Babes in the Wood
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Babes in the Wood, also known as Children of the Wood, is a traditional children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The phrase has passed into the language, referring to innocents in any potentially dangerous situation, and a number of child murder cases have been referred to in the media as the Babes in the Wood murders.
Traditional tale
The traditional children's tale is of two children abandoned in a wood who die and are covered with leaves by robins.
First published as a ballad by Thomas Millington in Norwich in 1595, the tale has been reworked in many forms. It frequently appears attributed as a Mother Goose rhyme.
The Walt Disney Company re-worked this tale, incorporating some material from Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm and adding a village of friendly elves (a feature not traditionally present in either tale) and a happy ending, and on 1932-11-19 released an animated short film entitled Babes in the Wood.
The story is also used as a basis for pantomimes. However, for various reasons including both the brevity of the original and the target pantomime audience of young children, modern pantomimes by this name usually combine this story with parts of the modern Robin Hood story (employing the supporting characters from it, such as Maid Marian, rather than Robin himself) to lengthen it.
Folklore
Tradition and folklore has it that the events told in Babes in the Wood originally happened in Wayland Wood in Norfolk, England. It is said that the Uncle lived at the nearby Griston Hall. The ghosts of the murdered children are said to haunt Wayland Wood. The village signs at both Griston and nearby Watton depict the story.
The essence of the lore concerns two children. After the death of their parents, they are left in the care of an Uncle. However, the Uncle resents the task and pays two men to take the children into the woods and kill them. Finding themselves unable to go through with the act, the criminals abandon the children in the wood, where they eventually die being unable to fend for themselves.
