‘Well, I am Hear-all, and this is Spring-all.’
Away Jack goes home to his father and mother, and lives very happy there all the days of his life.
A capital and very curious story, but plainly imperfect: Jack, of course, should marry the princess. There is a very West Highland ring about it, yet I cannot match it from Campbell, nor indeed elsewhere. At the same time many of the incidents are familiar enough. For the balls of worsted and the three helpful sisters (or brothers, hermits, etc.), cf. John Roberts’ story of ‘An Old King and his Three Sons’ (No. 55, pp. 220–234). The bridge-making episode suggests a combination of the Passage of the Red Sea and the bridge-making ball of yarn in ‘The Companion’ (Dasent’s Tales from the Fjeld, p. 73). The lucky-bone in the ear reminds one of the pin which, driven into the heroine’s head, causes transformation into a bird (Maive Stokes’s Indian Fairy Tales, pp. 12, 14, 253; and Laura Gonzenbach’s Sicil. Märchen, i. p. 82), or of the comb, poisoned apple, etc., in Grimm’s ‘Snow-white’ (No. 53), and its Chian, Albanian, and other variants, which produce, as in Jack’s case, suspended animation. For the cutting off of the helpful animal’s head, under a threat, and the consequent transformation, cf. the Scottish-Tinker story of ‘The Fox’ (No. 75).
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[1] Cf. footnote on p. 118. John Roberts also was an old soldier. [↑]
[2] Much the same phrase recurs in ‘An Old King and his three Sons in England’ (No. 55), and in ‘Ashypelt’ (No. 57). Cf. also Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield chapter xiii.:—‘They now travelled far, and farther than I can tell, till they met with a company of robbers.’ [↑]
[3] Cf. notes on ‘The Green Man of Noman’s Land,’ No. 62. [↑]
[4] Gypsies have different kinds of whistles, one peculiar to each family, by which they can recognise one another at a distance or in the dark. [↑]