Joseph Jacobs



Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 - 30 January 1916) was an Australian born folklorist who published books on English and Celtic fairy tales.

Preface to English Fairy Tales

 * Who says that English folk have no fairy-tales of their own?

Whittington and his Cat

 * Turn again Whittington, Thrice Mayor of London
 * (said by the bells of London)

The Story of the Three Little Pigs

 * Little pig, little pig, let me come in. To which the pig answered: Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin. The wolf answered to that, Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow the house down.
 * Well, he [the wolf] huffed, and he puffed, and he puffed, and he puffed and he puffed and huffed; but he could not get the house down.
 * When the pig saw what he [the wolf] was about, he hung on a pot full of water, and made a blazing fire...and in fell the wolf...

The Story of the Three Bears

 * Out the Old Woman jumped (of the window). And whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran into the wood and was lost there...or taken up by a constable to the House of Correction for the vagrant she was I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw anything more of her.
 * (note Goldilocks doesn't feature in this particular version of the story).
 * Who says that English folk have no fairy-tales of their own?

Catskin

 * Kind sir, if the truth I must tell, At the sign of Basin of Water I dwell.
 * said by Princess Catskin

Henny-Penny

 * The sky is a-going to fall, I must go and tell the King.
 * said by Henny-Penny, similar to the words said by Chicken Little

Jack and the Beanstalk

 * There once was upon a time a poor widow who had an only son Jack, and a cow called Milky-White.
 * You don't know what these beans are, said the man [that Jack meets]. If you plant them overnight, by morning they grew right up to the sky.
 * My man is an ogre and there is nothing he likes better than boys broiled on toast.
 * Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive or be he dead I'll have his bones to grind my bread.
 * (said by the ogre or giant. Now rendered as I'll grind his bones to make my bread.)
 * But the Harp called out quite loud: Master! Master!

Molly Whuppie

 * Fee, fi, fo, fum I smell the blood of some earthly one.
 * (said by a giant, see Jack and the Beanstalk above.)
 * Woe worth you, Molly Whuppie! never you come again Twice yet, carle, quoth she, I'll come to Spain.

Pied Piper

 * For out of every hole the rats came tumbling.

The Three Wishes

 * ...he must need wish in a hurry; and wish he did, that the black pudding may come off his nose.

Catskin

 * Kind sir, if the truth I must tell, At the sign of Basin of Water I dwell.
 * (said by Princess Catskin).