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Nix Nought Nothing

A Scottish fairy tale from English Fairy Tales, collected by Joseph Jacobs

This tale was collected by Andrew Lang in Morayshire, from a Scottish tale called "Nicht Nought Nothing", and retold by Joseph Jacobs in his English Fairy Tales (1890). The story belongs to a widespread family of fairy tales about impossible tasks, magical flight, and forgotten promises—echoes of which appear in myths as old as the Greek story of Jason and Medea. The text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. This version expands the original, which was quite compressed, to show more fully the choices and emotions of the characters. The tale rewards a reader who asks why people make the promises they do, and what it costs to break them—or to keep them.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14

Length

long · about 939 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures

Source

English Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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