Folk Tales of the United Kingdom continues with six more tales of England and Scotland as Joseph Jacobs collected them in his English Fairy Tales (London, 1890). They are read here complete, exactly as written.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
In The Master and His Pupil, a foolish lad left alone with his master's chained book of secrets spells out one line too many, and the demon he raises will not stop watering a geranium. In The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh, Princess Margaret lies spelled into a great worm on the sea-rock, waiting for the brother who must kiss her three times to set her free. In Mr. Vinegar, a man whose wife has knocked down their vinegar-bottle house trades forty guineas for a cow, the cow for bagpipes, the bagpipes for gloves, and the gloves for a stick. In Lazy Jack, Jack follows his mother's advice one job too late every time — until the day he carries a donkey home on his shoulders. In How Jack Went to Seek His Fortune, Jack and a cat, a dog, a goat, a bull and a rooster frighten a band of robbers out of a house with noise alone. And in The Cat and the Mouse, the mouse must run from cow to farmer, farmer to butcher, and butcher to baker to win back her tail.
A note on the tales as written. Four carry a moment of the old tales' menace or mischance, worth naming plainly. In The Master and His Pupil the demon threatens the boy and the water rises to his chin before the master returns and dismisses it — no harm is done, and the words of the black book are never given. In The Laidly Worm the worm's hunger is spoken of in one reported line; the sword her brother raises is never used, and the witch is changed into a toad, not killed. Mr. Vinegar closes on a single hyperbolic clause, his wife's cudgelling that "almost" breaks his bones. In How Jack Went to Seek His Fortune no one is hurt at all — the robbers are frightened off by noise, and the one man who comes back tells a tall tale of knitting-needles and axes that were only claws and horns. The Cat and the Mouse begins with the cat biting the mouse's tail off; the whole tale is the errand-chain that wins it back whole.
Chapters
0:22 The Master and His Pupil
4:28 The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh
11:22 Mr. Vinegar
17:31 Lazy Jack
21:05 How Jack Went to Seek His Fortune
24:21 The Cat and the Mouse
From English Fairy Tales (1890), collected by Joseph Jacobs — public domain. Tales of England and Scotland as Jacobs collected them; no Irish tales appear on this shelf. Narrated by Benedetto. Music: gentle instrumental bed under the narration.
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