Do you believe in magic? A Harp-Jacking? Read All About It!

MOTAL: Storybook Dolls Artifact
Article 3

This article completes our descriptions of storybook dolls. They are made of fabric and represent beloved characters in nursery rhymes and fairy tales. The dolls are between four and five inches tall and from two to four inches wide, depending upon their costumes. They are used as tools to accompany and enhance the stories read to children and stimulate children’s imagination and communication through play.


Jack and the Beanstalk 
Author: Katie Rutz-Robbins


In the nineteenth century, author Joseph Jacobs published his rewritten version of the story Jack and the Beanstalk. This version of the story grew in popularity and is the most similar to the renditions of the classic story circulating now. The first published story of Jack and his magical beanstalk was entitled “The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean” and published in an eighteenth century English entertainment pamphlet entitled Round about our Coal Fire or Christmas Entertainments, and sold to the public for the price of one shilling. In this publication, the giant exclaims “Fee-Faw-Fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!” which evolved to the “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum!” that we repeat today.


This storybook doll is of Jack, who is holding his newly planted beanstalk and bag of magic beans. In the story, poor Jack is told by his mother to sell their cow at the market, but instead Jack sells it to a mysterious man on the way in exchange for some magic beans. Jack returns home and is scolded by his mother, who discards the beans. That night, a giant beanstalk grows and curious Jack climbs up to discover a giant’s kingdom in the sky. Jack returned to the giant’s kingdom three times, receiving food and stealing golden treasures from the giant's wife, who hides him from the giant. The giant famously says “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!” On the third visit, the giant discovers jack stealing a magical golden harp and chases him down the beanstalk. Jack reaches the bottom first and promptly chops the beanstalk down, making the giant fall to his death. In the end, Jack and his mother live happy and wealthy from the profit made from the giant's treasures.


Funding for this article has been provided, in part, by California Humanities and the State of California through the California State Library (Grant Number CC20-3010).


Sources
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/fantasy-and-fairytale-in-childrens-literature#


https://www.pookpress.co.uk/project/brothers-grimm-biography/
 
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/playing_with_a_variety_of_toys_leads_to_appropriate_growth#:~:text=Playing%20with%20toys%20such%20as,social%2C%20emotional%20and%20language%20skills.&text=Playing%20with%20a%20doll%20leads,without%20being%20frightened%20of%20them


https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/the-beanstalk-s-roots-1.259268


https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/jack-and-the-beanstalk


Merryman, D. ([1734]). Round about our coal fire, or, Christmas Entertainments.4th ed. Printed for J. Roberts in Warwick-lane, and sold by the booksellers in town and country.
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CB0129997864/ECCO?u=claremont_main&sid=ECCO&xid=4fb1b944&pg=47


https://www.pookpress.co.uk/project/joseph-jacobs-biography/


You can read more about MOTAL intern Katie by clicking this link:
Behind the Scenes 7