Did 'Peter Pumpkin Eater' Really Kill His Wife?

Explore the dark history of the nursery rhyme "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" in this intriguing video. 🎃 Delve into the possibility of murder, uncover the chilling practice of immurement, and trace the rhyme's origins from Boston, USA, to London, and finally to Scotland. Could Peter Pumpkin have killed his wife? Watch to uncover the sinister truth behind this seemingly innocent rhyme.
#darkhistory #history #weirdhistory #nurseryrhymeorigins #darkorigins
Support:
Some incredibly kind souls have offered to support the channel further. If you're inclined to 'buy me a coffee,' here is the link:
www.buymeacoff...
Thanks:
Durham Library for helping me track down very elusive book "Infant Institutes" from 1797
www.twitch.tv/ladycleocabaret - for her reading of "Peter, My Neeper"
Chapters:
00:10 Revisiting the Rhyme
00:25 Mysterious Origins
02:36 Eeper Weeper
04:08 Peter, My Neeper
05:09 Entombed in a Wall
06:46 Maud De Braose
10:20 Anchorites
14:55 Christine Carpenter
16:23 The Walled-Up Wife
Sources:
I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 2nd edn., 1997
www.historic-u...
victorianchild...
freepages.root....
hermits.ex.ac.u...
www.thecollect...
theseislands.b...
www.academia.e...
www.thebottlei...
Music:
Infinite Perspective by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Gagool by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/

[@kimsmith1746]

I had such an innocent take on this. I thought "couldn't keep her" meant he couldn't afford to support her. So, he found a pumpkin as big as a house and turned it into one. Firstly, we grew gourds growing up. So, I thought you could dry out a pumpkin shell the same way. Secondly and most importantly, I think the book, my babysitter had, contained an illustration of a huge pumpkin with a window and shutters and Peter's wife appearing in the window.

[@feliciagaffney1998]

I think that's most people's idea from childhood. Then, as adults we may or may not decide to delve deeper into the meaning of the nursery rhyme.

[@Midorikonokami]

This is what I thought too!

[@recoveringsoul755]

Same picture was in one of the books I had. Plus you can eat pumpkin. So I thought maybe she was eating the pumpkin flesh We had the old woman living in the shoe as well

[@mgnwill]

When I was little, I thought ‘couldn’t keep her’ meant he couldn’t keep her from talking, so he gave her a cute little pumpkin to live in. The illustration of the nursery rhyme I saw showed birds fluttering about, so I figured in my four year old mind that she spent the day talking to them, instead. My juvenile mind thought it as a pretty cool deal and for some time I aspired to live in a pumpkin.

[@SafetySpooon]

Yes, this is precisely what we grew up with.

[@lazygardens]

I know of one instance of immurement from 1870s Mexico, discovered in the 1990s (if I remember correctly). New owners renovating a large colonial era Mexican home noticed that one room was too short; an unexpected, inaccessible space and incomplete moldings suggested there was a false wall. They knocked in the bricks and found the desiccated corpse of a young woman. The police decided she was about 18, about 4 months pregnant, died of dehydration, and dated the year of death by the clothing. It was expensive clothing. She was the daughter of a wealthy family who had supposedly died of a fever hundreds of miles away in Mexico City ... the family apparently walled her in and left for the capitol to avoid the shame of a pregnant daughter, then announced her "death". The new owners arranged to have her buried in the local cemetery. This definitely could be a good ghost origin story.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

What a chilling story! Thank you for sharing. While I didn't delve into this detail in the video, most bodies discovered within walls have been those of infants, particularly babies born out of wedlock. It's incredibly heartbreaking to think that societal pressures led people to resort to such desperate measures. I bet that house is haunted for sure!

[@lazygardens]

@@The-Resurrectionists Every time someone's KZbin video of their chateau or other ancient building renovation starts breaking through walls I kinda cringe in anticipation. She was buried in the local church graveyard, with proper Catholic rites, so probably no haunting.

[@wattle2394]

How horrific! Makes me think about all those ghosts suddenly appearing out of the walls - now I know why!

[@stephaniehowell1109]

That poor girl, and her poor unborn baby. Murdered by her parents bc of "religious " beliefs, no doubt .

[@Skitdora2010]

@@lazygardens Stories I am familiar with are found alcohol from prohibition. Makes people rich. I never expect dead bodies.

[@IRSA1]

Absolutely petrified at the mere idea of being entrapped in a dark , dingy prison, without any access to to light or human company. It is spine chilling to discover how both social inequalities and religious indoctrination and fanaticism did actually lead to such psychotic practices and such brutal abuse of vulnerable people, alas too often women and children.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Yes I agree, it's profoundly unsettling and disturbing

[@daniellewillis2767]

​@The-Resurrectionists as a claustrophobe this would be hell on earth for me

[@AyeliaGDoren]

In Tibet a very similar form of monasticism persisted through the 20th century and perhaps even goes on today though it is illegal there now.

[@PintoPintoBean]

And also, where did he 💩 for 5 years!?

[@brendasmart553]

The humble food window was also to exchange out the poop bucket, I recall in this video.​@@PintoPintoBean

[@raymondtillotson6985]

I've heard the theory before that the "pumpkin shell" was some sort of chastity belt, which really makes you wonder about the phrase "Peter, Peter pumpkin eater."

[@adoxartist1258]

🤣

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

LMAO!

[@WVgrl59]

Lol

[@desperatelyseekingrealnews]

Nom nom nom🤗

[@Harley_Girl68]

OMG! 😂

[@wanda11204]

This is a totally untapped weird history lesson. I love when I learn something I had no idea about. Please keep these wonderful nursery rhyme history lessons coming. I look forward to every one of them. 🥰

[@marshawargo7238]

For a while there towards the end, I thought she was telling a story the same way I do! Veering off of the subject😂!!! I'm like, what do these women volunteering to be incased in a wall (buried alive) have anything to do with Peter & his wife? Good Save😮!!! Fascinating backgrounds for things we Thought we knew but never dug deeper😅!!!

[@Catmom-gl5nt]

If anyone has read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Esmeralda’s mother was an anchorite. When Esmeralda was kidnapped as a toddler, all her mother had was her shoe. At the end of the novel, Esmeralda was reunited with her mother and died in her arms as the mob surrounded them. Esmeralda had worn the other infant shoe in a pouch around her neck unknowingly, she had been told by a wise woman in her gypsy tribe that as long as she wore the pouch and was a virgin she would find her mother. That’s why Phoebus’ attempted seduction of her was so disgusting, not only was he simultaneously courting a wealthy woman for marriage, but he knew Esmeralda beloved she had to retain her virginity if she wished to find her mother. It’s a truly amazing novel in how three dimensional every character. Frollo actually loved the hunchback, unlike what is portrayed in the various movies.

[@paultaylor7872]

That Scottish rhyme sent chills down my spine, I can imagine the towns folk talking about it and almost writing itself, then changing tiny bits from town to town. And the part about kids being trapped in chimneys reminds me of poor kids found in double skinned iron hulls of ships who had to put the last rivets in . Thank you for your research and look forward to next rhyme.

[@WVgrl59]

I always figured it was because chimney sweeps were young boys

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you for watching and commenting! :)

[@rebeccaanne9863]

It reminded me of a story I once heard from England of a mother giving her child a sweet to distract them while the workmen bricked the little one up in the pillar of a bridge as a sacrifice to the spirit/god of the river in order to ensure the bridge would not fall down.

[@christinakoerner3385]

I can't believe how horrible that is I can't handle the fact that those things happened

[@ingloriousbetch4302]

​@@christinakoerner3385to be fair people off their kids all the time and/ or let the clergy abuse them in various ways or family members, family friends, or partners. Parents cover up for their partners doing things to their kids all the time. It's seems nuts, but kids have never really been considered very important to society as a whole except that one, special, first born son.

[@olddoggeleventy2718]

Be careful Charlie Brown. There's more to the 'Great Pumpkin' than any of us ever thought. Yikes!

[@gigirice4071]

I was wondering if you could do a story on the " Do you know the muffin man"? I've heard it's about a child serial killer, but it would be interesting to see what you could find out. Thank you for all your research and beautiful videos and enthralling narration.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you! I really appreciate your kind words :) I hope to work my way through most nursery rhymes so I will get around to the Muffin Man for sure!

[@KeithPrince-cp3me]

In reference to the term "wife" in Scotland referring to any woman, not necessarily a spouse, I lived and worked in Edinburgh and east Lothian 20 years ago and often head back to see old friends, it was common to hear women referred to casually as "Wify" as in "who's the Wify?" When asking about a female you were with who they'd not met before. So the usage is certainly still commonplace in parts of Scotland in any rate. This should not be surprising as in Old English, spoken c. 450-1100 CE wifmann didn't indicate a females marital status and gives us both the modern English wife and woman. "Wif" means to wobble and is related to Latin vibrare, to vibrate, and to English wave and weave as in to wave or weave about, so wifmann would appear to have meant a "man" who wobbles or vibrates, "mann" in early OE originally denoting a person of either sex.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, how fascinating! :D

[@LordEha]

In Dutch we have the word wijf which is a considered a less polite form for woman but shows lot of relations in old words. ..

[@lowelllipe9125]

I've heard tell that "Pumpkin Eaters" was a term for the poor, it was all they afford to eat during certain times of year here int the States during early colonization. And the Americanized version of the rhyme is darker than you discussed here. It also may be the root for Bumpkin, as in Country Bumpkin. Kind of a slam about the "uneducated" country folk versus the "educated" city dwellers. Anyway, LOVED the video! Keep up the awesome work❤️

[@paurushbhatnagar8100]

This explanation matches the rhyme

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you for tuning in and for sharing your valuable insights! The use of the slang 'pumpkin' in various phrases in reference to someone from Massachusetts, specifically Boston, was prevalent around the time of the rhyme's publication and indeed it may allude to someone from a poor background or from the countryside. It's perplexing to me that the rhyme was first published there, if it was meant as an insult. What strikes me the most in all it's forms is the underlying theme of hardship and mistreatment, particularly for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, women, and children. It's a thought-provoking rhyme for sure! Glad you enjoyed the video :)

[@laurabuehler]

As a child I always took the rhyme at face value: Peter couldn't afford proper housing for his wife, so he improvised by making a house out of a giant pumpkin. It's one of those things I never paid much attention to. Even a giant pumpkin (some of them can weigh hundreds of pounds) even a giant pumpkin wouldn't be big enough for a house. I was a kid, and this was just one more thing that didn't make sense, but kids weren't supposed to question these things.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Yes, most of the children's book illustrations show that idea of the pumpkin being a house so I think that's the idea that has become ingrained! Thanks for watching and commenting :)

[@arcadiaberger9204]

@@The-Resurrectionists Even as a small child, I was aware that the phrase "keep her" could also mean "provide for her", so that was how I interpreted it. In fact, my grandmother made a blanket for me as a baby with Peter Peter standing outside a giant pumpkin, with a door closed with a button that I could unbutton to reveal his wife inside. My grandmother had once lived in abject poverty herself, being one of the thousands of "Okies" who fled the Dust Bowl for California in the 1930s - I often use the famous "Migrant Mother" photo to represent her life at that point.

[@ellen4956]

@@arcadiaberger9204 What a neat idea for a kids quilt! I hope you still have it. Even if these rhymes do have other meanings that we aren't sure of, as kids we loved them and took them at face value!

[@ingloriousbetch4302]

Idk. I haven't read that rhyme to a kid who DIDN'T ask "why a pumpkin" or "do pumpkins get that big?" Or say "you can't do that with a pumpkin!"

[@gigirice4071]

Thank you for your hard work on these videos. It so interesting to here the history and different variations of these stories. I look forward to more.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! :)

[@noreenclark2568]

Peter Pumpkin eater , is a new one to me. I found it interesting how far back in history the meaning of it all could mean . Maude De Braose and her son paid a hard price for the fidelity of her husband's repayment of monies to bad King John. Keep up the good work of finding the meaning to all these nursery rhymes it's much appreciated and so very interesting

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying the videos :)

[@bruggeman672]

This is incredibly detailed and well researched! Really impressive work, brilliantly done!

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it :)

[@johnreed8336]

Thank you for the latest upload. I always find them informative , entertaining and thought provoking. Thank you for your hard work of research . Even better that your voice has such elegant diction that adds yet another layer to your stories.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much for your kind words, it means so much to me! I'm so glad you enjoy my videos :)

[@SpecialSP]

I grew up in Boston. When I worked for my grandfather, starting at age 9 ore 10, the old Boston Brahmins could indeed be confused with pumpkins in all of their "pompous behavior!" That includes BOTH the men AND the women. I remember how I was spoken down to as a young girl. That has always stayed with me.

[@memorylayne78]

I’m often surprised that there are other parts of these nursery rhymes I’ve never heard. I honestly didn’t know there was a 2nd verse to this rhyme. I love all of the historical information you provide. I read the book “The Anchoress” a few years ago. I wasn’t familiar with that practice.

[@tonysquires8207]

Incredible research and wonderfully told, mesmerising both in content and speech.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much 🖤☺️

[@NeverBelieveALie]

Modern day immurement! I feel I have been through a situation in my 11 month absolute anxious depression leaving me bedbound and peeking through my window at life outside /or/ through my iPhone screen. THANK THE GODs that this vulnerable person has finally managed to kick through the bricks to see the reality of who placed me there in such a suffocating ordeal. I think the type of people who sacrifice women into such hideous situations are pure eveil. May Karma have got them in the end. Blessings + May the Spirits of these Divine women and children have found freedom. 🕯️

[@XiaoGuanYin104]

R u ok?

[@melaniebell8115]

Another gem of a vid! Well done 👏 I recall the illustrations that accompanied this rhyme, always featured a house-sized pumpkin with Mrs. Peter peeking out of a curtained window. Oh how I wanted to live in a pumpkin 😂

[@trackinggod8087]

Fascinating history. Thanks for sharing!

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@amystand7799]

I look forward to every video, and seeing the latest is always fascinating and entertaining. I share them often. Thank you so much for your diligence and painstaking research in each and every video. Always appreciated!🙏

[@amystand7799]

Also, really appreciate the wonderful illustrations you use! Those who only listen, rather than watch are truly missing out.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so happy you enjoy my videos 🖤☺️

[@TheReader19]

Really love your videos; keep up the good work 👍🏾

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much :)

[@NeverBelieveALie]

(This was most beautifully produced + researched. I loved seeing that old etching of Windsor Castle, as I could pinpoint the land where the old mansion I grew up in would have been built! (combining a children’s cemetery into its gardens somehow?! Oh Memories!) Thanks x

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! :)

[@brendaleverick3655]

I remember that nursery rhyme from childhood. Mom bought me a big book of old nursery rhymes.

[@costrio]

To say what one really meant, often meant death? How does one create a code? Make it a childrens' nursery rhyme. Then all the kids in the area will spread a disguised message? Censorship by example..."no one must use the word 'bloody' lest someone tells the Queen's soldiers?" Hence "bloody" becomes a "bad" word to use in society? How about the legend of people in stock labelled as "found using carnal knowledge" -- an old explanation?

[@XiaoGuanYin104]

"Bloody" as a swear word came from "by our lady" meaning a reference to Mary, mother of god

[@jpendowski7503]

I enjoy the historical art you place as explanation.

[@Robgumby]

This puts a new perspective on the seemingly naughty Halloween couples costume.

[@wednesday4evashine848]

6:00 jeeeez... HOW DID THE CHURCH EVER BECOMED VIEWED AS A SACRED AND RIGHTEOUS PLACE TO BE?? throughout history, there seems to be more screwed up evil things transpiring within its walls than any kind of "good" coming out of it. 🧐🤔🤐

[@patricedesvarieux2856]

This was another great video. The anchorites stories were truly the ones that resonated with me. Thank you again. 🙂

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed :)

[@honeybee7768]

Absolutely fascinating! Amazing job delving deep into historical references. So much rich history in these nursery rhymes! Who knew? I love the way you explore alternative interpretations. I had no idea about the anchoress practice. Mind blown! Love the images and narration. Keep up the great work, please!

[@saracreaney]

I have never heard of this rhyme. But I have heard of anchorites. The nun with the young children is just chilling. Thank you for another look into history.

[@madelinemahajan2808]

Soul Food ~ The depth and quality of this content is beyond professional....I am repeatedly mesmerized. Transported to another time in some otherworldly way through every video. I beg there be more.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much 😊🖤

[@miramavensub]

I'd love to see videos on: - Sundiata Keita (The Lion King) - The Pardoner's Tale - The Wife of Bath's Tale - The Summoner's Tale

[@jeffpagan7735]

These children's rhymes were no joke.The pied Piper, ring around the rosey, Mary quite contrary have really dark roots.

[@erfelgamazig]

My take over the years was that Peter the Great had an unfaithful wife, and put her in an Iron Maiden. As you might know, Iron Maidens were made for extracting information about enemy movements from captured prisoners. When you open an Iron Maiden, the knives within are removed, and the victim will bleed to death. But that's probably really far from where the origin of this tale is. Peter the Great was emperor of Russia in the 18th century, and as you already said, there are no Pumpkins in Europe. Thanks for this interesting, although grisly commentary. It seems that people's idea of what is spiritual enlightenment is actually the means to their death, painstakingly slow and awful. And who would think this was a fitting life for their own child? To never have contact with people ever again?

[@andydavis8437]

Very well researched. Christine's story is the subject of the 1993 movie Anchoress. Another famous historical figure to be walled in was Elizabeth Báthory

[@rawilliams5881]

The latter had it coming.

[@westzed23]

I had not known how Elizabeth Báthory was executed.

[@wendychavez5348]

She wasn't executed so much as deliberately and dramatically abandoned. As a noble woman, executing her would have been quite problematic, as would imprisoning her in a more traditional way, so they basically walled her up and placed bets on whether her Divine Right would protect her.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Absolutely, immurement was essentially a means of ending someone's life indirectly, avoiding direct culpability (and the fear of divine retribution or eternal damnation). The unsettling belief was that whether the immured person survived or not was seen as a matter of God's will. Thank you for sharing your knowledge! :)

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed! :)

[@naarahjanemorris3121]

Thanks for the Informative video on the nursery rhyme it's definitely very dark our history Woah.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! :)

[@moiramarriott4403]

Love nursery rhymes and this exploration and background being retold, so fascinating. I hope they are still taught, but I doubt it , a shame .

[@HitomiKitage]

Why were they so obsessed with sacrificing women?! We needed an anti Freud or a Freud opposite. Whereas Freud saw a penis everywhere, the anti-Freud would see vaginas everywhere. Lol! This is one of very favorite channels. Keep up the great work!

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

They had been taught from childhood that women were essentially lascivious, manipulative and a long list of other things things that made them dangerous. Add natural desire, the notion that sex is sinful,that men can’t control their desires and socially basically don’t have to because they are in power, and it gets ugly very fast. Making it all the fault of women is not a surprising outcome.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! :)

[@seraphinasullivan4849]

When i heard that "pumpkin eater" was an insult toward american colonists because pumpkins were considered poor people food that actually changed my entire opinion of the rhyme. The image i got with that knowledge was a man with a sick wife keeping her alive ("hiding" her from death) by feeding her pumpkin.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you for watching :) and sharing your insights; this rhyme has certainly undergone significant transformations, with each variation reflecting the unique time period and social climate of its era. It's been a thought-provoking journey to delve into its history and witness how it mirrors the changing world around it: so I see how your interpretation could fit the 'pumpkin' version.

[@sweetcherry7759]

So we just ignoring the fact the nuns who chose to brick themselves up had CHILDREN (who cannot consent) join them, the nun doing who knows what w them, alone… then probably eating their flesh when they grew too hungry. 😨

[@debrecio8150]

So awful.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

It's truly horrific and heart-wrenching.

[@lisaclayton404]

Excellent! Great job! Very interesting! Thanks for researching

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@angietyndall7337]

The bricking one in a wall for this Scottish Rhythm makes me think of EA. Poe's The Cask of Amantiadio.

[@Nightcore-336]

Ya

[@leecarlson9713]

I first heard of Anchorites through the British archaeological program, TimeTeam. In one of their digs at a religious site, there was an Anchorite’s cell.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

LOVE a bit of Time Team! 🖤

[@JungleJoeVN]

I've always thought this to be the creepiest and insane nursery rhyme. I have always thought that it meant that a man had gotten married, but he was too poor to keep her happy and she often ran away from him until he caught her and finally locked her up. So thinly veiled such a horrible rhyme should never have been read or recited to children as a way of making them quiver in fear of being married off to a poor man.

[@BlackSeranna]

For me as a child I loved nursery rhymes. I could recite them from heart, which made me feel smart, and also, when I thought about the words, they sounded like nonsense and playfulness. You’re looking at it through adult eyes, so you see evil. I still read nursery stories and rhymes to my nephew, but of course, it’s nonsense in its current form.

[@arcadiaberger9204]

@@BlackSeranna I knew even as a small child that "keep her" could mean "provide for her", and assumed that's what it meant - that he was unable to provide for her until he obtained a giant pumpkin to convert into a house, and there began an improvement in the couple's fortunes.

[@cookfrances]

I enjoy the videos. Thank you.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much :)

[@jimm6810]

Oubliette may also fit the "pumpkin" description.

[@D.Fay_Coe]

this is absolutely excellent. I really love these videos. quality content in a landscape of digital trash and debris. As a matter of fact, this video has inspired me to possible start an episodic fantasy series based on the Ankorites, which I would then turn into a podcast. Thanks for teaching and inspiring me.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Wow, thank you! I'm so happy you're enjoying my videos - please do come back/comment when you have your podcast series done, I'd love to listen! :)

[@costrio]

Starving Anchorites?" Volunteering to die that way? How to commit suicide and still get to heaven? Talk about feeling so guilty as to use such a loophole?

[@kensweeney9057]

Excellent video, well explained, great voice over, wonderful imagery and story telling. History, as it should be told.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so happy you enjoyed it :)

[@ChunksPlace]

Is there anything darker than British history? Another epic video, please keep them coming ❤

[@Jane-Doe.1126]

Christian history.

[@ChunksPlace]

@@Jane-Doe.1126 I stand by my words haha

[@midwesternviolet8768]

Look into the history of any long-standing civilization and you will find plenty of darkness.

[@frugalitystartsathome4889]

It’s funny how the lyrics of these rhymes differ so much. My version is “Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, bought a wife but couldn’t keep her, bought another, did not love her, up the chimney he did shove her.” Whichever version, it’s clearly a dark story!

[@The-Resurrectionists]

oh how fascinating that you've grown up with the 2 rhymes combined! Thank you for sharing :)

[@Rivionna]

I guess im an innocent cause I never thought about it that way. As a child growing up, I always thought that Peter loved his wife but couldnt afford her. so he hid her in the shell to keep her so she wouldnt be taken from him, and they could have food. lol never once did i think he ATE her lol but now i cant get that outta my head,.

[@AmericanWoman1964]

Excellent post. Thank you!

[@dsantamaria713]

Humans have always been horrible.. Sadly, nothing has changed....🤮🤮🤮

[@ZYX54321]

Hello.💫 I came upon your channel just a few days ago. I have devoured each of your storys & excellent analysis with pleasure. I see that you have Mr. Petter Pumpkineater. Just in time for Thanksgiving no less. 🤭 So many dreadful adaptations I hadn’t pondered. I’ll be looking forward to more of your wonderful stories soon. Thank you. 💫

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much for your kind words! Glad you're enjoying my videos :)

[@michaelweiss5320]

Eeper weeper...the master sweep could have simply passed his wife off as a climbing boy. If she was petite, and dressed as young man, how hard would it be to disguise herself as a boy? Soot instead of makeup, short hair instead of long, or hidden under a cap? Up the chimney she goes, gets stuck, and dies. Revealing she was female the entire time. If chimney sweeps were poor, how often was it, the "climbing boy" turned out to be the wife? Desperate lives, desperate endeavors. People gotta eat.

[@deborahbaker4770]

I heard…..Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater Had A Wife But Couldn’t Keep Her Put Her In A Pumpkin Shell And There He Kept Her Very Well 👍🏻

[@Pearlruby718]

This story was interesting information and educational. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you.

[@cynimonry5919]

Love your channel! Very interesting!❤😊

[@donnadees1971]

The book, the Water Babies is about chimney sweeps.

[@wattle2394]

Every explanation is so dark, disturbing and fascinating. To think that we learn these and really have no idea what they're about. They're not nonsense at all! Peter - the link to Catholicism and the pope - makes perfect sense and can be nothing else and yet, it never occurred to me. Immurement - even voluntary - even grooming people into it for 'spiritual purity' - is just so cruel. But it was never seen as normal and it was shocking enough to people at the time to create and recite these rhymes for awareness and empathy perhaps.

[@sharendonnelly7770]

What I like about this channel is the macabre circumstances that haunt the nursery rhymes presented. What we once childishly recounted were dark, indeed.

[@ninaalceraz-gc4vh]

I am cured of ever listening to another nursery ryme.

[@concernedcitizen4031]

Ive only watched a couple of these videos exposing the gruesome origins yet i cant stop watching. Found this channel by accident today.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

🖤☺️

[@thunderhead180]

A pumpkin eater was also a term for poor person. The rhyme is probably about a man pimping his wife

[@MeVsTheWorld01]

Imagine a horror movie based on this nursery rhyme....

[@NiceDonkey3417]

I've always assumed it meant he couldn't provide for her so locked her away or unalived her.

[@butterbean3676]

And this is why i do not practice any religion!

[@jesusknight1]

Every belief (even the unreligious) has their extremist groupies.

[@butterbean3676]

😏@@jesusknight1

[@razor1uk610]

One very famous and infamously evil, depraved & sadistic, person was sentenced to Enurment for her innumerable crimes, *_Countess Elizabeth Bathory_*

[@lorellgingrich1334]

I am soooo glad I was born in the century. These stories are chilling

[@glennso47]

I had no idea that certain nursery rhymes were so violent. Lullabies also. 😮

[@eleni1968]

THere is a folksong dating as far back as the Byzantine period "The Bridge of Arta" in Eastern Thrace and is about a virginal woman who is entombed in the bridge foundation columns.

[@lancerevell5979]

"The Walled Up Wife" shares some similarity to the story of young Merlin, who was nearly sacrificed to ensure the success of a castle construction project that kept failing. He was able to use his magic to find the real problem, saving his life and imparting a prophecy.

[@maryelmore9019]

I think the immurement in the Catholic church/Peter the 1st Bishop fits nicely, as I remember reading that Mary Magdelene chosse this life style after Christs death and was viewed as a wise sage, which many women sought out for guidance.

[@donaldallen1213]

I remember Barnabas Collins bricking Reverend Trask in the wall in Dark Shadows!!! 😉

[@feliciagaffney1998]

Unrelated to the nursery rhyme, but just relating a similar story of willing entombment... I have an ancestor (the majority of my family is from North Carolina) who is said to have hid in a hollow tree to escape the men running around the county trying to find the missing men who were avoiding enlisting for the Civil War in the 1860's. His sister would carry food out to him hidden under her skirts.

[@theoncomingstorm8009]

Like many, I thought this was a rhyme about housing. Hearing the story about King John and the Magna Carta was a shocker. But the most angering was the Anchorites! How could they trap children in such a wretched punishment? The children didn't ask to be walled in. And I'm the parents would have left the child in the wilderness instead if they knew the Chrch was practicing such barbarism.

[@cocoaorange1]

I only knew the first lines of the classic nursery rhyme. I really enjoy these videos.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Thank you so much! :)

[@JBlask]

"Peter Peter, Pumpkin Eater" was the first song I ever learned to play on the piano.

[@woolncathairs]

These two really studied their guys!! Lots of detail - loved to see the two styles together!

[@Yiaya928]

At 17:33, is that a real castle or a picture? I love these stories! They are so interesting! I have been stopping and looking up things that I’ve never heard of, and it’s pretty amazing. I’m sure I’ll be up all night watching everyone I possibly can!

[@KamariaBarvon]

It’s interesting that you mention a graveyard under a pumpkin patch. I live in Boston, and our oldest graveyard, now next to King’s Chapel, supposedly once was a pumpkin patch belong to the first man buried there. His name escapes me, but he was one of the original Puritans settlers I believe. So if the rhyme really does originate in Boston, it could simply refer to a widower whose wife died too soon and was buried in that graveyard.

[@davidmolloy126]

I've just subscribed to your wonderful channel. Thank you.

[@XiaoGuanYin104]

Hildegard der Bingen was a nun who was bricked up in a church with an insane young girl who had a beautiful singing voice. Hildegard healed her when necessary with herbs that she grew and composed beautiful music for her to sing.

[@AcousticallyYours]

I have been writing poetry for years, and have also taken to write (or rewrite) my own versions that I also call “Nursery Crimes” too… here is one. Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater Had a wife but wouldn’t feed her He kept her in a pumpkin shell Where there she lived in darkness in her private hell

[@Wizardjudge]

I’ve heard “put her is a pumpkin shell, and there she rot in living hell” any truth to this version?

[@The-Resurrectionists]

It certainly seems to fit with the immurement roots. There seems to be many fascinating versions of this rhyme!

[@debbralehrman5957]

I know we think things are still bad for woman today. But a far cry from where we have come. 😔 😥 Thanks👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@michaelhager2846]

Amazing history,thank you 😊😊

[@honeylacecookie]

I am a member of the DeLacy family. I couldn't believe that this story made it out to be heard. I have always thought it was just the family's history story of Maude.

[@susannpatton2893]

Did I hear you say they bricked Nun's up with children? Huh? What for?

[@The-Resurrectionists]

They were perceived as symbols of purity and were essentially offered as a kind of living sacrifice to God. The practice of parents giving their children to the church in this manner is profoundly unsettling and disturbing.

[@BlackSeranna]

My mother said when she was in Mexico in the 1950’s, they were redoing a local cathedral and found the skeletons of girls in the walls. Mom thought it was because the priests used the girls and then hid the bodies, but now I wonder if it is this.

[@wattle2394]

Probably both@@BlackSeranna

[@jocelynmartin1572]

​@@The-ResurrectionistsNot all child oblates were mistreated. Many were treated as futurenuns and monks. If you grew up in a monastery, it was as natural a way of life as family life. You grew up believing you had a valuable role, praying for the salvation of your family. A girl who wanted a life of scholarship and who feared marriage and childbirth might well prefer it. Noblewomen might be sent to live with their future inlaws while under the age of 10, so going to live with the religious community you had been dedicated to wasn't all that different. Assuming, as another poster did, that it was about anchorites molesting the child to pass the time is not a likely practice. An anchorite was more likely to be tutoring the child.

[@The-Resurrectionists]

oh absolutely! My comment was referring specifically to the practice of immuring the child for a period of time; even in the absence of physical mistreatment, I find that practice profoundly cruel and unsettling. Nevertheless, considering the overall challenges and hardships of that historical era, life within a monastery may have been a preferable alternative for many endured hardships in their daily lives. Thanks for your insight! :)

[@wendychavez5348]

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary" is said/sung to the same tune as "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater," even to repetition of the name. Perhaps that's another veiled connection to the two rhymes?

[@The-Resurrectionists]

Great point! Thank you for sharing :)

[@susiefairfield7218]

Sadly, locking ppl away is still carried on today - A Florida couple is being held on $50,000 bond for forcing their 13-year-old son to live inside a small room in a garage for years. He was only allowed out to go to school, say authorities in Jupiter. Police arrested the teenagers' adopted parents, Tracy Ferriter, 46, and Timothy Ferriter, 46, on charges of aggravated child abuse, according to WPEC. Jupiter police say their 13-year-old adopted son had been physically abused and forced to live in a garage for five years in their home in the quiet Egret Landing community. Once inside the home, the detective noticed an 8-by-8 structure within the garage that was described by the mother as a small office, according to the police report. The report says the structure had a doorknob and deadbolt, both locking from the outside as well as a light switch only on the exterior. Officials say inside was a camera, mattress, and a bucket. (No windows & No Lights)😢

[@PersephoneRising333]

Oh no 😔😞😢 that poor child.. I just can’t understand how some people can be so evil 💔

[@ravenmeyer3740]

Dead souls

[@MummaBear]

These episodes must take hours to research. 🎉. I loved this one. 🎉

[@simonevans343]

Julienne of Norwich was a mystic anchorite. Not to my knowledge a nun

[@taitano12]

Ever since I was little, I often suspected that many, if not most, of these have multiple sources. Especially ones like this where the majority of potential origins are highly symbolic. Doing something like immeurment to represent or commemorate an incident or ideal means that there would be many instances for author and perpetrators alike to draw from. The neighbor who let the mice eat his wife could have been inspired by various tales of the practice and forced it on her for whatever reason. And others tell a common rhyme with a twist to represent current events.

[@MorganMalfoy13]

I grew up with this rhyme in the book being illustrated by mice, who of course could very easily live in a pumpkin shell. This is going in a VERY different direction. Yikes.

[@zzzsydneyhom1379]

A brilliant visual tour through European mythology and history, thank you. Particularly disturbing is how the Catholic church had such innovative and inventive ways to impose untold cruelty upon the faithful.