Strong Hans

There were once a man and a woman who had an only child, and lived
quite alone in a solitary valley. It came to pass that the mother once
went into the wood to gather branches of fir, and took with her little
Hans, who was just two years old. As it was spring-time, and the child
took pleasure in the many-coloured flowers, she went still further
onwards with him into the forest. Suddenly two robbers sprang out of
the thicket, seized the mother and child, and carried them far away
into the black forest, where no one ever came from one year's end to
another. The poor woman urgently begged the robbers to set her and her
child free, but their hearts were made of stone, they would not listen
to her prayers and entreaties, and drove her on farther by force. After
they had worked their way through bushes and briars for about two
miles, they came to a rock where there was a door, at which the robbers
knocked and it opened at once. They had to go through a long dark
passage, and at last came into a great cavern, which was lighted by a
fire which burnt on the hearth. On the wall hung swords, sabres, and
other deadly weapons which gleamed in the light, and in the midst stood
a black table at which four other robbers were sitting gambling, and
the captain sat at the head of it. As soon as he saw the woman he came
and spoke to her, and told her to be at ease and have no fear, they
would do nothing to hurt her, but she must look after the
house-keeping, and if she kept everything in order, she should not fare
ill with them. Thereupon they gave her something to eat, and showed her
a bed where she might sleep with her child.

The woman stayed many years with the robbers, and Hans grew tall and
strong. His mother told him stories, and taught him to read an old book
of tales about knights which she found in the cave. When Hans was nine
years old, he made himself a strong club out of a branch of fir, hid it
behind the bed, and then went to his mother and said, "Dear mother,
pray tell me who is my father; I must and will know." His mother was
silent and would not tell him, that he might not become home-sick;
moreover she knew that the godless robbers would not let him go away,
but it almost broke her heart that Hans should not go to his father. In
the night, when the robbers came home from their robbing expedition,
Hans brought out his club, stood before the captain, and said, "I now
wish to know who is my father, and if thou dost not at once tell me I
will strike thee down." Then the captain laughed, and gave Hans such a
box on the ear that he rolled under the table. Hans got up again, held
his tongue, and thought, "I will wait another year and then try again,
perhaps I shall do better then." When the year was over, he brought out
his club again, rubbed the dust off it, looked at it well, and said,
"It is a stout strong club." At night the robbers came home, drank one
jug of wine after another, and their heads began to be heavy. Then Hans
brought out his club, placed himself before the captain, and asked him
who was his father? But the captain again gave him such a vigorous box
on the ear that Hans rolled under the table, but it was not long before
he was up again, and beat the captain and the robbers so with his club,
that they could no longer move either their arms or their legs. His
mother stood in a corner full of admiration of his bravery and
strength. When Hans had done his work, he went to his mother, and said,
"Now I have shown myself to be in earnest, but now I must also know who
is my father." "Dear Hans," answered the mother, "come, we will go and
seek him until we find him." She took from the captain the key to the
entrance-door, and Hans fetched a great meal-sack and packed into it
gold and silver, and whatsoever else he could find that was beautiful,
until it was full, and then he took it on his back. They left the cave,
but how Hans did open his eyes when he came out of the darkness into
daylight, and saw the green forest, and the flowers, and the birds, and
the morning sun in the sky. He stood there and wondered at everything
just as if he had not been very wise. His mother looked for the way
home, and when they had walked for a couple of hours, they got safely
into their lonely valley and to their little house. The father was
sitting in the doorway. He wept for joy when he recognized his wife and
heard that Hans was his son, for he had long regarded them both as
dead. But Hans, although he was not twelve years old, was a head taller
than his father. They went into the little room together, but Hans had
scarcely put his sack on the bench by the stove, than the whole house
began to crack the bench broke down and then the floor, and the heavy
sack fell through into the cellar. "God save us!" cried the father,
"what's that? Now thou hast broken our little house to pieces!" "Don't
grow any grey hairs about that, dear father," answered Hans; "there, in
that sack, is more than is wanting for a new house." The father and
Hans at once began to build a new house; to buy cattle and land, and to
keep a farm. Hans ploughed the fields, and when he followed the plough
and pushed it into the ground, the bullocks had scarcely any need to
draw. The next spring, Hans said, "Keep all the money and get a
walking-stick that weighs a hundred-weight made for me that I may go
a-travelling." When the wished-for stick was ready, he left his
father's house, went forth, and came to a deep, dark forest. There he
heard something crunching and cracking, looked round, and saw a
fir-tree which was wound round like a rope from the bottom to the top,
and when he looked upwards he saw a great fellow who had laid hold of
the tree and was twisting it like a willow-wand. "Hollo!" cried Hans,
"what art thou doing up there?" the fellow replied, "I got some faggots
together yesterday and am twisting a rope for them." "That is what I
like," thought Hans, "he has some strength," and he called to him,
"Leave that alone, and come with me." The fellow came down, and he was
taller by a whole head than Hans, and Hans was not little. "Thy name is
now Fir-twister," said Hans to him. Thereupon they went further and
heard something knocking and hammering with such force that the ground
shook at every stroke. Shortly afterwards they came to a mighty rock,
before which a giant was standing and striking great pieces of it away
with his fist. When Hans asked what he was about, he answered, "At
night, when I want to sleep, bears, wolves, and other vermin of that
kind come, which sniff and snuffle about me and won't let me rest; so I
want to build myself a house and lay myself inside it, so that I may
have some peace." "Oh, indeed," thought Hans, "I can make use of this
one also;" and said to him, "Leave thy house-building alone, and go
with me; thou shalt be called Rock-splitter." The man consented, and
they all three roamed through the forest, and wherever they went the
wild beasts were terrified, and ran away from them. In the evening they
came to an old deserted castle, went up into it, and laid themselves
down in the hall to sleep. The next morning Hans went into the garden.
It had run quite wild, and was full of thorns and bushes. And as he was
thus walking round about, a wild boar rushed at him; he, however, gave
it such a blow with his club that it fell directly. He took it on his
shoulders and carried it in, and they put it on a spit, roasted it, and
enjoyed themselves. Then they arranged that each day, in turn, two
should go out hunting, and one should stay at home, and cook nine
pounds of meat for each of them. Fir-twister stayed at home the first,
and Hans and Rock-splitter went out hunting. When Fir-twister was busy
cooking, a little shrivelled-up old mannikin came to him in the castle,
and asked for some meat. "Be off, sly hypocrite," he answered, "thou
needest no meat." But how astonished Fir-twister was when the little
insignificant dwarf sprang up at him, and belaboured him so with his
fists that he could not defend himself, but fell on the ground and
gasped for breath! The dwarf did not go away until he had thoroughly
vented his anger on him. When the two others came home from hunting,
Fir-twister said nothing to them of the old mannikin and of the blows
which he himself had received, and thought, "When they stay at home,
they may just try their chance with the little scrubbing-brush;" and
the mere thought of that gave him pleasure already.

The next day Rock-splitter stayed at home, and he fared just as
Fir-twister had done, he was very ill-treated by the dwarf because he
was not willing to give him any meat. When the others came home in the
evening, Fir-twister easily saw what he had suffered, but both kept
silence, and thought, "Hans also must taste some of that soup."

Hans, who had to stay at home the next day, did his work in the kitchen
as it had to be done, and as he was standing skimming the pan, the
dwarf came and without more ado demanded a bit of meat. Then Hans
thought, "He is a poor wretch, I will give him some of my share, that
the others may not run short," and handed him a bit. When the dwarf had
devoured it, he again asked for some meat, and good-natured Hans gave
it to him, and told him it was a handsome piece, and that he was to be
content with it. But the dwarf begged again for the third time. "Thou
art shameless!" said Hans, and gave him none. Then the malicious dwarf
wanted to spring on him and treat him as he had treated Fir-twister and
Rock-splitter, but he had got to the wrong man. Hans, without exerting
himself much, gave him a couple of blows which made him jump down the
castle steps. Hans was about to run after him, but fell right over him,
for he was so tall. When he rose up again, the dwarf had got the start
of him. Hans hurried after him as far as the forest, and saw him slip
into a hole in the rock. Hans now went home, but he had marked the
spot. When the two others came back, they were surprised that Hans was
so well. He told them what had happened, and then they no longer
concealed how it had fared with them. Hans laughed and said, "It served
you quite right; why were you so greedy with your meat? It is a
disgrace that you who are so big should have let yourselves be beaten
by the dwarf." Thereupon they took a basket and a rope, and all three
went to the hole in the rock into which the dwarf had slipped, and let
Hans and his club down in the basket. When Hans had reached the bottom,
he found a door, and when he opened it a maiden was sitting there who
was lovely as any picture, nay, so beautiful that no words can express
it, and by her side sat the dwarf and grinned at Hans like a sea-cat!
She, however, was bound with chains, and looked so mournfully at him
that Hans felt great pity for her, and thought to himself, "Thou must
deliver her out of the power of the wicked dwarf," and gave him such a
blow with his club that he fell down dead. Immediately the chains fell
from the maiden, and Hans was enraptured with her beauty. She told him
she was a King's daughter whom a savage count had stolen away from her
home, and imprisoned there among the rocks, because she would have
nothing to say to him. The count had, however, set the dwarf as a
watchman, and he had made her bear misery and vexation enough. And now
Hans placed the maiden in the basket and had her drawn up; the basket
came down again, but Hans did not trust his two companions, and
thought, "They have already shown themselves to be false, and told me
nothing about the dwarf; who knows what design they may have against
me?" So he put his club in the basket, and it was lucky he did; for
when the basket was half-way up, they let it fall again, and if Hans
had really been sitting in it he would have been killed. But now he did
not know how he was to work his way out of the depths, and when he
turned it over and over in his mind he found no counsel. "It is indeed
sad," said he to himself, "that I have to waste away down here," and as
he was thus walking backwards and forwards, he once more came to the
little chamber where the maiden had been sitting, and saw that the
dwarf had a ring on his finger which shone and sparkled. Then he drew
it off and put it on, and when he turned it round on his finger, he
suddenly heard something rustle over his head. He looked up and saw
spirits of the air hovering above, who told him he was their master,
and asked what his desire might be? Hans was at first struck dumb, but
afterwards he said that they were to carry him above again. They obeyed
instantly, and it was just as if he had flown up himself. When,
however, he was above again, he found no one in sight. Fir-twister and
Rock-splitter had hurried away, and had taken the beautiful maiden with
them. But Hans turned the ring, and the spirits of the air came and
told him that the two were on the sea. Hans ran and ran without
stopping, until he came to the sea-shore, and there far, far out on the
water, he perceived a little boat in which his faithless comrades were
sitting; and in fierce anger he leapt, without thinking what he was
doing, club in hand into the water, and began to swim, but the club,
which weighed a hundredweight, dragged him deep down until he was all
but drowned. Then in the very nick of time he turned his ring, and
immediately the spirits of the air came and bore him as swift as
lightning into the boat. He swung his club and gave his wicked comrades
the reward they merited and threw them into the water, and then he
sailed with the beautiful maiden, who had been in the greatest alarm,
and whom he delivered for the second time, home to her father and
mother, and married her, and all rejoiced exceedingly.
