Question #57190. Asked by wwiivarn.
Last updated Sep 20 2016.
The origins and meanings of the game have long been unknown and subject to speculation. In 1898, A Dictionary of British Folklore contained the belief that an explanation of the game was of pagan origin, based on the Sheffield Glossary comparison of Grimm's Teut. Myth. The theory states that it is in reference to Pagan myths and cited a passage which states, "Gifted children of fortune have the power to laugh roses, as Treyja wept gold."
Folklore scholars regard the theory as baseless for several reasons:
The plague explanation did not appear until the mid-twentieth century.
The symptoms described do not fit especially well with the Great Plague.
The great variety of forms makes it unlikely that the modern form is the most ancient one, and the words on which the interpretation are based are not found in many of the earliest records of the rhyme.
European and 19th-century versions of the rhyme suggest that this "fall" was not a literal falling down, but a curtsy or other form of bending movement that was common in other dramatic singing games.