| Jack, the Giant-killer Jack, the Giant-killer, is an Arthurian English fairy tale that dates back at least to 1711. Like most tales, it’s an amalgamation of various previous tales, in this case, featuring the killing of Giants who eat people in the kingdom. In the original story, there is no beanstalk yet. Jack is a brave young lad who grew up listening to stories of the Giants and the terror they wrought on the villages. They were eighteen feet high and nine feet round: “The Giant dwelt in a gloomy cavern on the top of the mountain, and used to wade over to the mainland in search of prey; when he would throw half a dozen oxen upon his back, and tie three times as many sheep and hogs round his waist, and march back to his own abode.” One day he decided to go out trying to fight one and succeeds by digging a pit for him to fall into. After realizing this is a decent hobby to take up, the next one he conquers he strangles with a cord. At one point he found and rescued three ladies who were tied up captive at a Giant’s home: “they told him that their husbands had been killed by the giants, who had then condemned them to be starved to death because they would not eat the flesh of their own dead husbands.” At one point in his journey he even stayed the night at a Giant’s despite having gained a reputation and being hated by all Giants. Next: “Jack, having hitherto been successful in all his undertakings, resolved not to be idle in the future; he therefore furnished himself with a horse, a cap of knowledge, a sword of sharpness, shoes of swiftness, and an invisible coat, the better to perform the wonderful enterprises that lay before him.” “When Jack was seated the hermit thus addressed him: ‘My son, on the top of this mountain is an enchanted castle, kept by the giant Galligantus and a vile magician. I lament the fate of a duke's daughter, whom they seized as she was walking in her father's garden and brought hither transformed into a deer.’ Jack promised that in the morning, at the risk of his life, he would break the enchantment; and after a sound sleep, he rose early, put on his invisible coat, and got ready for the attempt. When he had climbed to the top of the mountain, he saw two fiery griffins, but he passed between them without the least fear of danger, for they could not see him because of his invisible coat. On the castle gate he found a golden trumpet, under which were written these lines: ‘Whoever can this trumpet blow, Shall cause the giant's overthrow’.” The story of Jack is also one of transformation since the Giants keep the women prisoners in “enchantment” and the spell must always be broken to save the fair maiden. In the shamanic story, the enchantment may represent the “false reality” of waking life just as the shamans in some countries consider the waking state of mind, the false reality, and they consider the supernatural state of altered awareness to be the primal, superseding reality. The hero’s journey is again, through the woods, but this time, he also goes up to the top |
of a mountain where the Giant lives, in a cave. Once more we visit the theme of seers and visionaries of the Himalayas and the mushrooms that grow at the base of the oak and pine trees. Another offshoot of this theme that was developed into a story is Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift from 1726. Many images found in the early Jack the Giant Killer books resemble Gulliver’s Travels images of Giants tied down by little dwarves. Jack & the Beanstalk In a similar fairy tale, The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean in 1734, the story is first told of the “beanstalk.” This is an entirely different story, however, then, Jack the Giant Killer: “There was once upon a time a poor widow who had an only son named Jack, and a cow named Milky-white. And all they had to live on was the milk the cow gave every morning, which they carried to the market and sold. But one morning Milky-white gave no milk, and they didn't know what to do.” So, Jack offered to take the cow to the marketplace and sell it so they could buy a shop or do something different to survive. Jack chanced upon a man who tried to trade him a handful of beans for the cow. Jack was smarter at first by refusing but then the man told Jack they would grow overnight to a plant as tall as the sky. This seemed like a profitable venture to poor dumb Jack, so he accepted the offer and took the beans home to mom. She was not amused at all. She screamed at Jack, berated him, threw the beans out the window and told him to go to bed without supper. Before morning a beanstalk reaching up to the sky was growing outside his window which Jack proceeded to climb till he got to a road that led to a home where he was greeted by a Giant woman. Little Jack asked the woman for breakfast, but he was warned if he didn’t split, he would be the breakfast since her husband was an Ogre and liked to eat young boys, “broiled on toast.” He pleaded with her and she invited him in for some milk and bread and cheese when in walked her ogre husband, so she quickly threw him in the oven. She advised Jack to stay in the oven till morning when he goes to count his gold after breakfast. On his way out in the morning when the ogre did pass out, Jack grabbed a bag of gold and threw it down before climbing back down and showed it to his mother who was grateful, of course. When the gold ran out Jack ventured back up there but this time the woman recognized him and asked about the missing bag of gold to which he explained he would tell her what he knew but must eat first. She fed him and again her ogre husband walked in and she had to hide him in the oven. This time though, he demanded to have his Goose which lays Golden Eggs brought to him. He ordered the Goose to lay an egg and it did and he fell asleep again. |