Jack (hero)

Some of the most famous Jack tales are "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Jack Frost", "Jack the Giant Killer", "Little Jack Horner" and "This Is the House That Jack Built". While these heroes are not necessarily congruous, their concepts are related and in some instances interchangeable.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Jack is generally portrayed as a young adult. Unlike moralizing fairy heroes, Jack is often thievish, lazy or foolish, but emerges triumphant through wit and trickery, resembling the trickster or rebel archetypes. Some of the stories feature Jack's brothers, Will and Tom.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} The notional "Jack" corresponds with the German Hans (or Hänsel) and the Russian Ivan the Fool.{{cite book |author=Jack Zipes |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbmmrhmwix0C&q=jack+hero+-+english+fairy+tales+-15th+century |title=Speaking Out: Storytelling and Creative Drama for Children |page=129 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-4159-6660-3}} Some Jack tales feature themes that appear to originate from Germanic folk tales.

"Jack tales" are present in Appalachian folklore.{{cite web |url=http://www2.ferrum.edu/applit//articles/wondertales.htm |title=Wonder Tales in Appalachia |publisher=AppLit |author=Grace Toney Edwards |date=July 1, 2010 |access-date=2015-01-05 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191001/http://www2.ferrum.edu/applit//articles/wondertales.htm |url-status=dead }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9CSxlgEACAAJ&q=Journey+Through+Fantasy+Literature:+A+Resource+Guide+for+Teachers |title=Journey Through Fantasy Literature: A Resource Guide for Teachers |author=Roberta T. Herrin |publisher=Department of English, College of Arts and Science, East Tennessee State University |year=1992 }} As noted by the folklorist Herbert Halpert, the Appalachian Jack tales are analogous to many of the folk songs of Appalachia, being passed on orally rather than in writing, and tracing back to sources in England.Richard Chase, ed., The Jack Tales, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1943, {{ISBN|0-395-06694-8}}. "Told by R. M. Ward and his kindred in the Beech Mountain section of Western North Carolina and by other descendants of Council Harmon (1803–1896) elsewhere in The Southern Mountains; with three tales from Wise County, Virginia. Set down from these sources and edited by Richard Chase; with an appendix compiled by Herbert Halpert; and illustrated by Berkeley Williams, Jr." In the Appalachian Jack tales, where the English original would feature a king or other noble, the Appalachian Jack tale version would have a sheriff.

In his book The Jack Tales American folklorist Richard Chase collected many popular Appalachian Jack tales as told by descendants of a man named Council Harmon (1803–1896), whose grandfather Cutliff Harmon (1748–1838) was believed by Chase to have brought the Jack tales to America.Betty N. Smith (1998), [https://books.google.com/books?id=P34ONYQuaLoC&dq=Cutliff+Harmon&pg=PA15 Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers], University Press of Kentucky, {{ISBN|978-0-8131-0936-7}}, p. 15.Julia Taylor Ebel and Orville Hicks (1998), Orville Hicks: Mountain Stories, Mountain Roots, University Press of Kentucky, {{ISBN|978-1-9332-5102-8}}, p. 11. One notable descendant of Council Harmon known for the telling of Jack Tales was Ray Hicks, whose relatives continue to keep the oral tradition alive.{{Cite web|last=goldsteinsl|date=2019-08-02|title=Hicks, Harmon, and Ward Storytelling Tradition on Beech Mountain and in Western North Carolina|url=https://collections.library.appstate.edu/research-aids/hicks-harmon-and-ward-storytelling-tradition-beech-mountain-and-western-north-carolina|access-date=2020-12-04|website=Hicks, Harmon, and Ward Storytelling Tradition on Beech Mountain and in Western North Carolina|language=en}} The Harmon-Hicks family are also known for their unique repertoire of traditional British folk ballads.{{Cite web|date=2018-04-12|title=No ordinary banjo |work=Folklife Today|url=https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2018/04/no-ordinary-banjo/|access-date=2020-12-04|publisher=Library of Congress}}

• Jack (name)
• Jack Bros.
• Jack Be Nimble
• Jack Frost (Marvel Comics)
• Jack Horner (comics)
• Jack Sprat
• Jack and His Comrades
• Jack and His Golden Snuff-Box
• Jack and Jill
• Jack in the green
• Jack o' Kent
• Jack-o'-lantern
• Jack of all trades, master of none
• Jack of Fables
• Jack the Ripper
• Spring-heeled Jack
• Stingy Jack
• Will-o'-the-wisp

• William Bernard McCarthy, Cheryl Oxford and Joseph Daniel Sobol, Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers, University of North Carolina Press (1994), {{ISBN|978-0-8078-2135-0}}
• Julia Taylor Ebel, Orville Hicks: Mountain Stories, Mountain Roots, Parkway Publishers (2005), {{ISBN|978-1-933251-02-8}}
• Duncan Williamson, Don't Look Back, Jack!: Scottish Traveller Tales, Canongate Books (1990) {{ISBN|978-0-862413-09-5}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Groome |first1=Francis Hindes |title=Tobit and Jack the Giant-Killer |journal=Folklore |date=1898 |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=226–244 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.1898.9720457 |jstor=1253058 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2199675 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Lovelace |first1=Martin |title=Jack and His Masters: Real Worlds and Tale Worlds in Newfoundland Folktales |journal=Journal of Folklore Research |date=2001 |volume=38 |issue=1/2 |pages=149–170 |id={{Gale|A79395438}} {{ProQuest|853065320}} |jstor=3814806 }}

{{Wiktionary|Jack}}

• [https://archives.etsu.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/11841 Folktale Transcripts], 1976-1990, Series 1. Archives of Appalachia.

• {{cite web |url= http://ccb.lis.illinois.edu/Projects/storytelling/jsthomps/tales.htm |title= The Folklore Tradition of Jack Tales |author= |date= 15 Jan 2004 |website= The Center for Children's Books |publisher= Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |access-date= 11 June 2014 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140410004237/http://ccb.lis.illinois.edu/Projects/storytelling/jsthomps/tales.htm |archive-date= 10 April 2014 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130112130225/http://www2.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/index.htm#Jack List of Jack tales at ferrum.edu]
• [http://www.ibiblio.org/bawdy/folklore/tales.html Jack tales at ibiblio.org]
• [https://archive.org/details/DaleGilbertJarvisLittleMan Audio recording of a traditional Jack tale] (Streaming and downloadable formats)

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Category:People from American folklore

Category:Appalachian culture

Category:English folklore

Category:Cornish folklore

Category:Heroes in mythology and legend

Category:Fairy tale stock characters

Category:Legendary English people

Category:Male characters in literature

Category:Male characters in fairy tales