English Fairy Tales

THE MAGPIE’S NEST ........................................................................................................................................... 123
KATE CRACKERNUTS ......................................................................................................................................... 124
THE CAULD LAD OF HILTON ............................................................................................................................ 127
THE ASS, THE TABLE, AND THE STICK ......................................................................................................... 129
FAIRY OINTMENT ................................................................................................................................................. 132
THE WELL OF THE WORLD’S END ................................................................................................................. 134
MASTER OF ALL MASTERS ............................................................................................................................... 137
THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL ................................................................................................................. 138
NOTES AND REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................. 142

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Joseph Jacobs
ENGLISH
FAIRY TALES
COLLECTED BY
JOSEPH JACOBS
HOW TO GET INTO THIS BOOK.
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
W
HO
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 prob-
able 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 vol-
ume 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 un-
patriotic task to help to bridge over this gulf, by giving a

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English Fairy Tales
common fund of nursery literature to all classes of the En-
glish 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.
*
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 some-
thing “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 folk-
lorists 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 dra-
matic power.
The first adjective of our title also needs a similar exten-
sion 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 En-
*For some recent views on fairies and tales about fairies, see
Notes.

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7
Joseph Jacobs
glish, 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. There are certain in-
dications that the “common form” of the English Fairy Tale
was the cante-fable, a mixture of narrative and verse of which
the most illustrious example in literature is “Aucassin et
Nicolette.” In one case I have endeavoured to retain this form,
as the tale in which it occurs, “Childe Rowland,” is mentioned
by Shakespeare in King Lear, and is probably, as I have shown,
the source of Milton’s Comus. Late as they have been collected,
some dozen of the tales can be traced back to the sixteenth
century, two of them being quoted by Shakespeare himself.
In the majority of instances I have had largely to rewrite
these Fairy Tales, especially those in dialect, including the
Lowland Scotch.
*
Children, and sometimes those of larger
growth, will not read dialect. I have also had to reduce the
flatulent phraseology of the eighteenth-century chap-books,
and to re-write in simpler style the stories only extant in
“Literary” English. I have, however, left a few vulgarisms in
the mouths of vulgar people. Children appreciate the dra-
matic propriety of this as much as their elders. Generally
speaking, it has been my ambition to write as a good old
nurse will speak when she tells Fairy Tales. I am doubtful as
to my success in catching the colloquial-romantic tone ap-
propriate for such narratives, but the thing had to be done
or else my main object, to give a book of English Fairy Tales
which English children will listen to, would have been
unachieved. This book is meant to be read aloud, and not
merely taken in by the eye.
In a few instances I have introduced or changed an inci-
dent. I have never done so, however, without mentioning
the fact in the Notes. These have been relegated to the ob-
scurity of small print and a back place, while the little ones
have been, perhaps unnecessarily, warned off them. They
indicate my sources and give a few references to parallels
and variants which may be of interest to fellow-students of
*It is perhaps worth remarking that the Brothers Grimm did the
same with their stories. “Dass der Ausdruck,” say they in their
Preface, “und die Ausführung des Einzelnen grossentheils von uns
herrührt, versteht sich von selbst.” I may add that many of their
stories were taken from printed sources. In the first volume of
Mrs. Hunt’s translation, Nos. 12, 18, 19, 23, 32, 35, 42, 43, 44,
69, 77, 78, 83, 89, are thus derived.

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