Jack and the Beanstalk is an English fairy tale, closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant Killer. It is known under a number of versions. Benjamin Tabart recorded the oldest known one in 1807, but Joseph Jacobs popularised it in English Fairy Tales (1890). Jacobs's version is most commonly reprinted today and is believed to more closely adhere to the oral versions than Tabart's, because it lacks the moralising of that version.------------------Jack was a very poor boy whose lack of common sense often drove his widowed mother to despair. One day she sent him to the market to sell their last and only possession, a cow. But along the way, Jack met a stranger who offered to trade it for five "magic beans." Thrilled at the prospect of owning magic beans, Jack made the deal without hesitation. Alas, his mother turned out to be less than thrilled when he arrived back home. She threw the beans straight out of the window and sent Jack to bed without dinner. Overnight however, the seeds grew into a gigantic beanstalk. It reached so far into the heavens, the top went completely out of sight. Eager as the young boy was, Jack immediately decided to climb the plant and arrived in a land high up in the clouds, the home of the giant. When he broke into the giant's castle, the giant quickly sensed a human was near: Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!?? I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he 'live, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread. ----------------------------- However, Jack was saved by the giant's wife and as he escaped from the palace, he took some gold coins with him. Back home, the boy and his mother celebrated their newfound fortune. But their luck did not last, and Jack climbed the beanstalk once more. This time he stole a hen which laid golden eggs. Again he was saved by the giant's wife. He went down the beanstalk and showed the hen to his mother, and the two lived happily on the proceedings from the hen's eggs. --------------------------- Eventually, Jack grew bored and resolved to climb the beanstalk a third time. This time, he stole a magical harp that played by itself. The instrument did not appreciate being stolen and called out to the giant for help. The giant chased Jack down the beanstalk, but luckily the boy got to the ground before the giant did. Jack immediately chopped it down with an axe. The giant fell to earth, hitting the ground so hard that it split, pulling the beanstalk down with him. --------------------The origin of Jack and the Beanstalk is unknown, although the author was almost certainly British or German. The earliest printed edition which has survived is the 1807 book The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk, printed by Benjamin Tabart, although the story was already in existence sometime before this, as a burlesque of the story entitled The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean was included in the 1734 second edition of Round About Our Coal-Fire. In the usual version of the tale, the giant is unnamed, but many plays based on the story name him as Blunderbore; a giant of that name also appears in Jack the Giant-Killer. The beanstalk is reminiscent of the ancient Saxon belief in a World tree connecting earth to heaven. The giant's "Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!" was included in William Shakespeare's King Lear.