Ask almost anyone to describe Humpty Dumpty, and you’ll likely hear the same thing:
“He was an egg who fell off a wall and broke.”
But what if we told you… Humpty Dumpty was never described as an egg at all?
This widely accepted image of a fragile, egg-shaped character may actually be one of the most quietly accepted Mandela Effects.
The Memory
Humpty Dumpty was an egg—plain and simple. That’s how we remember him from children’s books, cartoons, and Halloween costumes. He’s always portrayed as a fragile, talking egg with arms and legs.
For many of us, that image is deeply ingrained. He’s even often used in metaphors about things that “can’t be put back together again.”
But when you actually revisit the original nursery rhyme, something surprising happens.
The Reality
Here’s the full version of the rhyme most of us know:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
There is no mention of him being an egg.
None.
No shell, no yolk, no cracks, no whites—just a character named Humpty Dumpty who fell and broke in such a way that he couldn’t be repaired.
So where did the egg idea come from?
The Origin: A Cannon?
Some historians and researchers believe Humpty Dumpty was never a person or egg—but a cannon used during the English Civil War in the 1600s. According to this theory, “Humpty Dumpty” was the nickname of a large cannon positioned atop a wall in the city of Colchester. When enemy forces destroyed the wall beneath the cannon, it fell and was damaged beyond repair—hence the “fall” and “couldn’t put together again.”
It wasn’t until much later—especially during the Victorian era—that illustrators began depicting him as an egg. Most notably, Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass popularized the egg-like Humpty image, and it stuck.
Today, it’s the only version most people are familiar with—so much so that many remember it as part of the rhyme, even though it never was.
Mandela Effect or Misremembered Symbolism?
This case is fascinating because the change didn’t happen in words—it happened in visuals and collective memory. Generations have grown up seeing Humpty Dumpty as an egg even though he never was one.
What Do You Remember?
Did you always assume Humpty Dumpty was an egg? Were you ever told otherwise growing up?
Drop a comment and let us know.
