Hey Diddle Diddle! 6000 Years Ago?

United States
May 31, 2016 11:26pm CST
Okay so Hey Diddle Diddle is a nursery rhyme and NOT a fairy tale but It popped into my head and from there onto the screen soo... Just came across an article via a FB group I follow (british medieval history) wherein there is supposed evidence that fairytales came from as far back as 6000 years ago. I'll let you read the article if you want, but researchers essentially used a method as if tracing ancestral lineage, but a bit more complex... to trace the variations to it's original. Jack and the Beanstalk was one cited as possibly being 6000 years old in origin. WOW! just... WOW!
Study traces history of some of our favorite folk stories
4 people like this
4 responses
topffer
@topffer (42155)
• France
1 Jun 16
It is a very good article. The approach is interesting and innovative. The main problem is indeed to remove the tales transmitted by one culture to another one : there was already a lot of trades and contacts during the Neolithic area. I bookmarked the page and will have a look at the scientific article. Thank you for the link.
3 people like this
AmberLynn
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
1 Jun 16
I was a little put off at first when I saw that it directed to a scientific site. I don't believe in science and history mixing too much, though I know it's inevitable. Yes, I did find the article interesting and their approach the same.
1 person likes this
topffer
@topffer (42155)
• France
1 Jun 16
@ScribbledAdNauseum Popularizing science at myLot is not bad. People working on pre-historic periods have by definition no historic data available. Mixing ethnology and archeological data is not new, but it is the first time that I see a data analysis applied to oral traditions. It might open new ways. They give a link to the scientific article which is also available online for free
Judy Story
@jstory07 (148701)
• Roseburg, Oregon
1 Jun 16
I knew nursery rhyme were old but I did not think they were that old.
1 person likes this
AmberLynn
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
1 Jun 16
The article isn't about nursery rhymes but about fairy tales / old tales...
1 person likes this
Anna
@LadyDuck (502148)
• Italy
1 Jun 16
Thank you for the link, I have researched and I have found more interesting articles about this topic. I would have never thought that some tales are older than the earliest literary records, with one dating back to the Bronze Age.
1 person likes this
Jessica
@JESSY3236 (22199)
• United States
1 Jun 16
That was a really cool article.