridges falling down”

[unsettlingcreature]

Bullying my friends by making them do call and response before I take us to the house in phasmophobia

[sixminutestoriesblog]

London Bridge is Falling Down!

Today I thought it would be fun to talk about children's nursery rhymes. Since we've had language, and maybe even before, children have probably been making up rhymes to measure out beats as they play a game of repetition. Jump rope, circle dances, skipping, hand clapping. How many silver buttons does Miss Merry Mac have down her back? There's something almost sacredly human about the desire to put music to our play, to sift through words to find the ones that go well together and make up stories with them.

And the thing about children is that they often repeat, in part and only partial understanding, what they hear going on in the adult world around them.

London Bridge is falling down

falling down

falling down

Maybe you played this one as a child yourself. Two children hold hands, arms raised and everyone else must pass between them and under their arms while the song is chanted. At the last moment:

Take the keys and lock her up

lock her up

lock her up

take the keys and lock her up

my fair lady.

the two children forming the 'bridge' with their raised hands drop their arms and catch the child trying to go through. Much laughing and half struggling ensues and then the captured child either sits the game out or takes over for one of the 'bridges' and the song begins again.

London Bridge is falling down.

Perhaps we're all too well trained by horror movies but there can be a whisper of something more haunting in the simple game if you want there to be. A song about a falling bridge and a captured lady, trapped inside the supports of the human girders. Was there something darker once? Something children knew about the adult world that they filtered down into their songs and playtime, absorbing it as children will do into half truths and make-believe, until all that was left of it was a children's rhyme about captive ladies and falling bridges?

Tell me if you've heard this one.

Once upon a time, far back in our grey history but not as far back as we'd like it to be, there was a belief that human buildings of importance needed more than just human ingenuity to keep them standing against the wear and tear of use and time. Against the things that fluttered through our shadows and ran in our dark streets at the edges of our eyesight. Folklore said that the first person buried in a new churchyard didn't get into heaven. Instead, their souls had to guard the now sacred grounds until the final Trumpet, when the world ended and they would be released from their eternal vigilance. Oftentimes, a dog would be buried in the churchyard first, a canine stand-in guardian, protecting the human souls and seeing them on their way, patient in its duty until the Last Day.

According to some legends, graveyards weren't the only human creations that needed a human soul to stand guard over them.

Immurement is the practice of walling someone up inside a building while they are still alive (Cask of Amontillado style). It was used as a form of punishment for a large swath of cultures and many a folktale sprung up about it even in places where there wasn't any physical proof. Thieves, treacherous daughter, spies, star-crossed lovers and political opponents all met their ends walled up in foundations and tunnels under palaces in the stories.

So it shouldn't surprise you if I tell you that the children's skipping rhyme 'London Bridge' is rooted in the same dark practice. Take the keys and lock up the fair lady so that London Bridge will never fall...

Except - that's not really true.

It makes a good story though.

Let's start with the older version of the poem. Now its a rhyme about a bridge that's in need of repair and the higher and higher quality items that are used to build it better until we're using silver and gold to build our bridge (and hiring someone to guard all that silver and gold for the low, low price of a pipe (though one wonders what was in the pipe if it would keep him up all night?)) Also, London Bridge isn't the only bridge with a children's song about it falling down. Before London Bridge was even built there are records of the same kind of song in France, Germany, Italy and Denmark. Korea, far from London Bridge, has a similar song and game as well.

Children singing about the crumpling infrastructure apparently isn't anything new.

Don't give up yet though. London Bridge might have triggered children into singing about its dark shadow beyond the childhood need to see things fall apart around them.

In 1014 (or thereabouts) London Bridge was supposedly badly damaged in a Viking raid (at least that's what some of the texts from that time claimed). There were also several fires in the 1600s, including the Great Fire of 1666 (its gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight) which badly damaged the bridge.

London Bridge had a lot of reasons to fall down and in 1831 it finally did - though it was less a 'fall 'and more a demolition as it was considered cheaper to simply build a new one instead of repair the old.

As for the 'fair lady'? There are several theories about her, from a rich patron to the Virgin Mary. For my money? It's the River Lea, which is a tributary of the Thames and could easily be seen as being 'locked up' when the bridge closed over it.

So was it a ghost story for nothing?

Not - just yet. In 2007, just in time for Halloween, the BBC News reported excavations under London Bridge were turning up bones - and hauntings. There might not be bodies walled into the foundations to keep the bridge standing - but London Bridge saw its fair share of deaths, including the heads of criminals and those out of favor with the crown, that got stuck on spikes along its walls. The children's rhyme might not be as spooky as hoped - but London Bridge itself has no intention of slacking.

[astrophilic-soul]

When you were a kid, If you learned nursery rhymes , which ones did you guys learn and if you can remember, what were the words or something special you did?