There was a widow with a son named Jack, who at thirteen wanted to leave home to seek his fortune. His mother said to him, "What do you expect to do out in the world? Don't you know you're still a little boy? When you're able to fell that pine tree behind our house with one kick, then you can go."
Every day after that, as soon as he rose in the morning, Jack would get a running start and jump against the trunk of the tree with both feet, but the pine never budged an inch and he fell flat on his back. He would get up again, shake the dirt off, and go back inside.
At last one fine morning he jumped with all his might, and the tree gave way and toppled to the ground, his roots in the air. Jack ran and got his mother who, surveying the felled tree, said, "You may now go wherever you wish, my son." Jack bid her farewell and set out.
After walking for days and days he came to a city whose king had a horse named Rondello that no one had ever been able to ride. People constantly tried, but were thrown just when it appeared they would succeed. Looking on, Jack soon realized that the horse was afraid of its own shadow, so he volunteered to break Rondello himself. He began by going up to the horse in the stable, talking to it and patting it; then he suddenly jumped into the saddle and rode the animal outside straight into the sun. That way it couldn't see any shadow to frighten it. Jack took a steady hold of the reins, pressed his knees to the horse, and galloped off. A quarter of an hour later Rondello was as docile as a lamb, but let no one ride him after that but Jack.
From then on, Jack served the king, who was so fond of him that the other servants grew jealous and plotted to get rid of him.
Now the king had a daughter who had been kidnapped in her infancy by the sorcerer Body-without-Soul, and no one had heard of her since. The servants went to the king claiming Jack had boasted to everybody he would free her. The king sent for him. Jack was amazed and said this was the first he had even heard of the king's daughter. But the fact that anyone had dared make light of the episode concerning his daughter so infuriated the king that he said, "Either you free her, or I'll have you beheaded."
Since there was no calming the king now, Jack asked for a rusty sword they kept hanging on the wall, saddled Rondello, and rode off. Crossing a forest, he saw a lion motioning him to stop. Although a bit uneasy, Jack disliked the idea of running away, so he dismounted and asked what the lion wanted.
"Jack," said the lion, "as you can see, there are four of us here: myself, a dog, an eagle, and an ant. We have a dead donkey to parcel among us. Since you have a sword, carve the animal and give us each a portion." Jack cut off the donkey's head and gave it to the ant. "Here you are. This will make you a nice home and supply you with all the food you'll ever want." Next he cut off the hoofs and gave them to the dog. "Here's something to gnaw on as long as you like." He cut out the entrails and gave them to the eagle. "This is your food, which you can carry to the treetops where you perch." All the rest he gave to the lion, which as the biggest of the four deserved the largest portion. He got back on his horse and started off, only to hear his name called. "Dear me," he thought, "I must have made some mistake in dividing the parts." But the lion said to him, "You did us a big favor and you were very fair. As one good deed deserves another, I'm giving you one of my claws which will turn you into the fiercest lion in the world when you wear it." The dog said, "Here is one of my whiskers, which will turn you into the fastest dog on earth, whenever you place it under your nose." The eagle said, "Here is a feather from my wings which can change you into the biggest and strongest eagle in the sky." The ant said, "I'm giving you one of my tiny legs. Put it on and you will become an ant so small that no one can see you, even with a magnifying glass."
Jack took his presents, thanked the four animals, and departed. As he was uncertain whether the gifts were magic or not, thinking the animals might have played a joke on him, he stopped as soon as he was out of sight to test them. He became lion, dog, eagle, and ant; next ant, eagle, dog, and lion; then eagle, ant, lion, and dog; finally dog, lion, ant, and eagle. Yes, everything worked like a charm! All smiles, he moved onward.
Beyond the forest was a lake, on whose shore stood the castle of Body-without-Soul. Jack changed into an eagle and flew straight to the edge of a closed window. Then he changed into an ant and crawled into the room. It was a beautiful bedchamber where, beneath a canopy, lay the king's daughter asleep. Still an ant, Jack went crawling over her cheek until she awakened. Then he removed the tiny ant leg, and the king's daughter suddently beheld a handsome youth at her side.
"Don't be afraid," he said, signaling silence. "I've come to free you. You must get the sorcerer to tell you what could kill him."
When the sorcerer returned, Jacked changed back into an ant. The king's daughter made a big to-do over Body-without-Soul, seating him at her feet and drawning his head onto her lap. Then she began: "My darling sorcerer, I know you're a body without a soul and therefore incapable of dying. But I live in constant fear of someone finding your soul and putting you to death."
"I can tell you the secret," replied the sorcerer, "since you're imprisoned here and can't possibly betray me. To slay me would require a lion mighty enough to kill the black lion in the forest. Out of the belly of the dead lion would leap a black dog so swift that only the fastest dog on earth could catch it. Out of the belly of the dead black dog would fly a black eagle that could withstand every eagle under the sun. But if by chance that eagle were slain, a black egg would have to be taken out of its craw and cracked over my brow for my soul to fly away and leave me dead. Does all that seem easy? Do you have any real grounds for worry?"
With his tiny ant ears, Jack took in every word, then crawled back under the window to the ledge, where he again turned into an eagle and soared into the forest. There he changed into a lion and stalked the underbrush until he came face to face with the black lion. The black lion jumped him, but Jack, being the strongest lion in the world, tore it to bits. (Back at the castle, the sorcerer felt his head spin.) The lion's belly was slit open, and out bolted a swift-footed black dog, but Jack turned into the fastest dog on earth, caught him, and they rolled together in a ball, biting each other until the black dog lay dead. (Back at the castle, the sorcerer had to take to his bed.) The dog's belly was slit open and out flew a black eagle, but Jack became the most powerful eagle under the sun and they soared through the sky pecking and clawing each other until the black eagle folded its wings and fell to earth. (At the castle, the sorcerer ran a high fever and curled up under the bedclothes.)
Jack changed back into a man, opened the eagle's craw, and removed the black egg. He returned to the castle and gave it to the king's daughter, who was overjoyed.
"How on earth did you do it?" she asked.
"Nothing to it," replied Jack. "The rest is now up to you."
The king's daughter entered the sorcerer's bedchamber, asking, "How do you feel?"
"Woe's me! I've been betrayed..."
"I brought you a cup of broth. Drink some."
The sorcerer sat up in his bed and bent over to drink the broth.
"Here, let me break an egg into it and give it more body." At that, the king's daughter broke the black egg over his brow and Body-without-Soul died on the spot.
Jack took the king's daughter home to her father. Everyone was overjoyed, and the young couple was married forthwith.
(Riviera ligure di ponente)
NOTES:
"Body-without-Soul" (Corpo-senza-l'anima) from Andrews, 46, Riviera ligure.
This Ligurian Jack differs from fellow heroes and liberators of princesses by his systematic cautiousness bordering on distrust (he is one of the few who, the minute he receives a magic gift, must test it before he is able to believe in it). In that respect he takes after his mother, who will not let him go out into the world until he has given proof of perseverance by felling the tree with his kicks. I have been faithful to the original version while aiming to endow it with a particular rhythm.
Copyright: Italian Folktales Selected and Retold by Italo Calvino,
translated by George Martin,
Pantheon Books, New York 1980