Chase, Richard. "Jack and the North West Wind." The Jack Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943, pp. 47-57. With two illustrations by Berkeley Williams, Jr. Although he never succeeds in stopping the cold wind, on Jack's quest he gains, loses, and regains a magic tablecloth, a rooster that lays golden eggs, and a magic club that will break up firewood. He punishes "rowdy boys" who steal from him by having the club break up their whole house. Jack and his mother live comfortably with these luxuries in the end. Chase identifies the tale as type 563, The Table, the Ass, and the Stick, with notes on variants in Europe and America, including specific references to Caribbean African American versions. Hicks, Ray and Lynn Salsi. "Jack and the North-West Wind." In The Jack Tales. Illus.Owen Smith. New York: Calloway, 2000. Jack hopes in vain to stop the cold wind by stuffing his cap in a hole where the wind comes out. The plot is similar to Chase's except Jack's mother does not warn that one can't find the wind. Smith's illustrations in earth tones incorporate images of barren trees blowing in the cold wind. "Jack and the Northwest Wind." Told by Ray Hicks on CD in The Jack Tales, 2000. Haley, Gail E. "Jack and the Northwest Wind." In Mountain Jack Tales. New York: Dutton, 1992, pp. 9-19. Haley's wood engraving shows the giant face of the Northwest Wind blowing on the struggling characters. The plot is similar to Chase's. Jack's mother says he can't make it as far as where the Northwest wind lives, but she can't argue with him. An old man chopping wood says no one can stop the wind before spring. Jack encounters and eventually punishes some "rowdy boys," making them promise not to rob travelers again. The end reminds us that the old man said "it's not a good thing for folks to go messing 'round with the natural seasons." See Appalachian Folktale Collections A-J for more details on Haley's book of Jack tales and Muncimeg. "Jack and the Northwest Wind." 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 Northwest Wind." Told by Jackie Torrence in Tales of Fools and Wise Folk. Cassette tape. Jonesborough, TN: National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, National Storytelling Press, and August House Publishers, 1991. c. 50 min. "In these classic tales, the honest win rewards while the evil do themselves in, rubes get the best of Ph.D.'s, and a poor young adventurer finds a helpmate with powerful magic" (WorldCat). Recorded live at the National Storytelling Festival. The seven tales by different storytellers also include "Old Dry Frye" told by Barbara Freeman. Hall, Francie. Appalachian ABCs. Illus. Kent Oehm. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1998. Among other folkways and arts, this alphabet book's short verse texts include "J is for Jack Tales. Once when a mighty North Wind rose/Jack and his mother nearly froze." Includes a full-page pastel portrait of Jack, a young man in overalls and hat, surrounded by a Jack in the Pulpit border, facing a silhouette of a storyteller with children and dog. See cover and comments at Overmountain Press or at Tene's Treasures online Appalachian bookstore. See also: McKissack, Patricia C. Mirandy and Brother Wind. Illus. Jerry Pinkney. Based on McKissack's grandparents' experience of winning a cakewalk (an African American dance tradition) as teenagers, this story tells of a young girl at the beginning of the twentieth century who would like Brother Wind to be her partner at the cakewalk. Her mother tells of an old saying about being able to control the wind if you can catch him, but Grandmama tells her that no one can catch Brother Wind, who is free. Mirandy uses folk practices suggested by different people, including a conjure woman, but the lively spring wind always eludes her. At the dance, she ends up winning the junior cakewalk with Ezel, a boy the others made fun of. Grandmama laughs at "them chullin . . . dancing with the Wind!" Brother Wind is depicted as a well-dressed "high-steppin'" man in top hat and flowing cape. While McKissack herself is from east of the mountains in Tennessee and the dust cover refers only to Pinkney's "rich, eye-catching watercolors of the rural South," the community of Ridgetop in the story is painted as a mountain setting. The tale is like "Jack and the Northwest Wind" with its emphasis on the futility of catching the wind. In both stories, people warn that the wind can't be caught, but Mirandy's wind is a playful spring visitor stirring up life in a lively young girl, not a freezing antagonist. Compare with: "The Lad Who Went to the North Wind." In this Norse tale, a poor widow's only son does reach the North Wind and talk to it, seeking restitution for the loss of meal that the wind blew out of his hands. The wind gives him the magic objects (cloth, ram that produces gold, and stick that takes commands), which are stolen in turn until the lad uses the stick to beat his thieving landlord. The end simply says the lad "went home" and he "got his rights for the meal he had lost." Translation by George Webbe Dasent is reprinted at Rick Walton's Online Library. These European tales contain the series of magic acquisitions, but not the quest to control the wind: Jacobs, Joseph. "The Ass, the Table, and the Stick." English Fairy Tales. 3rd ed. 1898. Rpt. New York: Dover, 1967. pp. 206–10. Jack leaves home unhappy with ill treatment by his father. He works for a year, earning an ass that drops money from its mouth, but it is stolen. In order to win his sweetheart's father's approval, Jack has another adventure in which he acquires a magic table and stick, using the latter to punish the innkeeper who steals his ass and table. When Jack returns rich and says he'll marry the richest girl, all the girls in town line up, but he still chooses his poor sweetheart; he has his stick knock the others on the head and gives their money to his sweetheart to make her the richest. Jacobs gives detailed notes on sources and interpretations. Reprinted at Rick Walton's Online Library. Grimm Brothers, Tale no. 36, "The Magic Table, the Golden Donkey, and the Club in the Sack," available in many editions. It is called "The Wishing-Table, the Gold Ass and the Cudgel in the Sack" in the online version of Margaret Hunt's translation of Grimms' 1884 edition. Kimmel, Eric A. The Magic Dreidels: A Hanukkah Story. Illus. Katya Krenina. New York: Viking, 1996. Last update:
September 8, 2003 |
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