“Noble stranger, it is too much to run a second risk, for note, this
monster lived in a den under yon mountain with a brother of his, more
fierce and fiery than himself. Therefore, if you should go thither and
perish in that attempt it would be the heartbreaking of both me and my
lady. Therefore let me persuade you to go with us, and desist from any
further pursuit.”
“Nay,” quoth Jack, “if there be another—nay, were there twenty, I would
shed the last drop of blood in my body before one of them should escape
my fury. When I have finished this task I will come and pay my respects
to you.”
So, having taken the directions to their habitation, he mounted his
horse, leaving them to return home, while he went in pursuit of the
deceased giant’s brother. He had not ridden past a mile and a half
before he came in sight of the cave’s mouth, near to the entrance of
which he beheld the other giant sitting upon a huge block of timber
with a knotted iron club lying by his side, waiting, as Jack supposed,
for his brother’s return. His goggle eyes appeared like terrible flames
of fire. His countenance was grim and ugly, his cheeks being like a
couple of large fat flitches of bacon. Moreover, the bristles of his
beard seemed to resemble rods of iron wire. His locks hung down upon
his broad shoulders, like curled snakes or hissing adders.
Jack alighted from his horse and put him into a thicket, then, with his
coat of darkness, he came somewhat nearer to behold this figure, and
said softly—
“Oh! are you there? It will be not long e’er I shall take you by the
beard.”
The giant all this time could not see him by reason of his invisible
coat. So, coming up close to him, valiant Jack, fetching a blow at his
head with his sword of sharpness, and missing something of his arm,
cut off the giant’s nose. The pain was terrible, and so he put up his
hands to feel for his nose, and when he could not find it, he raved
and roared louder than claps of thunder. Though he turned up his large
eyes, he could not see from whence the blow came which had done him
that great disaster, yet, nevertheless, he took up his iron–knotted
club, and began to lay about him like one that was stark staring mad.
“Nay,” quoth Jack, “if you are for that sport, then I will despatch you
quickly, for I fear an accidental blow should fall on me.”
Then, as the giant rose from his block, Jack makes no more to do but
runs the sword up to the hilt in his body, where he left it sticking
for a while, and stood himself laughing, with his hands akimbo, to see
the giant caper and dance, crying out.
The giant continued raving for an hour or more, and at length fell down
dead, whose dreadful fall had like to have crushed poor Jack had he not
been nimble to avoid the same.
This being done, Jack cut off both the giants’ heads and sent them to
King Arthur by a wagoner whom he hired for the purpose, together with
an account of his prosperous success in all his undertakings.
Jack, having thus despatched these monsters, resolved with himself to
enter the cave in search of these giants’ treasure. He passed along
through many turnings and windings, which led him at length to a
room paved with free–stone, at the upper end of which was a boiling
cauldron. On the right hand stood a large table where, as he supposed,
the giants used to dine. He came to an iron gate where was a window
secured with bars of iron, through which he looked, and there beheld a
vast many miserable captives, who, seeing Jack at a distance, cried out
with a loud voice—
“Alas! young man, art thou come to be one amongst us in this miserable
den?”
“Ay,” quoth Jack, “I hope I shall not tarry long here; but pray tell
me what is the meaning of your captivity?”
“Why,” said one young man, “I’ll tell you. We are persons that have
been taken by the giants that keep this cave, and here we are kept
till such time as they have occasion for a particular feast, and then
the fattest amongst us is slaughtered and prepared for their devouring
jaws. It is not long since they took three for the same purpose.”
“Say you so,” quoth Jack; “well, I have given them, both such a dinner
that it will be long enough e’er they’ll have occasion for any more.”
The miserable captives were amazed at his words.
“You may believe me,” quoth Jack, “for I have slain them with the point
of my sword, and as for their monstrous heads, I sent them in a wagon
to the court of King Arthur as trophies of my unparalleled victory.”
For a testimony of the truth he had said, he unlocked the iron gate,
setting the miserable captives at liberty, who all rejoiced like
condemned malefactors at the sight of a reprieve. Then, leading them
all together to the aforesaid room, he placed them round the table, and
set before them two quarters of beef, as also bread and wine, so that
he feasted them very plentifully. Supper being ended, they searched the
giants’ coffers, where, finding a vast store of gold and silver, Jack
equally divided it among them. They all returned him hearty thanks
for their treasure and miraculous deliverance. That night they went to
their rest, and in the morning they arose and departed—the captives to
their respective towns and places of abode, and Jack to the house of
the knight whom he had formerly delivered from the hand of the giant.
It was about sun–rising when Jack mounted his horse to proceed
on his journey, and by the help of his directions he came to the
knight’s house some time before noon, where he was received with all
demonstrations of joy imaginable by the knight and his lady, who, in
honourable respect to Jack, prepared a feast, which lasted for many
days, inviting all the gentry in the adjacent parts, to whom the worthy
knight was pleased to relate the manner of his former danger and the
happy deliverance by the undaunted courage of Jack the Giant Killer.
By way of gratitude he presented Jack with a ring of gold, on which
was engraved, by curious art, the picture of the giant dragging a
distressed knight and his fair lady by the hair of the head, with this
motto—
“We are in sad distress, you see,
Under a giant’s fierce command;
But gained our lives and liberty
By valiant Jack’s victorious hand.”
Now, among the vast assembly there present were five aged gentlemen
who were fathers to some of those miserable captives which Jack had
lately set at liberty, who, understanding that he was the person
that performed those great wonders, immediately paid their venerable
respects. After this their mirth increased, and the smiling bowls went
freely round to the prosperous success of the victorious conqueror,
but, in the midst of all this mirth, a dark cloud appeared which
daunted all the hearts of the honourable assembly.
Thus it was. A messenger brought the dismal tidings of the approach
of one Thunderdel, a huge giant with two heads, who, having heard of
the death of his kinsmen, the above–named giants, was come from the
northern dales in search of Jack to be revenged of him for their most
miserable downfall. He was now within a mile of the knight’s seat, the
country people flying before him from their houses and habitations,
like chaff before the wind. When they had related this, Jack, not a
whit daunted, said—
“Let him come. I am prepared with a tool to pick his teeth. And you,
gentlemen and ladies, walk but forth into the garden, and you shall be
the joyful spectators of this monstrous giant’s death and destruction.”
To which they consented, every one wishing him good fortune in that
great and dangerous enterprise.
The situation of this knight’s house take as follows: It was placed
in the midst of a small island, encompassed round with a vast moat,
thirty feet deep and twenty feet wide, over which lay a drawbridge.
Jack employed two men to cut this last on both sides, almost to the
middle, and then, dressing himself in his coat of darkness, likewise
putting on his shoes of swiftness, he marches forth against the giant,
with his sword of sharpness ready drawn. When he came up to him, yet
the giant could not see Jack, by reason of his invisible coat which he
had on. Yet, nevertheless, he was sensible of some approaching danger,
which made him cry out in these following words—
“Fe, fi, fo, fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman;
Be he alive or be he dead
I’ll grind his bones to make me bread.”
“Sayest thou so?” quoth Jack, “then thou art a monstrous miller indeed.
But what if I serve thee as I did the two giants of late? On my
conscience, I should spoil your practice for the future.”