Hanging Yuletide Mondegreens

It's time for a change of pace, as Jim says. We're close to the holidays, so I'll contribute a piece about a favorite of mine:


Mondegreens

A Mondegreen is a mis-heard word, usually from a song lyric or a prayer. The name comes from a Scottish folk song, The Bonny Earl of Murray:

Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
Oh! Where ha'e ye been:
They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray,
And they laid him on the Green.

The author Sylvia Wright misheard the song as:

Ye Highlands and ye Lawlands,
Oh! Where ha'e ye been:
They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

She thought this was a tragic double murder. When she understood her mistake, she named the mistake after the poor Lady. This lovely image of the apocryphal Lady Mondegreen is courtesy of http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/1147592/326021. Little children are a rich source of mondegreens. My daughter always wondered where her God bless shoes were. But anybody can make this kind of mistake, mis-hearing an unfamiliar word in a song or prayer as something more common. Here are some entertaining links for mondegreens:

Christmas carol mondegreens:
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/humor/mondegreens.asp


Terrific columns on mondegreens from San Francisco columnist Jon Carroll (part of a bigger website with more, too):
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/mondegreens.shtml