what is the meaning of an old poem/nursery rhyme! Paddy or Tabby was a Welchman?

It`s `Taffy/ Taffie was a Welshman`(as far as I learned/ heard it chanted in schoolyard

or somewhere..

You will likely find the full poem on the net if you

Type in the first line adding, `Full Poem`

then follow any useful threads regarding the poet, decade it was written, and country.

I`m English and heard the first few lines somewhere when I was nine or ten yrs old

so the rest of this colloquial ballad-poem is education to me! :) TY.

Am sure with key-words it`ll be somewhere online.

It`s late 19th/ 20th century I think or even 18th prior to The Indusrial Revolution

when near-entire country populace of all the U.K. were forced to cities.

The fact had he just happened to be Scottish, Irish, English was that if he was a

sometimes vagabond, but dishonest, naming him by

his country and language of origin identified him...news travelled fast.

My guess..and it is a guess..is that as he ballad says, he entered the houses

of trusting people to steal. Even when I was a child stealing was truly considered a

damaging crime. By those with little, to `thieve` from their own class/ people

is still emotionally considered as weak character, slyness, treachery.

.which it is in an inexplicable way . .

as it`s a seemingly rural poem and a leg of beef was a month`s family fare then!

(One would purchase a joint maybe of beef but not a leg - nor leave a house open

- in a city).

Thus, warnings about Taffy would start..then to another village..

thus a ballad/ legend (no pun intended).

On a totally different tack...he went back for the bone...

marrow-bones were used as a basis of a family broth/ soup, so you have to see

there`s a salient meaning *and metaphor too perhaps?.*.

we are in a different era with this....interesting too.

I don`t read it as a put-down of the Welsh..it may have been written/ told more like,

by a fwllow-Welshman of Taffy`s.

.

Tabby Meaning

The children's nursery rhyme 'Taffy was a Welshman' has its origins in Celtic Mythology. Amaethon (from which the name Taffy is derived) was the God of Welsh Agriculture. This Celtic God Amaethon was renown for stealing a variety of wild life from the god Arawn, the Lord of the Otherworld.

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/a79-taffy-was-a-welshman....

TAFFY is a generic name for a Welshman, a corruption of ‘David’ the patron saint of Wales, and is said not to be found objectionable by Welshmen. However, the second line ‘Taffy was a thief’ and the later meaning of reneging on a bet or promise is said by some with Welsh blood to be an outrage and a slander.

http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=7...

Hi there,

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it's a perfectly working link, no scam !

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You should definitely try it

Never heard this one but reminds me of the one we played with plum stones:Tinker,tailor,soldier,spy,richman,beggerman,thief....