Jack and Jill were sisters (and killers)!

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the nursery rhyme about Jack and Jill. You know, the one about two people who went up a hill to get a pail of water, one of them gets hurt and so on.

Well, it appears that Jack was not a guy but a girl, and their reasons for being up the hill in the first place have proven to be rather sinister.

The story originated long before it was first published (1760) and basically was the story of the exploits of two sisters in old Anglo-Saxon England. One Nursery Rhyme expert has even gone as far to say that the rhyme was written by the girls’ mother.

There are lots of versions but all share the same opening four lines.

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after

After much research it can be revealed for the first time of this website that the rhyme refers to an assassination attempt on an unnamed King to be!

The clues lay in the translation back to the Anglo-Saxon words it was originally written in.

The word ‘fetch’ in the second line is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon word ‘getch’ meaning ‘to kill’. In modern English the word, ‘get’ (as in “someone’s out to get me”) is derived from this. Then comes ‘a pail of water’ which can be translated back to ‘fall of waiter’. The ‘waiter’ in this instance is the person ‘waiting’ to be pronounced King. So for ‘fall of waiter’ read ‘the King in waiting was felled’. Let’s continue, ‘Jack fell down’ (Jack fell on the King) ‘and broke his crown’ (literally, broke the crown that the ‘King’ was about to wear over the victims head) ‘and Jill came tumbling after’ (‘tumbling’ is the Anglo-Saxon for ‘scarper’ or ‘dash’ so the true meaning is that they both ‘ran away’).

So, the rhyme should read as follows:

Jackie and Gill went up the hill
To kill a King to be
Jackie felled the king by cracking his crown
And Gill joined when it was time to flee.

Jack should be called Jackie and Jill should be spelled Gill, short for Gillian. Researchers have suggested that this was not the first time that these girls would have done such a deed. Stating that to have had a song (as the rhyme originally would have been orated) written about them suggests they were well known for what they did and also well liked.

It just goes to show that we should never take what we think we know for granted.

Story by Dennis Birdcamp.