There are certain rhymes that follow us from childhood. Tunes like Jack and Jill, London Bridge Is Falling Down, and Three Blind Mice are easy to recite at a moments notice. But how did these popular nursery rhymes originate? The answer is often surprising if not disturbing.Take the rhyme about Humpty Dumpty, who is often depicted as an egg who falls off a wall. Though the origins of the Humpty Dumpty story are murky, some historians believe that it has to do with public drunkenness, while others think that its a reference to the English King Richard IIIs death.Meanwhile, the Muffin Man may have been a murderer, and London Bridge Is Falling Down might be about a torturous execution method. And though the backstories of many nursery rhymes remain mysterious, these ominous rumors show that jaunty tunes can hide the dark meanings of lyrics.King, Egg, Or Cannon? The Mystery Behind The Humpty Dumpty Nursery RhymeChristopher Wood/Wikimedia CommonsHumpty Dumpty is a well-known nursery rhyme, but its origins are something of a question mark.In Lewis Carrolls Through the Looking-Glass (1871), the character Alice encounters Humpty Dumpty as an egg. This image has stuck in our modern imagination, but Carroll was the first person to describe Humpty Dumpty that way. In the earliest iteration of the rhyme in 1797, it simply said: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.Four-score Men and Four-score more,Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.Theres no mention of an egg at all. So what does Humpty Dumpty mean?Historians have a couple of theories. The first is that the Humpty Dumpty rhyme is a cheeky ditty about public drunkenness. As History Daily notes, people in the 17th and 18th centuries used the term humpty dumpty to refer to someone who was overweight and clumsy, and a humpty dumpty was also an 18th-century drink made by boiling brandy and ale. Public DomainLewis Carroll was the first to describe Humpty Dumpty as an egg in 1871.But its also possible that the character of Humpty Dumpty is a reference to one of two events from English history. Some historians believe that Humpty Dumptys name refers to a cannon that was used during the English Civil War, which took place between 1642 and 1651. As the story goes, a cannon dubbed Humpty Dumpty fell off a wall in the city of Colchester, which was known to be loyal to the English king, and promptly shattered. The kings men couldnt put the cannon back together. Then again, the origins of the nursery rhyme could be even older. Some believe that the Humpty Dumpty rhyme is a reference to King Richard III of England, who reigned between 1483 and 1485. Humpty Dumpty may have been a cruel nickname for Richard, who allegedly had a hunched back. He was defeated by Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, during which Richard fell from his horse, which may have been named Wall.So the fictional egg falling from a wall might have actually represented a real-life monarch tumbling from his steed, irrevocably defeated.The Dark Potential Meaning Behind The Muffin Man Nursery RhymePublic DomainThe nursery rhyme about the Muffin Man might have a surprisingly dark meaning.At first glance, the Muffin Man seems like an uncontroversial figure. The nursery rhyme gives scant details, suggesting only his gender (man), occupation (muffin seller), and home address (Drury Lane). But an odd internet theory has recently suggested that the Muffin Man was a serial killer. This rumor has percolated in strange corners of the web in recent years, appearing in places like TikTok and Uncyclopedia, which is a parody of Wikipedia. There, its claimed that the Muffin Man was a 16th-century muffin seller and a vicious murderer named Frederick Thomas Lynwood.Lynwood allegedly used his muffin business to kill. These sources state that he would tie a muffin to a string, then lure an unsuspecting victim close enough for him to beat them to death with a spoon. Lynwood himself purportedly avoided arrest all his life, and died after choking on food.Public DomainSome have claimed that the Muffin Man was actually a 16th-century serial killer named Frederick Thomas Lynwood.But when it comes to nursery rhymes with secretly dark meanings, does this one stand up? Was the Muffin Man really a violent serial killer?According to Snopes, this claim is unproven.Theories about the Muffin Man being a serial killer are pure speculation. Though people on TikTok have claimed that Lynwood was Londons first known serial killer, that title actually belongs to Mary Ann Cotton, a Victorian woman who killed 11 of her children and three of her husbands to collect insurance payments. Rather, its most likely that the nursery rhyme about the Muffin Man is a simple reference to 19th-century food vendors. The tune was first documented in 1820, and around that time, Londoners often bought food from vendors on the street. They worked long hours and often had no kitchens, so it was easiest to pick up a muffin (which would have been more like an English muffin than a sweet American muffin) to eat. The post A Serial Killer, The Bubonic Plague, And Human Sacrifice: The Chilling Backstories Behind Seven Nursery Rhymes appeared first on All That's Interesting.