Jack and the Beanstalk

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"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman."
Illustration by Arthur Rackham from a 1918 English Fairy Tales, by Flora Annie Steel

See Jack & the Beanstalk (1952 film) for the Abbott & Costello film.

Jack and the Beanstalk is an English fairy tale, closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant Killer. It is known under a number of versions, but the tale was popularized by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales, whose version is most commonly reprinted today. The story was made into a play by Charles Ludlam. Due to the fable, another name for a space elevator is a "beanstalk."

It is Aarne-Thompson type 328, the boy steals the giant's treasures.

Contents

1 Plot synopsis
2 Origins
3 Variants
4 Film adaptations of the story
5 Books
6 External links

Plot synopsis

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jack was a poor boy whose lack of common sense often drove his widowed mother to despair. One day she sent him to the market to sell their last and only possession, a cow. But along the way, Jack met a stranger who offered to trade it for five "magic beans". Thrilled at the prospect of owning magic beans, Jack made the deal without hesitation. Alas, his mother turned out to be less than thrilled when he arrived back home. She threw the beans straight out of the window and sent Jack to bed without dinner. Overnight however, the seeds grew into a gigantic beanstalk. It reached so far into the heavens, the top went completely out of sight. Eager as the young boy was, Jack immediately decided to climb the plant and arrived in a land high up in the clouds, the home of the giant who killed his father. When he broke into the giant's castle, the giant quickly sensed a human was near:

Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!

I smell the blood of an Englishman.

Be he 'live, or be he dead,

I'll grind his bones to make my bread.

However, Jack was saved by the giant's wife, and as he escaped from the palace, he took some gold coins with him. Back home, the boy and his mother celebrated their newfound fortune. But their luck did not last, and Jack climbed the beanstalk once more. This time he stole a hen which laid golden eggs. Again he was saved by the giant's wife. He went down the ladder and showed the chicken to his mother, and the two lived happily on the proceedings from the hen's eggs.

Eventually, Jack grew bored and resolved to climb the beanstalk a third time. This time, he stole a magical harp that sang to itself. The instrument did not appreciate being stolen and called out to the giant for help. The giant chased Jack down the beanstalk, but luckily the boy got to the ground before the giant did. Jack immediately chopped it down with an axe. The giant fell to earth, hitting the ground so hard that it split, pulling the beanstalk down with him.

Spoilers end here.

Origins

The origin of Jack and the Beanstalk is unknown, although the author was almost certainly British. The earliest printed edition which has survived is the 1807 book The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk, printed by Benjamin Tabart, although the story was already in existence sometime before this, as a burlesque of the story entitled The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean was included in the 1734 second edition of Round About Our Coal-Fire.

In the usual version of the tale, the giant is unnamed, but many plays based on the story name him as Blunderbore; a giant of that name also appears in Jack the Giant-Killer.

Variants

Other types of this type include the Italian Thirteenth and the Greek How the Dragon was Tricked.

Film adaptations of the story

Walt Disney released Mickey and the Beanstalk in 1947 as part of Fun and Fancy Free. This adaptation of the story which put Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy in the role of Jack. Mickey, Donald and Goofy live in a place called "Happy Valley" which is plagued by a severe drought, and they have nothing to eat except one loaf of bread. Mickey trades in the cow (which Donald was going to kill for food) for the magic beans. Donald throws the beans out the window in a fit of rage, and the beanstalk sprouts. In the magical kingdom, Mickey, Donald and Goofy help themselves to a sumptuous feast. This rouses the ire of the giant (named "Willy" in this version), who captures Donald and Goofy and locks them in a box with a singing golden harp, and it's up to Mickey to find the keys to unlock the box and rescue them. This version of the fairy tale was narrated by Edgar Bergen.

Gisaburo Sugii directed a feature-length Japanese anime telling of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk in 1974, titled Jack to Mame no Ki. The film, a musical, was produced by Group TAC and released by Nippon Herald. The writers introduced a few new characters, including Jack's comic-relief dog, Crosby, and Margaret, a beautiful princess engaged to be married to the giant (named "Tulip" in this version) due to a spell being cast over her by the giant's mother (an evil witch). Jack, however, develops a crush on Margaret, and one of his aims in returning to the magic kingdom is to rescue her. The film was dubbed into English, with legendary voice talent Billie Lou Watt voicing Jack, and received a very limited run in U.S. theaters in 1976. It was later released on VHS (now out of print) and aired several times on HBO in the 1980s.

Books

Crazy Jack by Donna Jo Napoli

External links

[Pantomime based on the fairytale of Jack And The Beanstalk]
[Scanned images of the 1807 edition]
[Jack and the Beanstalk at SurLaLune Fairy Tales] - Annotated version of the fairy tale.
[Jack and the Beanstalk variants]
[Jack tales in Appalachia] - including "Jack and the Bean Tree"
[Jack and the Beans Talk] - an award nominated teaching package based around a humerous version of the classic fairy tale.

[Children's audio story of Jack and the Beanstalk] at Storynory

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