Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was a nineteenth century Australian folklorist and writer who collected English and Celtic fairy tales because — as the quote shows — he objected to the monopoly of German and French fairy tales over English children.
The best known of these tales is "Jack and the Beanstalk", his version being not the oldest known but certainly the oldest known of the most common form. He omitted the moralizing addition that Jack was told that the giant's treasures had been stolen from his own father both because it had not been in the version he had heard as a child, and because he thought children knew it was wrong without being told so in a Fairy Tale. Other tales you probably heard from are Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs.
Joseph Jacob's tales with pages of their own on this site include:
- "The Black Bull of Norroway"
- "The Buried Moon"
- "Cap o' Rushes"
- "Catskin" (a "Cinderella" variant)
- "Childe Rowland"
- "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree" (a variant on "Snow White")
- "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"
- "How Jack Sought The Golden Apples"
- "Jack and the Beanstalk"
- "Kate Crackernuts" (A "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" gender flip)
- "The Laidly Worm Of Spindleston Heugh"
- "Molly Whuppie"
- "My Own Self"
- "The Rose Tree"
- "The Swan Maidens"
- "Tattercoats"
- "Tam Lin"
- "The Three Heads of the Well"
- "The Three Little Pigs"
- "The Voyage of Maelduin"
His works can be read in the SurLaLune site
(using the Way Back Machine) and the Project Gutenberg.
His collections include:
- English Fairy Tales, containing "Jack And The Beanstalk", "Childe Rowland", "The Rose Tree", "Cap O'Rushes", "Kate Crackernuts", "Molly Whuppie" and "The Tree Heads of the Well" (a "Mother Holle" variant).
- More English Fairy Tales, containing "The Black Bull of Norroway" (a variant on "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"), "Tam Lin", "The Buried Moon", "My Own Self", "How Jack Sought the Golden Apples" and three variants on "Cinderella", "Literature/Tattercoats", "Catskin", and "Rushen Coatie".
- Celtic Fairy Tales, containing "Gold Tree And Silver Tree", a variant on "Snow White".
- More Celtic Fairy Tales
- Indian Fairy Tales
- European Folk and Fairy Tales, containing many of the most familiar tales in slightly different forms than most people have heard of them.
Tropes featured in Joseph Jacobs' fairy tale collections:
- Alliterative Name: Tom Tiver in "Yallery Brown"
- At the Crossroads: "The King of England and His Three Sons"
- Baleful Polymorph: "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener", "The Laidly Worm Of Spindleston Heugh"
- Dances and Balls
- Death by Childbirth: Tattercoat's mother
- Due to the Dead: In "The Rose Tree" the stepmother fails, and her child succeeds.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?:
- In "The Fish and the Ring", the Baron attempts to murder the poor girl several times, even though she fullfills every task he demands from her, only because his child is fated to marry her.
- In "Esben and the Witch", whenever Esben succeeds in a task, his enemy at court incites the king to give him another, and the king is only too willing to listen.
- In "The Fish and the Ring
- The Fair Folk: A rare phenomena: actual fairies in a fairy tale, "Kate Crackernuts". But not nice ones.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job:
- "Rushen Coatie" is a princess forced to work in the kitchens by her abusive family.
- "The Fish And The Ring", the main character is a peasant girl who gets married to a baron's son, and then she becomes a scullion girl after she is thrown out of her father-in-law's castle.
- "Rushen Coatie
- The Farmer and the Viper: In "Yallery Brown", Tom Tiver releases a Yallery Brown'', trapped under a stone, and the creature puts a bad luck curse on him.
- Forbidden Fruit: In "Gold-Tree And Silver-Tree" the second wife disobeys her husband's command not to go into a certain room. Fortunately, for once, because she revives Gold-Tree.
- Gender Flip:
- "Molly Whuppie" features in the tale type known as "The Small Boy Defeats the Ogre"
- "The Fish and the Ring" features a poor girl destined to marry a rich noble's son.
- "Kate Crackernuts" features a flip of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- In "Kate Crackernuts", the wicked queen sees that her stepdaughter Anne is lovelier than her own child, Kate, and has Anne changed into a monster. Kate herself is horrified and runs away with Anne to find a way to break the spell.
- The stepmother queen changes Princess Margaret into the titular Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh to destroy her beauty.
- It Was with You All Along: In "A Pottle O' Brains", the fool brings his clever wife when he goes to answer the wise woman's riddles to get a pottle of brains. The woman then explains that he has them already: in his wife's head.
- Love at First Sight: "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener"
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: In "Tattercoats", the title character's grandfather blames her for killing his daughter, and swears to never look at her.
- Mistaken Nationality: Jacobs is often thought to be British, but he was actually born in Australia and only moved to England at age 18. The last 16 years of his life he spent in the United States.
- The Münchausen: In "Conall Yellowclaw", a lord captures four thieves: three brothers and an older man. The older man ransoms each of the brothers by telling a story of when he had been in more danger than they are, in the hands of a man about to execute them. The final story involves his helping a woman save a baby, and an old woman recognizes the tale and that the lord had been the baby, so the lord rewards the older thief for his rescue.
- Noble Fugitive: Many a princess has to flee her Wicked Stepmother or her father who wants to marry her and go into service as a Scullery Maid. These include "Rushen Coatie", "Catskin" and "Cap O'Rushes".
- Old Retainer
- Person with the Clothing: "Tattercoats", "Rushen Coatie"
- Pinocchio Syndrome: "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener"
- Prince Charming: Tattercoats gets a particularly charming one: he actually falls in love with her in her rags.
- The Quest: To rescue the moon goddess in "The Buried Moon".
- Rags to Royalty
- Scullery Maid: Catskin
- She Cleans Up Nicely: "Catskin", and "Rushen Coatie". Not, however "Tattercoats"
- Standard Hero Reward: Molly Whuppie and Kate Crackernuts (Told you they were a Gender Flip.)
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve
- Wicked Stepmother: In "The Rose Tree"
