Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part A

English Fairy Tales

The Three Little Pigs (This story is part of the English Fairy Tales (1) unit. Story source: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).)

• The story begins with the following rhyme:


Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!


• There was an old woman with three little pigs, and she didn't have the things to keep them
• She went and sent them away to seek their fortune
• The first pig came across a man with a bundle of straw and begged him for straw to build a house
• The man gave the pig the straw, and the little pig built a house with it
• Next, the wolf came and knocked on the door of the straw house
• He said "Little pig, little pig, let me come in"
• The pig said, "No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin."
• The wolf said, "Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."
• So he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew his house in and ate the pig
• The second little pig met a man with a bundle of furze and said the same thing
• The man gave him the furze and the pig made a house with it
• The wolf came again and did the same thing.. poor little pig
• The third pig met a man with a load of bricks and said the same thing
• The pig used the bricks and made a house with them 
• The wolf arrived again and blew the house in 
• He huffed, puffed and could not get the house to come down 
• When he found out he couldn't, he told the pig about a nice field of turnips
• The pig asked where and the wold told him where and asked him to be ready at 6:00 the next day
• The little pig got up at 5:00 and went and got the turnips before the wolf came (at 6)
• The wolf arrived and asked if the pig was ready
• The pig told the wolf he had been already and was making some turnips for dinner
• The wolf was angry at this, but told the pig that he knew of a nice apple tree
• The pig asked where and the wolf told him 
• The pig went early again and climbed up the tree to get the apples
• The wolf arrived on time and scared the pig once he arrive
• He was shocked that the pig had arrived before him
• The pig threw him down an apple - he threw it very far so that when the wolf went to get it, he jumped down and ran home
• The next day, the wold invited the pig to a fair 
• The pig went to the fair early (as usual) and bought a butter churn, before running into the wolf on his way home
• The pig hid in the butter churn, which tipped over and rolled down the hill, frightening the wolf who ran home without going to the fair
• The wolf went to the pigs house and told him about the incident
• The pig laughed and said that he scared him 
• Angry, the wolf threatened to eat up the little pig and would get in the chimney after him
• When the pig saw this, he put a pot over the fire and placed a lid on it
• When he saw the wolf coming down, he opened the pot and boiled up the wolf for supper

(Pigs. Source: The Three Little Pigs story blog)