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As they drew near, the Knight was surprised to see a banner waving from the top of the keep, or strong tower; which banner he soon discerned to be King Alfred's! This was, indeed, a strange circumstance; but it turned out that the King had been successful in defeating a Danish army in that part of the country, and having heard that a Danish Giant had taken possession of his old friend Sir Ethelbert's castle, and held him prisoner there, he came to besiege it, and release his friend; and was surprised to find the only inmates to be a Giantess, a Dwarf, and a few of the knight's relations and retainers, prisoners in the dungeons. The Knight found King Alfred seated with his warriors in the great hall; and having given im the particulars of this strange history, particular;y how bravely, and how wisely, his son Jack had behaved in rescuing him from prison, he brought him out into the court-yard to see the Giant, and also to present little Jack to his Majesty. They had made the Giant crawl upon his knees through the gateway, and he now stood up before the entrance of the great tower; but to insure the safety of the King, and every one else, the soldiers, with their spears, were drawn up all around the yard; and archers had their bows and arrows ready to shoot, if they saw the least disposition on the part of the Giant to break loose. The King's huntsmen had also large fierce dogs, ready to let slip in case of need. Jack had hold of a strong cord that was fastened to the Giant's leg; and when he saw the King come forth he knelt down, bowed, and delivered the Giant into the custody of his Majesty's guards. — "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk," pp. 30-31.

Commentary

As with the conclusion of "Hop-o' My-Thumb," the resolution of Cruikshank's version of The History of Jack and the Bean-stalk is non-traditional in that it does not involve the violent death of the Giant, but his being compelled to serve the national interest by quarrying rock for the construction of castles and bridges. Jack's second raid had merely involved a theft; however, on his third ascent of the gigantic vine, his object is much more heroic and altruistic: to release his father, the Saxon knight Sir Ethelbert (probably the bearded figure standing on the steps next to Alfred), from the Giant's dungeon. The magic bean-stalk, under the influence of a charm concocted by the Garden Fairy and her sisters, ties up the Giant as he arrives above the cottage in The Fairies tie the Giant up in the Bean Stalk. Subsequently, the villagers, armed with a variety of implements and weapons, transport the Danish Giant by ship as they move to re-take Sir Ethelbert's castle. Imagine their surprise (and the reader's) when they find King Alfred and his army already in possession of the fortress, a moment which is perhaps nothing to the reader's surprise that mere mortals can approach the castle by ship, and do not have to ascend the magic bean-stalk.

Once again, Swillenbutz becomes an exaggerated Danish earl, his ninth-century leggings and smock-frock complementing the historical accuracy of the stone keep with arrow slits, the crenellated castle wals, and the Saxon men-at-arms. He looks back in defiance, not at the Saxon monarch (extreme right) or his captor, Jack (centre), but at the reader. The juxtaposition of the diminutive Jack and the giant, who fills the vertical axis of the engraving reiterates the continuing conflict between these diametrically opposed opposites: usurper versus loyal son, Danish nobleman versus Saxon villager, hairy, middle-aged captive versus small but determined free man. In the original Perrault story, there is no such socially and politically-oriented resolution, as Giant dies after falling from the bean-stalk, which Jack has chopped with an axe:

The moment Jack got down the bean-stalk he called out for a hatchet; one was brought him directly; just at that instant, the giant was beginning to descend; but Jack, with his hatchet, cut the bean-stalk close off at the root, which made the giant fall headlong into the garden: the fall killed him, thereby releasing the world from a barbarous enemy. Jack’s mother was delighted when she saw the bean-stalk destroyed. At this instant the fairy appeared: she first addressed Jack’s mother and explained every circumstance relating to the journeys up the bean-stalk. The fairy charged Jack to be dutiful to his mother, and to follow his father's good example, which was the only way to be happy. She then disappeared. Jack heartily begged his mother’s pardon for all the sorrow and affliction he had caused her, promising most faithfully to be very dutiful and obedient to her for the future. — Perrault, "Jack and the Bean-stalk," http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/68/fairy-tales-and-other-traditional-stories/5089/jack-and-the-bean-stalk/

As was the case with the Ogre in "Hop-o' My-Thumb," the captive will serve the national good, hewing "great stones for building royal and public places" (31). He is led by Jack, but other soldiers hold ropes attached to the giant's legs, and the giant's arms have been tied behind his back, rendering harmless. Despite his attempts at historical accuracy in this final illustration, Cruikshank has probably erred in classifying his re-telling of "Jack and the Bean-stalk" a "History," when the term "Legend" would have been less restrictive. For example, Jack has to climb the bean-stalk to get to the "beautiful country" (16) far above the valley floor where he, his mother and sister have lived for years after the Giant exiled them, but at the conclusion of the story he and the villagers easily sail around the coast ("after a short voyage they landed," p. 30). The concluding panel in the narrative-pictorial sequence emphasizes the historical aspects of the tale, and maintains that the Giant must "crawl upon his knees through the gateway" (30) before entering the courtyard. Presumably in this "strange history" the Giant has been unable to visit his prisoners ("a few of the knight's relations and retainers") in the dungeons, and has to rely on his wife and the dwarf to run the castle, whose turret (centre), for instance, seems only marginally taller than the Giant himself, but, given the size of his captors and the Saxon warriors, must be only fifteen feet tall. And the "great tower" (30) — "a fine building, towering above the trees that surrounded it" (16) — is almost certainly an anachronism.

Although the round tower is probably an artefact of a romanticized past since such fortifications were not constructed until after the Norman Conquest, one may point to a few fortified towers such as that at Fingal, Dublin, dating from the ninth century. Cruikshank may have been thinking of a specific ninth century fortification such as that at Daw's Castle, near Watchet, Somerset, that was part of Alfred's chain of defensive forts intended to protect south coast villages from Viking raids in the late ninth century, although the foundations for that fort were laid originally somewhat earlier in the Iron Age. Approximately one hundred metres above the sea, it is not a keep but a burh. The keep, however, is technically a Norman construction, the innermost portion of a mediaeval castle. The circumference of the turret (centre) seems impossibly small, as if Cruikshank has deliberately reduced the proportions in order to accommodate both the fortress and the giant in the same illustration.

The equipment of Alfred's warriors is probably a little more accurate — bows, mail shirts, swords, spears — although the conical helmets seem a little fanciful by the standards of the boar's crest helmet, that found at Sutton Hoo, and the Valsgarde Helmet. One notices a general absence of shields, which Cruikshank may have deliberately omitted in order to cram more figures into the constricted court-yard. King Alfred seems particularly well armed, carrying both a battle-axe and a long-sword, weapons which no other warrior in the picture is carrying, and which, in fact, have been discovered in very few Anglo-Saxon archaeological sites.

How Alfred's fyrdmen were equipped is uncertain, although spears and shields still remained the prime weapons. It may well be that this was all the equipment the average burwaran would use, possibly supplied to him by his lord. The fyrdmen, on the other hand were a professional warrior class, drawn from amongst the wealthiest men in the country, expecting to face a well equipped, professional enemy army. The evidence we have suggests that helmets, swords and mailshirts had become much more common by the time of Alfred's reforms, and most of the fyrd would have been equipped with at least a helm and sword in addition to their spear, shield and horse. Many would also have possessed a mailshirt. Some of the more well off burwaran may also have been equipped in a similar way to the fyrd. — Regia Anglorum.

Thus, the term "History" is dependant upon Cruikshank's attempt at historical accuracy in this final illustration which attempts to balance the fantastic element (the giant) with architecturally and militarily correct realia, as if, in the ninth century, giants, fairies, animated snowballs, and magic bean-stalks coexisted with Danish invaders and the Saxon fyrd and its leader, Alfred of Wessex, who, despite his size reative to that of the giant, is clearly in charge of proceedings in Jack brings the Giant prisoner to King Alfred. Alfred was the sole the Anglo-Saxon monarch identified by Charles Dickens in the third chapter, "England Under The Good Saxon, Alfred," of his Child's History of England (1851-53) and other Victorians such as the sculptor Sir William Hamo Thornycroft as the ideal British ruler and exemplar of "Saxon values," as seen in Marcus Stone's 1862 illustration of Alfred in the neatherd's cottage and the heroic monument in Winchester. In the final analysis, Cruikshank's feelings about Alfred and his vanquishing of the Danes appear to have overridden his concerns for historical accuracy, for he was essentially a caricaturist and a fantasist:

A master of black and white illustration, George Cruikshank skipped along the fence between reality and imagination and influenced similar juxtapositions of the real, surreal, and completely fantastic in many of his successor artists, including Willy Pog´ny, Aubrey Beardsley, and Arthur Rackham. — "When Phantasie Takes Flight."

Prior Scenes involving the formidable Danish Giant, Swillenbutz

Left: George Cruikshank's initial realisation of the giant as he lies, unconscious, from drinking too much beer (facing p. 19), Jack gets the Golden Hen away from the Giant (1854). Centre: George Cruikshank's second realisation of the giant as he hurls a boulder at Jack as he absconds with the magic harp (facing p. 24), Jack and the Fairy Harp, escaping from the Giant (1854). Right: Cruikshank's gripping scene of the giant's descending the bean-stalk to take vengeance on Jack, The Fairies tie the Giant up in the Bean Stalk (facing p. 26). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Bibliography

"The Anglo-Saxon Fyrd 878-1066 AD."​ Regia Anglorum. https://regia.org/research/warfare/fyrd2.htm

Bentley, Nicolas; Michael Slater and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

British Library. "George Cruikshank's Fairy Library." Romantics and Victorians. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/george-cruikshanks-fairy-library

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Part One, "Dickens and His Early Illustrators: 1. George Cruikshank. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1980. Pp. 15-38.

Cruikshank, George. The History of Jack & the Bean-Stalk. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. George Cruikshank's Fairy Library. London: David Bogue, 1854. (Price one shilling) 8 etchings on 6 tipped-in pages, including frontispiece.

Cruikshank, George. George Cruikshank's Fairy Library: "Hop-O'-My-Thumb," "Jack and the Bean-Stalk," "Cinderella," "Puss in Boots". London: George Bell, 1865.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z. The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1998.

Guildhall Library blog. "A Gem from Guildhall Library's Shelves: George Cruikshank's Fairy Library by George Cruikshank published by Routledge in London (c. 1870)." 8 August 2014. https://guildhalllibrarynewsletter.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/a-gem-from-guildhall-librarys-shelves-george-cruikshanks-fairy-library-by-george-cruikshank-published-by-routledge-in-london-c1870/

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. "George Cruikshank." http://library.tulane.edu/exhibits/exhibits/show/fairy_tales/george_cruikshank

Hubert, Judd D. "George Cruikshank's Graphic and Textual Reactions to Mother Goose." Marvels & Tales, Volume 25, Number 2, 2011 (pp. 286-297). Project Muse. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/462736/pdf

"Introductory Essay." Fables and Fairy Tales. 0019: Anon., "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk." CTS: The Hockliffe Project. http://hockliffe.dmu.ac.uk/items/0019.html

Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators. London: Chapman & Hall, 1899. Pp. 1-28.

Perrault, Charles. "Jack and the Beanstalk." Fairy Tales and Other Traditional Stories. Lit2Go. http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/68/fairy-tales-and-other-traditional-stories/5089/jack-and-the-bean-stalk/

UF: George A. Smathers Libraries. "When Phantasie Takes Flight: The Art and Imagination of Arthur Rackham." http://exhibits.uflib.ufl.edu/rackham/influences.html

Vogler, Richard, The Graphic Works of George Cruikshank. New York: Dover, 1979.

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Last modified 28 June 2017