Jack the Giant Killer
Encyclopedia
"Jack the Giant Killer" is a British
fairy tale
about a plucky lad who slays a number of giants
during King Arthur
's reign. The tale is characterized by violence, gore, and blood-letting. Giants are prominent in Cornish folklore
and Welsh Bardic lore
, but the source of "Jack the Giant Killer" is unknown. Some parallels to elements and incidents in Norse mythology
have been detected in the tale, and the trappings of Jack's last adventure with the giant Galigantus suggest parallels with French fairy tales. Jack's belt is similar to the belt in "The Valiant Little Tailor
", and his magical sword, shoes, cap, and cloak are similar to those owned by Tom Thumb
or those found in Norse
mythology.
Neither Jack or his tale are referenced in English literature
prior to the eighteenth century, and his story did not appear in print until 1711
. It is probable an enterprising publisher assembled a number of anecdotes about giants to form the 1711 tale. One scholar speculates the public had grown weary of King Arthur
– the greatest of all giant killers – and Jack was created to fill his shoes. Henry Fielding
, John Newbery
, Dr. Johnson, Boswell
, and William Cowper
were familiar with the tale.
In 1962
, a feature-length film based on the tale was released starring Kerwin Mathews
. The film made extensive use of stop-motion animation in the manner of Ray Harryhausen
.
Tales of monsters and heroes are abundant around the world, making the source of "Jack the Giant Killer" difficult to pin down. Folklorists Iona and Peter Opie observe in The Classic Fairy Tales (1974) that "the tenor of Jack's tale, and some of the details of more than one of his tricks with which he outwits the giants, have prototypes in Norse mythology
." An incident between Thor
and the giant Skrymir in the Prose Edda
of ca. 1220, they note, resembles the incident between Jack and the stomach-slashing Welsh giant. The Opies further note that the Swedish tale of "The Herd-boy and the Giant" shows similarities to the same incident, and "shares an ancestor" with the Grimms's
"The Valiant Little Tailor
", a tale with wide distribution. According to the Opies, Jack's magical accessories – the cap of knowledge, the cloak of invisibility, the magic sword, and the shoes of swiftness – were borrowed from the tale of Tom Thumb
or from Norse mythology. Ruth B. Bottigheimer observes in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales that Jack's final adventure with Galigantus was influenced by the "magical devices" of French fairy tales. The Opies conclude that analogues from around the world "offer no surety of Jack's antiquity."
The Opies note that tales of giants were long known in Britain. King Arthur
's encounter with the giant of St Michael's Mount
was related by Geoffrey of Monmouth
in Historia Regum Britanniae
in 1136, and published by Sir Thomas Malory in 1485
in the fifth chapter of the fifth book of Le Morte d'Arthur
:
Anthropophagic
giants are mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland
in 1549, the Opies note, and, in King Lear
of 1605
, they indicate, Shakespeare alludes to the Fee-fi-fo-fum
chant (" ... fie, foh, and fumme, / I smell the blood of a British man"), making it certain he knew a tale of "blood-sniffing giants". Thomas Nashe
also alluded to the chant in Have with You to Saffron-Walden
, written nine years before King Lear., the earliest version can be found in The Red Ettin
of 1528.
The Opies observe that "no telling of the tale has been recorded in English oral tradition", and that no mention of the tale is made in sixteenth or seventeenth century literature. "The History of Jack and the Giants" (the earliest known edition) was published in two parts by J. White of Newcastle in 1711
, the Opies indicate, but was not listed in catalogues or inventories of the period nor was Jack one of the folk heroes in the repertoire of Robert Powel, a puppeteer established in Covent Garden
. "Jack and the Gyants" however is referenced in The Weekly Comedy of 22 January 1708
, according to the Opies, and in the tenth number Terra-Filius in 1721
.
As the eighteenth century wore on, Jack became a familiar figure. Research by the Opies indicate that the farce Jack the Giant-Killer was performed at the Haymarket
in 1730; that John Newbery
printed fictional letters about Jack in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book
in 1744
; and that a political satire, The last Speech of John Good, vulgarly called Jack the Giant-Queller, was printed ca. 1745
. The Opies and Bottigheimer both note that Henry Fielding
alluded to Jack in Joseph Andrews
(1742
); Dr. Johnson admitted to reading the tale; Boswell
read the tale in his boyhood; and William Cowper
was another who mentioned the tale.
In "Jack and Arthur: An Introduction to Jack the Giant Killer", Thomas Green writes that Jack has no place in Cornish folklore, but was created at the beginning of the eighteenth century simply as a framing device for a series of gory, giant-killing adventures. The tales of Arthur precede and inform "Jack the Giant Killer", he notes, but points out that Le Morte d'Arthur had been out of print since 1634 and concludes from this fact that the public had grown weary of Arthur. Jack, he posits, was created to fill Arthur's shoes.
Bottigheimer notes that in the southern Appalachians of America Jack became a generic hero of tales usually adapted from the Brothers Grimm
. She points out however that "Jack the Giant Killer" is rendered directly from the chapbook
s except the English hasty pudding
in the incident of the belly-slashing Welsh giant becomes mush
.
Child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim
observes in The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
(1976) that children may experience "grown-ups" as frightening giants, but stories such as "Jack" teach them that they can outsmart the giants and can "get the better of them." Bettelheim observes that a parent may be reluctant to read a story to a child about adults being outsmarted by children, but notes that the child understands intuitively that, in reading him the tale, the parent has given his approval for "playing with the idea of getting the better of giants", and of retaliating "in fantasy for the threat which adult dominance entails."
, and often represent the 'original' inhabitants, ancestors, or gods of the island before the coming of 'civilised man', their gigantic stature reflecting their 'otherwordly
' nature. Giants figure prominently in Cornish and Welsh folklore, and in common with many animist belief systems, they represent the force of nature. They are often responsible for the creation of the natural landscape, and are often petrified in death, a particularly recurrent theme in Celtic myth
and folklore.
The foundation myth of Cornwall originates with the early Brythonic
chronicler Nennius
in the Historia Brittonum and made its way, via Geoffrey of Monmouth into Early Modern English cannon where it was absorbed by the Elizabethans as the tale of King Leir
alongside that of Cymbeline
and King Arthur
, other mythical British kings. Carol Rose reports in Giants, Monsters, and Dragons that the tale of Jack the Giant Killer may be a development of the Corineus and Gogmagog legend.
In 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth
reported in the first book of The History of the Kings of Britain
that the indigenous giants of Cornwall were slaughtered by Brutus, the (eponymous founder of Great Britain
), his son Corineus and his brothers who had settled in Britain after the Trojan War
. Following the defeat of the giants, their leader Gogmagog wrestled with the warrior Corineus
, and was killed when Corineus threw him from a cliff into the sea:
The match is traditionally presumed to have occurred at Plymouth Hoe
on the Cornish-Devon
border. In the early seventeenth century, Richard Carew reported a carved chalk figure of a giant at the site in the first book of The Survey of Cornwall:
Cormoran
(sometimes Cormilan, Cormelian, Gormillan, or Gourmaillon) is the first giant slain by Jack. Cormoran
and his wife, the giantess Cormelian, are particularly associated with St Michael's Mount
, apparently an ancient pre-Christian site of worship. According to Cornish legend, the couple were responsible for its construction by carrying granite
from the West Penwith Moors to the current location of the Mount. When Cormoran fell asleep from exhaustion, his wife tried to sneak a greenschist
slab from a shorter distance away. Cormoran awoke and kicked the stone out of her apron, where it fell to form the island of Chapel Rock. Trecobben, the giant of Trencrom Hill
(near St Ives
), accidentally killed Cormelian when he threw a hammer over to the Mount for Cormoran's use. The giantess was buried beneath Chapel Rock.
Blunderbore (sometimes Blunderboar, Thunderbore, Blunderbus, or Blunderbuss) is usually associated with the area of Penwith
, and was living in Ludgvan Lese (a manor
in Ludgvan
), where he terrorized travelers heading north to St Ives. The Anglo-Germanic
name 'Blunderbore' is sometimes appropriated by other giants, as in "Tom the Tinkeard" and in some versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk
" and "Molly Whuppie
".
In the version of "Jack the Giant Killer" recorded by Joseph Jacobs
, Blunderbore lives in Penwith
, where he kidnaps three lords and ladies, planning to eat the men and make the women his wives. When the women refuse to consume their husbands in company with the giant, he hangs them by their hair in his dungeon and leaves them to starve. Shortly, Jack stops along the highway from Penwith to Wales
. He drinks from a fountain and takes a nap ( a device common in Brythonic Celtic stories, such as the Mabinogion
). Blunderbore discovers the sleeping Jack, and recognizing him by his labeled belt, carries him to his castle and locks him in a cell. While Blunderbore is off inviting a fellow giant to come help him eat Jack, Jack creates nooses from some rope. When the giants arrive, he drops the nooses around their necks, ties the rope to a beam, slides down the rope, and slits their throats.
A giant named Blunderbore appears in the similar Cornish fairy tale "Tom the Tinkeard" (or "Tom the Tinkard"), a local variant of "Tom Hickathrift
". Here, Blunderbore has built a hedge over the King's Highway
between St Ives and Marazion
, claiming the land as his own. The motif of the abduction of women appears in this version, as Blunderbore has kidnapped at least twenty women to be his wives. The hero Tom rouses the giant from a nap while taking a wagon and oxen back from St Ives to Marazion. Blunderbore tears up an elm to swat Tom off his property, but Tom slides one of the axles from the wagon and uses it to fight and eventually fatally wound the giant. The dying giant confers all his wealth to Tom and requests a proper burial.
The tale is set during the reign of King Arthur
and tells of a young Cornish
farmer's son named Jack
who is not only strong but so clever he easily confounds the learned with his penetrating wit. Jack encounters a cattle-devouring giant called Cormoran
and lures him to his death in a pit trap
. Jack is dubbed 'Jack the Giant-Killer' for this feat and receives not only the giant's wealth but a sword and belt to commemorate the event. Another giant, Blunderbore
, vows vengeance for Cormoran's death and carries Jack off to an enchanted castle. Jack manages to slay Blunderbore and another giant by hanging and stabbing them. He frees three ladies held captive in the giant's castle.
On a trip into Wales, Jack tricks a two-headed Welsh giant into slashing his own belly open. King Arthur's son now enters the story and Jack becomes his servant. They spend the night with a three-headed giant and rob him in the morning. In gratitude for having spared his castle, the giant gives Jack a magic sword, a cap of knowledge, a cloak of invisibility, and shoes of swiftness. On the road, Jack and the Prince meet an enchanted Lady serving Lucifer
. Jack breaks the spell with his magic accessories, beheads Lucifer, and the Lady marries the Prince. Jack is rewarded with membership in the Round Table
.
Jack ventures forth alone with his magic shoes, sword, cloak, and cap to rid the realm of troublesome giants. He encounters a giant terrorizing a knight and his lady. He cuts off the giant's legs then puts him to death. He discovers the giant's companion in a cave. Invisible in his cloak, Jack cuts off the giant's nose then slays him by plunging his sword into the monster's anus. He frees the giant's captives and returns to the house of the knight and lady he earlier had rescued. A banquet is prepared, but interrupted by the two-headed giant Thunderdel
chanting "Fee, fau, fum". Jack defeats and beheads the giant with a trick involving the house's moat and drawbridge.
Growing weary of the festivities, Jack sallies forth for more adventures and meets an elderly man who directs him to an enchanted castle belonging to the giant Galigantus (Galligantua, in the Joseph Jacobs
version). The giant holds captive many knights and ladies and a Duke's daughter who has been transformed into a white doe through the power of a sorceror. Jack beheads the giant, the sorceror flees, the Duke's daughter is restored to her true shape, and the captives are freed. At the court of King Arthur, Jack marries the Duke's daughter and the two are given an estate where they live happily ever after.
, United Artists
released a middle budget film produced by Edward Small
and directed by Nathan H. Juran called Jack the Giant Killer. Kerwin Mathews
stars as Jack and Torin Thatcher
as the sorcerer Pendragon. Jim Stafford of TCM
notes that the four men made The 7th Voyage of Sinbad an artistic and commercial triumph in 1958, and hoped Jack would be just as successful. The film performed moderately well at the box office, despite a review in The New York Times
that slammed the acting, the dialogue, and the "rubber" monsters. The special effects were handled by, among others, animators Wah Chang
, Gene Warren
and Jim Danforth
. In their defense, they didn't build the models themselves and, therefore, they weren't as mobile as they'd have liked, limiting the model's movements somewhat and reducing the smoothness of the animation.
Stafford points out that the screenplay is based on Cornish folklore, but the plot resembles the damsel in distress
theme of 7th Voyage: a hero battles giants and monsters to rescue a princess held captive by a sorcerer. Some elements appear to be borrowed from other films Stafford notes. The disembodied torch-carrying arms, for example, recall those in Cocteau
's La Belle et La Bête
, the dragon suggests that in Walt Disney
's Sleeping Beauty
, and Pendragon's witches and demons were probably inspired by the banshee
s in Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People
. At a later date, producer Small added songs and the film was rereleased as a musical
.
According to imdb.com, the film went unreleased in the UK until 1967 and even then received cuts for an 'A' (now a PG) certificate to edit the witch attack on the ship, Princess Elaine being attacked by the giant, and Jack's fight with the dragon. Versions that were shown on UK television in the early 1990s had further cuts in the scene where Jack kills Cormoran with a scythe, rendering the scene almost unintelligible. It has since been shown uncut on Channel 4
and The Sci-Fi Channel.
is being developed by New Line Cinema
, starring Nicholas Hoult
as Jack.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
about a plucky lad who slays a number of giants
Giant (mythology)
The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
during King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
's reign. The tale is characterized by violence, gore, and blood-letting. Giants are prominent in Cornish folklore
Cornish folklore
Cornish folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in Cornwall. There is much traditional folklore in Cornwall, often tales of giants, mermaids, Bucca, piskies or the 'pobel vean' These are still surprisingly popular today, with many events hosting a 'droll teller' to tell the stories:...
and Welsh Bardic lore
Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin....
, but the source of "Jack the Giant Killer" is unknown. Some parallels to elements and incidents in Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
have been detected in the tale, and the trappings of Jack's last adventure with the giant Galigantus suggest parallels with French fairy tales. Jack's belt is similar to the belt in "The Valiant Little Tailor
The Valiant Little Tailor
The Valiant Little Tailor or The Brave Little Tailor is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 20. Joseph Jacobs collected another variant A Dozen at One Blow in European Folk and Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book...
", and his magical sword, shoes, cap, and cloak are similar to those owned by Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621, and has the distinction of being the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a...
or those found in Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
mythology.
Neither Jack or his tale are referenced in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
prior to the eighteenth century, and his story did not appear in print until 1711
1711 in literature
The year 1711 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*The Spectator founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.*After defeat at the Battle of Stănileşti, Dimitrie Cantemir flees to Russia and begins writing his most important works....
. It is probable an enterprising publisher assembled a number of anecdotes about giants to form the 1711 tale. One scholar speculates the public had grown weary of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
– the greatest of all giant killers – and Jack was created to fill his shoes. Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
, John Newbery
John Newbery
John Newbery was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported and published the works of Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson...
, Dr. Johnson, Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
, and William Cowper
William Cowper
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry...
were familiar with the tale.
In 1962
1962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
, a feature-length film based on the tale was released starring Kerwin Mathews
Kerwin Mathews
Kerwin Mathews was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , The Three Worlds of Gulliver and Jack the Giant Killer .-Life and career:...
. The film made extensive use of stop-motion animation in the manner of Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
.
Background
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
." An incident between Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
and the giant Skrymir in the Prose Edda
Prose Edda
The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...
of ca. 1220, they note, resembles the incident between Jack and the stomach-slashing Welsh giant. The Opies further note that the Swedish tale of "The Herd-boy and the Giant" shows similarities to the same incident, and "shares an ancestor" with the Grimms's
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
"The Valiant Little Tailor
The Valiant Little Tailor
The Valiant Little Tailor or The Brave Little Tailor is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 20. Joseph Jacobs collected another variant A Dozen at One Blow in European Folk and Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book...
", a tale with wide distribution. According to the Opies, Jack's magical accessories – the cap of knowledge, the cloak of invisibility, the magic sword, and the shoes of swiftness – were borrowed from the tale of Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621, and has the distinction of being the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a...
or from Norse mythology. Ruth B. Bottigheimer observes in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales that Jack's final adventure with Galigantus was influenced by the "magical devices" of French fairy tales. The Opies conclude that analogues from around the world "offer no surety of Jack's antiquity."
The Opies note that tales of giants were long known in Britain. King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
's encounter with the giant of St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount is a tidal island located off the Mount's Bay coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a civil parish and is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water....
was related by Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
in Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
in 1136, and published by Sir Thomas Malory in 1485
1485 in literature
-Works:*Leon Battista Alberti - De Re Aedificatoria *Joseph Albo - Sefer ha-Ikkarim *Sir Thomas Malory - Le Morte d'Arthur-Births:...
in the fifth chapter of the fifth book of Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...
:
Then came to [King Arthur] an husbandman ... and told him how there was ... a great giant which had slain, murdered and devoured much people of the country ... [Arthur journeyed to the Mount, discovered the giant roasting dead children,] ... and hailed him, saying ... [A]rise and dress thee, thou glutton, for this day shalt thou die of my hand. Then the glutton anon started up, and took a great club in his hand, and smote at the king that his coronal fell to the earth. And the king hit him again that he carved his belly and cut off his genitours, that his guts and his entrails fell down to the ground. Then the giant threw away his club, and caught the king in his arms that he crushed his ribs ... And then Arthur weltered and wrung, that he was other while under and another time above. And so weltering and wallowing they rolled down the hill till they came to the sea mark, and ever as they so weltered Arthur smote him with his dagger.
Anthropophagic
Anthropophagy
Anthropophagy is the eating of human flesh. It may refer to:*Cannibalism, the eating of human flesh by another human**Self-cannibalism, the eating of one's own flesh*Man-eating, the eating of human flesh by man-eaters...
giants are mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland
The Complaynt of Scotland
The Complaynt of Scotland is a book printed in 1549 and is an important work of the Scots language.The book is a continuation of the war of words between Scotland and England in the sixteenth century...
in 1549, the Opies note, and, in King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
of 1605
1605 in literature
The year 1605 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The Queen's Revels Children perform George Chapman's All Fools at Court....
, they indicate, Shakespeare alludes to the Fee-fi-fo-fum
Fee-fi-fo-fum
"Fee-fi-fo-fum" is the first line of a historical quatrain famous for its use in the classic English fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk...
chant (" ... fie, foh, and fumme, / I smell the blood of a British man"), making it certain he knew a tale of "blood-sniffing giants". Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
also alluded to the chant in Have with You to Saffron-Walden
Have with You to Saffron-Walden
Have With You To Saffron-Walden, Or, Gabriell Harveys hunt is up is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Nashe and published in London in late 1596 by John Danter. The work is Nashe's final shot in his four-year literary feud with Dr. Gabriel Harvey...
, written nine years before King Lear., the earliest version can be found in The Red Ettin
The Red Ettin
The Red Ettin or The Red Etin is a fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs. It was included by Andrew Lang in The Blue Fairy Book.-Synopsis:Two widows lived in a hut, and one had two sons and the other had one -- or a single widow had three sons...
of 1528.
The Opies observe that "no telling of the tale has been recorded in English oral tradition", and that no mention of the tale is made in sixteenth or seventeenth century literature. "The History of Jack and the Giants" (the earliest known edition) was published in two parts by J. White of Newcastle in 1711
1711 in literature
The year 1711 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*The Spectator founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.*After defeat at the Battle of Stănileşti, Dimitrie Cantemir flees to Russia and begins writing his most important works....
, the Opies indicate, but was not listed in catalogues or inventories of the period nor was Jack one of the folk heroes in the repertoire of Robert Powel, a puppeteer established in Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. "Jack and the Gyants" however is referenced in The Weekly Comedy of 22 January 1708
1708 in literature
The year 1708 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* The Battle of Oudenarde* Joseph Trapp becomes Oxford Professor of Poetry.* Edward Lhuyd becomes a Fellow of the Royal Society.-New books:...
, according to the Opies, and in the tenth number Terra-Filius in 1721
1721 in literature
The year 1721 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Around this time , inoculation for smallpox began in England....
.
As the eighteenth century wore on, Jack became a familiar figure. Research by the Opies indicate that the farce Jack the Giant-Killer was performed at the Haymarket
Haymarket
-United Kingdom:* Haymarket , street in Westminster, London* Newcastle Haymarket, section of Newcastle upon Tyne city centre, England** Haymarket bus station, bus station in Newcastle upon Tyne, above* Haymarket, Edinburgh, area of Edinburgh, Scotland...
in 1730; that John Newbery
John Newbery
John Newbery was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported and published the works of Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson...
printed fictional letters about Jack in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book
A Little Pretty Pocket-Book
A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with Two Letters from Jack the Giant Killer is the title of a 1744 children's book by British publisher John Newbery. It is generally considered the first children's book, and consists of simple...
in 1744
1744 in literature
The year 1744 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*May 29 - Alexander Pope is received into the Roman Catholic faith, a day before his death.*Samuel Foote makes his debut as an actor....
; and that a political satire, The last Speech of John Good, vulgarly called Jack the Giant-Queller, was printed ca. 1745
1745 in literature
The year 1745 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The London theatres stage competing productions of Shakespeare's King John in response to the Jacobite invasion of Bonnie Prince Charlie...
. The Opies and Bottigheimer both note that Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
alluded to Jack in Joseph Andrews
Joseph Andrews
Joseph Andrews, or The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, was the first published full-length novel of the English author and magistrate Henry Fielding, and indeed among the first novels in the English language...
(1742
1742 in literature
The year 1742 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* December 2 - The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print in the United States.* The Stockholm Gazette begins publication....
); Dr. Johnson admitted to reading the tale; Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
read the tale in his boyhood; and William Cowper
William Cowper
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry...
was another who mentioned the tale.
In "Jack and Arthur: An Introduction to Jack the Giant Killer", Thomas Green writes that Jack has no place in Cornish folklore, but was created at the beginning of the eighteenth century simply as a framing device for a series of gory, giant-killing adventures. The tales of Arthur precede and inform "Jack the Giant Killer", he notes, but points out that Le Morte d'Arthur had been out of print since 1634 and concludes from this fact that the public had grown weary of Arthur. Jack, he posits, was created to fill Arthur's shoes.
Bottigheimer notes that in the southern Appalachians of America Jack became a generic hero of tales usually adapted from the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
. She points out however that "Jack the Giant Killer" is rendered directly from the chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
s except the English hasty pudding
Hasty pudding
Hasty pudding is a pudding or porridge of grains cooked in milk or water. In the United States, it invariably refers to a version made of ground corn...
in the incident of the belly-slashing Welsh giant becomes mush
Mush (cornmeal)
Mush — sometimes called coosh — is a thick cornmeal pudding usually boiled in water or milk. It is often allowed to set, or gel into a semi solid, then cut into flat squares or rectangles, and pan fried. Usage is especially common in the eastern and southeastern United States. It is also customary...
.
Child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim
Bruno Bettelheim
Bruno Bettelheim was an Austrian-born American child psychologist and writer. He gained an international reputation for his work on Freud, psychoanalysis, and emotionally disturbed children.-Background:...
observes in The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
The Uses of Enchantment
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales is a 1976 work by Bruno Bettelheim in which the author analyses fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychology....
(1976) that children may experience "grown-ups" as frightening giants, but stories such as "Jack" teach them that they can outsmart the giants and can "get the better of them." Bettelheim observes that a parent may be reluctant to read a story to a child about adults being outsmarted by children, but notes that the child understands intuitively that, in reading him the tale, the parent has given his approval for "playing with the idea of getting the better of giants", and of retaliating "in fantasy for the threat which adult dominance entails."
Cornish giants
John Matthews writes in Taliessin, Shamanism and the Bardic Mysteries of Britain & Ireland (1992) that giants are very common throughout British folkloreBritish folklore
British folklore refers to the folklore of any of the home countries of the United Kingdom. For more information see :*English folklore*Scottish folklore*Welsh mythology*Irish mythologyOr :...
, and often represent the 'original' inhabitants, ancestors, or gods of the island before the coming of 'civilised man', their gigantic stature reflecting their 'otherwordly
Annwn
Annwn or Annwfn was the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn, or much later by Gwyn ap Nudd, it was essentially a world of delights and eternal youth where disease is absent and food is ever-abundant. It later became Christianised and identified with the land of souls that had departed...
' nature. Giants figure prominently in Cornish and Welsh folklore, and in common with many animist belief systems, they represent the force of nature. They are often responsible for the creation of the natural landscape, and are often petrified in death, a particularly recurrent theme in Celtic myth
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
and folklore.
The foundation myth of Cornwall originates with the early Brythonic
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
chronicler Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....
in the Historia Brittonum and made its way, via Geoffrey of Monmouth into Early Modern English cannon where it was absorbed by the Elizabethans as the tale of King Leir
King Leir
King Leir is an anonymous Elizabethan play about the life of the ancient Celtic king Leir of Britain. It was published in 1605 but was entered into the Stationers' Register on 15 May 1594...
alongside that of Cymbeline
Cymbeline
Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
and King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
, other mythical British kings. Carol Rose reports in Giants, Monsters, and Dragons that the tale of Jack the Giant Killer may be a development of the Corineus and Gogmagog legend.
In 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
reported in the first book of The History of the Kings of Britain
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
that the indigenous giants of Cornwall were slaughtered by Brutus, the (eponymous founder of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
), his son Corineus and his brothers who had settled in Britain after the Trojan War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
. Following the defeat of the giants, their leader Gogmagog wrestled with the warrior Corineus
Corineus
Corineus, in medieval British legend, was a prodigious warrior, a fighter of giants, and the eponymous founder of Cornwall.According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain , he led the descendants of the Trojans who fled with Antenor after the Trojan War and settled on the coasts...
, and was killed when Corineus threw him from a cliff into the sea:
For it was a diversion to him (Corineus) to encounter the said giants, which were in greater numbers there than in all the other provinces that fell to the share of his companions. Among the rest was one detestable monster, named Goëmagot (Gogmagog), in stature twelve cubits, and of such prodigious strength that at one shake he pulled up an oak as if it had been a hazel wand. On a certain day, when Brutus (founder of Britain and Corineus' overlord) was holding a solemn festival to the gods, in the port where they at first landed, this giant with twenty more of his companions came in upon the Britons, among whom he made a dreadful slaughter. But the Britons at last assembling together in a body, put them to the rout, and killed them every one but Goëmagot. Brutus had given orders to have him preserved alive, out of a desire to see a combat between him and Corineus, who took a great pleasure in such encounters. Corineus, overjoyed at this, prepared himself, and throwing aside his arms, challenged him to wrestle with him. At the beginning of the encounter, Corineus and the giant, standing, front to front, held each other strongly in their arms, and panted aloud for breath, but Goëmagot presently grasping Corineus with all his might, broke three of his ribs, two on his right side and one on his left. At which Corineus, highly enraged, roused up his whole strength, and snatching him upon his shoulders, ran with him, as fast as the weight would allow him, to the next shore, and there getting upon the top of a high rock, hurled down the savage monster into the sea; where falling on the sides of craggy rocks, he was torn to pieces, and coloured the waves with his blood. The place where he fell, taking its name from the giant's fall, is called Lam Goëmagot, that is, Goëmagot's Leap, to this day.
Plymouth Hoe
Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and it commands views of Plymouth Sound, Drake's Island, and across the Hamoaze to Mount...
on the Cornish-Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
border. In the early seventeenth century, Richard Carew reported a carved chalk figure of a giant at the site in the first book of The Survey of Cornwall:
Againe, the actiuitie of Deuon and Cornishmen, in this facultie of wrastling, beyond those of other Shires, dooth seeme to deriue them a speciall pedigree, from that graund wrastler Corineus. Moreouer, vpon the Hawe at Plymmouth, there is cut out in the ground, the pourtrayture of two men, the one bigger, the other lesser, with Clubbes in their hands, (whom they terme Gog-Magog) and (as I haue learned) it is renewed by order of the Townesmen, when cause requireth, which should inferre the same to bee a monument of some moment. And lastly the place, hauing a steepe cliffe adioyning, affordeth an oportunitie to the fact.
Cormoran
Cormoran , also recorded as Cormilan, Cormelian, Gormillan, or Gourmaillon, was a legendary Cornish giant said to live in a cave on St Michael's Mount and terrorize the people of Penwith . He is best known as the first giant killed by Jack in the fairy tale "Jack the Giant Killer"...
(sometimes Cormilan, Cormelian, Gormillan, or Gourmaillon) is the first giant slain by Jack. Cormoran
Cormoran
Cormoran , also recorded as Cormilan, Cormelian, Gormillan, or Gourmaillon, was a legendary Cornish giant said to live in a cave on St Michael's Mount and terrorize the people of Penwith . He is best known as the first giant killed by Jack in the fairy tale "Jack the Giant Killer"...
and his wife, the giantess Cormelian, are particularly associated with St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount is a tidal island located off the Mount's Bay coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a civil parish and is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water....
, apparently an ancient pre-Christian site of worship. According to Cornish legend, the couple were responsible for its construction by carrying granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
from the West Penwith Moors to the current location of the Mount. When Cormoran fell asleep from exhaustion, his wife tried to sneak a greenschist
Greenschist
Greenschist is a general field petrologic term applied to metamorphic or altered mafic volcanic rock. The term greenstone is sometimes used to refer to greenschist but can refer to other rock types too. The green is due to abundant green chlorite, actinolite and epidote minerals that dominate the...
slab from a shorter distance away. Cormoran awoke and kicked the stone out of her apron, where it fell to form the island of Chapel Rock. Trecobben, the giant of Trencrom Hill
Trencrom Hill
Trencrom Hill is a prominent hill fort, owned by the National Trust, near Lelant, Cornwall. It is crowned by an univallate Neolithic tor enclosure and was re-used as a hillfort in the Iron Age. Cairns or hut circles can be seen in the level area enclosed by the stone and earth banks. The hill...
(near St Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
), accidentally killed Cormelian when he threw a hammer over to the Mount for Cormoran's use. The giantess was buried beneath Chapel Rock.
Blunderbore (sometimes Blunderboar, Thunderbore, Blunderbus, or Blunderbuss) is usually associated with the area of Penwith
Penwith
Penwith was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council was based in Penzance. The district covered all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which included an area of land to the east that fell outside the...
, and was living in Ludgvan Lese (a manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in Ludgvan
Ludgvan
Ludgvan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, UK. The village is situated 2½ miles northeast of Penzance.The parish includes the villages of Ludgvan, Crowlas, Canon's Town and Long Rock...
), where he terrorized travelers heading north to St Ives. The Anglo-Germanic
Germanic
Germanic may refer to* The Germanic languages, descended from Proto-Germanic.* The Germanic peoples**List of Germanic peoples**List of confederations of Germanic tribes* German people* Germanic mythology...
name 'Blunderbore' is sometimes appropriated by other giants, as in "Tom the Tinkeard" and in some versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...
" and "Molly Whuppie
Molly Whuppie
Molly Whuppie is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. A Highland version, Maol a Chliobain, was collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands...
".
In the version of "Jack the Giant Killer" recorded by Joseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
, Blunderbore lives in Penwith
Penwith
Penwith was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council was based in Penzance. The district covered all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which included an area of land to the east that fell outside the...
, where he kidnaps three lords and ladies, planning to eat the men and make the women his wives. When the women refuse to consume their husbands in company with the giant, he hangs them by their hair in his dungeon and leaves them to starve. Shortly, Jack stops along the highway from Penwith to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. He drinks from a fountain and takes a nap ( a device common in Brythonic Celtic stories, such as the Mabinogion
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
). Blunderbore discovers the sleeping Jack, and recognizing him by his labeled belt, carries him to his castle and locks him in a cell. While Blunderbore is off inviting a fellow giant to come help him eat Jack, Jack creates nooses from some rope. When the giants arrive, he drops the nooses around their necks, ties the rope to a beam, slides down the rope, and slits their throats.
A giant named Blunderbore appears in the similar Cornish fairy tale "Tom the Tinkeard" (or "Tom the Tinkard"), a local variant of "Tom Hickathrift
Tom Hickathrift
Tom Hickathrift is a legendary figure of East Anglian English folklore — a character similar to Jack the Giant Killer. He famously battled a giant, and is sometimes said to be a giant himself, though normally he is just represented as possessing giant-like strength.Various stories of his...
". Here, Blunderbore has built a hedge over the King's Highway
King's Highway
King's Highway or Kings Highway may refer to:* King's Highway an ancient trade route from Egypt to Syria* Kings Highway , Australia* King's Highway , United States* King's Highway King's Highway or Kings Highway may refer to:* King's Highway (ancient) an ancient trade route from Egypt to Syria*...
between St Ives and Marazion
Marazion
Marazion is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated on the shore of Mount's Bay, two miles east of Penzance and one mile east of Long Rock.St Michael's Mount is half-a-mile offshore from Marazion...
, claiming the land as his own. The motif of the abduction of women appears in this version, as Blunderbore has kidnapped at least twenty women to be his wives. The hero Tom rouses the giant from a nap while taking a wagon and oxen back from St Ives to Marazion. Blunderbore tears up an elm to swat Tom off his property, but Tom slides one of the axles from the wagon and uses it to fight and eventually fatally wound the giant. The dying giant confers all his wealth to Tom and requests a proper burial.
Plot
This plot summary is based on a text published ca. 1760 by John Cotton and Joshua Eddowes, which in its turn was based on a chapbook ca. 1711, and reprinted in 'The Classic Fairy Tales' by Iona and Peter Opie in 1974.The tale is set during the reign of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
and tells of a young Cornish
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
farmer's son named Jack
Jack (hero)
Jack is an archetypal Cornish and English hero and stock character appearing in legends, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes, generally portrayed as a young adult. Unlike moralizing fairy heroes, Jack is often portrayed as lazy or foolish, but through the use of cleverness and tricks he usually emerges...
who is not only strong but so clever he easily confounds the learned with his penetrating wit. Jack encounters a cattle-devouring giant called Cormoran
Cormoran
Cormoran , also recorded as Cormilan, Cormelian, Gormillan, or Gourmaillon, was a legendary Cornish giant said to live in a cave on St Michael's Mount and terrorize the people of Penwith . He is best known as the first giant killed by Jack in the fairy tale "Jack the Giant Killer"...
and lures him to his death in a pit trap
Trapping (Animal)
Animal trapping, or simply trapping, is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including food, wildlife management, hunting, and pest control...
. Jack is dubbed 'Jack the Giant-Killer' for this feat and receives not only the giant's wealth but a sword and belt to commemorate the event. Another giant, Blunderbore
Blunderbore
Blunderbore is a giant of Cornish and English folklore. A number of folk and fairy tales include a giant named Blunderbore, most notably "Jack the Giant Killer"...
, vows vengeance for Cormoran's death and carries Jack off to an enchanted castle. Jack manages to slay Blunderbore and another giant by hanging and stabbing them. He frees three ladies held captive in the giant's castle.
On a trip into Wales, Jack tricks a two-headed Welsh giant into slashing his own belly open. King Arthur's son now enters the story and Jack becomes his servant. They spend the night with a three-headed giant and rob him in the morning. In gratitude for having spared his castle, the giant gives Jack a magic sword, a cap of knowledge, a cloak of invisibility, and shoes of swiftness. On the road, Jack and the Prince meet an enchanted Lady serving Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
. Jack breaks the spell with his magic accessories, beheads Lucifer, and the Lady marries the Prince. Jack is rewarded with membership in the Round Table
Round Table
The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...
.
Thunderdell
Thunderdell, also recorded as Thunderdel, Thunderel, Thundrel, Thunderdale, or Thunderbore, was a two-headed giant of Cornwall slain by Jack the Giant-Killer in the stories of Tabart and others....
chanting "Fee, fau, fum". Jack defeats and beheads the giant with a trick involving the house's moat and drawbridge.
Growing weary of the festivities, Jack sallies forth for more adventures and meets an elderly man who directs him to an enchanted castle belonging to the giant Galigantus (Galligantua, in the Joseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
version). The giant holds captive many knights and ladies and a Duke's daughter who has been transformed into a white doe through the power of a sorceror. Jack beheads the giant, the sorceror flees, the Duke's daughter is restored to her true shape, and the captives are freed. At the court of King Arthur, Jack marries the Duke's daughter and the two are given an estate where they live happily ever after.
1962 film
In 19621962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
, United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
released a middle budget film produced by Edward Small
Edward Small
Edward Small was a film producer from the late 1920s through 1970....
and directed by Nathan H. Juran called Jack the Giant Killer. Kerwin Mathews
Kerwin Mathews
Kerwin Mathews was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , The Three Worlds of Gulliver and Jack the Giant Killer .-Life and career:...
stars as Jack and Torin Thatcher
Torin Thatcher
Torin Thatcher was an English actor born in Bombay, British India, India), to English parents. He was an imposing, powerfully built figure noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains....
as the sorcerer Pendragon. Jim Stafford of TCM
TCM
-Arts and sciences:* Trinity College of Music, a leading music conservatory, based in Greenwich, London, United Kingdom* Theory of Condensed Matter group, a theoretical physics research group in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge...
notes that the four men made The 7th Voyage of Sinbad an artistic and commercial triumph in 1958, and hoped Jack would be just as successful. The film performed moderately well at the box office, despite a review in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
that slammed the acting, the dialogue, and the "rubber" monsters. The special effects were handled by, among others, animators Wah Chang
Wah Chang
Wah Ming Chang was a Chinese American designer, sculptor, and artist. He is known primarily for his sculpture and the props he designed for Star Trek , including the tricorder, and communicator...
, Gene Warren
Gene Warren
Gene Warren, Sr. won an Academy Award for the special effects on George Pal's The Time Machine in 1960. He also contributed to such projects as Land of the Lost, Man from Atlantis, and The Crow: City of Angels...
and Jim Danforth
Jim Danforth
Jim Danforth is a stop-motion animator, known for model-animation and matte painting. Danforth is known for his work on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth , a sequel of sorts to Ray Harryhausen's One Million Years B.C....
. In their defense, they didn't build the models themselves and, therefore, they weren't as mobile as they'd have liked, limiting the model's movements somewhat and reducing the smoothness of the animation.
Stafford points out that the screenplay is based on Cornish folklore, but the plot resembles the damsel in distress
Damsel in distress
The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue. She has become a stock character of fiction,...
theme of 7th Voyage: a hero battles giants and monsters to rescue a princess held captive by a sorcerer. Some elements appear to be borrowed from other films Stafford notes. The disembodied torch-carrying arms, for example, recall those in Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's La Belle et La Bête
Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of the traditional fairy tale of the same name, written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont and published in 1757 as part of a fairy tale anthology . Directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette...
, the dragon suggests that in Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
, and Pendragon's witches and demons were probably inspired by the banshee
Banshee
The banshee , from the Irish bean sí is a feminine spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld....
s in Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Darby O'Gill and the Little People is a 1959 Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, Sean Connery and Jimmy O'Dea, in a tale about a wily Irishman and his battle of wits with leprechauns. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and its screenplay written by...
. At a later date, producer Small added songs and the film was rereleased as a musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
.
According to imdb.com, the film went unreleased in the UK until 1967 and even then received cuts for an 'A' (now a PG) certificate to edit the witch attack on the ship, Princess Elaine being attacked by the giant, and Jack's fight with the dragon. Versions that were shown on UK television in the early 1990s had further cuts in the scene where Jack kills Cormoran with a scythe, rendering the scene almost unintelligible. It has since been shown uncut on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
and The Sci-Fi Channel.
2012 film
A film directed by Bryan SingerBryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...
is being developed by New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
, starring Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Caradoc Hoult is an English actor, best known for playing Marcus Brewer in the 2002 film About a Boy, Tony Stonem in the E4, BAFTA-winning television series Skins, and Beast in the X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class.-Early life:Hoult was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, the third of four...
as Jack.
External links
- The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
- Jack the Giant Killer by Flora Annie Steel
- Jack the Giant Killer by Joseph Jacobs
- Jack the Giant Killer from the Hockliffe Collection
- Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory
- The Story of Jack and the Giants by Edward Dalziel
- The Survey of Cornwall by Richard Carew
- Tom the Tinkard