Talk:Jack and the Beanstalk

Summary edit

This appears to be the version that is cited. It definitely says that Jack snuck into the giant's house the third time. As for the rest, I changed it to present tense, which most recaps on Wikipedia appear to be written in, and shortened it. A summary doesn't need to include every detail. Perhaps I shouldn't have removed the "fee-fi-fo-fum" dialogue. Decent Direction (talk) 16:57, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

Hey! I reverted your edit since you gave the impression that you had made it on the basis of your memory of what might have been a different version. As long as your edits are in agreement with the cited text, they are generally fine with me. Though I haven't checked every detail and agree that keeping some of the well-known lines is probably a good idea. Gawaon (talk) 17:14, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

Giant's monologue

Perhaps a small point, but the cited version actually says "I'll have his bones to grind my bread", rather than the more commonly known "I'll grind his bones to make my bread". Of the two classic versions, one says "Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll have his bones to grind my bread." The other says "Let him be alive or let him be dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread." That one also says "breath" instead of "blood", and inserts "fa" into "Fe fi fo fum". See this footnote. So the most well-known rendition appears to mesh those two, but how do we handle that here? Or should we just leave this out of the summary and perhaps quote it elsewhere in the article? Decent Direction (talk) 16:59, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

I'd just cite the version from our cited source. Gawaon (talk) 17:39, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

So we should change it to "I'll have his bones to grind my bread"? Decent Direction (talk) 17:40, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

I'd say so (assuming that's what the Annotated Classic edition has). Gawaon (talk) 17:43, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

@Gawaon: This user is a blocked sockpuppet by the way. WP:LTA/BTSZ You may feel free to revert any or all of their edits without any concern nor compromise per WP:BE, or you can let them stand if you like them. Leijurv (talk) 04:53, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

Oops, that's a nasty surprise! Thanks for letting me know, I'll take a look. Gawaon (talk) 07:08, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

I have now largely restored the original, pre-sock version of the "Story" section, which is more vivid, except that I changed the tense to the narrative present and made some small wording improvements Gawaon (talk) 07:31, 4 August 2025 (UTC)