The Man in the Moon
The man in the moon came down too soon
To inquire the way to Norridge;
The man in the south, he burnt his mouth
With eating cold plum porridge.
Origin
The Man in the Moon is an old English nursery rhyme with no known author. Its first printed appearance was in 1833, in a collection called The Only True Mother Goose Melodies.
For centuries people have looked up at the moon and seen shapes in its dark plains, often imagining a face. Different traditions filled in the story: the Talmud says the face belongs to Jacob; medieval Christians linked it to the man in Numbers 15 who gathered sticks on the Sabbath; Roman folklore spoke of a thief caught stealing sheep and banished to the moon.
Taverns in the Middle Ages
The “man in the moon” wasn’t just in the sky — he hung over pub doors as well. By the Middle Ages, he was seen as a patron figure for drunkards, and at least three London taverns took him as their sign.
Norridge
The rhyme itself has him asking the way to “Norridge.” There’s no such place in England, but Norwich fits the sound and is usually assumed to be the intended city. Oddly enough, across the Atlantic there’s a small enclave in Chicago, Illinois, that really does bear the name Norridge.
Space Age
The “man in the moon” turned into real men in the 20th century. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface. By the end of the Apollo missions, a total of twelve astronauts had walked there — the first human footsteps in a place long filled with legends.
