Kings: Seánan

Name: ó séaghda
Stories Jack the Lad, Jack & the Beanstalk, Jack & the Giants

Jack be Nimble
Jack be Quick
Jack jump over the Candlestick.

Jack & the Giants: The son of a Land’s End, Cornwall farmer, He traps & kills Cormorant, a sheep, hog, & cattle-stealing giant, via a pit at Mount Cornwall during winter.
  Dubbed Jack the Giant Killer, the Giant Blunderbore living in his enchanted castle in the middle of a wood near Wales vows revenge. Jack falls asleep by a fountain in the Giant’s wood four months later. Blunderbore abducts him to his castle to be boiled & eaten with pepper & vinegar. Jack makes 2 hangman’s nooses, so when Blunderbore & his brother come for him through the iron gates they are strangled. Jack leaves the castle in the hands of 3 noblewomen who had been imprisoned.
 Jack then meets a double-headed giant in Wales who invites him in for an overnight stay, but secretly plots to break his bones. Jack puts a log of wood in his place on the bed. The next day they eat Hasty Pudding.
 Jack becomes the attendant of King Arthur’s only son. They go to Jack’s Uncle’s House, who just happens to be a three-headed giant. The Uncle loans Jack his coat of invisiblity, cap of knowledge, sword, & slippers of swiftness to help rescue a lady from the clutches of a malevolent magician. With the cap, Jack knows where to meet the magician in the forest; using the cloak & shoes to get there. The sword is used for decapitation. Jack is made one of the Knights of the Round Table & sent to vanquish a 35 foot giant by tying the giant to an oak tree. He then travels to a castle & kills the giant’s Boar brother.  Enraged 3rd brother Thundel arrives shouting:

Fee! Fie! foh! fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman;
Be he alive or be he dead,
I’lI grind his bones to make my bread.

Jack had already rigged the drawbridge, so when the giant chased him he fell through the drawbridge into the moat. Galligantus, who abducted noblemen & women with his chariot drawn by two fire-breathing dragons; his magician changing them ino deer. Jack sneaks by two griffon castle guardians in his invisible cloak to blow the golden trumpet which reads that whoever blows it will break the enchantment. The head of Galligantus is sent to King Arthur and Jack retires.

Jack & the Northwest Wind: He cannot make it to the land of the Northwest Wind, East of the Sun & West of the Moon. An old man chopping wood says no one can stop the wind before spring. Although he never succeeds in stopping the cold wind, he gains a magic tablecloth, a goose that lays golden eggs, a magic club that will break up firewood.

Jack & the Magic Mill. The Endless Tale A King promises his daughter as a wife to the teller of an Endless Tale.

Jack told the king that once there was a king who gathered all the wheat that his people had raised and put it in a big granaery and was going to dole it out as he seen fit. But a rat cut a hole in the wall and went in and got one grain of the wheat. The next day it went in and got one more grain. The next day it went in and got one more grain. Jack just kept telling about the rat going in and out until the king couldn’t stand it any longer and he told him to hush and he could have the girl. – Bethel Lee Adams of Big Laurel, December 22, 1941

In the Thirteenth Son of the King of Ireland He is the eldest son of twelve brothers and as the 13th is given to the Diachbha: divinity or fate. He sits in a throne of crystal and has a tub of blue glass. His invisible servants bathe and bring tables of food. In one story he rescues a goddess from a man-eating sea serpent.

God of the Vosges Forest & Alesia, Gaule, patron of craftsman & consort of the goddess Bergusia: Supreme One. Hunter and protector of the woodlands. He has a spear, knife, and is clothed in wolfskin with boots decorated with animal heads, accompanied by a stag. A stone image has him carrying fruits of the harvest: acorns, nuts, and a pinecone. A sanctuary to him is in Le Donon Mountain. The mountain in the Vosges, located in Alsace, Bas Rhin: Lower Rhine department of France has the ruins of many temples.

Chief judge, sage and poet of Ulster. He takes the form of a gray-haired man; wearing a bright all-white mantle with silver borders, long dark-green wool cloak, white shirt, white-silver belt, & bronze bell branch on his shoulder. He taught the god Cú Chúlainn: Hazel Hound how to speak. His voice is melodic and sweeter than a harp, his utterance loud but slow.

He is the peace-maker and can pacify men with three words. His magic branch of Sencha keeps men silent in the Mesca Ulad: Intoxicated Nobles & Agallamh an dá Shuadh: Dialogue of the two Sages His brothers are: Morda & Sulien A wand in the form of a symbolic branch, like a little spike or crescent with gently tinkling bells upon it, was borne by them. The name of 20 Irish saints, including St. Senan of Iniscathy. eaghdhaí sheanfhocail: the excellence of ancient word, sean-nós: traditional custom, ancient way, seandálaíocht: archaeology, seanfhocal - proverb

In Ridley Scott’s Legend Jack travels to the underworld with Una: Green Life, Puck, gnomes to save Lily. ‘In Celtic mythology, there is a dark Holly King, disguised as a wren, and his twin, the light Oak King, disguised as a robin. At the summer solstice the Holly King kills his twin and begins a half-year reign. At the winter solstice, the robin slays the wren and he reigns for the next six months. There is an eternal duel of light and darkness.’– Winter Light

Jack & the Beanstalk: Jacques et les Haricots Verts: Jack is a poor boy living in the barren Happy Valley with nothing to eat. His widowed mother sends him to market to sell their last possession, a cow. He trades the cow for five magic beans; which she throws out the window. Overnight the seeds grow into a gigantic beanstalk reaching into the heavens. Jack climbs it; arrives in the cloudland, breaks into the giant’ Willy’s castle, his odor detected by the giant to grind his bones to make his bread, is saved by the giant’s wife, & escapes taking some gold coins with him. He returns to steal a goose that lays golden eggs. The third time, he steals a magical golden harp in the form of a woman [The Harp had been stolen from Happy Valley & had kept the land prosperous]. The giant chases Jack down the beanstalk, but Jack chops it down with an axe. The giant falls to earth, hitting the ground so hard that it splits, pulling the beanstalk down with him. In Brian Henson’s movie Jack & the Beanstalk: The Real Story Seán is 37-year old Jack Robinson. His descendant Jack Robinson goes on trial at Magh Slécht: The Plain of Adoration (pron. Moysleet) for the previous Jack Robinson’s killing of Ogre King of the Cloud Kingdom, and the theft of his golden goose 391 years ago. The goddess Ondine notes that only 39.1 years have passed in Otherworld Time, but the cloud kingdom has been turrned from a Land of Plenty into a Wasteland ruled by Brân: Raven.

Jack & the Fire Dragon: Jack’s brothers Will and Tom lower him into the scaly green, green cat-like eyes, fire-breathing dragon’s cave. He rescues three princesses & marries the youngest Jenny/Guinevere. In Jack & the Frogs from Scotland. The three sons are sent for: the best ring for their mother, the best tablecloth, and the best wives for themselves. The boys throw three feathers to decide which direction to go, and Jack’s falls to the ground, opening a door to the underground. A green frog leads him underground and gives him the most lavish ring and tablecloth, better than the fine things Will and Tom find. The frogs play instruments and dance. When Jack needs a wife, he is told to take the pretty yellow frog he’s been dancing with. She becomes a magic human bride & they arrive in a turnip coach. Time’s fun when you’re having flies

The first Monday before Lent called Nickanan Night in Cornwall a Jack-O-Lent straw figure is paraded through local communities and pelted with projectiles and burned on a bonfire. (24, 25, 58,71, 73, 97, 99, 102, 270, 272)

O fervent Saint Sulian,/ thou didst persevere, overcoming all obstacles,/ and thy life as a monk was radiant./ Thou didst work miracles/ when living in thy monastery,/ and wonders shone forth from thy tomb./ We praise thee, holy Abbot Sulian. – Troparion of St Sulian tone 5