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You are here: Home / Language / Who was Little Jack Horner in the Nursery Rhyme and Why Did He Eat a Christmas Pie?

Who was Little Jack Horner in the Nursery Rhyme and Why Did He Eat a Christmas Pie?

March 7, 2020 by Karen Hill

At a time when King Henry VIII was confiscating church property, one monk appeased the king with the gift of a special Christmas pie.

Inside the crust were deeds to twelve manor houses secretly offered in exchange for his monastery.

The steward who carried the pie to London was Jack Horner, who along the way extracted a plum deed for himself.

It was for Mells Manor, where Homer’s descendants still live to this day.

The modern lyrics for Little Jack Horner are:

Little Jack Horner

Sat in the corner,

Eating a Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb,

And pulled out a plum,

And said What a good boy am I!

The character of Jack Horner appears in the Fables comic book by Bill Willingham.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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