For centuries listeners have prized tales where cunning defeats brute strength

Evidence

One giant who had captured Jack he tricked at dinner: Jack secretly hid a leather bag inside his shirt and shoveled his food into the bag, not his stomach; then he bet the greedy giant he could ‘cut open his belly and let the food out’ and feel fine — and slit open the bag, spilling the food. The stupid giant, determined to match the trick, took a knife and cut open his OWN belly, and that was the end of him. Another giant Jack outwitted with riddles and tricks and traps. Each time, the lesson was the same: the giants had all the size and strength, and Jack had only his wits — and the wits won every time. — , A Year of World Stories, 14594

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the year’s clever-trickster figures (Anansi, Sang Kancil, Aldar Köse, Odysseus) as instances of one universal motif. — connects to: Collectors’ biases shape which non-European tales survive and how they sound — , A Year of World Stories, 17