General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> King of Britain
Also Known As:<_AKA> Coilus "Old King Cole"
Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 8HR8-M2
Meurig  (Mathew) Hen was related to Coel Hen (Old King Cole) and isthought to have written of him, from which the poem was later written. Assmoking was not then invented it must be  assumed that the pipe and bowlwere musical instruments equivalent to the modern flute or drum.

The children’s nursery song is now believed to have derived from thehistorical story of Coel Hen (Old King Cole) and because of this, orperhaps for younger readers the poem is reproduced below. Hen is theWelsh word for old.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,

And a merry old soul was he.

He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,

And he called for his fiddlers three.

Now every fiddler had a fine fiddle,

And a very fine fiddle had he.

Tweedle dum, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers three,

Tweedledum-dee, dum-de-dee, dum-de-dee.



Old King Cole was a merry old soul,

And a merry old soul was he.

He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,

And he called for his harpers three.

Every harper had a fine harp,

And a very fine harp had he.

Twang-a-twang, twang-a-twang, went the harpers three,

Twang-a-twang, twang, twang-a-twang-a-twee.



Old King Cole was a merry old soul,

And a merry old soul was he.

He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,

And he called for his drummers three.

Every drummer had a fine drum,

And a very fine drum had he.

Rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub, went the drummers three,

Rub-a-dub, dub, rub-a-dub-a-dee.



The Cole family, referred to as the Cole race, ruled the biggest area ofBritain (which at that time consisted of a combined England, Scotland andWales) which encompassed present day Southern Scotland, Lancashire,Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumbria. This compared with Wales which wassplit into five regions and extended east to Lichfield and the rest ofBritain consisting of dozens of kingdoms.

SOURCES:  http://family-tree.hypermart.net/old__king__cole.htm
http://courses.dsu.edu/dakwriters/Baum/mothergoose/oldkingcole.htm
http://www.plumdigital.com/2_webcards/wc61/wc61_306.html