English Fairy Tales

Joseph Jacobs

XX. HENNY-PENNY.

Source.—I give this as it was told me in Australia in 1860.
The fun consists in the avoidance of all pronouns, which
results in jaw-breaking sentences almost equal to the cel-
ebrated “She stood at the door of the fish-sauce shop, wel-
coming him in.”

Parallels.—Halliwell, p. 151, has the same with the title
“Chicken-Licken.” It occurs also in Chambers’s Popular
Rhymes, p. 59, with the same names of the dramatis personae,
as my version. For European parallels, see Crane, Ital. Pop.
Tales, 377, and authorities there quoted.

XXI. CHILDE ROWLAND.

Source.—Jamieson’s Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, 1814,
p. 397 seq., who gives it as told by a tailor in his youth, c.

1770. I have Anglicised the Scotticisms, eliminated an un-

necessary ox-herd and swine-herd, who lose their heads for

directing the Childe, and I have called the Erlkönig’s lair the

Dark Tower on the strength of the description and of

Shakespeare’s

reference. I have likewise suggested a reason why Burd Ellen

fell into his power, chiefly in order to introduce a definition

of “widershins.” “All the rest is the original horse,” even in-

cluding the erroneous description of the youngest son as the

Childe or heir (cf. “Childe Harold” and Childe Wynd, infra,

No. xxxiii.), unless this is some “survival” of Junior Right or

“Borough English,” the archaic custom of letting the heir-

ship pass to the youngest son. I should add that, on the

strength of the reference to Merlin, Jamieson calls Childe

Rowland’s mother, Queen Guinevere, and introduces refer-

ences to King Arthur and his Court. But as he confesses that

these are his own improvements on the tailor’s narrative I

have eliminated them.

Parallels.—The search for the Dark Tower is similar to that

of the Red Ettin, (cf. Köhler on Gonzenbach, ii. 222). The

formula “youngest best,” in which the youngest of three