Jack and His Comrades

Jack and his Comrades is an Irish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, listing as his source Patrick Kennedy's Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts.Joseph Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales, ""

In the Aarne-Thompson categorisation system, it is "type 130", i.e. "outcast animals find a new home".D. L. Ashliman, ""

Synopsis

Jack tells his mother he will seek his fortune. His mother offers him half a hen and half a cake with her blessing, or the whole of both without; he asks for the halves and is given the whole of both, with her blessing. On his way, he meets a donkey in a bog and helps it out. A dog runs up to him for protection, with a pot tied to its tail and a crowd hunting it; the donkey bellows and scares them off and Jack unties the pot. He shares his meal with the dog, while the donkey eats thistles; a half-starved cat comes by, and Jack gives it a bone with meat. In the evening, they rescue a rooster from a fox.

They go to sleep in the woods. The rooster crows, claiming to see dawn, and Jack realizes that it's a candle in a house. They go to it, and realize it is a robbers' den. Jack has all the animals make noise at once and himself shouts orders to destroy them all, frightening off the robbers. Jack and the animals eat and go to sleep. The captain of the robbers, realizing what they had left behind, try to sneak back, but the animals attack him, and...
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