One for Sorrow, Two For Joy: Difference between revisions

''Seven for a secret that must never be told.''|'''[[Mother Goose]]'''}}

 

 

Magpies. Black and white birds that feature in a lot of stories. There are also a number of superstitions surrounding magpies (especially in the British Isles) related to warding off the bad luck of a lone magpie. Some superstitions are quick and only require a simple salute while others a bit more eccentric involving pinching, spitting or saying certain phrases.

{{quote| '''Delirium''', in ''The Wake'': One for sorrow, two for sorrow, three for sorrow, four for for for I don't know. But I'm bored of sorrow, five for three two one, six for gold, seven for a magpie who tells me where to go...''}}

** In the earlier story "Parliment of Rooks", Eve sings the rhyme while holding the infant Daniel. Abel finishes with the last line, then adds, "It's true, you know."

* A minor [[Batman]] villain was named Magpie for her kleptomania and the [[Steven Ulysses Perhero|unfortunate birth name]] Margaret Pye.

* In ''[[The Crow]]'', the rhyme is referenced (with blackbirds in the place of magpies) by Eric as he prepares to kill a bar full of thugs, and capped with a classic line.

{{quote| '''[[Death Dealer|Luxord:]]''' [using [[The Gambler|two dice]], but mentions magpies] "Two is for fresh luck, while three starts the play. Four means start running, five means you stay. Six earns you silver, seven earns gold. Eight for new allies, nine for the old. Ten wins good fortune, eleven risks all -- but twelve wins the match and there, stops the ball." (and when asked about one) "One is for sorrow, because it's always alone."}}

** [[Fridge Brilliance|It's impossible to roll a one on a pair of dice; hence, sorrow.]]

{{quote| ''One is for Sorrow.<br />

Two is for Mirth.<br />

 

== [[Film]] ==

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** One of the peripheral Discworld books (I think it might have been an art collection) also has Pterry bemoan the fact that Britain used to have hundreds of regional variations on this rhyme, but nowadays if you ask anyone they'll all give you the version from ''Magpie''.

*** He bemoans this state of affairs in "The Folklore of Discworld," but happily he got to know the book's co-writer, Jacqueline Simpson, because she answered "which one?" to the question "do you know the magpie song."

* Spike in the nonfiction work ''Corvus: A Life With Birds'', whom the writer portrays as a bit of a small, feathered [[Chaotic Neutral]] [[Loveable Rogue]].

* ''Star In The Storm'' by Joan Hiatt Harlow uses "One for sadness, two for mirth; three for marriage, four for birth; five for laughing, six for crying; seven for sickness, eight for dying; nine for silver, ten for gold; eleven for a secret that will never be told."

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''Magpie'' was the name of a kids' TV show on [[ITV]] in the 1970s (which was pretty much a ''[[Blue Peter]]'' lookalike). The theme tune used a version of the rhyme as its lyrics, and the show's mascot was a cartoon magpie named Murgatroyd, who looked too fat to fly.

* Richard Hammond on ''[[Top Gear]]'' once went on about how dangerous Magpies are while driving, because of all the gestures you have to preform. Seems Hammond got a bit confused, and rather than picking one of the many variations to ward off bad luck, chose them all.

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* The "Freedom City" setting for ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' has a [[Gentleman Thief]] named Magpie who can [[Transporters and Teleporters|teleport]], but ''never'' would he teleport ''into'' a building-- he [[Self-Imposed Challenge|savors the challenge of breaking in the hard way]]. His power is used ''only'' for last-second escapes, and even then only if he can't vanish any other way.

* Both normal and giant magpies were described in the ''Creature Catalog'', a monster book for Basic/Expert/etc D&D. Their stats made them weak in combat, but excellent filchers of unattended shiny objects; in effect, they were a potential hook for the DM to lure parties into other encounters, by having a magic item snatched up by this trope's embodiment and forcing them to pursue it.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', [http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00543.html they observe that going through the princeling's treasure found a lot of cheap bits, because he was like a magpie.]