The "Jack Tales" are a specific
genre of
storytelling, a series of often
outlandish, sometimes
moralistic bits of
folklore that are said to have originated in the
Appalachian Mountains that run through
Virginia,
Tennessee, and
North Carolina. They are called "Jack Tales" because of the
common thread that runs through each of them: "
Jack", the hero and
protagonist, who always seems to win in the end.
Often times, in the Tales, Jack finds himself in a sticky
predicament, usually due to his own
folly, or
mischief, and has to use his keen
wit to get out of the situation. More often that not, Jack runs into various troublesome characters --
mythical ones, such as giants, psuedo-religious ones, like the
devil, or
elemental ones, like the
North West Wind, all of whom are personified, and who take great delight in trying to
take advantage of ole Jack -- until the
sly one manages to beat each of them at their own games.
You most likely have heard one or two Jack Tales yourself. "
Jack and the Beanstalk", while perhaps not
native to this region (it likely originated in
Germany, home early on to a sizable portion of
Appalachian immigrants), is a common tale
adopted and often respun as southern folklore. Others, perhaps might not be so familiar, such as "
Sop Doll!" or "
Old Fire Dragaman".
No two
storytellers will ever tell any Jack Tale quite the same -- and that's part of the beauty in them. These fragments of
oral tradition have been handed down, generation after generation, and thus they always take on a little of the
local flavour, and perhaps a little of the storyteller's
personality. One thing's for sure, though: the
fabled Jack always comes out on top.
Years ago, storyteller
Richard Chase collected a wide variety of the Jack Tales, editing and publishing them in a book of the same name, that they might be
disseminated outside the Appalachian region. This book can still be bought today, and while reading them outright can't compare with the experience of hearing an
imaginative storyteller
recite one of them
firsthand, the Jack Tales always sound good when they're read outdoors, around an open
campfire.
For what it's worth, there is also a similar collection,
Grandfather Tales, more stories that come from the same region, but don't necessarily feature Jack.