Jack the Giant-Killer

This title has been given to a compilation of tales describing the fantastic exploits of a boy hero. Earliest chapbook versions date from the 18th century , but single motifs can be traced as far back as to Arthurian epics and Germanic mythology, while orally transmitted “Jack stories” were collected in the southern Appalachians as late as the 1940s and beyond. The best-known version, prepared by Joseph Jacobs for his English Fairy Tales (1890 ), comprises seven episodes, in the course of which Jack , the son of a Cornish farmer, outwits and kills several giants (some sporting Continue reading the remaining 51% ...