Jack and the Beanstalk (Part 1) 🌱

Do you know the story of Jack and the beanstalk? This week’s adaptation of the classic British fairy tale involves Jack and his beanstalk, as well as a long-fingered lemur known as an aye-aye. Join us as Jack sets off on the first part of his adventure in Part 1, and join us for Part 2, which adds a basilisk and a newfoundland dog to the group! 

How these characters all fit together with three horrible giant brothers I leave you to find out by listening to their story…

New intro

Transcript

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♪ Foggy Oak Farm, Foggy Oak Farm ♪♪ Come on down to, Foggy Oak Farm ♪- Hi friends, welcome to Foggy Oak Fairytales. Each week, we'll bring you a new story. Some weeks, we'll share a story based on what's been happening on our real-life Foggy Oak Farm, where we have all sorts of animals and adventures. Other weeks, we'll use our imaginations and create new adventures together. I'm so glad you're here. Do you know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk? This week's adaptation of the classic British fairy tale involves Jack and his Beanstalk, as well as a long-fingered lemur known as an aye-aye, a basilisk, and a newfoundland dog. How these characters all fit together with three horrible giant brothers, I leave you to find out by listening to their story. Once upon a time in a land of magic and mischief, there lived a young boy named Jack. Now, Jack was what some in town? Oh, okay, fine, what everyone in town would have called a troublemaker. If there was mischief happening, you could safely bet that Jack was involved. If the hitching post in town was broken, everyone immediately blamed Jack. Someone let the cows out and sent them stampeding through the town square? Jack, someone tripped over a rope staked across the road close to the ground? Definitely, Jack. A giant thunderstorm blew the roof off a cottage, lightning struck the same spot twice. Crops didn't grow right? Jack, Jack, Jack. Now, some of these things were clearly not Jack's fault, and it wasn't fair for the villagers to ascribe blame to him. But in truth, Jack did cause a lot of the trouble that happened around town. And he enjoyed doing so. I've already told you and shown you that it was a time of mischief, and Jack certainly did his best to ensure a constant supply for his village. But it was also a time of magic, and magic was something Jack's life didn't have a lot of. Oh sure, there were plenty of air at nights roaming the countryside, defeating dragons, toppling giants, overturning evil kings, and yes, there were fairies and elves and witches and all sorts of magical people and creatures. But Jack simply wasn't one of them. He lived with his mother in a small cabin on the outskirts of town, and they almost never had enough to eat. As a result, Jack was small, tough, and always, always hungry. Did Jack sometimes play tricks on the other kids, like tying a bully's shoelaces together when he wasn't looking so that he would trip when he tried to walk or chase after Jack? Yes, but then again, Jack didn't have any shoes. And the top of one of his feet was still an angrily modeled purple from where that boy had stomped on his foot. Mischief, cunning, and retaliation were, more or less, all Jack had. It wasn't much of a life, and Jack often found himself wishing for some of that magic his mother always told him tales of, to find a way into his life. After a particularly bad day, Jack had unintentionally set fire to an inn's kitchen where he had been working as a spit-turner, spending his day rotating a giant slab of meat over hot flames. Jack was trudging home in the gathering dusk, feeling miserable. The stars were just beginning to come out, and even through his exhaustion and sadness, Jack felt something stir in him as he looked at the beautiful stars twinkling above. As he regarded them, a shooting star flamed across the sky, delighted at this rare stroke of luck, Jack made a wish. I wish for, for magic and adventure, he whispered as he watched the star. A dangerous wish in that day and age, because you really did need to be careful what you wished for. But none of that was on Jack's enchanted mind. Rather than disappearing into the distance like a normal shooting star, this one came straight down, hurtling towards Earth and Jack in a thrilling and terrifying, howl of fiery speed. Jack didn't have time to even think of running away. Almost before he processed what was happening, the star had crashed into the road, only 50 feet or so in front of him. The speed and violence of its collision with the Earth created a crater, the edge of which Jack quickly ran to. He looked down into the steaming indentation, which all things considered wasn't too terribly deep, and saw in its center a small object that shone with a pulsing green light. Overcome with curiosity and heedless of any danger, Jack scrambled and slid his way down into the heart of the crater and squatted down next to the object. Up close, the glowing treasure was about the size of Jack's hand and looked something like a large bean seed. Jack knew what a bean seed looked like because he always helped his mother plant their garden. It was a reliable source of fresh food they couldn't do without. This kidney-shaped starfall looked harmless enough even if it was glowing, and Jack felt an increasingly insistent urge to pick it up. Never went to resist an urge, Jack did so. As he picked up what he was thinking of as his star bean, his skin tingled and a shiver ran all across his body. The glow of the bean was suddenly gone, and instead his own skin gave off a gentle green light. That was weird. That was exciting. Without thinking about why, Jack set off back towards home, scrambling up the side of the crater one-handed. He'd never been that good at climbing things before, especially one-handed. Interesting. Jack moved quickly towards home and again, without considering why, went immediately to the garden, which at that point was full of a riot of fresh vegetables and a few flowers that his mother especially loved. It had gotten dark, but with the glow from his skin, Jack had no trouble seeing as he carefully dug a hole, planted the seed, and fetched water to give it a nice drink. Something magical was clearly going on, so Jack didn't bother to worry about why he felt compelled to do any of these things. It felt right and he'd wished for magic. Why worry? His mother had already gone to bed when Jack made his way into the house. He distractedly grabbed the bread and butter she'd left out for him, climbed one-handed again, up to his little loft above the kitchen, slowly munched his dinner as he looked out the window to the garden, which was darkly shattered in the moonlight, and then fell into a deep sleep. In the morning, Jack was startled awake by his mother's scream. He looked out the window to what had been their garden, where a large garden full of vegetables had been the night before, there was now an unthinkably gigantic, violently green plant wider than their house, and so tall Jack couldn't see the top of it from his window. It was covered in vines and leaves, which waved invitingly in the wind. He dashed out of bed and down the ladder in a trice and ran to his mother."Oh, Jack!" she cried. I came out to dig up some potatoes for breakfast and just look what on earth could have happened to our garden. What is this? His mother wasn't asking in a way that expected an answer. She was just processing what had happened out loud. But Jack knew an arriving guilty feeling churned in his gut. Mom, it's my fault. On my way home last night, I wished on a shooting star. The star fell down right in front of me and I planted it just there in the garden. Right where this thing is now. What is it anyway? It looks like a bean stock. Only I've never seen a bean stock like this. Jack looked up and saw that the top of the vine was not even visible. It reached all the way up into the clouds and perhaps beyond. His mother turned to look at him. Well, I suppose that's why your skin is sparkling at the moment. She said with a meaningful glance at his arms and legs. Jack looked too. Where he had been glowing the night before, he now sparkled, like someone had rubbed little flecks of diamond all over him. I suppose you're overdue for a little magic in adventure anyway. His mother said with a sigh. But listen, Jack, things aren't always what they seem and magic is as dangerous as it is powerful. If you set off on this adventure, I won't be able to help you. So make sure you're doing this with your eyes open. Jack stepped forward and hugged his mother hard. He knew from her many bedtime stories that this was so. He could get help along the way, but it wouldn't be from anyone he knew right now. His wits and cunning would be hugely important. He released his mother and paused for a moment as he took in the giant beanstalk. He contemplated going back to the inn to try and plead his way back into his kitchen boy job instead. After burning down the kitchen yesterday, it wasn't likely, but he did have the gift of gab and could be very persuasive. The thought filled Jack with dread. Better to disappear on a bold adventure and never be heard from again and go back to that, he thought. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and walked the few steps to the base of the beanstalk. The vines that wrapped around the main shaft of the beanstalk created what looked to Jack like excellent foot and handholds for a trip up into the sky. All come back with fortune, mother, all make sure we never go hungry again. And without even a glance over his shoulder, he started the long climb. His mother shook her head and turned back towards the house to try and scrounge something up for her own breakfast. She hoped she would see Jack again, but people in this time and place sort of accepted that when someone went on an adventure, it wasn't always going to go their way. Jack climbed easily, moving from, Jack climbed easily, moving from one foot and handhold to the next instinctively. He didn't rush and he didn't worry, yet somehow after only a few minutes, he had nearly reached the low bank of clouds that had rolled in with the foggy morning. Jack was excited. He'd never been in a cloud before. He shivered and delight as he felt the cool mist of the clouds move across his skin and he kept climbing. He couldn't see around him now. It was all white and gray swirling mist. If this is all that's up here, it's pretty boring, he muttered to himself. But no sooner had he spoken than he burst through the cloud into clear air. And not only was it clear air, the clouds seemed to have solidified under his feet. There was a gap through which the beanstalk rose, but the rest of the cloud looked satisfyingly solid. The beanstalk continued upward, but Jack's eyes were immediately caught by a truly gargantuan castle, which sat solid as anything upon the cloud, only a quarter mile or so away from the beanstalk. You only live once, Jack said and as cheerful of ways as he could manage to give himself some encouragement and jumped off the beanstalk and onto the cloud. It was springy, but it was definitely solid. Now Jack didn't mind taking chances and causing mischief, but he preferred not to get caught if he could avoid it. And he also knew that giants were notorious for building their castles up among the clouds where knights who wanted to rouse to them couldn't reach. Some giants were nice, but some very much were not. And unfortunately, there wasn't really a way to tell until you ran into one and it either ate you or it didn't. Much safer to assume that this was the castle of a mean giant and be pleasantly surprised if it turned out to be nice. The cloud ground wasn't totally flat. If the wind blew little puffs of cloud would detach from the ground, tumbled along until reconnecting with the main cloud, forming a sort of hill. By ducking and dodging behind these little puffs and their resulting little hills, Jack managed to make his way up to the castle under pretty decent cover. It probably also helped that Jack looked very tiny and non-threatening compared to the size and grandeur of the castle. The drawbridge was down so Jack could walk across the moat, which was really just a hole in the cloud encircling the castle. It would have dropped him straight back down to earth if he couldn't use the drawbridge. The secondary iron gate was raised. Well, why lock up your castle when no one was likely to come there anyway? Jack thought to himself. He scuttled across the drawbridge and hugged close to the thick entrance walls of the castle as he crept through the entrance. Sharp iron spikes, the bottom of that gate, dangled fearfully above his head as he went under. He found himself holding his breath until he was well away from them. The castle entrance opened onto a dusty, desolate courtyard. To Jack's left was the only sign of life, a tall, sparsely leafed tree with a chain wrapped around its face. The trail of the chain led up the tree to a fork in its branches, where Jack could make out a pair of round orange eyes blinking out, owlishly, at him from a patchy nest of sticks. Seeing no other evidence of life and curious about that creature, Jack sontered over to the tree."Hello up there," he called."I'm Jack. Who are you?" An animal Jack had never seen or heard of before, poked its head above the nest. It looked sort of like if you crossed a cat with a koala. Large black ears appointed face with a snub nose, a pelt of brownish black fur with longer gray hairs that stuck out at all angles. Made the animal look slightly disheveled and its strange, perfectly circular orange eyes stared at him from the front of its face."Oh no, oh human child, it is not safe for you to be here!" The animal called out, worry, and fear ringing out in every syllable. It climbed out of its nest, non to the tree. And that's when Jack also noticed its amazing fingers, incredibly elongated with sharp nails. The third finger on each hand was barely half the width of the others. The effect in total gave its hands a strange spidery appearance. Jack could barely pay attention to the creature's warning."What are you?" He breathed, impressed by the creature's quick movements down the tree. The animal perched on a lower branch nearer to Jack."It hardly matters, but I'm an aye-aye, and you'd never find me in a place like this instead of the tree tops of my forest back home, except I was captured by the giant who owns this castle and chained here so that I couldn't leave and have to do his bidding. I am telling you this really isn't a good place for anyone, but especially not a child." He loves to eat children! The eye-eye shuddered and made a shoeing motion with its long hands. Jack ignored the warnings again."What sort of bidding? Why did he chain you here?" The eye-eye sighed again."He's a very greedy sort of giant. He and his two brothers are the worst I've ever heard of in that respect, and he uses me as the key to his treasure. He thought he'd be awfully clever and keep any other giants, especially his brothers, from getting to his treasure by enchanting a beetle that lives in this tree. I'm the only one who can get it out for him. I use my fingers to tap on the tree and find the hollows where the beetle hides. Then I bite through the bark and I use this finger at this the eye-eye held up his thin third finger to fish it out of the tree. If I put the beetle against this knot in the tree just here, the eye-eye tapped a perfectly ordinary looking bump in the tree's bark. The tree will open and the giant can get to his treasure. And you're just stuck here doing that forever?" Jack asked, shocked."I am the eye-eye murmured sadly. And once again, I encourage you to leave now before you meet a similar or worse fate." Jack had been treated poorly and one thing he couldn't stand was to see others treated in a similarly awful fashion, really in a worse fashion. Jack shook his head, "This isn't right. I've had to do plenty of work I don't care for but no one chained me to a tree and made me stay alone forever to do their bidding. Let me help you. How can I break your chain?""I'm afraid it's unbreakable." The eye-eye replied sadly, "That's why you'd better go. There's no saving me." But even as the eye-eye responded, Jack felt another ripple across his skin and a wave of glittering light rolled off of him and onto the eye's chain. The chain glittered at first, then shown with that same green light of the star when it first fell. And then it shattered. Each link fell to the ground with a thud and then disintegrated into the dust of the courtyard until it was as if there had never been a chain."I'm, I'm free." The eye-eye asked incredulously. Sure looks like it. Jack agreed, staring in shock. Was it his imagination or was his skin a little less sparkly than it had been?"Well that settles it." The eye-eye said firmly, "I told myself if anyone ever came to free me, I was going to give them the giant's most prized possession and so I shall hold on just a moment." And in a flash the eye-eye was tapping, tapping, tapping on the tree. It seemed like it found what it was looking for because just as the creature had described, it suddenly bit into the bark chewing a hole and then inserted its thin third finger into the opening. It emerged with a golden beetle the size of Jack's big toe stuck to its finger and promptly scuttled down the tree to place it on the knot. As soon as that beetle touched the spot, the eye-eye released it and the tree cracked down the middle and swung open revealing a mound of gold and jewels that had been hidden inside. Jack's jaw dropped and he stepped forward. His fingers twitching involuntarily at the thought of stuffing his pockets with those riches."Oh don't mind all that," the eye-eye tutted, jumping onto the heap of treasure. It's all for show. It's a distraction and you'd never be able to carry more than a whiff of it out anyway. The eye-eye disappeared briefly, squeezing itself into some part of the hoard Jack couldn't even see and emerged holding a rather disgusting looking old leather bag. It looked greasy and almost moldy, but the eye-eye tossed it at him like it was a great prize. Given that it was in the giant treasure hoard, Jack was surprised to see that it wasn't much longer than his arm, surely difficult for a giant to use to get any treasure from. That is what you want right there my boy. This giant stole it off a wizard he ate long ago. Might as well get it back into human hands while we're at it. Now let's go before the giant returns. His wife is sleeping right now and nothing can wake her up when she's having one of her naps, but I'm not as sure we can hide from him if he makes it back before we're gone. Why exactly would I want a greasy old leather bag? Jack asked utterly confused. Oh, the eye-eye said right because it's magic. Reach into that bag and you'll always find money exactly the amount you need for whatever you needed for. Jack tested this assertion immediately, sticking his hand in and finding it suddenly filled with enough gold to buy their little cabin outright. He grinned, stuffed the coins back in the bag and offered his arm to the eye eye. Well, I certainly can't leave you here. What say you come live with me and my mother and you'll never see another chain in your life? Jack asked the eye eye. Let's go. The eye eye agreed, carefully climbing onto Jack's arm and then perching on his shoulder. As the eye eye left the tree, it snapped closed behind him with a crack. It was loud. Jack dashed back towards the beanstalk, leather bag and eye eye bouncing along with him as he ran. But when they got to the beanstalk, the eye eye spoke again. You know, it said, "That giant has two older brothers who are even more horrible than him. They all live directly on top of one another and I know for a fact that the other two have creatures they are forcing to guard their treasures too." What say you to making this a tale of free and sorting out the lot? They all go hunting for people to eat during the day so we aren't likely to run into any of them. Jack knew that three was a very good number for magical adventures and it was all going well so far. He already had a bag that would give him endless money and a new friend. What else could he discover if he kept going? Naturally, Ms. Givius Jack was no match for that opportunity."Let's go," he grinned. And Jack and the eye eye jumped onto the beanstalk and continued their journey up towards the next layer of clouds. Just as they were about to reach the beginning swirls of mist at the next cloud deck, Jack and the eye, I heard a furious roar coming from the castle."FEE FIE FO FUM I SMELL the blood of a human! They heard. And then an even angrier roar."Wife more savvy as gold as is my unbreakable chain! And I smell a human!""Oh goodness, I don't know, I've been asleep and I want to stay that way! Oh, don't smell any a human! You probably just threw that awful little animal down the mountain, forgot! Shouldn't you be out hunting for our dinner?" They heard the wife scream back."Oh, can't get to me treasure enough, smell any human, or tell ya!" The giant yelled back."I guess she can be woken up!" The eye I muttered to itself. Jack didn't want to waste more time listening to them fight. He was pretty sure hanging around, letting his smell get back to the castle would be a bad idea. He raced upwards into the mist of the next layer of clouds. The second layer was essentially the same, an almost identical castle loomed in the distance with an open drawbridge and gate."I don't know exactly what he has guarding his treasure," the eye I said quietly,"but I'm sure they've been treated just as badly as I was." Jack followed the same strategy as last time, using the puffs and cloud hills to hide his approach to the castle, dashing across the drawbridge and tucking himself in the eye close along the walls as they went through the entrance. Rather than coming into a courtyard, this time the entrance led them directly into a vast, dimly lit throne room. Two enormous chairs sat empty on one side of the room, while along the wall at the other was a table laden with every food you could possibly want to eat. Jack felt his stomach growl. He'd forgotten to eat breakfast. He started moving towards the table. He'd figure out how to reach up there, or maybe the eye I could climb up and bring something back down when the eye hissed in his ear."This feels like a trap!" And then they noticed what they had taken for intricate carving around one of the legs of the table was moving. That's it for this week, but join us next week to find out who, Jack and the eye I are about to meet in the castle of the second giant. See you soon! Remember, you're part of the story, too. What did you think of this story? What did you imagine when you were listening? We'd love to hear your part of the story. If you and your grown-up want, you can share your thoughts or a picture you drew with our Foggy Oak podcast family. You might find it easiest to share with us on Facebook @FoggyOakFarm, but we have lots of options on our website, FoggyOakFerryTales.com. You can also check out pictures from the farm and learn more about us. Thanks for being part of this story, and I hope you'll join us next week.[Music]