Three Blind Mice & Hickory Dickory Dock

The other day while driving, "Three Blind Mice" came to mind. Why? Who knows? Main thing was the realization, as an adult, that it's a weird little song, really. Here's the truly old school (early 1600s) version, going back to about the same time Jamestown was founded in the Old Dominion some four hundred years ago:

Three Blinde Mice,
Three Blinde Mice,
Dame Iulian,
Dame Iulian,
The Miller and his merry olde Wife,
Shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife

Not sure what that means, but it doesn't sound good exactly.

I like "Hickory Dickory Dock" better, especially after disentangling it from the first one in memory:

Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory dickory dock

Better than rats, I guess -- we'll leave those for the Pied Piper.

This one may trace back to an Anglo-American colonial origin, circa early 1700s. "Grandfather" clocks have been mass-produced at least as far back as the 1680s.  Ain't that something? 

Any of the olde songs drift into your mind lately?

Today's Rune:  The Mystery Rune.