Wee Willie Winkie is the bedtime figure characterised in the English nursery rhyme of the same name. Wee Willie Winkie is also a book by Rudyard Kipling, and a 1937 film with Shirley Temple.

The nursery rhyme

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

Upstairs, downstairs, in his nightgown.

Tapping at the windows, crying through the locks,

"Are all the children in their beds? It's past eight o'clock!"

Minor variations of this poem exist, for example, different times of when Wee Willie Winkie ran about the town, and so on.

Origins

The original author of the poem is unknown. It was originally created to get children to go to bed at a certain time. While the effect of this original intention has worn away through time, the poem and its imagery have delighted, and still delight, many generations of children.

The spirit

The spirit of Wee Willie Winkie himself shares a field with other bedtime entities such as the Sandman, Ole Luke Oie of Scandinavia, and Dormette of France. Some children even ask Wee Willie Winkie to help them wake when they are to wet the bed or embark on a sleepwalk.

References

Melville, F The Book of Faeries 2002 Quarto Press