Solomon Grundy

"Solomon Grundy" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19299.

Lyrics

The rhyme has varied very little since it was first collected by James Orchard Halliwell and published in 1842 with the 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.

This is the end

Of Solomon Grundy.^[1]

References in popular culture

• The DC Comics character Solomon Grundy, a large, strong zombie supervillain, invented as an adversary for the Green Lantern in 1944, was named after this nursery rhyme.^[2]

• Comic artist and writer Kaori Yuki wrote a short story centered around the poem using characters from her series God Child, which was published at the end of book five.^[3]

• The poet Philippe Soupault adapted this rhyme and called it "The Life of Philippe Soupault".^[4]

• Director Danny Boyle has a film adaptation of "Solomon Grundy" planned, but delayed it due to similarities between its story and that of the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.^[5]

• Ian McDonald wrote a science fiction novella "The Days of Solomon Gursky" (Asimov's Science Fiction June 1998, reprinted a. o. in Mike Ashley's anthology The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction (2006)^[6]

• The Bluetones song Solomon Bites the Worm was based on this nursery rhyme.

• The Crash Test Dummies sing Superman's Song which mentions Solomon Grundy in its chorus.

• A Free Design sings "Love You" which mentions Solomon Grundy.

See also

• Solomon Gundy

References