Overview: After Jack is joined by a group of different animals, they find their refuge in a robbers' den, chase the robbers away, and in most versions find the robbers' hidden fortune. Jack's reasons for running away vary, and in some Appalachian variants, there are no animals. In the famous German tale, "The Bremen Town Musicians," the animals do not have a human leader like Jack as they do in the British Isles and America.
After many performances, the Jack Tale Players help children from the audience act out a brief version of the tale, as in the 30th anniversary performance at right, at Callaway, VA Elementary School, Dec. 12, 2005. In the photo at left, Rex Stephenson and Thomas Townsend perform with children in Woodstock, GA. On Dec. 2, 2011, children in Rocky Mount, VA joined in at an outdoor performance (Franklin News Post photo at this link). More at Study Guides for Jack Tale Players. Stephenson, R. Rex. "The Jack Tales." In Eight Plays for Youth: Varied Theatrical Experiences for Stage and Study, edited by Christian H. Moe and R. Eugene Jackson. American University Studies Series XXVI: Theatre Arts. Vol. 8. New York: Peter Lang, 1991. Includes three tales by Stephenson with background on Jack Tales and story theatre: "Jack and the Robbers," "Jack and the Three Giants," and "Greasy-Beard."
Children's responses to Stephenson's version of this tale are displayed at Appalachian Storytelling Event. Appalachian Studies Program. Virginia Tech, 2013. On June 24, 2013, children made quilt squares and recorded their own audio stories or responses to Jack Tales after seeing Stephenson and Emily Blankenship-Tucker tell stories (photos of storytellers at this link). Some of the children added another animal into "Jack and the Robbers," such as an owl that is stuck in its nest and then after Jack helps it out, the owl helps Jack scare the robbers. One child imagined Jack living in the robber's house and another mansion until he was 111 years old! "Jack Goes to Seek His Fortune." Full text in AppLit. James Taylor Adams Collection, JTA-71. Virginia folklorist James Taylor Adams wrote that this tale from his father was the first one he set down. Several versions are published in Perdue, Charles L., Jr., ed. Outwitting the Devil: JACK TALES from Wise County Virginia. Santa Fe, NM: Ancient City, 1987. In the one Adams collected from Lenore Corene Kilgore in 1940, reprinted in this web site, Jack leaves home because his mother is dead and he has a mean stepmother; he marries at the end after he and the animals find the robbers' gold. It is also reprinted in Smith, Jimmy Neil, ed. Why the Possum's Tail is Bare and Other Classic Southern Stories. New York: Avon, 1993. pp. 176-70. Perdue identifies it as type 130, "The Animals in Night Quarters." Another version of "Jack Goes to Seek His Fortune" and one called "Jack and the Robbers" (also collected by Adams in 1940-41) are a different story about Jack fending off some robbers while taking shelter in a strange home or mill (pp. 60-62). James Taylor Adams Collection (Folder Tales IV, in notes called "Folk Tales of the Cumberlands"). "Jack and the Robbers." Full text in AppLit. James Taylor Adams Collection, JTA-74. This short tale is quite different from others with this title, since there are no animal companions. Jack finds a fortune rather easily when he has to sleep in a mill and scares away robbers by knocking down the hopper in which he has been lying. It is also published in Perdue, Charles L., Jr., ed. Outwitting the Devil: JACK TALES from Wise County Virginia. Santa Fe, NM: Ancient City, 1987, pp. 61-62. Perdue identifies it as type 1653, "The Robbers Under the Tree." "Jack and the Robbers." In Hicks, Orville, and Julia Taylor Ebel. Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns, As Told By Orville Hicks. Illus. Sherry Jenkins Jensen. Boone, NC: Parkway Publishers, 2009. Afterword by Thomas McGowan. pp. 38-47. This book contains discussion of Jack and the Hicks storytellers by Orville Hicks, Ebel, and McGowan. "Jack and the Robbers by Storyteller Orville Hicks." YouTube channel "Orville Hicks Story Teller," Feb. 6, 2017. 8:37 min. Davis, Donald. Jack and the Animals: An Appalachian Folktale. Illus. Kitty Harvill. Little Rock: August House Little Folk, 1995. This one is similar to "How Jack Went to Seek his Fortune" (in Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, 1898) more than "The Bremen Town Musicians" or other Appalachian versions, because no motive is given for Jack and five elderly animals to leave their homes. Jack is simply going to seek his fortune, not escaping punishment resulting from his own negligence or his brothers betrayal, as in Hicks picture book and other variants. The motivation of the animals is also weakened, since they dont say that their masters want to destroy them or even get rid of them for being too old to work. At the end, Davis brings in the sheriff to assure Jack he can keep the treasures of the robbers they have scared away. Jack and the Animals. Told by Donald Davis in Grandmas Lap Stories. Audio cassette. Little Rock, AR: August House Audio, 1995. "Jack Seeks his Fortune" (10 min., 28 sec.) Told by Donald Davis in Storytelling the National Festival. Side 2 (of 2 LPs, c. 95 min.). Jonesborough, Tenn.: National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, 1983. Also in 2 Audio cassettes (116 min.). Van Laan, Nancy. "Jack Runs Off." With a Whoop and a Holler: A Bushel of Lore from Way Down South. Illus. Scott Cook. New York: Atheneum, 1998. Jack gets a whoopin' for not doing his chores. He runs off with a group of animals that are too old to be useful. They all ride on the donkey at night. After scaring away the robbers, Jack and the animals stay in the house, where "they are still havin' themselves a grand ol' time!" Retold from "Jack and the Robbers," one of the oral Jack Tales of Maud Long recorded at the Library of Congress in 1947. Cook's wacky illustrations show the frightened robber and carousing heroes. A map shows where the tales originate in different Southern regions, including the mountains. The amusing illustrations depict quirky human and animal characters in earth tones. For other details about this book, see Appalachian Folktales in General Collections. Hicks, Ray and Lynn Salsi. Jack and the Robbers. The Jack Tales. New York: Calloway, 2000. Links between this tale and famous illustrations of The Bremen Town Musicians are dramatically suggested in Owen Smith's tall, full-page color illustration of Jack and two animals riding on the donkey. This version begins with Jack's brothers getting him in trouble by claiming he has been picking on them, so he is angry at being the one to get punished for fighting and he runs away. Jack and the Robbers. Told by Ray Hicks on CD in The Jack Tales, 2000. The oral version is not identical to the edited text in the book. Hicks, Ray. "Jack and the Robbers." Recorded 1951. In "Ray Hicks." American Folktales: From the Collections of the Library of Congress. Ed. Carl Lindahl. Vol. 1. Armonk NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004, pp. 134-38. Also includes "The Unicorn and the Wild Boar," "The Witch Woman on the Stone Mountain on the Tennessee Side," "Grinding at the Mill" (a Jack tale also called "Sop Doll"), Mule Eggs." With photographs of Ray Hicks. Hicks, Orville. "Jack and the Robbers." Full text in Orville Hicks Official Website. See also AppLit's Ray and Orville Hicks, Storytellers of North Carolina. Jack leaves home because his father beats him for being lazy, and the animals he meets are in danger of being destroyed. Hicks, Ray and Luke Borrow. Jack and the Robbers. Videocassette (20 minutes). Appalachian Storyteller Ray Hicks Series. Part 4. Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, 1997. Produced by Luke Barrow, Fandangle Films. Based on Richard Chase's The Jack Tales. "Jack and the Robbers." Told by Richard Chase in Richard Chase Tells Three "Jack" Tales from the Southern Appalachians. LP. Sharon, Conn: Folk-Legacy Records, 1962. Torrence, Jackie. "Jack Runs Away from Home with a Gang of Talking Animals." In More Jack Tales. Audiobook on tape. Columbia, MO: Nita, 1980. Also includes "Jack is Young," "Jack is Old," "Jack Captures the Death Angel," "Jack is Magical," "Jack is Lazy." "Jack and the Robbers." In Kindt, Carol Lee and Linda Rockwell High. Once Upon a Mountain Tale: Eight Jack and Grandfather Tales. Lakeland, TN: Memphis Musicraft Publications, 1995. Accompanied by music and drawings with which children can make puppets and backdrops. "Jack and the Robbers." In MacDonald, Margaret R. Twenty Tellable Tales: Audience Participation Folktales for the Beginning Storyteller. Illus. Roxane Murphy. Chicago: Rev. ed. American Library Association, 2005. This books also includes versions of "Sody Salyratus," "Old One-Eye," and "Groundhog Dance" (Cherokee). Pica, Tony. Tradition Will Never Die. One-man show on Richard Chase, written and performed by Ferrum College drama senior Tony Pica. Includes a retelling of "Jack and the Robbers," and a depiction of Marshall Ward as an off-stage character introducing Chase to the Jack Tales. Directed by R. Rex Stephenson. Feb. 2003. "Jack and the Animals/Jack dap Swa'hol Wowe." In Corn Mountain/Pine Mountain: Following the Seasons. Script by Arden Kucate and Edward Wemptewa of Idiwanan An Chawe and Donna Porterfield and Ron Short of Roadside Theater. Original music by Ron Short. Directed by Dudley Cocke. This tale is about Jack winning the hand of a princess and teaching her to talk to animals. Jack's animal friends insist on following him to try for the princess; on the journey he rescues some drowning kittens and a toad-frog being tormented by boys. Because Jack can talk to animals, he rids the king's village of the wild Zuni dogs left by an angry witch, the kittens help him get rid of rats, and the frog helps turn the wart-covered princess into a beauty. Two fleas help him answer a question about the color of the princess's hair. This tale within the play ends by noting that "you don't have to be rich to be smart.... You don't even have to be smart to be rich.... And the most important language of all...is the language of the heart" (p. 90). Script published in English and Zuni in Journeys Home: Revealing a Zuni-Appalachia Collaboration. Ed. Dudley Cocke and Edward Wemytewa. Zuni, NM: Zuni A:shiwi Publishing, 2002. Foreword by Gregory Cajete. From the Publisher: "The story of the sixteen-year collaboration between artists from two of the United States' most traditional cultures, and the bilingual play they made together." Kentucky's Roadside Theater collaborated with Zuni Pueblo's Idiwanan An Chawe (Children of the Middle Place), the first Zuni language theater, in western New Mexico. Their play, which toured nationally, is included in the book. It combines "traditional and original stories, oral histories, humor, music, and dance to celebrate and comment upon two agricultural ways of life that once provided physical and spiritual sustenance for people in Zuni and Appalachia. . . . The Zuni writing in Journeys Home is the most inclusive example of written Zuni extant, and the book, with the accompanying CD, will become a primary text for teaching written Zuni." "Jack and the Robbers." Photos from 2019 at this link from Facebook page of Jack Tales Storytelling Theater of the Smoky Mountains. See also 2017 photo album at this link, and 2015 photos in three other albums, and 2009 photos in another album. In this version, Jack sets off for Nashville with his mother to become a country singer at the Grand Ole Opry. Also videos titled "Jack and the Royal Robbers" from July 2009 and "Jack and the Robbers" are linked in Facebook and YouTube.com. "Jack Tales Storytelling Theater of the Smoky Mountains originated at Clear Creek Campground in 1987." Facebook pages include photos and videos from a variety of tales. "Jack Tales Storytelling Theater is performed at Jack's Playhouse, located in the Adventure Bound Camping Resort (also known as Crazy Horse Campground), Highway 321, between Cosby and Gatlinburg, Tennessee" (accessed 12/14/19).
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