People 'haunted' over finding out Humpty Dumpty is not an egg in nursery rhyme

dailyrecord.co.uk:

We all know the story of Humpty Dumpty, the giant egg who fell off of a wall and couldn't be put back together afterwards.The nursery rhyme character has been depicted across media as an egg, stretching all the way back to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland sequel published in 1871.But some might not have realised that there is no mention of Humpty being an egg whatsoever, making the tale a whole lot darker, writes The Mirror.Have a closer look at the lyrics and see for yourself; there's no mention of any eggs.Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;All the king's horses and all the king's menCouldn't put Humpty together again.Author Holly Bourne took to Twitter recently, asking why we are so certain that the nursery rhyme character is known to be an egg."Who decided Humpty Dumpty was an egg?

Its not in the lyrics, and deciding he's a giant egg is quite a random leap for someone to make, and everyone else being like, 'yeah, a giant egg on a wall.

Of course,'" she wrote.It turns out that she wasn't the only one wondering this as others took to the replies sharing their own thoughts."This has been haunting me for years," read one reply while a second said: "This has bugged me for a long time!!""This is genuinely the first time I've realised he's not explicitly an egg," a third responder revealed.

Thankfully, Jane Etheridge, Vice Chair of Federation of Children's Book Groups, replied. She said: "It's believed to be Roundhead propaganda about a Royalist cannon."First appearance as an egg was in Through the Looking Glass."A theory is that Humpty Dumpty tells the story of King Richard III and his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.So there you have it, Humpty Dumpty was likely not an egg from