Two Legs Sat Upon Three Legs

Visual Interpretations

Harsh and Scary - Black silhouettes against a white background evoke a shudder

Harsh and Angry - The man, a mean-looking caricature, aims to hurt the dog

Soft and Gentle - Color and line work to produce a calm, pleasant illustration

Realism and Innocence - Several frames tell a realistic story

Big Lunch - No willingness to share

Textual/Historical Information

Leg riddles were very popular in past times and are as old as the Riddle of the Sphinx. It's known that "Two Legs Sat Upon Three Legs" was around in Shakespeare's time, because a book that contained it, "The Booke of Merry Riddles, together with proper Questions and witty Proverbs to make pleasant pastime", is mentioned in "The Merry Wives of Windsor". (Baring-Gould, p.267)

Throwing a stool at a dog is a rather violent act, and different illustrators respond to that fact in different ways. Some portray this action harshly, where others soften it to make it appealing to children.

http://www.teachkind.org/feat/whm/aw-reading.html One of the questions in this teaching unit is "In what ways does our treatment of animals reflect or guide our treatment of other humans?"

http://www.telacommunications.com/misc/riddles.htm Some simple riddles to amuse and test.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/sphinx.htm Opportunity to read of the great riddle of the Sphinx.

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/911/index.html The words of children's authors throughout this site provide insight into and perspective on young people coping with their first encounter with terrorism in America .

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/911/childwar.html The children of the world today live in a culture of violence. Some of them actually dodge rocks and bullets in war-torn regions of the world; others are barricaded in comfortable homes where they bombard themselves with the sounds and images of guns, war, and violence on television and in the games they play.

It would prove helpful to read Chapter One from Ghosts from the Nursery : Tracing the Roots of Violence, by Robin Karr-Morse; Meredith S. Wiley; T. Berry Brazelton.

Versions and Variants

Textual Versions and Variants - A complete listing of the versions and variants of this rhyme

Visual Versions and Variants - A comparative listing of all associated within Eclipse

Rhyme Specific Bibliography

The Annotated Mother Goose . Introduction and Notes by William S. Baring-Gould and Ceil Baring-Gould. New York : Bramhall House, 1962

Briggs, Raymond. The Mother Goose Treasury . New York : Coward-McCann, 1966.

 The Calico Mother Goose Book of Games, Riddles, and Tongue Twisters . Illustrated by John O'Brien. Chicago , IL : Calico Books, 1989.

Karr-Morse, Robin. Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence. New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.