Solomon Grundy

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For other uses, see Solomon Grundy (disambiguation).

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 in a different year.

Contents 1 Name etymology 2 Lyrics 3 Trivia 4 References

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

• In Batman: The Long Halloween, writer Jeph Loeb introduced 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.

[edit] Trivia

• A DC Comics character, a large, strong zombie supervillain, was named after this nursery rhyme. The first appearance of Solomon Grundy was in 1944 in an issue of All-American Comics #61 where he squared off with the original Green Lantern. Cyrus Gold was murdered in the later part of the 19th Century, where his body was left in Slaughter Swamp. The corpse remained in the swamp for decades where the organic swamp muck and decomposing flora collected, until one day it took on its own life. After the monster rose from the swamp, he wandered into a hobo camp. Upon questioning, the monster revealed that he did not know his own name and could only remember that he was born on a Monday. Remembering the nursery rhyme, a hobo dubbed the monster Solomon Grundy.
  In the Justice League season two episode "The Terror Beyond", Grundy meets a sticky end helping Hawkgirl, Superman, Aquaman and Dr. Fate save the world from an evil god. In honor of his memory, Hawkgirl "tries to follow earth customs" and gives him a western burial. His tombstone proclaims "Solomon Grundy: Born on a Monday".
  For more info, please see his own article: Solomon Grundy (comics).

• A character in Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy is named after Solomon Grundy.

• The poet Philippe Soupault adapted this rhyme and called it "The Life of Philippe Soupault".^[1]

• 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. ^[2]

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

• Psychopathic Records artist Blaze Ya Dead Homie has a song on his new album Colton Grundy: The Undying entitled "Timeline" that eplains the life of Colton Grundy. The first half of the song is about Solomon Grundy, and how he couldn't die -- he could just evolve into Colton.

• 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.^[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.

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

[edit] References

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