English Fairy Tales

ENGLISH FAIRY TALES

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JOSEPH JACOBS

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English Fairy Tales
From a 1907 edition
ISBN 978-1-62011-533-6
Duke Classics
© 2012 Duke Classics and its licensors. All rights reserved.

While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in this edition, Duke Classics does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. Duke Classics does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book.

Contents

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How to Get into this Book
Preface
Tom Tit Tot
The Three Sillies
The Rose-Tree
The Old Woman and Her Pig
How Jack Went to Seek His Fortune
Mr. Vinegar
Nix Nought Nothing
Jack Hannaford
Binnorie
Mouse and Mouser
Cap O' Rushes
Teeny-Tiny
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Story of the Three Little Pigs
The Master and His Pupil
Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse
Jack and His Golden Snuff-Box
The Story of the Three Bears
Jack the Giant-Killer
Henny-Penny
Childe Rowland
Molly Whuppie
The Red Ettin
The Golden Arm
The History of Tom Thumb
Mr. Fox
Lazy Jack
Johnny-Cake
Earl Mar's Daughter
Mr. Miacca
Whittington and His Cat
The Strange Visitor
The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh
The Cat and the Mouse
The Fish and the Ring
The Magpie's Nest
Kate Crackernuts
The Cauld Lad of Hilton
The Ass, the Table, and the Stick
Fairy Ointment
The Well of the World's End
Master of All Masters
The Three Heads of the Well
Notes and References

How to Get into this Book

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Knock at the Knocker on the Door,
Pull the Bell at the side,

Then, if you are very quiet, you will hear a teeny tiny voice say through the grating "Take down the Key." This you will find at the back: you cannot mistake it, for it has J. J. in the wards. Put the Key in the Keyhole, which it fits exactly, unlock the door and WALK IN.

TO MY DEAR LITTLE MAY

Preface

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Who says that English folk have no fairy-tales of their own? The present volume contains only a selection out of some 140, of which I have found traces in this country. It is probable that many more exist.

A quarter of the tales in this volume, have been collected during the last ten years or so, and some of them have not been hitherto published. Up to 1870 it was equally said of France and of Italy, that they possessed no folk-tales. Yet, within fifteen years from that date, over 1000 tales had been collected in each country. I am hoping that the present volume may lead to equal activity in this country, and would earnestly beg any reader of this book who knows of similar tales, to communicate them, written down as they are told, to me, care of Mr. Nutt. The only reason, I imagine, why such tales have not hitherto been brought to light, is the lamentable gap between the governing and recording classes and the dumb working classes of this country—dumb to others but eloquent among themselves. It would be no unpatriotic task to help to bridge over this gulf, by giving a common fund of nursery literature to all classes of the English people, and, in any case, it can do no harm to add to the innocent gaiety of the nation.

A word or two as to our title seems necessary. We have called our stories Fairy Tales though few of them speak of fairies (For some recent views on fairies and tales about fairies, see Notes.) The same remark applies to the collection of the Brothers Grimm and to all the other European collections, which contain exactly the same classes of tales as ours. Yet our stories are what the little ones mean when they clamour for "Fairy Tales," and this is the only name which they give to them. One cannot imagine a child saying, "Tell us a folk-tale, nurse," or "Another nursery tale, please, grandma." As our book is intended for the little ones, we have indicated its contents by the name they use. The words "Fairy Tales" must accordingly be taken to include tales in which occurs something "fairy," something extraordinary—fairies, giants, dwarfs, speaking animals. It must be taken also to cover tales in which what is extraordinary is the stupidity of some of the actors. Many of the tales in this volume, as in similar collections for other European countries, are what the folklorists call Drolls. They serve to justify the title of Merrie England, which used to be given to this country of ours, and indicate unsuspected capacity for fun and humour among the unlettered classes. The story of Tom Tit Tot, which opens our collection, is unequalled among all other folk-tales I am acquainted with, for its combined sense of humour and dramatic power.

The first adjective of our title also needs a similar extension of its meaning. I have acted on Molière's principle, and have taken what was good wherever I could find it. Thus, a couple of these stories have been found among descendants of English immigrants in America; a couple of others I tell as I heard them myself in my youth in Australia. One of the best was taken down from the mouth of an English Gipsy. I have also included some stories that have only been found in Lowland Scotch. I have felt justified in doing this, as of the twenty- one folk-tales contained in Chambers' "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," no less than sixteen are also to be found in an English form. With the Folk-tale as with the Ballad, Lowland Scotch may be regarded as simply a dialect of English, and it is a mere chance whether a tale is extant in one or other, or both.

I have also rescued and re-told a few Fairy Tales that only exist now- a-days in the form of ballads.