<P> The true origin of the rhyme is unknown, but there are several theories . Complicated metaphors are often said to exist within the lyrics, as is common with nursery rhyme exegesis . Most explanations post-date the first publication of the rhyme and have no corroborating evidence . These include the suggestion by S. Baring - Gould in the 19th century that the rhyme is related to a narrative in the 13th - century Prose Edda section Gylfaginning composed by Icelander Snorri Sturluson . In Gylfaginning, Hjúki and Bil, brother and sister respectively in Norse mythology, were taken up from the earth by the moon (personified as the god Máni) as they were fetching water from the well called Byrgir, bearing on their shoulders the cask called Saegr and the pole called Simul . Around 1835, John Bellenden Ker suggested that Jack and Jill were two priests; this was enlarged by Katherine Elwes in 1930 to indicate that Jack represented Cardinal Wolsey (c. 1471--1530) and Jill was Bishop Tarbes, who negotiated the marriage of Mary Tudor to the French king in 1514 . </P> <P> It has also been suggested that the rhyme records the attempt by King Charles I to reform the taxes on liquid measures . He was blocked by Parliament, so subsequently ordered that the volume of a Jack (1 / 8 pint) be reduced, but the tax remained the same . This meant that he still received more tax, despite Parliament's veto . Hence "Jack fell down and broke his crown" (many pint glasses in the UK still have a line marking the 1 / 2 pint level with a crown above it) "and Jill came tumbling after". The reference to "Jill" (actually a "gill", or 1 / 4 pint) is said to reflect that the gill dropped in volume as a consequence . </P> <P> The suggestion has also been made that Jack and Jill represent Louis XVI of France, who was deposed and beheaded in 1793 (lost his crown), and his Queen Marie Antoinette (who came tumbling after), a theory made difficult by the fact that the earliest printing of the rhyme pre-dates those events . However, as the previous paragraph refers to King Charles I being in conflict with Parliament, the phrase "broke his crown" could also refer to that King's beheading in 1649 . </P> <P> There is also a local belief that the rhyme records events in the village of Kilmersdon in Somerset in 1697 when a local spinster became pregnant; the putative father is said to have died from a rock fall and the woman died in childbirth soon after . </P>

Jack and jill went up the hill to catch a pail of water