TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Is Humpty Dumpty an Egg?

Most of us picture Humpty Dumpty as an egg. But why?

 

The nursery rhyme never mentions what Humpty Dumpty was, but several sources say the rhyme comes from an incident during the English Civil War in the 1648 Siege of Colchester.

 

Humpty Dumpty was the name of a cannon. During the siege, a cannon from the opposing side destroyed the wall Humpty Dumpty was sitting on.

 

Several reports credit our vision of Humpty Dumpty as an egg to Lewis Carroll’s 1872 novel “Through the Looking-Glass.” In chapter six of the book, as Alice (in Wonderland) approached an egg, she claimed she was sure it was Humpty Dumpty “as if his name were written all over his face.”