The Jack Tales

by Richard Chase

  In April, 1939, while I was recording folklore for the Library of Congress, I was fortunate enough to get a number of these Jack Tales from Sam Harmon in Tennessee. Just the previous month I had been collecting folksongs in Wise County, Virginia, and near-by Letcher County, Kentucky, and never thought to ask for tales. About a year later, Mr. Chase worked in the same area and with some of the same informants from whom I had recorded songs—and got tales from them. I intrude this personal note to draw a very obvious moral: to get folktales you must ask for them. Perhaps that is the reason that so few have been recorded up to this time. Exercising the folklorist’s bent for prediction, I would suspect that with a little effort more of these tales could also be found in England.

  Mr. Chase deserves considerable credit for tracing the folktales in one family tradition. The discovery of the interrelationship of the Ward-Harmon-Gentry families is a fine achievement. It becomes increasingly clear that the most significant results for the future in folklore will come, not from the big collections that skim material from here, there, and everywhere, but rather from those devoted to limited areas, single families, and even single individuals. It is only in this way that we will get a picture of just how folktales fit into their social setting. I have failed to ask Mr. Chase whether the Wards know folksongs. It is worth noting that both Mrs. Jane Gentry and Sam Harmon were singers with remarkable repertories.

  Another of Mr. Chase’s significant contributions is his recognition of the importance of “Jack” as the central figure in this British-American tradition. “Jack” appears also in Jacobs’s English collection. He is not necessarily English in character; Irish collectors have pointed out with some surprise that “Jack” figures largely in the Irish tradition, even among Gaelic-speaking story-tellers.

  Miss Martha Beckwith, whose letter Mr. Chase quotes, makes the very good point that “Jack” is a kind of trickster-hero, one who is successful through his cleverness. Certainly he is not the admirable prince of fairy tales, but rather a quickwitted and not always too scrupulous farm boy. While such a hero is definitely part of the northwestern European pattern, what should be stressed is that in these stories he is the only central figure.

  It is hard not to interpret the very direct symbolism in the heroes people use in their tales and legends. We realize a little uncomfortably that in these tales as told in the Southern mountains “Jack” is an ordinary poor boy who achieves success only in one of two ways: either by his wits, or by sheer luck—and the latter method predominates. Here we have an almost mocking contradiction of what has been called “the American fairy tale”—that honesty and hard work are the means to success. It is difficult to know just how much of this is the conscious reflection of an attitude toward our society on the part of the storytellers. Sam Harmon remarked to me: “If I was to name my boys over, I’d name all of them ‘Jack.’ I never knowed a Jack but what was lucky.” His tone in saying this was only half jesting.

  I think the trickster aspect of “Jack,” together with these psychological implications, is at least in part, the reason these tales have appealed so extensively to English-speaking Negroes. They have adopted him, along with the tales, and sharpened his trickster character even further. The conclusions we might draw from folklore on the stresses and conflicts in Negro life can be confirmed from the reports of students of the social sciences. Negroes, of course, have adapted many white traditions to their own cultural patterns, not merely taken them over.

  A final observation that might be made is on the use of one character as the central figure in this cycle of stories. I have mentioned that, before Mr. Chase, no one had noticed that these longer folktales had a central figure. On the other hand, the cycle form is not only world-wide, but has taken many varied forms in American folklore. We have the legendary giants, such as Paul Bunyan and Peco Bill; the strong men, like Antoine Barada of Nebraska, Joe Call of New York, and the recently discovered Bobby Hayes of Indiana; the trickster, like “Boney” Quillin of New York, who is the center of “true” anecdotes; and perhaps most popular, the Munchausens, such as John Darling of New York and “Oregon” Smith of Indiana. Mr. Chase has added “Jack” to this goodly company.

  The tales in this collection are not documentary transcriptions. Mr. Chase has rewritten them for children and has explained his procedure in making composites. His chief interest has been in bringing folklore into usable form and thus attempting to preserve its spirit rather than the exact letter. In doing this he is in the tradition started by the Grimm brothers and followed by Joseph Jacobs in England. We can be grateful that, like his distinguished predecessors, he regards the folk tradition, not merely as literary material, but as the stuff of knowledge. For the scholars, therefore, he has noted carefully just what changes he has made from the original text.

  Though these texts cannot be used in studying the native story-telling style, materials for studying this style can be found in Miss Isobel Gordon Carter’s article which has stories taken down literally from a member of this family.2 Furthermore, at some future date I hope to publish an exact transcription of my own recordings of Sam Harmon. Many of us will hope that whatever slight loss there is to the specialist will be more than made up by the greater appeal these artistic recreations will have for the general public.

  To add to the scholarly usefulness of this work Mr. Chase had me add the parallels which follow his notes to each of the stories. I have given references to the classic Grimm tales by number. These tales can be read conveniently in Margaret Hunt’s translation of the Household Tales. Jacobs’s English and Celtic collections are also referred to by number because the pagination varies in the different editions. I have noted the occurrence of these tales in Sir George W. Dasent’s delightful translations from Asbjörnsen and Moe which make available to English readers other material from northwestern Europe.

  Since nearly all of these tales are represented in Grimm, full European, and indeed world-wide, parallels down to about 1918 will be found in Bolte and Polívka’s exhaustive annotations. I have given the type numbers of these tales according to the Aame-Thompson Type-Index. Professor Stith Thompson was kind enough to aid me in this. Since most of the unpublished folktales in the European folklore archives are indexed according to this system, this furnishes an additional key to the distribution study of these tales. The Type-Index lists many of these archive references.

  I have taken most pains with the English, Irish, Scotch, and American parallels. We do not as yet know just what the sources of English folktale in America are, but it may be assumed that it is one of the first three or some combination of them. I have added full references to Negro texts in English, since many of them no doubt stem from English sources. These references largely supplement Bolte and Polívka for the British Isles, the West Indies, and the United States.

  Many books and journals are given abbreviated references after their first use in these notes. I have also saved space when referring to articles after the first time3 by giving just the author’s last name and the journal reference, except for Miss Carter’s article which is referred to only by page.

  Herbert Halpert

  INDIANA UNIVERSITY

  December 31,1942

  Parallels

  1. JACK IN THE GIANTS’ NEWGROUND

  Sources: R. M. Ward, Martha Ward Presnell, Roby Hicks, Ben Hicks.

  Parallels. This story combines a number of well-known types often found separately or in various other combinations: Type 1088, Eating Contest (A. Aarne and S. Thompson, The Types of The Folk Tale, Folklore Fellows Communications No. 74, Helsinki, 1928); 1060, Squeezing the (Supposed) Stone; 1640, incident III (a), getting giants to kill one another by striking them from ambush; 1045 (or 1049), Pulling the Lake Together; 1063, Throwing Contest with Club; 1121, Ogre’s Wife Burned in Her Own Oven; 328, incident II (a), threatens giant with army—locks him up to protect him. Many of these incidents are often found in combination with Type 1640, The Brave Tailor.

  As might be expe
cted the closest parallel is that in Carter (Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXXVIII, 1925), pp. 351–54. A number of the combined incidents are in J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, II, 328–32, 342–43; Sir G. W. Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse, No. V. Many of them are given as part of Type 1640, in Béaloideas, The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society, IV, 253; VII, 68–69; D. Hyde, Beside the Fire (London, 1910), pp. 3–15; also see Beal. X, 100, which has further references. Two Negro texts also have several of these incidents combined with Type 1640: Parsons, Bahamas, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, XIII, 133–35; and E. C. Parsons, “Barbados Folklore,” JAFL XXXVIII (1925), 273. Jacobs, English, No. XIX, has Types 1088, and 328, II (a). J. Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales (New York and London, n.d.), No. LVIII, has Type 1640, III (a). For Type 1121, see Beal. II, 15, and consult Bolte-Polívka for further references. Type 1060 occurs in Boggs, JAFL XL VII, 309; Hyde, p. 175; and Jacobs, Celtic, No. XVIII.

  Type 1063 seems to be popular with American Negroes. In Fauset, JAFL XL, 250, it is combined with other giant-tricking incidents. It is given as an independent story in: J. M. Brewer, “Juneteenth,” PTFLS X (1935), 50–51, Z. N. Hurston, Mules and Men (Philadelphia and London, 1935), pp. 197–98; E. C. Parsons, “Folk-Tales Collected at Miami, Fla.,” JAFL XXX (1917), 223; Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration, South Carolina Folk Tales (Bulletin of University of South Carolina, October, 1941), pp. 80–81. In these versions the angels in heaven are warned to “move over.” (H. H.)

  Remarks: Wards’ title “Jack and the Giants.” Minor omission made by editor in cut paunch episode.

  2. JACK AND THE BULL

  Sources: Mr. and Mrs. James Taylor Adams, Finley Adams, Mrs. Nancy Shores, Mrs. Polly Johnson; all of Wise County, Virginia. My first knowledge of this tale came through James Taylor Adams.

  Parallels. This is a combination of Type 511, One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes, and Type 530, The Princess on the Glass Mountain; the bull as the animal helper is probably a form of Type 314, or part of the Cap o’ Rushes theme, Type 510.

  I cannot find complete parallels to this tale. The bull helper with the ear “cornucopia” is in Jacobs, More English, No. XL VIII, and No. LXXIX has a bull-calf helper whose bladder helps kill a dragon. See also Beal. II, 268–72 (and a list of versions on p. 273); IV, 310–11; Dasent, Norse, No. I. In Beal. VII, 46–47, a belt from the bull’s skin obeys orders and ties giants. In Fauset, Nova Scotia, MAFLS XXIV, 41–43, there is a belt and a stick which obey orders and kill giants and a dragon.

  Parsons, Bahamas, MAFLS XIII, 27–28, combines the bull-calf and horn cornucopia with Type 511. An Aberdeenshire text in Folk-Lore Journal, II (1884), 72–74, has a calf helper and evil sisters. There are texts of Type 511, in Beal. VII, 243; Campbell, West Highlands, II, 300–06; M. R. Cox, Cinderella (Publications of the Folk-Lore Society, XXXI, London, 1893), pp. 534–35; E. C. Parsons, “Tales from Guilford County, North Carolina,” JAFL XXX (1917), 198. See also: Grimm, No. 130; Bolte-Pollvka, HI, 60–66. For Type 530 sec: Bolte-Polívka, III, 111–14; Dasent, Norse, No. XIII. (H. H.)

  Remarks: Mrs. Polly Johnson had a fragmentary episode concerning the King setting up a greased plank beside a pole on top of which was a golden ball. Jack gets the ball and the King’s girl knows him in spite of his rags when this golden ball rolls out of his pocket.

  I am indebted to Mrs. Eudora Ramsay Richardson, State Supervisor of the Virginia Writers’ Project, for permission to use materials concerning this tale and Nos. XV and XVIII.

  3. JACK AND THE BEAN TREE

  Sources: R. M. Ward, Ben Hicks, Roby Hicks, Mrs. Martha Lethcoe of Damascus, Virginia.

  Parallels. This tale is best known in the Australian text J. Jacobs gives in his English Fairy Tales (New York, 1893) No. XIII. “Jack and the Beanstalk” seems to be an almost uniquely British form of Type 328, The Boy Steals the Giant’s Treasure. The general European versions do not have the beanstalk episode. In the United States the story is popular in the Harmon-Ward family tradition. Miss Isobel Gordon Carter secured it from Mrs. Jane Gentry, of Hot Springs, North Carolina (“Mountain White Folk-Lore: Tales from the Southern Blue Ridge,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXXVIII (1925), 365–66), and in 1939 I recorded it from Sam Harmon, near Maryville, Tennessee, for the Library of Congress. It has also been found among English-speaking Negroes. See: E. C. Parsons, “Tales from Maryland and Pennsylvania,” JAFL XXX (1917), 212–13; E. C. Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas (Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, XIII, Lancaster, Pa. and New York, 1918), p. 133; M. W. Beckwith, Jamaica Anansi Stories (MAFLS XVII, New York, 1924), p. 149. There is a moralistic English chap-book version reprinted in E. S. Hartland, English Fairy and Other Folk Tales (Camelot Series, London, n.d.), pp. 35–44.

  The Scotch and Irish forms of this tale do not have the beanstalk, and usually have a clever girl who steals the giant’s wonderful possessions. See Jacobs, English, No. XXII; J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Paisley, 1890–92–93), I, 259–74; Béaloideas, The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society, II, 10–12 (and bibliography on p. 23); III, 348–49; L. L. Duncan, “Folk-Lore Gleanings from County Leitrim,” Folk-Lore IV (1893), 184–88; J. Jacobs, More Celtic Fairy Tales (New York and London, n.d.), No. XXXIX—reprinted from Jeremiah Curtin’s articles in the New York Sun; P. Kennedy, Fireside Stories of Ireland (Dublin and London, 1870), p. 3 ff.

  G. W. Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse (London and New York, n.d.), pp. 240–45, gives a delightful English translation (“Boots and the Troll”) from the great Norwegian collection of Asbjörnsen and Moe. For further European parallels see J. Bolte and G. Polívka, Anmerkumgen zu den Kinder-und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm (Leipzig, 1913–18), II, 511 ff.; Ill, 33–37, and consult the references under Type 328. (H. H.)

  Remarks: Ben Hicks’s version had the usual cow in the first part, but I gathered that this was brought home from school by one of his children who had read it in his reader. Ben’s giant said, “I smell the blood of an Irishman.” Wards’ title the same. On the second trip Jack usually steals a colt or a heifer. “Scat there!”: R. M. W. actually said, “See-cat, there!”

  4. JACK AND THE ROBBERS

  Sources: R. M. W., Elisha Rasnik, Wise County, Virginia.

  Parallels. This is Type 130, The Animals in Night Quarters, most familiar from Grimm, No. 27, “The Bremen Town-Musicians.” See Bolte-Polívka, I, 237–59, and the study of the tale by A. Aarne, Die Here auf der Wanderschajt (FFC XI). For a translation from the Norwegian of Asbjömsen, sec G. W. Dasent, Tales from the Fjeld (New York, n.d.), pp. 283–88.

  The tale seems to be better known in the United States than in Great Britain. The version given in Jacobs, English, No. V, is taken from one of three American texts presented in JAFL I (1888), 227–33. See also R. S. Boggs, “North Carolina White Folktales and Riddles,” JAFL XLVII (1934), 294; B. Mck. Dobie, “Tales and Rhymes of a Texas Household” (Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, VI, 1927), pp. 33–37. Negro versions are given in A. H. Fauset, “Negro Folk Tales from the South,” JAFL XL (1927), 258: and in Parsons, Bahamas, MAFLS XIII, 135.

  The tale has been found in Scotland (Campbell, West Highlands, I, 199–207), and Ireland (P. Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, London, 1866, pp. 5–12, reprinted in J. Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales, New York and London, n.d., No. XIV; Beal. I, 94), but I have found no report of it from England. (H. H.)

  Remarks: Wards’ own title. Mr. Rasnik called the tale “Jack and the Rogues.” The bull is from his version which also had a swarm of bees and a flock of geese.

  5. JACK AND THE NORTH WEST WIND

  Sources: R. M. W., Ben Hicks.

  Parallels. This is Type 563, The Table, the Ass, and the Stick. See Grimm, No. 36, Bolte-Polívka, I, 349–61; Dasent, Norse, pp. 250–53. It has been studied by Aarne in the Journal de la Soc. Finno-Ougrienne, XXVII (1909), 1–96. The tale in Jacobs, English, No. XXXIX, is one of two variants which S. Baring
-Gould contributed to the first edition of W. Henderson, Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (London, 1866), pp. 327–31. Irish versions are given in Kennedy, Fireside Stories, pp. 25–30; and [T. C. Croker], Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (London, 1834), pp. 33–45.

  In North America we find the story in Carter, JAFL XXXVIII, 363–65; Dobie, PTFLS VI, 45–47; and A. H. Fauset, Folklore from Nova Scotia (MAFLS XXIV, New York, 1931), pp. 33–35, 41–42. Negro texts are in Parsons, JAFL XXX, 210–12; Z. Hurston, “Dance Songs and Tales from the Bahamas,” JAFL XLIII (1930), 307–09; Parsons, Bahamas, MAFLS XIII, 141; Beckwith, Jamaica, MAFLS XVII, 31–33. The magical objects and animals vary quite considerably in the different versions. (H. H.)

  Remarks: Wards’ own title. In the Norse tale the old man is the North West Wind himself. R. M. W. calls him “Jack’s uncle.” Ben Hicks says, “an old man.” This character seems a little like The Stranger in “Fill Bowl,” and in “Hardy Hardhead.”

  6. JACK AND THE VARMINTS

  Sources: R. M. W., Miles A. Ward, Ben H., George Trivett.

  Parallels. This tale is also in Carter, pp. 355–57, and I recorded it in Tennessee from Sam Harmon. It is a version of Type 1640, The Brave Tailor, though it lacks the giant episodes, such as those in the previous story, with which it is frequently found in conjunction. See Grimm, No. 20; Bolte-Polívka, I, 148–65. Also see: Jacobs, More English, No. LVIII; Beal. IV, 253; VII, 68–69; Hyde, pp. 3–15; Parsons, Bahamas, MAFLS XIII, 133–35; Parsons, JAFL XXXVIII, 272–74; H. Zunser, “A New Mexican Village,” JAFL XLVIII (1935), 158–59. Compare with this story the curious tale in J. Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland (Boston, 1911), pp. 140–62, in which a man kills several wild animals and giants through strength, not trickery.