Stingy Jack. Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack and Jill. Jack o Lanterns… who the fuck is Jack? You’re in luck this episode. Jack has been burning in our minds, too, and we decided to get to the bottom of this mystery. Remy has painstakingly mapped out the origin of the Jacks… and found a relation that is responsible for Jack.
Listeners, this weekend is leading into Thanksgiving, so enjoy this shorter, very easy going episode. We have several side conversations, but I promise they are all mostly relevant to the topic in some way. And there’s a cute story about one of my kids.
This article talks about the general popularity of the name Jack through history and mentions the bit of research done in the UK by Professor Wiseman on whether names influence your life.
Admittedly, this is the Wikipedia link to Jack the folktale hero. But the list of further reading at the bottom of the page is a good one that takes you to some really good articles and books about historical Jack tales plus about the contemporary people who keep the stories alive.
This link will take you to an Appalachian History site where it talks about how the Jack tales made their way to the United States and lived on (and changed) over here. And about the family that made that possible and the historian that preserved them. My direct ancestor actually (5th great grandfather!).
This takes you to the Blue Ridge National Heritage site where you can learn about Council Harmon as a historic artist and his role in bringing the Jack tales to the U.S. From here, you can follow links to his other family members.
This is the hour-long documentary about Ray Hicks, the ancestor who I talk about in this episode who won the awards and preserved the Jack tales into the 20th century.
This one is part of Robert MacNeil’s The Story of English, part 4 The Guid Scots Tongue. Ray was featured in this documentary because he and his family, as a result of being so isolated, preserved the closest form of the original Scots-Irish Appalachian accent. His part begins at 6:45
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