"Wee Willie Winkie" is a Scottish

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

whose titular figure has become popular as a personification of sleep. The poem was written by William Miller and titled "Willie Winkie", first published in '' Whistle-binkie: Stories for the Fireside'' in 1841. It has a

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

number of 13711.

Lyrics

William Miller Memorial, Glasgow Necropolis

The original text of 1841 in Scots, and a paraphrased version for English-language readers (from 1844) are below:

Origins and meaning

The poem was written by William Miller (1810–1872), first printed in ''Whistle-binkie: Stories for the Fireside'' in 1841 and re-printed in ''Whistle-Binkie; a Collection of Songs for the Social Circle'' published in 1873. In Jacobite songs Willie Winkie referred to

King William III of England William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from th ...

, one example being "The Last Will and Testament of Willie winkie" but it seems likely that Miller was simply using the name rather than writing a Jacobite satire. Such was the popularity of Wee Willie Winkie that the character has become one of several bedtime entities such as the

Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

Ole Lukøje "Ole Lukøje" ( da, Ole Lukøje) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen based upon a folk tale telling of a mysterious mythic creature of the Sandman who gently takes children to sleep and, depending on how good or bad they were, s ...

of Scandinavia,

Klaas Vaak Klaas is a Dutch male given and surname. It is the Dutch short form of Nicholas, a Greek name ultimately meaning ''victory of the people''. A traditionally common name in the Netherlands, its popularity declined some 20-fold since 1950.

of the Netherlands, Dormette of France and Billy Winker in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

.Briggs, Katharine (1976). ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies''. Pantheon Books. pp. 24, 429. .

Notes

External links

Scottish Nursery Songs and other Poems by William Miller
at Dennistoun online, includes Wee Willie Winkie
''Whistle-Binkie; a Collection of Songs for the Social Circle'' edited by John Donald Carrick, Alexander Rodger, David Robertson
contains Willie Winkie and the autograph of Miller (1873) {{Authority control Scots language 1841 in Scotland 1841 poems Scottish children's literature Songs about fictional male characters Scottish folk songs Scottish nursery rhymes Scottish poems Male characters in literature Child characters in literature Traditional children's songs Scottish children's songs