Hans the Hedgehog

There was once a countryman who had money and land in plenty, but how
rich soever he was, one thing was still wanting in his happiness he had
no children. Often when he went into the town with the other peasants
they mocked him and asked why he had no children. At last he became
angry, and when he got home he said, "I will have a child, even if it
be a hedgehog." Then his wife had a child, that was a hedgehog in the
upper part of his body, and a boy in the lower, and when she saw the
child, she was terrified, and said, "See, there thou hast brought
ill-luck on us." Then said the man, "What can be done now? The boy must
be christened, but we shall not be able to get a godfather for him."
The woman said, "And we cannot call him anything else but Hans the
Hedgehog."

When he was christened, the parson said, "He cannot go into any
ordinary bed because of his spikes." So a little straw was put behind
the stove, and Hans the Hedgehog was laid on it. His mother could not
suckle him, for he would have pricked her with his quills. So he lay
there behind the stove for eight years, and his father was tired of him
and thought, "If he would but die!" He did not die, however, but
remained lying there. Now it happened that there was a fair in the
town, and the peasant was about to go to it, and asked his wife what he
should bring back with him for her. "A little meat and a couple of
white rolls which are wanted for the house," said she. Then he asked
the servant, and she wanted a pair of slippers and some stockings with
clocks. At last he said also, "And what wilt thou have, Hans my
Hedgehog?" "Dear father," he said, "do bring me bagpipes." When,
therefore, the father came home again, he gave his wife what he had
bought for her; meat and white rolls, and then he gave the maid the
slippers, and the stockings with clocks; and, lastly, he went behind
the stove, and gave Hans the Hedgehog the bagpipes. And when Hans the
Hedgehog had the bagpipes, he said, "Dear father, do go to the forge
and get the cock shod, and then I will ride away, and never come back
again." On this, the father was delighted to think that he was going to
get rid of him, and had the cock shod for him, and when it was done,
Hans the Hedgehog got on it, and rode away, but took swine and asses
with him which he intended to keep in the forest. When they got there
he made the cock fly on to a high tree with him, and there he sat for
many a long year, and watched his asses and swine until the herd was
quite large, and his father knew nothing about him. While he was
sitting in the tree, however, he played his bagpipes, and made music
which was very beautiful. Once a King came travelling by who had lost
his way and heard the music. He was astonished at it, and sent his
servant forth to look all round and see from whence this music came. He
spied about, but saw nothing but a little animal sitting up aloft on
the tree, which looked like a cock with a hedgehog on it which made
this music. Then the King told the servant he was to ask why he sat
there, and if he knew the road which led to his kingdom. So Hans the
Hedgehog descended from the tree, and said he would show the way if the
King would write a bond and promise him whatever he first met in the
royal courtyard as soon as he arrived at home. Then the King thought,
"I can easily do that, Hans the Hedgehog understands nothing, and I can
write what I like." So the King took pen and ink and wrote something,
and when he had done it, Hans the Hedgehog showed him the way, and he
got safely home. But his daughter, when she saw him from afar, was so
overjoyed that she ran to meet him, and kissed him. Then he remembered
Hans the Hedgehog, and told her what had happened, and that he had been
forced to promise whatsoever first met him when he got home, to a very
strange animal which sat on a cock as if it were a horse, and made
beautiful music, but that instead of writing that he should have what
he wanted, he had written that he should not have it. Thereupon the
princess was glad, and said he had done well, for she never would have
gone away with the Hedgehog.

Hans the Hedgehog, however, looked after his asses and pigs, and was
always merry and sat on the tree and played his bagpipes.

Now it came to pass that another King came journeying by with his
attendants and runners, and he also had lost his way, and did not know
how to get home again because the forest was so large. He likewise
heard the beautiful music from a distance, and asked his runner what
that could be, and told him to go and see. Then the runner went under
the tree, and saw the cock sitting at the top of it, and Hans the
Hedgehog on the cock. The runner asked him what he was about up there?
"I am keeping my asses and my pigs; but what is your desire?" The
messenger said that they had lost their way, and could not get back
into their own kingdom, and asked if he would not show them the way.
Then Hans the Hedgehog got down the tree with the cock, and told the
aged King that he would show him the way, if he would give him for his
own whatsoever first met him in front of his royal palace. The King
said, "Yes," and wrote a promise to Hans the Hedgehog that he should
have this. That done, Hans rode on before him on the cock, and pointed
out the way, and the King reached his kingdom again in safety. When he
got to the courtyard, there were great rejoicings. Now he had an only
daughter who was very beautiful; she ran to meet him, threw her arms
round his neck, and was delighted to have her old father back again.
She asked him where in the world he had been so long. So he told her
how he had lost his way, and had very nearly not come back at all, but
that as he was travelling through a great forest, a creature, half
hedgehog, half man, who was sitting astride a cock in a high tree, and
making music, had shown him the way and helped him to get out, but that
in return he had promised him whatsoever first met him in the royal
court-yard, and how that was she herself, which made him unhappy now.
But on this she promised that, for love of her father, she would
willingly go with this Hans if he came.

Hans the Hedgehog, however, took care of his pigs, and the pigs
multiplied until they became so many in number that the whole forest
was filled with them. Then Hans the Hedgehog resolved not to live in
the forest any longer, and sent word to his father to have every stye
in the village emptied, for he was coming with such a great herd that
all might kill who wished to do so. When his father heard that, he was
troubled, for he thought Hans the Hedgehog had died long ago. Hans the
Hedgehog, however, seated himself on the cock, and drove the pigs
before him into the village, and ordered the slaughter to begin. Ha!
but there was a killing and a chopping that might have been heard two
miles off! After this Hans the Hedgehog said, "Father, let me have the
cock shod once more at the forge, and then I will ride away and never
come back as long as I live." Then the father had the cock shod once
more, and was pleased that Hans the Hedgehog would never return again.

Hans the Hedgehog rode away to the first kingdom. There the King had
commanded that whosoever came mounted on a cock and had bagpipes with
him should be shot at, cut down, or stabbed by everyone, so that he
might not enter the palace. When, therefore, Hans the Hedgehog came
riding thither, they all pressed forward against him with their pikes,
but he spurred the cock and it flew up over the gate in front of the
King's window and lighted there, and Hans cried that the King must give
him what he had promised, or he would take both his life and his
daughter's. Then the King began to speak his daughter fair, and to beg
her to go away with Hans in order to save her own life and her
father's. So she dressed herself in white, and her father gave her a
carriage with six horses and magnificent attendants together with gold
and possessions. She seated herself in the carriage, and placed Hans
the Hedgehog beside her with the cock and the bagpipes, and then they
took leave and drove away, and the King thought he should never see her
again. He was however, deceived in his expectation, for when they were
at a short distance from the town, Hans the Hedgehog took her pretty
clothes off, and pierced her with his hedgehog's skin until she bled
all over. "That is the reward of your falseness," said he, "go your
way, I will not have you!" and on that he chased her home again, and
she was disgraced for the rest of her life.

Hans the Hedgehog, however, rode on further on the cock, with his
bagpipes, to the dominions of the second King to whom he had shown the
way. This one, however, had arranged that if any one resembling Hans
the Hedgehog should come, they were to present arms, give him safe
conduct, cry long life to him, and lead him to the royal palace.

But when the King's daughter saw him she was terrified, for he looked
quite too strange. She remembered however, that she could not change
her mind, for she had given her promise to her father. So Hans the
Hedgehog was welcomed by her, and married to her, and had to go with
her to the royal table, and she seated herself by his side, and they
ate and drank. When the evening came and they wanted to go to sleep,
she was afraid of his quills, but he told her she was not to fear, for
no harm would befall her, and he told the old King that he was to
appoint four men to watch by the door of the chamber, and light a great
fire, and when he entered the room and was about to get into bed, he
would creep out of his hedgehog's skin and leave it lying there by the
bedside, and that the men were to run nimbly to it, throw it in the
fire, and stay by it until it was consumed. When the clock struck
eleven, he went into the chamber, stripped off the hedgehog's skin, and
left it lying by the bed. Then came the men and fetched it swiftly, and
threw it in the fire; and when the fire had consumed it, he was
delivered, and lay there in bed in human form, but he was coal-black as
if he had been burnt. The King sent for his physician who washed him
with precious salves, and anointed him, and he became white, and was a
handsome young man. When the King's daughter saw that she was glad, and
the next morning they arose joyfully, ate and drank, and then the
marriage was properly solemnized, and Hans the Hedgehog received the
kingdom from the aged King.

When several years had passed he went with his wife to his father, and
said that he was his son. The father, however, declared he had no son
he had never had but one, and he had been born like a hedgehog with
spikes, and had gone forth 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 run
To little August's house.
