Jack and the Beanstalk
Told by Joseph JacobsEnglandTale type ATU 328
- Age
- 5 to 10
- Reading time
- 9 minutes
- Scariness
- 3 of 5Real danger, resolved before the end
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The story
Jack and his mother had a cottage, a garden, and a cow called Milky-White, and that was all.
Then one morning Milky-White gave no milk, and there was nothing left to sell.
"Take her to market," said his mother. "Get a good price. Jack, look at me. A good price."
"A good price," said Jack.
He had gone about half a mile when he met an old man sitting on a gate.
"Fine cow," said the old man. "Where are you off to with her?"
"Market."
"Do you know how many beans make five?"
Jack thought this was a strange question and said so, and the old man laughed and held out his hand, and in it were five beans, and they were an odd colour.
"These are not ordinary beans," he said. "Plant them tonight and by morning they will be up past the clouds. Your cow for the five."
And Jack, who had never in his life finished thinking about a thing before he did it, handed over the rope.
His mother did not shout. That was somehow worse. She looked at the five beans in his hand for a long moment, and then she took them and threw them out of the window into the garden, and sent him to bed with no supper, and Jack lay in the dark and felt about as small as a person can feel.
He woke up because the room was dark, and the room was never dark in the morning.
Outside the window, filling the whole garden and going up and up and up until it went into the clouds and out of sight, was a beanstalk.
Jack was climbing it before his mother was awake.
He climbed all morning. When he came out of the clouds there was a road, and at the end of the road a house, and everything about it was too big.
A woman came to the door and she was as tall as the cottage at home.
"You want to be away from here," she said. "My husband eats boys."
"I haven't eaten since yesterday," said Jack.
The giant's wife looked at him for a while.
Then she gave him bread and cheese and a cup of milk the size of a bucket, and she was just about to say something when the whole house began to shake.
"Get in the oven," she said. "Now."
Jack got in the oven.
Through the crack in the door he watched a man come in who filled the whole room and had to duck to get through it, and he sat down at a table and said:
"FEE-FI-FO-FUM, I SMELL THE BLOOD OF AN ENGLISHMAN."
"That is the sheep I am cooking," said his wife, not looking up.
The giant ate an enormous breakfast. Then he sent his wife for his hen, and she brought a small brown hen and put it on the table, and the giant said, "Lay."
And the hen laid an egg of solid gold.
He did it three more times, and then he fell asleep with his head on his arms, and the whole table shook every time he breathed.
Jack came out of the oven and took the hen and went out of that door and down the road and down the beanstalk with the hen under his arm the whole way.
His mother did not shout that time either.
For a while everything was fine. They had eggs of gold, and they mended the roof and bought a cow and ate properly for the first time in two years, and Jack sat in the garden looking up at the beanstalk.
And then he climbed it again.
The giant's wife knew him at once.
"You," she said. "The hen."
"I'm sorry," said Jack, and he was, and it made no difference to anything.
She stood in the doorway for a long time. Then she stood aside, and when the house began to shake she pointed at the copper in the corner, and Jack got into it and pulled the lid over his head.
"FEE-FI-FO-FUM."
"You said that last time," said his wife, "and it was the sheep."
That morning the giant counted his money. Bag after bag of it, poured out on the table, counted and put back, and it took him an hour and a half, and then he fell asleep.
Jack came out of the copper and took two bags and went down the beanstalk.
They should have stopped there. Everyone agrees about that, including Jack, afterwards.
The third time the giant's wife did not say anything at all. She looked at him standing on her doorstep and she stood aside and pointed at the copper, and she did not speak to him once.
That morning the giant brought out a harp, and it was made of gold, and when he said "Play," it played by itself, and it was the most beautiful thing Jack had ever heard in his life.
The giant went to sleep listening to it.
Jack got out of the copper. He picked up the harp.
And the harp said, "MASTER."
Everything happened very fast after that. Jack went out of the door with the harp shouting all the way, and the giant came after him, and Jack had never run like that and never has since.
He got to the beanstalk about forty seconds ahead and went down it faster than was sensible, and the whole thing was swaying because there was a giant on it above him.
"MOTHER," Jack shouted, from about halfway. "THE AXE."
She was already coming out of the door with it.
Jack hit the ground and took the axe out of her hands and cut through that beanstalk in four strokes, and the whole enormous thing came down across the garden and the lane and two fields beyond it.
The giant landed in the soft ploughed earth of the second field.
He was winded, and furious, and entirely unhurt, and he sat up in the middle of a field in a country where everything was too small for him and looked around at it.
Jack stood at the edge of the field holding the axe and not knowing what to do next.
It was Jack's mother who walked out there. She was about a third of his height sitting down.
"You will want to get home," she said. "Can you climb?"
The giant said that he could.
He never came back down, and Jack never went back up, and the harp stayed, because it turned out that once you have carried a thing down a beanstalk it is very difficult to carry it up one.
Jack kept the hen and he kept the gold and he kept the harp, and he was never once entirely comfortable about any of it, which his mother said was the first sensible thing that had ever happened to him.
What is the moral of Jack and the Beanstalk?
Knowing when to stop is a different skill from being brave, and it is the harder one.
Jack is not clever and he is not careful. He is brave in the specific way that means he does the frightening thing before he has finished thinking about it, and that works three times running. The story is usually read as a boy outwitting a giant. It is really about the third climb: he already has enough, he goes anyway, and the only reason it ends well is the giant's wife. Being lucky three times is not the same as being right, and the tale is quietly honest about that.
Talk about it
- Jack swapped a cow for five beans. Was that a foolish thing to do, or a brave one?
- The giant's wife hides Jack three times, even after she knows what he is doing. Why?
- Jack already had the gold when he went back the second time. Why do you think he kept going?
- Is taking things from the giant stealing? Does it matter that the giant is frightening?
- What is the difference between being brave and not thinking first?
Who is in the story
Jack
protagonist · human
Sells a cow for five beans, climbs the result, and goes back twice more than he needed to.
- Kind
- 7 out of 10
- Brave
- 10 out of 10
- Clever
- 4 out of 10
- Honest
- 6 out of 10
- Curious
- 10 out of 10
- Patient
- 1 out of 10
The Giant
antagonist · giant
Fills the whole room, has to duck to get through it, and says the most famous four words in English children's literature.
- Kind
- 2 out of 10
- Brave
- 7 out of 10
- Clever
- 3 out of 10
- Honest
- 7 out of 10
- Curious
- 4 out of 10
- Patient
- 3 out of 10
Jack's Mother
supporting · human
Throws the beans out of the window, and is already coming out of the door with the axe before he asks.
- Kind
- 8 out of 10
- Brave
- 9 out of 10
- Clever
- 9 out of 10
- Honest
- 9 out of 10
- Curious
- 4 out of 10
- Patient
- 7 out of 10
The Giant's Wife
helper · giant
Hides Jack three times, knowing exactly what he is doing, and lies to her husband to his face.
- Kind
- 10 out of 10
- Brave
- 9 out of 10
- Clever
- 9 out of 10
- Honest
- 5 out of 10
- Curious
- 4 out of 10
- Patient
- 10 out of 10
The Old Man
helper · human
Sits on a gate, asks how many beans make five, and swaps a cow for the answer.
- Kind
- 7 out of 10
- Brave
- 5 out of 10
- Clever
- 10 out of 10
- Honest
- 10 out of 10
- Curious
- 8 out of 10
- Patient
- 9 out of 10
In a nutshell
Jack is sent to sell the last cow and comes home with five beans. His mother throws them out of the window. In the morning there is a beanstalk going up through the clouds, and Jack, who has never once thought a thing through, starts climbing.
Scene by scene
22 moments from the tale.
- Scene 1The Cottage Gardenflat
A good price
Milky-White gives no milk. Jack's mother puts the rope into his hand in the cabbage garden and tells him twice what he is to come back with.
There was nothing left to sell
- Scene 2The Lanestrange
Do you know how many beans make five?
Half a mile from home Jack meets an old man on a gate who offers five odd-coloured beans for the cow.
He handed over the rope
- Scene 3The Lanepersuasive
Not ordinary beans
The old man on the gate says what the beans will do and names his price, and the rope goes from one hand to the other in the lane.
Your cow for the five
- Scene 4The Cottage Gardencrushing
She did not shout
Jack's mother looks at the five beans for a long moment, throws them out of the window, and sends him to bed with no supper.
That was somehow worse
- Scene 5The Cottage Gardenheadlong
The room was never dark in the morning
Jack wakes because the room is dark, and outside the window a beanstalk fills the whole garden and goes up into the clouds.
It went up and up and out of sight
- Scene 6The Giant's Housewondering
Everything about it was too big
Jack climbs all morning and comes out of the top of the cloud onto a road with a house at the far end of it, and every single thing on it has been built for somebody else.
A road, above the clouds
- Scene 7The Giant's Housedisarming
My husband eats boys
A woman as tall as the cottage at home warns Jack off, and he answers by mentioning that he is hungry.
I haven't eaten since yesterday
- Scene 8The Giant's Housequick
Get in the oven
She gives him bread and cheese and a cup of milk the size of a bucket, and she is just about to say something else when the floor starts moving under all of it.
The whole house began to shake
- Scene 9The Giant's Housethunderous
FEE-FI-FO-FUM
From inside the bread oven Jack watches the giant come in and announce that he smells an Englishman.
That is the sheep I am cooking
- Scene 10The Giant's Houseastonishing
Lay
The giant puts a small brown hen on the table, says one word, and it lays an egg of solid gold. Four times.
One word, and an egg of solid gold
- Scene 11The Cottage Gardenquiet
She did not shout that time either
Jack comes off the bottom of the beanstalk with the hen under one arm, puts her down on the table, and his mother looks at the bird for a long time before she says anything.
A small brown hen on the table
- Scene 12The Cottage Gardenrestless
And then he climbed it again
New thatch, a cow in the field, bread on the table, and Jack sitting in the garden with his head back, looking at the thing that is still standing there.
For a while everything was fine
- Scene 13The Giant's Houseweary
You. The hen.
Jack comes back a second time and the giant's wife knows exactly who he is and what he took.
She knew him at once
- Scene 14The Giant's Housedry
You said that last time
The lid of the copper is down over Jack's head. The giant comes in, says exactly what he said the first time, and his wife carries on with the washing.
And it was the sheep
- Scene 15The Giant's Housetedious
An hour and a half
Bag after bag of money poured out on the table, sorted into stacks, counted, and put back into the bag again, and the whole business takes him an hour and a half.
Counted, and put back
- Scene 16The Giant's Housecold
She did not speak to him once
Jack stands on the doorstep a third time. She looks down at him, stands aside, and points at the copper in the corner, and that is the entire conversation.
She did not say anything at all
- Scene 17The Giant's Housebeautiful
Play
The giant brings out a harp made of gold, sets it on the table, tells it one word, and it plays with nobody touching it while he sits back and listens.
It played by itself
- Scene 18The Giant's Housepanic
MASTER
Jack picks up the golden harp and it shouts for its owner.
The only thing he took that shouted
- Scene 19The Cottage Gardenfrantic
Mother, the axe
Jack comes down the swaying beanstalk faster than is sensible and shouts for the axe, and his mother already has it.
She was already coming out of the door
- Scene 20The Cottage Gardenfinal
Four strokes
Jack takes the axe out of his mother's hands and cuts through the beanstalk, and the whole enormous thing goes over across the garden and the lane and the fields past it.
Four strokes
- Scene 21The Ploughed Fieldextraordinary
Can you climb?
The giant sits winded and furious in a ploughed field, and Jack's mother walks out to talk to him.
She walked out there and asked him a question
- Scene 22The Cottage Gardensettled
The first sensible thing
The hen, the gold and the harp all stay in a mended cottage with a great hole in the garden, and Jack is not comfortable about any of it, which his mother takes as progress.
Never once entirely comfortable
Where it happens
The Cottage Garden
garden
A tumbledown cottage, some cabbages, and later an enormous hole where a beanstalk used to be.
The Giant's House
house
At the end of a road above the clouds, and everything in it is the wrong size.
The Lane
country road
Half a mile from home, with a five-bar gate and an old man sitting on it.
The Ploughed Field
field
Two fields beyond the garden, where the beanstalk came down and the giant landed.
How they are connected
JackThe Giant's Wifefriend
She is not fooled once, and she helps him three times anyway.
JackJack's Motherfamily
She gives one instruction twice and he loses the cow within half a mile.
The GiantThe Giant's Wifefamily
He announces there is an Englishman in the house. She tells him it is the sheep. Three times.
JackThe Old Manmentor
He tells Jack the exact truth and it still sounds like a swindle.
Things you might not know
FEE-FI-FO-FUM is older than the fairy tale. A version of it appears in Shakespeare's King Lear, written around 1606, which means the rhyme was already familiar to audiences then.
Jack never outwits the giant. Not once. He hides in an oven, hides in a copper, waits for the giant to fall asleep, and takes things. The clever one is the giant's wife.
In the 1807 printed version a fairy appears and explains that the giant murdered Jack's father, which turns the theft into revenge. Joseph Jacobs removed all of it, leaving Jack as a straightforward thief.
There is an English tale with exactly the same structure called Molly Whuppie, in which a girl makes three raids on a giant's house. She is considerably cleverer than Jack.
The old man is the only character in the story who tells the complete truth. Everyone assumes Jack has been swindled, including his mother, and everyone is wrong.
Jack and the Beanstalk is one of the most performed British pantomimes, where the cow is traditionally played by two people in one costume.
Folklorists file it as ATU 328, The Boy Who Stole the Ogre's Treasure. The three-raid structure appears across Europe, including a Norwegian version collected by Asbjornsen and Moe.
Researchers who have tried to trace the family trees of folk tales have argued that this one may be over five thousand years old, descending from a story about a boy stealing from an ogre.
What things stand for
- The five beans
- Something everybody agrees is worthless, which turns out not to be. Nobody in the story is right about them at the time, including Jack.
- The beanstalk
- A way up that was not there yesterday. It works in both directions, which is the part Jack keeps forgetting.
- The hen
- Enough. Once he has it, nothing that follows was necessary.
- The harp that sings by itself
- The only thing he takes that does not want to go, and the only theft that has a consequence.
- The axe
- The one moment Jack thinks ahead instead of climbing, and it is at the very bottom.
The same story elsewhere
Folk tales are not owned by whoever wrote them down first.
Jack and his Golden Snuff-box
England, 1890
Another Jack tale collected by Jacobs, in which a boy leaves home with a magic object and completes impossible tasks.
The Boy Who Stole the Ogre's Treasure
Norway, 1845
Asbjornsen and Moe's version, in which the boy makes three raids on an ogre's house, exactly as Jack does.
Jack the Giant Killer
England, traditional
A different Jack entirely, who kills giants by trickery. The two tales are often confused and were sometimes printed together.
Molly Whuppie
England, 1890
The same three-raids structure with a girl as the thief. Also collected by Jacobs, and considerably cleverer.
Where you might already know it from
Most children meet a screen version first. Here is what those changed.
The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk
book, Benjamin Tabart, 1807
The first printed version, which added a fairy who explains that the giant had murdered Jack's father, turning the theft into justified revenge. Jacobs removed all of that.
The Red Fairy Book
book, Andrew Lang, 1890
Lang followed the older, moralised version, so a fairy explains that the giant robbed and killed Jack's father. In this version Jack is taking back what was stolen from his family.
Pantomime
other, Various
One of the most performed British pantomimes. The cow becomes a comic two-person costume and the giant is usually offstage.
Questions parents ask
- What is the moral of Jack and the Beanstalk?
- Knowing when to stop is a different skill from being brave, and it is the harder one.
- What is Jack and the Beanstalk about?
- Jack is sent to sell the last cow and comes home with five beans. His mother throws them out of the window. In the morning there is a beanstalk going up through the clouds, and Jack, who has never once thought a thing through, starts climbing.
- What age is Jack and the Beanstalk for?
- Jack and the Beanstalk suits ages 5-10.
- How long does Jack and the Beanstalk take to read?
- About 9 minutes read aloud.
- Where does Jack and the Beanstalk come from?
- Jack and the Beanstalk is a traditional tale from England.
Sing it
Every story here has its own song. This one is rowdy, breathless, then quiet, about 132 beats a minute.
Five Beans
acoustic folk stomp
There is no recording yet. The words are here so you can sing it yourself.
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