Call-and-Response: Accumlative Drollery

Posted on by Liz Gauffreau

bealittlelamb

 

Dark Origins

I wrote this post in response to a blog series I have been following called “Dark Origins: Nursery rhymes and fairy tales” by Roberta Eaton Cheadle. The series provides an in-depth discussion of the history and social context for the nursery rhymes and fairy tales many of us grew up with. I was already familiar with some of these “dark origins” from my mother’s copy of The Annotated Mother Goose. However, I was surprised by my own horrified reaction to tales I’d reveled in as a child. That brought me once again to Lambikin.

The Origin of Lambikin

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my father’s pet name for me when I was little was Lambikin. Out of curiosity a few years ago, I Googled “lambikin,” thinking to confirm that it’s not a real word and discovered that “The Lambikin” is a fairy tale that originated in India. Who knew? If either of my parents read it to me, I certainly don’t remember it.

The Accumulative Droll

I located a version of the fairy tale in a 1921 children’s literature textbook for teachers. According to the book’s editor, “It is an accumulative droll in character and should be told early along with, say, ‘The Story of the Three Little Pigs’.”1  I settled into a comfy chair to enjoy the accumulative drollery of “The Lambikin.” Here is the result:

The Accumulative Droll Reading Experience

Work Cited

1″The Lambikin,” in Children’s Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes, ed. Charles Madison Curry and Erle Elsworth Clippinger (Chicago, New York: Rand, McNally, 1921), 149.

171 thoughts on “Call-and-Response: Accumlative Drollery”

  4. Good heavens, I had never heard this story until I listened to you. Now it makes me wonder about all the other fairy tales. Great post, Liz. 😊

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      1. I didn´t really know what drollery meant so I looked it up. Merriam Webster said this: whimsical humour. I agree, this is not modern-day whimsical humour at all. But then humour changes over time.

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  6. Oh, no… poor Lambikin… all this effort, to end up in the jackal’s tummy! Your reading took me back to my childhood when I would enjoy listening to fairy tales and memorized every little detail. I also loved your interval sounds! 😉

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  13. You are such a great storyteller, Liz! I really enjoyed your reading.
    And I agree, not droll at all, and extra creepy with the cutesy names- Lambikin and Drumikin.
    I imagine this one is not in more current textbooks. 😏

    The history of fairy tales/nursery rhymes is fascinating. I did a little bit of research about them in the past.

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  15. Hi Liz, I must admit that is quite a strange story with a rather dark ending. It reminds me of the ending of some of the Grimm’s Brothers stories. I don’t think droll is the best description for it 😉. You did a great job with that video. Great sound and other effects. I am in awe. Thanks also for the shout out. I’m glad you enjoyed that series.

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  16. Liz, I’m not sure if I want to know about the Velveteen Rabbit or not, as it was my childhood classic! Yikes I have heard of other classic stories like this. Thank you for sharing. Sandy

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    1. Hi, Sandy. It’s good to hear from you! The Velveteen Rabbit is of more recent vintage than this tale or Grimm’s, so hopefully, you have nothing to fear from learning about its origins. (I make no guarantee, of course.)

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  23. Imagine the nightmares children would have from that story. Excellent video! I remember from my Children’s Lit studies that fairy tales and rhymes were not actually written for children but as satire or commentary on events, political or social, of the time. Wonder what the story is behind this one.

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  26. A very droll video but the story is disturbing. But when I was young I liked a story which featured a mean old woman, carrying a tin of kerosene, who was eaten by a crocodile, tin and all. She lit a match inside the croc because it was so dark and, of course, she accidentally sparked the kerosene and she and the mean croc were blown to smithereens. This was graphically illustrated. Go figure the tastes of children!

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          1. Which apparently is different from the English version. I think my mother’s version was an American one and was part of her collection of stories which she built up while she was at Kindergarten Training College in preparation for her teaching career.

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              1. Yes, I remember Bannerman’s illustrations were very colourful. I didn’t know when I was a child that the books had an Indian setting, nor did I ever expect to end up in the land of the mugger, as an adult. My daughter was about 6 when we lived in New Delhi. Her abiding love of colour, vibrant chaotic colours began in India. And it was where she learned to read by herself. One of the first books she could read was Tales of the Panchatantra. It is still one of her favourite books. https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-folktales/panchatantra-tales/index.html

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  27. An excellent reading with sound effects and visuals. Well done, Liz. You get a god star from me and deserve much more. I had not heard this tale before, so thanks for the introduction. Brava! 😀

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  31. Love this! You did a great job. Right up my alley with the fairy tales. And when you stop the story with the googly eyes hahaha. I had never read this story, but it sure mimics the Grimm Brothers’ tales. It’s also a mix of some of the tale types, I think. A big one is the Little Red tale. In some of the versions where a girl is the protagonist she is resourceful like this. That ending is awful because what does it teach? That it’s pointless to be resourceful?

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      2. In reading and rereading “bad guys win” type tales alongside “good wins in the end” type tales I come away with a general “the world is not always a just place sometimes it is just a place” sense. An awareness that life isn’t always smooth is perhaps the lesson?

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  34. Goodness, I think Grandma should have behaved more responsibly, perhaps she played a part in the death of the brother! But animals often die in children’s stories; let us not forget that Peter Rabbit was brought up in a one parent family because Mr. Macgregor baked his father in a pie. One day children find out they have been eating Lambikin and Peter Rabbit…

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  35. So creative and well done, Liz! You took me back to my childhood and taught me something. I too grew up on fairy tales and only later realized how dark they actually are.

    And although I don’t remember hearing or reading the Lambikin story (probably a good thing), my mother did occasionally use the name as a term of endearment. However, not having seen it in print, I always thought it was spelled “Lambykin” or even phonetically as “Lammykin.” Now I finally know what name to see in my mind when I hear the moniker.

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  36. Don and I listened to this video together a couple of times! We LOVED your rendition of the Lambikin story but never knew the back story until we watched your video. Don was very impressed with your audio quality and hopes that you will continue producing these professional videos.

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    1. Thank you so much, Rebecca! I’m glad you and Don enjoyed my reading of “The Lambikin.” I’m very glad to hear that Don thinks the quality of the audio is good. I’ve added an external mic to my closet/recording studo, and I’m using Garageband with the settings for audiobooks I found online.

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  39. I enjoyed the video, Liz. I have a faint recollection of this story. Yes, it’s message is pretty (gulp) awful. This takes me back to my mother giving our daughter her childhood copy of Grimms Fairy Tales. I was horrified. Have you ever read “Cinderella”? The stepmother cutting off the toe and heel of her daughters so the glass slipper would fit (lots of blood in the story), and the birds pecking out the eyeballs of the stepsisters. My mother couldn’t understand why I thought it was awful.

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    1. My mother gave me the same Grimm’s edition and I loved it, the gruesome details of “Cinderella” in most especially. (I used my enjoyment of them to get a rise out of my dad.) With that reading background as a child, I was very surprised by how horrified I was by Lambkin’s demise.

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      1. That is interesting. Yes, I would think if you enjoyed Grimms the Lambkin’s demise wouldn’t have bothered you. It must have been because it was your pet name/nickname.

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  40. Great post, Liz ~ the video is very impressive and I’d never heard this story, so thank you for the introduction and it has me thinking of all the past stories and fables I heard and learned growing up that do not reflect the pure innocence I thought as a child. Pretty fascinating.

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  41. What a horrible little story. Lol. I enjoy Robbie’s series too, Liz, and it was fun to listen to your rendition along with your commentary! I’m sure your father had only wonderful intentions when he called you his cute little lambikin. 🙂

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    1. Ha ha! Thanks, Diana. Somehow, I can’t envision the teacher’s text encouraging new teachers to introduce the preschoolers to a series of horrible little stories to aid in their language development. 😀

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  42. Oh, my! At one point in the telling of the story, I thought this was a practical strategy/lesson for all those who might indulge themselves too much at a buffet and have to walk home alone in the woods, with dangerous, hungry animals around. The answer: Disguise yourself in a macabre costume of sorts–but that didn’t quite work out for Lambikin.

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  45. There is a very similar story in French: La chèvre de MOnsieur Seguin, a little goat who wants to explore the world and ends up eaten by the wolf. terrible.
    As are terrible some of the stories they teach our grandson at school. Stories of witches, and other stuff from the 19th century, old and boring. Nothing to do with the world of the children today. Weird.

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      1. He’s only five. He wouldn’t understand yet. But curiously, since he was here yesterday, he asked me about my grandfather. I showed him some pictures. He loved the moustache. And he helped in the process of digitalizing yet another of my mother’s African movies.

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  46. Lambikin, I’ll need to look that one up. I remember reading fairy stories when I was really young. Nothing terrified me more, but I couldn’t stop reading. The pied piper was really scary. I think I remember that the piper got rid of the rats by playing his pipe, and when the town wouldn’t pay him, he stole their children by playing his tune. These are the best stories, but not to be read at bedtime. Enjoyed this post, Liz!

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  47. So funny, Liz 😀 It certainly was not droll for the Lambikin though. It’s quite interesting how fairytales have changed over time. Back then, they seem to have been horror stories, pretty much all of them. This one is quite something – just as you think Lambikin is going to make it home, s/he is cruelly eaten… Loved your way of reading it putting the clip together!

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  48. Great job on this one, Liz!
    I oft wonder what life must have been like in the days that this and other such stories were written.
    What was trying to be taught?
    Sigh!
    As a very young child I loved playing Ring Around the Rosy.
    It’s only in the last 10 years, I realized it was about the plague, and children dying. “We all fall down”
    Thanks for this!

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