Hans My Hedgehog

There was once a farmer who had money and land in plenty, but for all his wealth, one thing was missing: he had no children. Often, when he went into town with the other farmers, they made fun of him for it. At last he lost his temper, and when he got home he said, “I will have a child, even if it’s a hedgehog!”

Then his wife had a child who was a hedgehog above and a boy below. When she saw him she was terrified and said, “There, you see? You have brought a curse on us.”

The farmer said, “What good does that do now? The boy must be christened, but we will never find anyone to stand godfather to him.”

His wife said, “And we can’t call him anything but Hans My Hedgehog.”

When the boy had been christened, the parson said, “With all those spikes, he can’t sleep in an ordinary bed.” So a little straw was spread behind the stove, and the boy was laid on it. His mother could not nurse him either, for his quills would have pricked her. So he lay behind the stove for eight years. His father grew tired of him and thought, “If only he would die!” But he did not die. He just lay there.

Now there was a fair in town, and the farmer was getting ready to go. He asked his wife what he should bring her.

“A little meat and a couple of white rolls, the things we need for the house,” she said.

The maid wanted slippers and some embroidered stockings. Last of all he said, “And what would you like, Hans My Hedgehog?”

“Dear father,” said Hans, “please bring me some bagpipes.”

When the farmer came home, he gave his wife the meat and the white rolls. Then he gave the maid the slippers and the embroidered stockings. Last of all he went behind the stove and gave Hans the bagpipes.

As soon as Hans had the bagpipes, he said, “Dear father, please go to the blacksmith and have my rooster shod. Then I will ride away and never come back.”

The father was delighted to be rid of him and had the rooster shod. When it was done, Hans climbed on its back and rode off, taking some pigs and donkeys along to keep in the forest. There he had the rooster fly up into a tall tree with him. He sat there for many long years, watching his donkeys and pigs until the herd had grown very large, and his father heard nothing of him.

And all the while Hans sat in the tree, he played his bagpipes and made music that was very beautiful.

Once a king who had lost his way came traveling by and heard the music. Amazed, he sent his servant to find out where it was coming from. The servant searched all around, but all he saw was a little animal high up in the tree, like a rooster with a hedgehog on it, and the hedgehog was making the music.

Then the king told the servant to ask the little rider why he sat up there, and whether he knew the road that led to the king’s country. So Hans came down from the tree and offered to show the way if the king would promise him in writing whatever met him first in the royal courtyard when he got home.

The king thought, “That’s easy enough. Hans My Hedgehog doesn’t understand a thing, and I can write whatever I like.” So he took pen and ink and wrote something down, and then Hans showed him the way, and the king got safely home.

The king’s daughter saw him from far off and was so overjoyed that she ran out and kissed him. Then he remembered Hans My Hedgehog and told her what had happened. He had been made to promise whatever met him first at home, he said, to a very strange creature that rode a rooster as if it were a horse and made beautiful music. But instead of writing that the creature should have it, he had written that it should not. The princess was glad and said he had done well, because she would never have gone away with the hedgehog.

Hans My Hedgehog, meanwhile, looked after his donkeys and pigs, always cheerful, sitting in his tree and playing his bagpipes.

Then another king came traveling through with his attendants and runners. He too had lost his way, for the forest was so big. He too heard the beautiful music from far off and sent his runner to see what it was. The runner stood under the tree and saw the rooster perched at the top, with Hans My Hedgehog on its back. The runner called up to ask what Hans was doing up there.

“I’m keeping my donkeys and my pigs,” said Hans. “But what is it you want?”

The runner said they were lost and could not get back to their kingdom, and asked whether Hans would show them the road. So Hans came down out of the tree with his rooster and told the old king he would show him the way, if the king would give him for his own whatever met him first in front of the royal palace. The king said, “Yes,” and wrote out a promise that Hans should have it. Then Hans rode ahead on the rooster, and the king reached his kingdom safely.

When the king rode into the courtyard, there was great rejoicing. He had an only daughter, who was very beautiful. She ran out to meet him, threw her arms around his neck, and was overjoyed to have her old father back. When she asked where in the world he had been so long, he told her how he had lost his way and very nearly never come back. As he was passing through a great forest, he said, a creature that was half hedgehog and half man, sitting astride a rooster up in a tall tree and making music, had shown him the way out. But in return he had promised it whatever met him first in the royal courtyard, and that had been her, which made him very unhappy now. Then she promised that, for love of her father, she would gladly go with Hans whenever he came.

Hans My Hedgehog, meanwhile, tended his pigs, and the pigs had piglets, until the whole forest was full of them. Then Hans decided to live in the forest no longer. He sent word to his father to have every pigsty in the village emptied, because he was coming with a herd so large that anyone who wanted could slaughter as many as he liked. His father was troubled when he heard this, for he had thought Hans was long dead. But Hans mounted his rooster, drove the pigs ahead of him into the village, and had the slaughtering begin. Oh, what a butchering and a chopping there was! You could have heard it two miles away.

Afterward Hans said, “Father, have my rooster shod at the blacksmith’s once more, and then I will ride away and never come back as long as I live.” So the father had the rooster shod once more, and he was glad that Hans would never return.

Hans My Hedgehog rode off to the first kingdom. There the king had given orders that if anyone came riding on a rooster and carrying bagpipes, everyone was to shoot at him, cut at him and stab at him, so that he would never get into the palace. So when Hans came riding up, they all rushed at him with their pikes. But he spurred his rooster, and it flew up over the gate to the king’s window and landed there. Hans shouted that the king must hand over what he had promised, or Hans would take his life and his daughter’s too.

Then the king coaxed his daughter, begging her to go out to Hans and save her own life and her father’s. So she dressed herself in white, and her father gave her a carriage with six horses, splendid attendants, and gold and riches besides. She got into the carriage, and Hans sat down beside her with his rooster and his bagpipes. They said their goodbyes and drove off, and the king thought he would never see her again.

But the king was wrong. When they were a little way out of town, Hans pulled off her fine clothes and pricked her with his hedgehog skin until she was bleeding all over.

“That is the reward for your falseness,” he said. “Go away. I don’t want you!” And with that he chased her back home, and she was disgraced for the rest of her life.

Hans rode on with his rooster and his bagpipes to the country of the second king, whom he had also shown the way. That king had given orders that if anyone like Hans My Hedgehog should come, the soldiers were to present arms, let him pass freely, cheer him loudly, and lead him to the royal palace.

When the princess saw Hans, though, she was frightened, for he looked so very strange. But there was no going back now, she thought; she had given her father her promise. So she welcomed Hans and was married to him, and he went with her to the royal table. She sat down at his side, and they ate and drank.

When it was time for bed, the princess was very much afraid of his quills. But he told her not to be afraid, for no harm would come to her. Then he told the old king to set four men to keep watch at the bedroom door and to build a big fire. When Hans went into the room and was about to get into bed, he said, he would crawl out of his hedgehog skin and leave it lying beside the bed. Then the men were to run in quickly, throw it on the fire, and stay until it had burned up completely.

When the clock struck eleven, Hans went into the bedroom, stripped off his hedgehog skin, and left it lying beside the bed. The men snatched it up and threw it on the fire. And when the fire had burned it all away, he was set free. He lay there in the bed in the shape of a man, but he was coal-black, as if he had been burned.

The king sent for his doctor, who washed Hans and rubbed him with costly salves. Then the black faded from his skin, and Hans was a handsome young man. When the princess saw it, she was glad. The next morning they rose joyfully, ate and drank, and then the wedding was properly celebrated. And Hans received the kingdom from the old king.

Some years later, Hans went with his wife to visit his father and told the old man that he was his son. But the father declared he had no son. He had only ever had one, he said, and that one had been born like a hedgehog, covered in spikes, and had gone off into the world. Then Hans made himself known, and the old father rejoiced and went with him to his kingdom.

My tale is done,and away it has runto little August’s house.