Deutschland uber alles!

My mom and I were talking tonight about all the horrifying German fairy tales and nursery rhymes she grew up hearing and then passed on to me and my two younger brothers. We were discussing my favorite one, which involved my mom or dad bouncing us up and down on their knees, reciting the German poem/song, and when they'd get to the end (the Ploomps! part) they'd open their legs and let us "drop" to the ground.

I can't believe I found it online without knowing how to spell anything. Here's the German version, even though no one will be able to read it, I have to get it out there for all to see, it brings back a lot of memories for me:

Hoppe hoppe Reiter
wenn er fällt, dann schreit er,
fällt er in den Teich,
find't ihn keiner gleich.

Hoppe hoppe Reiter
wenn er fällt, dann schreit er,
fällt er in den Graben,
fressen ihn die Raben.

Hoppe hoppe Reiter
wenn er fällt, dann schreit er,
fällt er in den Sumpf,
dann macht der Reiter... Plumps!

So awesome, I loved it. A while back we found (and have since lost again) my Oma's old book of nursery rhymes and there's a horrible one about kids sucking their thumbs and hobgoblins coming at night and biting their thumbs off to make them stop. It's pretty harsh. I love the Germans.

This song was in there too. I'm sure you can already guess that it's not the best rhyme to be singing to young children; fortunately (ha) my mom never taught us German. The English version goes a little something like this (the only thing I remembered was about the swamp and the ravens):

Hoppa hoppa rider,
when he falls he cries,
if he falls in the hole,
the raven will eat him

Hoppa Hoppa rider,
when he falls he cries,
if he falls into the swamp,
the rider makes a "plop"

I have no good way of ending this post after something like that. So let me just ask everyone that if it's possible to get your hands on an old German nursery rhyme book, please do it. Just keep your eyes peeled.

Or the goblins will get you.