Solomon Grundy

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Solomon Grundy is a 19th century children's nursery rhyme, and was presented by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps in 1842. The poem is essentially a riddle in which the life of Solomon Grundy appears to take place in the process of a single week, the answer being that each day's events happened at a different age.

Contents 1 Name etymology 2 Lyrics 3 References in popular culture 4 References

Name etymology

Solomon Grundy is believed to have derived from the English food Salmagundi, which was integrated into the English language from the French in the 17th century, and is a salad of cooked meats, lettuce, anchovies and eggs, with other condiments. The name of the salad was corrupted in the 18th century to Solomon Gundy, particularly in the United States.

Lyrics

Solomon Grundy,

Born on a Monday,

Christened on Tuesday,

Married on Wednesday,

Took ill on Thursday,

Grew worse on Friday,

Died on Saturday,

Buried on Sunday.

That was the end of

Solomon Grundy.

References in popular culture

• A DC Comics character, a large, strong zombie supervillain, was named after this nursery rhyme. See Solomon Grundy (comics).

• In Batman: The Long Halloween, writer Jeph Loeb used the existing DC villain Solomon Grundy with an expanded version of the lyrics, which also included words about the weather rather than just his life:

Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday,

Christened on a stark and stormy Tuesday,

Married on a gray and grisly Wednesday,

Took ill on a mild and mellow Thursday,

Grew worse on a bright and breezy Friday,

Died on a gay and glorious Saturday,

Buried on a baking, blistering Sunday.

That was the end of Solomon Grundy.

• In an episode of the animated television series Justice League featuring Solomon Grundy's death, his grave is marked "born on a Monday."

• The colloquialism "grundy grundy" is a slang word in the American Midwest for "wedgie."

• "Solomon Grundy" is a short animated 3D film produced at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the fall of 2005 as a collaborative class project. This film is being showcased in a number of film festivals including the 2006 SIGGRAPH Animation Festival, where it received an honorable mention in the Fine/Art Experimental category.^[1]

• In Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy, set in a fantasy version of Reading, Berkshire where nursery rhymes live, Solomon Grundy appears the antagonistic CEO of a giant company called Winsum & Loosum. He is married to Rapunzel.

• The poet Philippe Soupault adapted this rhyme and called it "The Life of Philippe Soupault".^[2]

• Ian MacDonald wrote a long story (almost a novella) called, The Days of Solomun Gursky whose title and story are based on the nursery rhyme in many aspects. Very briefly, the story is about love, longing, nanotechnology, and the death and rebirth of the universe. The main character, Solomon Gursky, invents a way to resurrect the dead using nanotechnology. The story consists of lenthy vignettes that trace his "life" from the late 21st century through to the actual end of the universe. The many, and now completely fused, species of intelligent life throughout the universe construct a Tipler machine to record and recreate the entire universe.^[3]

• Julian Symons wrote a murder mystery titled The End of Solomon Grundy (Harper & Row, 1964) in which the main character was named Solomon Grundy by a father with a tiresome sense of humor.

• Musician Blaze Ya Dead Homie has a song on his album Colton Grundy: The Undying entitled "Timeline" that explains the life of Colton Grundy. The first half of the song is about Solomon Grundy, and how he could not die—he could just evolve into Colton.

• Australian punk rock trio The Living End make reference to the nursery rhyme in their song "Dirty Man": Like I was born on Saturday, got buried on Sunday.

• In Opal Whiteley's diary, Solomon Grundy is the name of her pet pig. In the version published in 1994 (The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow), Chapter 24 is titled "A Wish Come True, and a Portrait of Solomon Grundy."

• The 1986 Harold Ramis film Club Paradise had an arch villain named Solomon Gundy. He is the corrupt prime minister of St. Nicholas.

• In the anime series Shakugan no Shana, the nursery rhyme is used in the form of an offensive magical spell, aimed at the series main character.

• The Bluetones 1998 single "Solomon Bites the Worm" paraphrases the rhyme: Monday, Count all the teeth in my head / Tuesday, anointed by a man in a dress / Saturday I said my goodbyes / Sunday I'm food for the worms and the flies.

• Henry Gibson, as one of his Laugh-In poems, did a version adapted to (then-modern) 1960's society:

Solomon Grundy born on Monday,

Went to school on Tuesday,

Grew a beard on Wednesday,

Expelled on Thursday,

Protested on Friday,

Arrested on Saturday,

Drafted on Sunday;

And this was the end of Solomon Grundy.

References

1. ^ Myers, Chris. "Solomon Grundy Film". Retrieved August 23, 2006.
2. ^ Stewart, Susan. Nonsense: Aspects of Intertextuality in Folklore and Literature, Johns Hopkins, 1979. p. 191. ISBN 0-8018-2258-0
3. ^ Copyright 1998; Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 1998. Reprinted in 2006 in Mike Ashley's anthology, Extreme Science Fiction.

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