Profs & Pints Nashville: The Occult Mother Goose

Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “The Occult Mother Goose,” on the twisted origins of many nursery rhymes, with Cory Thomas Hutcheson, folklorist, lecturer at Middle Tennessee State University, and author of New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic.

[Doors open at 6 pm. Talk starts at 7. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nashville-mother-goose ]

We may think of Mother Goose as a sweet old woman adorning the cover of children’s books. The truth, though, is that she’s got more than a few tricks up her tatted lace sleeves. Rooted in pre-Christian myths from Germany and Scandinavia, she has deep connections to witchcraft and magic.

The nursery rhymes collected in the books that bear Mother Goose’s name are no sickly-sweet lullabies for bouncing babies, either. Many are derived from old magic spells, creepy legends about terrifying child-eating monsters, or horribly tragic events, despite being transmuted over time into innocent-seeming songs, dances, and games.

Join folklorist Cory Thomas Hutcheson, whose great past talks have earned him a loyal following among Profs and Pints fans, for a night that might forever change how you think about blind mice, mulberry bushes, and Jack and Jill. Delving into a weird world of cursed couplets and revolting rhymes, he’ll look at the mythic origins of Mother Goose and explore some of her weirdest wordplay and eeriest entries.

We’ll look at fortune-telling poems that promise to predict the future husband of those who “make a rhyme, make a rhyme, see your beau before bedtime.”

We’ll consider poems that warn of summoning evil: “Speak of a person, and he will appear. Then talk of the devil, and he’ll draw near.”

You’ll have a great time learning all sorts of wicked history and lore. Cross our hearts and hope to die! (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image from Unsplash (Creative Commons).