Monday 10 October 2011

Mondegreens make the whirl go round

Mondegreens? Que? If you have never heard of mondegreens let me please explain. They are the misheard or misinterpreted snippets of phrases or fragments of songs or prayers; often making an incongruous sort of sense and then held as being the true blue original saying by those who got the phrase wrong in the first place.

One of the most famous mondegreens is the line Gladly the cross-eyed bear for - 'Gladly, the cross I'd bear'...a non conformist hymn.

Here are a few more religious ones:-

"Our Father who art in Heaven, Allah be Thy name..."

"...Blessed art thou, a monk swimming"

"..and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from eagle.."

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord he is trampling on the village where the great giraffe is stored..."

And from Newcastle  "A wean in a manger..."

..."chased by an elephant"   (Chaste and benevolent)

.."Let us praise the Lord in the words of the prairie tortoise"


Any further additions welcome......

5 comments:

  1. Mine when I first learned it was: "And let the petrol lighter shine upon them."

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  2. Ttony has emailed in:


    "The Lord is my Shepherd. That's all I want."

    "Our Father Who Art in Heaven, Harold be Thy Name."

    "Hail Mary full of grapes, the Lord is a bee."

    "Me a cowboy, me a cowboy, me a Mexican cowboy."

    "Dominic has brought the biscuits." "Yes and the spirits too."

    "Most highly flavoured gravy"

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  3. There is another twist to one of the above...

    "Hail Mary full of grapes, the Lord is a tree."

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  4. I once read about a young cricket enthusiast who prayed (presumably during a period of Australian dominance over England) "forgive us our test matches, as we forgive those who test match against us".

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  5. From Liz....

    'Surely good Mrs Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life.'
    and
    Why is God's name Peter? a question from a small boy ('Thanks Peter God')

    and from my sister..

    'the Dead Sea squirrels'

    ReplyDelete