London Bridge

London Bridge is broken down. —
Gold is won, and bright renown.
Shields resounding,
War-horns sounding, Hild is shouting in the din!
Arrows singing,
Mail-coats ringing —
Odin makes our Olaf win!

This is a verse in the Icelandic saga Heimskringla by Óttarr Svarti (Óttarr the Black) who lived c:a 994 – 1060 AD.  It was written down in the 1200s. It’s about (I strongly believe) the supposed destruction of London Bridge 1009, (or if it was in 1014) by the Norwegian King Olaf II. Lately it has been dismissed that it would be about the attack on London by the Vikings and how they tore down the long wooden bridge. The strophe resembles the famous verse  below, which was often believed to be about when the bridge was destroyed, though it was written later, sometime in the 1600s! Today this popularly held belief is rejected by scholars.

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

A consideration: Is it not likely that an overwhelming event such as a terrifying armada of Vikings that destroying the very long London Bridge would live in folk memory for 600 years and during this time gradually change the rhyme and lyrics in a nursery song?