Red rover (also known as forcing the city gates and octopus tag) is an outdoor game played primarily by children on playgrounds. This 19th-century children's group game (requiring around 10 or more players total) is thought to have originated in Britain and then spread to Australia, Canada and the United States.
Røver is a Norwegian word for "pirate", so perhaps the early British were showing bravery by daring the Viking raiders to "come over". The 1829 book titled The Red Rover: A Tale by James Fenimore Cooper describes the exploits of a pirate called "Red Rover".
Read more about Red Rover: Game, Risks, Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words red and/or rover:
“To-night the winds begin to rise
And roar from yonder dropping day:
The last red leaf is whirl’d away,
The rooks are blown about the skies;
The forest crack’d, the waters curl’d,
The cattle huddled on the lea;”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Old Rover in his moss-greened house
Mumbles a bone, and barks at a mouse.”
—Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)