Arthur O'Bower Has Broken His Band Lyrics
An old riddle in four lines: Arthur O'Bower has broken his band and comes roaring up the land, and not even the King of Scots with all his power can turn him. The answer, as the book prints it, is a storm of wind.
Arthur O'Bower Has Broken His Band
Arthur O'Bower has broken his band,
He comes roaring up the land;
The King of Scots, with all his power,
Cannot turn Arthur of the Bower!
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/arthur-obower-has-broken-his-band/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Said with a rising, rumbling voice, as if someone big were coming
- Best for ages
- 5 to 10 years
What Does Arthur O'Bower Has Broken His Band Mean?
Try the riddle before reading on. It describes someone with a name, Arthur O'Bower, who has "broken his band" (a band is a cord or fastening that holds something in) and "comes roaring up the land". The King of Scots, "with all his power", cannot turn him, which means turn him aside or stop him.
The answer is a storm of wind, and the book prints those words above the riddle. A gale does just what the riddle says. It breaks loose, roars across the country and goes where it likes, and no king, however strong, can order it to stop. "Arthur O'Bower" is the name the riddle gives to the wind, as if it were a person on the loose.
The clues fit one by one: roaring is the sound of a gale, up the land is its path across the ground, and the king is there to show that no one can stop it. The riddle is also a four-line rhyme, with band and land at the ends of the first two lines, and power and Bower at the ends of the last two.
History and Origin
The riddle is printed in James Orchard Halliwell's The Nursery Rhymes of England, in a section of riddles. The copy used for this page is a London and New York printing of 1886 by Frederick Warne. The book gives the answer in square brackets before the riddle, in the same way as for the other riddles in that section.
The King of Scots is there only as a figure of great power.
Learning Activities
- Guess first: read the first two lines only and ask what is loose and roaring, then add the last two lines.
- Stormy sounds: make wind noises with your mouth, from a whisper to a roar, then go quiet again.
- Draw the wind: the wind cannot be seen, so show what it does: bent trees, flying leaves, a kite.
- Write a riddle: choose a weather word, such as rain or snow, and describe it without naming it.