Jacobs' Fairy Tales

Author: Jacobs

Title: Tom Tit Tot

Genre: Fairy tales

Other Jacobs' Fairy Tales that I read: Mr. Fox
                                                         The Three Little Pigs
                                                         The Rose Tree

Summary of the Plot: The story begins with a Women backing pies but the pies over backed and the so the crust was to hard. The women then tells her daughter to put them on the shelve and when they would come back later they would be good to eat again. Instead the daughter ate the pies. That night when the women wanted to eat the pies she couldn't because they were already gone. Upset with the daughter the Women went outside and sang a song mocking the daughter. The King of the land heard the women but could not understand so he asked the women. She was ashamed of what she did so she lied to the King and told him that her daughter had spun five skeins. The King was impressed with this and decided to marry the Daughter but on the last month of the year she would be locked in her room forced to spin five skeins a day for the whole month and if she could not accomplish this she would be killed. The Daughter and the King were married and then when the last month of the year came along she was forced to keep her promise the only problem was is that she did not know how to spin. The first night of the month she sat and cried knowing she would be killed in the morning when a black thing came knocking at her door. The black thing told her that it would spin her five a day if she could guess its name she would have three guess every night for the whole month and if she could not guess then she would belong to him. so every night he came and every night she guessed. On the second to last night of the month the king joined his wife for dinner in her room and told her about a strange black thing that was spinning in the woods singing a song that said his name. So the next day when the thing came she told him his name and he was never seen again and the daughter and the king lived happily ever after.

Readers Reaction: I had never heard this story before so it was different. It wasn't what I was expecting I kind of expected her to either be taken by the black thing or killed by the king because he found out that she wasn't even the one spinning but neither happened so I honestly was a little disappointed.

Potential Problems: There is ling in it, making deal that can't be made, and threatening to kill

Recommendations: Don't read this to children