"The Sky Is Falling"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 13:49:15 -0400, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>Is anyone able to supply any information, from folkloristic or other
>sources, as to the antiquity of the story called "Chicken Little" or
>"Chicken-licken" or "Henny-Penny" and featuring the line "the sky is
>falling" or something similar to that?

Fred probably already has these sources, but they're a start...

"The Hen and Her Fellow Travelers" in: Chambers, Robert. _Popular Rhymes
of Scotland_ (1841).
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type2033.html

"Chicken-Licken" in: Halliwell-Phillips, James Orchard. _Popular Rhymes
and Nursery Tales_ (1849).

"Henny Penny" in: Jacobs, Joseph. _English Fairy Tales_ (1890).
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/hennypenny.html


--Ben Zimmer