Jack and the Beanstalk: The Bedtime Story Retold
Quick answer: Jack and the Beanstalk retold for bedtime: a cow sold for beans, a stalk to the sky, an ogre, a hen that lays gold and a harp that calls out. Origin and reading tips.
A boy sells his mother's only cow for a handful of beans, and by morning a stalk outside the window goes up past the clouds. Jack is the great English rogue, a thief three times over, and the story never apologises for him.
The story
A poor widow had one son, Jack, and one cow, Milky-White, and one morning the cow gave no milk. “Take her to market and sell her,” said the mother. On the road Jack met an odd old man who offered five beans for the cow, which planted overnight would reach the sky. Jack thought it a fine bargain. His mother did not. She threw the beans out of the window and sent him to bed hungry.
In the morning the room was dark, because a beanstalk had grown past the window and out of sight. Jack climbed it. At the top was a long road ending at a great tall house, and at the door a great tall woman, whom he asked for breakfast. “It is breakfast you will be if you stay,” she said. “My man is an ogre.” But she was kind, gave him bread and cheese, and when the house shook with footsteps she hid him in the oven. In came the ogre, sniffing. “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.” “Nonsense,” said his wife. “You smell yesterday's ox.” The ogre ate, counted out bags of gold, and fell asleep. Jack crept out, took a bag, and climbed down.
When the gold was spent he went up again. The ogre's wife was suspicious but hid him, and this time Jack took a hen that laid a golden egg whenever you said “Lay.” The third time he hid in a copper pot. The ogre had his golden harp brought out, and it sang him to sleep. Jack took the harp, but the harp cried, “Master, master,” and the ogre woke and gave chase.
Jack slid down with the ogre after him, shouted for his mother to bring the axe, and chopped at the stalk as soon as his feet touched the ground. The beanstalk fell, and the ogre with it, and that was the end of him. Jack and his mother lived comfortably on the golden eggs, and in time he married a princess.
Where it comes from
The earliest known printed version is an English chapbook of 1734; the story most people know is Joseph Jacobs's, in English Fairy Tales, 1890. Benjamin Tabart's 1807 version added a fairy who explains that the ogre had robbed Jack's father; Jacobs left her out.
What the tale is about underneath
The tale is about a boy called a fool who turns out to be lucky and then quick. Jack does nothing sensible: he trades a cow for beans, climbs a plant into the sky, and robs a house whose owner eats people. What saves him each time is the ogre's wife, whose kindness the story never explains. Under the fee-fi-fo-fum, this is a story about a mother and son with nothing, and it sides completely with the thief.
Reading aloud
Give the ogre a slow, enormous voice and Jack a quick, light one.
Write your own
Borrow the third theft that goes wrong. Let your character succeed twice by the same trick, then on the third attempt take something with a voice of its own. The rule of three is only interesting when the third beat breaks the rhythm. Keep the helper too: an insider with every reason to give your hero up who does not.
What writers can take from this
- Make the beans look worthless. The listener should side with the mother.
- Chant the fee-fi-fo-fum the same way each time and let the child join.
- Let the ogre's wife be gruff and kind together; she is the tale's real mystery.
- Give the hen its one word and the harp its two.
- Bring the beanstalk down in a single sentence and end on the golden eggs.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a character sells the family's last asset for something worthless that turns out to be a road. At the far end lives someone dangerous whose partner keeps helping the intruder. Let the third theft be of something that can call for help.
Questions
What is the moral of Jack and the Beanstalk?
The story does not offer one, and it has troubled moralists for two centuries because Jack steals three times and is rewarded. Older versions added a fairy who explains that the ogre had robbed Jack's father. Read plainly, it says that daring and luck can lift a poor boy out of poverty, and that a helper inside the enemy's house matters more than strength.
Is Jack and the Beanstalk too scary for a 5-year-old?
Usually not. The ogre's threat to eat Jack is spoken in a chant and never comes close to happening, and the ogre's wife is kind. The fall of the beanstalk is over in a sentence.
Where does Jack and the Beanstalk come from?
It is an English folk tale, printed as a chapbook as early as 1734. The version most people know is Joseph Jacobs's in English Fairy Tales, 1890, which has the hen that lays golden eggs and the harp that cries out.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
Enter a Writory story contest
Enter the Writory Short Story Contest and have your own story read and scored out of 100. Entries close 25 November. That first entry makes you a Writorian.