Not Another History Podcast
We are Cindy and Katie, and every two weeks we bring you a random theme and offer several of our favorite historical events loosely based on that theme. We are basically just living out our old lady fantasies of rocking on the front porch together, drinking, and gossiping about people who are already dead. Music: The Life of a Divorced Bumblebee by Josef Bel Habib (www.epidemicsound.com). Design: canva.com
Not Another History Podcast
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree
In honor of the holiday season, we are re-releasing our 12 Days of Christmas special! For the next 12 days, we will re-release one episode a day, each one with our own spin on the classic holiday theme, "The 12 Days of Christmas."
In this episode, Katie explains the origins of the 12 Days of Christmas and shares some stories about several unfortunate people who met their demise via falling from windows.
Why, hello, cindy?
Speaker 2:We wish you a Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1:We wish you a Merry.
Speaker 2:Christmas. We wish you a Merry Hanukkah. We wish you a Merry Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year, and also any other Aunt Hanukkah.
Speaker 1:We wish you a Merry Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year, and also any other winter solstice holidays we may have missed.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, can't forget about all of the other solstice-y things going on.
Speaker 1:Yes, saturnalia. What did you just say, saturnalia?
Speaker 2:What is that?
Speaker 1:Oh, cindy, we're going to have to do another podcast on tabas for me to go over saturnalia, what saturnalia is, how it's the og christmas next december.
Speaker 2:I'm writing it down right now next december saturnalia, is that correct? Yeah, yes, perfect, perfect, but in the meantime, I feel like we, since the holidays are upon us and I am an enthusiastic participant in Christmas, I feel like are you also an?
Speaker 1:enthusiastic participant in Christmas. I believe that twinkle lights should be year round oh, I agree. Twinkle lights should be year round oh, I agree. But to share our enthusiasm with all of our listeners, our gift to you this holiday season is we have 12 podcasts that we will be releasing as a buildup to Christmas.
Speaker 2:An advent calendar of not another history podcast episode.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly A the 12 days of Christmas perhaps.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea. We should have done that. Oh, no wait, we did do that Surprise.
Speaker 1:This is ridiculous and I love it.
Speaker 2:Me too Well. So here's the thing when I was talking to Katie about doing 12 podcast episodes based on the song the 12 Days of Christmas, katie gently reminded me that the 12 Days of Christmas actually don't begin until after Christmas. Is that right?
Speaker 1:Yes, december, it's the 12 Days of Christmas actually covers Christmas until Epiphany, which is January 6th.
Speaker 2:So technically, speaking, we are doing this way in advance, but if you are an Advent fan, an Advent calendar fan, then we're right on time.
Speaker 1:We're doing it like halfsies, because an advent calendar is 24 days. We're just doing 12.
Speaker 2:That's true. We are like the cheap knockoff Dollar Tree store version of a Dior advent calendar.
Speaker 1:Exactly Half as many, but I like to think it's quality, not quantity.
Speaker 2:Maybe for yours, katie, mine is definitely a little bit more iffy on the quality.
Speaker 1:No, I have faith in you, Cindy. I think they're going to be amazing.
Speaker 2:So, yes, in honor of Advent calendars, the Advent season, just the holidays in general, Katie and I are recording and releasing 12 episodes based on the song the 12 Days of Christmas.
Speaker 1:Very, very loosely, we might add.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a little asterisk there, loosely. It's kind of you know what. It's kind of like Carl Jung Yep, this is kind of like the Jungian version of the 12 Days of Christmas podcast, because it was more like a word association. When you say turtle dove, I say sadness. Exactly Perfect. This should be a real educational experience for everyone.
Speaker 1:And on that note, cindy, without further ado, before I get into the first day of Christmas, I do want to talk a little bit about the history of the 12 Days of Christmas, the song itself. Now, would you be surprised to know that the 12 Days of Christmas, the song, the lyrics, actually predate the music that we know?
Speaker 2:Oh, I did.
Speaker 1:Siri, shut up, go away, Siri. Wait, are you calling me Siri? Cindy, I'm so sorry, I missed it. For some reason, she, who Shall Not Be Named, popped up on my laptop and I don't know how to get her Go away. Katie, I feel't know how to get her Go away, go away.
Speaker 2:Katie, I feel like this is just your chance. You're taking out some anger on me and you're like no, it's Siri, siri, shut up, shut up. Stop interrupting my ad for the podcast. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I don't even. How do I get to go get her to go away? Can you hear me? Okay, I don get to go get her to go away. Can you hear me? Okay, I don't hear. Okay, because she popped up for me on my end. Go away, go, siri. Go away, siri, go away. She's still here. Um, I, I all right, I'm just gonna pick up. So, cindy, would you be surprised to know that the lyrics for the 12 Days of Christmas actually predates the song itself by approximately 200 years.
Speaker 2:I'm going to act surprised so Siri doesn't come back. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:So according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, the earliest version of the 12 days of christmas it comes from a 1780 anonymous connect, a 1780 anonymous collection of songs, stories and games in a book entitled mirth without mischief, which is like a. I like to think um a late 18th century version of. Like the activity book, like to just keep kids busy, like here go mirth yourselves, children.
Speaker 1:Mommy's busy churning this butter go mirth yourselves someone else, children, um and I. I got a chance to see it. You can find it on the internet. It's public domain. It's very interesting because, like, in addition to the and it says it's a song, but there's no music to go along with it the 12 Days of Christmas. There's also some very fun games you can play. Something looks a lot like the precursor to yoga and Pilates, where you have to like make letters with your body and numbers with your body.
Speaker 2:This is in the children's book of mirth. Yes, in Mirth, without Mischief From the 1700s, 1780s yes. I'm actually really impressed they had yoga in there. I thought it would be like take a wooden stick and hit your sister in the face.
Speaker 1:I also enjoyed that game.
Speaker 2:This is 1780. There's literally nothing else to do.
Speaker 1:Sticky Facey. Who doesn't love that game? I love it. There's also I found it very interesting a precursor to sign language. It's called the Art of Talking with the Fingers, where you make different letters with your fingers.
Speaker 2:I also am well-versed at talking with my fingers. Sorry, that wasn't at you, that was at Siri.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I appreciate that that's actually a sign of respect in some cultures. No, it's not at all. No, no, not even a little bit. There's also a game called Love and Hatred. It's the story of my life Would you like to know how to play, are you sure?
Speaker 2:you're not reading a book of all about me, Katie.
Speaker 1:It's possible. It is anonymous, so you could have traveled back in time, written it and come back just for this podcast. It's very possible. That's why I'm so tired.
Speaker 1:So the premise is you play this game with a group of people and it's a lot like, if you've ever played the I'm going on a picnic and I'm taking blah, blah, blah game as like an icebreaker.
Speaker 1:But instead of just saying I'm going on a picnic and I'm taking a food, that begins with the first letter of my name, what you need to do instead is to take the first letter of whomever you love and use that letter to describe something you love about that person, something you hate about that person, a place you would like to take that person, an activity you would do with that person at that location and what you plan to eat and drink with that person. Okay, katie, let's play. Okay. So the person whom I love starts with a C, and what I love about this person is she's capricious. What I hate about her is that she about her, is that she, uh, oh, shoot, um, she can be a twit. She can be a twit. Uh, I'm going to take a place. I'm going to take her to california, where we are going to conquer a winery and we shall eat, eat chips and drink cabernet, and her name is cindy so good.
Speaker 1:The person I love is katie, because she is caring with a k oh, I forgot to mention if you mess up, you get called out and then you have to pay a fine, but that would be determined by the group. So you can make it a drinking game if you really wanted to, or something.
Speaker 2:So I thought you were going to say I get hit in the face with a stick, old, sticky face, sticky face.
Speaker 1:Sticky facey.
Speaker 2:The person I love is Katie, because she is kind and she kicks kids not children baby goats and I would take her to Kenya where we would eat koalas.
Speaker 1:Koalas, because they are adorable and therefore delicious. And rain it's also kiwi fruit.
Speaker 2:We just eat a kiwi fruit too. She's a carnivore with a king, and we would drink kiwi fruit, kiwi juice excellent, well done, well played.
Speaker 1:So this is a fun game that you could play with your family as well around the christmas tree, if you're so inclined. But moving along, the song itself is believed to have come from france, um, and in its original version, the 1780 version, the, the lyrics are identical, except that the calling birds are instead referred to as collie birds with an O.
Speaker 2:Which I will address in my episode on calling birds.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So the current tune, as we know it was published by Frederick Austin in 1909. 1909. And it's worth noting that there are. So this song is considered a cumulative Christmas song because it builds as the song goes. There are other songs like this in Europe, so there's a version in Scotland, a version in Sweden, a version in France and also the Faroe Islands. However, there are variations on the number of gifts, the order in which the gifts are given and then also the gifts themselves. So like, for example, in Scotland, you also receive gifts of an Arabian baboon and a peacock, in France, you get biting cows, and in the Faroe Islands you get 14 rounds of cheese.
Speaker 2:Ooh, that sounds delicious.
Speaker 1:I want to go to Christmas there. A lot of religious historians believe that perhaps each of the gifts symbolizes something within Catholicism, but generally other scholars refute that and say that no, that's highly unlikely, it's just a fun children's game. Sometimes a fun children's game is just a fun children's game and not actually part of a wider conspiracy or have any more cultural significance go figure all right. So, and on that note for the first day of christmas, it's everyone's favorite partridge in a pear tree and a partridge in a pear tree.
Speaker 1:Now, cindy, would you believe that there is some controversy over what exactly is in that tree? It's a partridge, not according to some versions. And some versions it's just a bow of a juniper tree, and it's it's possible that it is not actually a pear tree at all, but it's just a partridge yes, it's just a partridge and a pear, but no pear.
Speaker 2:Oh, and just a partridge in a regular old tree. No, no trees, no trees. Just a partridge in a regular old tree. No, no trees, no trees. And just a partridge at my front door.
Speaker 1:That would be even more adorable. So in the French versions of the song the lyric is sometimes written as jolie, which is French for pretty partridge.
Speaker 2:Perduit, which is French for pretty partridge.
Speaker 1:Oh, but if you're American, like us. Say that again.
Speaker 2:Perduit.
Speaker 1:That sounds like pear tree, exactly. So some historians believe that because the song came from France to English, that to English ears, perduille sounds a lot like pear tree and it just doesn't mean that beautiful connection, cindy, that indeed, it's just a partridge.
Speaker 2:Just a partridge.
Speaker 1:Just a partridge, yeah, so are you familiar at all with the myths surrounding partridges and how they came to be, according to the ancient Greeks?
Speaker 2:No, but I'm sure it involves decapitating somebody and throwing it up into the heavens.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're half right on that.
Speaker 2:I really hope it's the decapitation part.
Speaker 1:You got it halfway. I'll give you credit for it. So when I was thinking about partridges, it made me think of this myth. So according to the ancient Greeks and I know we will will I will steer the ship back into the historical realm. I know we're veering off into mythological land, but I promise you we will. I will write the ship. So, according to the ancient greeks, the partridge um originated. When? Do you remember? Do you know, of Daedalus and Icarus?
Speaker 2:yes, the ones who made the wings and flew up to the sky. The sun flew too close to the sun.
Speaker 1:So before Daedalus made the wings for his son and Icarus flew too close to the sun, he had a nephew named Perdix, which is the Latin name for partridge and actually a scientific name for partridge as well. So Daedalus's nephew Perdix came and stayed with him. And now Perdix was just naturally gifted very, very smart, very intelligent, surpassing both Icarus and Daedalus. And Daedalus became incredibly jealous of Perdix that he took him to the top of a mountain and chucked him off because he couldn't compete with this child.
Speaker 1:Oh no, but do not fret Cindy, because the gods are just. And Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare, saw what was happening to poor Paradix and before he hit the ground, she turned him into a partridge so that he would not die.
Speaker 2:What if she just instead like put a mattress on the ground or something?
Speaker 1:and that is how partridges came to be also. That's apparently why partridges don't like to fly up high, because they don't want to get chucked off mountains.
Speaker 2:Oh, interesting.
Speaker 1:The more you know. So, thinking back on this myth, I tried to think of all the famous historical people who've been chucked out of windows or off of roofs, or and then turned into partridges and turned into partridges.
Speaker 1:None have turned into partridges so far. I did find a couple of very sad but awful ways that people have met their demise in history from falling off of things. What comes to mind is in 1993 a canadian lawyer was like inside some building in tor and in order to show that the windows were shatterproof, he ran up against it and it gave way and he fell out of like a 24 story window, felt it was death.
Speaker 2:Who was there? Who? Who was there egging him on? They were like no, surely they're not shatterproof.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but who would take that bet, like just on the off chance? No, thank you.
Speaker 2:Nobody was talking about the bachelor. Nobody was talking about the game last night. Just debating whether or not the window was shatterproof.
Speaker 1:So that story obviously was too short, not interesting enough, not historic enough in my opinion. Short, not interesting enough, not historic enough in my opinion. Which brings me to the story of Griffith Abshwellen. Is he Welsh? He is Welsh, cindy. Yes, yes, I can tell by him, griffith Abshwellen, born circa 1196 CE, died 1st of March 1244 CE. So as a child he was kept as a hostage by King John of England until he was released in 1215, thanks to a clause in the Magna Carta which said he had to be released. That's very convenient.
Speaker 2:Wow, he had some good connections.
Speaker 1:So he was supposed to inherit his father's lands when he died. His father is Shwellen, because in Welsh Ap Shwellen means son of Shwellen. So he was supposed to inherit his father's lands. But he horribly mismanaged the lands that he was given and his father ended up taking those away in 1221. He got super pissed off and decided I think the best way to get those lands back is probably by force. So in 1223, he brought a host of soldiers to try and take back his land. This did not go so well and his father ended up imprisoning him until 1234. His father ends up dying in 1240, as old men tend to do, and his brother, dapheth, takes over and imprisons him.
Speaker 1:In 1241, king Henry III of England invades Wales and Dapheth ends up handing his brother over to the king to be imprisoned in the Tower of London along with two of Griffith's sons. So Griffith's wife, sanana ends up trying to get her husband freed from the Tower of London. She pays a huge ransom to King Henry. She ends up paying a huge ransom to Henry in the hopes that he'll set her husband free. But unfortunately that's not how Henry rolls and he keeps the money. But and he keeps the money and also keeps Griffith as a hostage.
Speaker 1:So Griffith, after a while you know I mean he's been imprisoned three times in his life he's getting a little bit sick of things. So in 1244, he decides, you know what? It's time to make a break for it. So I think he's been watching one too many escape films. Because he goes and he takes the bedsheets and he ties them together, he throws the rope of bedsheets out the window and and he makes his way down. Now I've heard two conflicting stories about what actually transpired. There's one story that says that the rope that he had strung together was much too short and he ended up falling to his death. The other says that he was. As he was scaling down the side of the tower, he was a bit corpulent and it broke and he fell to his death and died.
Speaker 2:Oh no, he fell to his death. I honestly, I think that's probably what happened. Those bed sheets, man, those aren't, those aren't built for climbing up and down.
Speaker 1:They definitely weren't 400 count Egyptian cotton, I can tell you that much. They definitely weren't 400 count Egyptian cotton, I can tell you that much.
Speaker 2:And that is the unfortunate story of Gruthus Apchuelen. I'm waiting for the part where he turned into a partridge.
Speaker 1:No, he didn't.
Speaker 2:Aww, wait, is that the end? Is that the end of a partridge in a pear tree? That's it.
Speaker 1:That's a look up. That's it. That's the one, guys. That's it. That's it. Someone in history who fell out of a window and died.
Speaker 2:And a corpulent corpse on my front porch.
Speaker 1:And a dead Welshman in my garden. Dead.
Speaker 2:Welshman in my garden.