Strong Hans

Once upon a time there lived a man and a woman who had an only child, and they lived all alone in a lonely valley. One day the mother went into the woods to gather fir branches, and she took little Hans with her. He was just two years old.

It was springtime, and the child loved the colorful flowers, so she walked deeper into the forest with him. Suddenly two robbers jumped out from the bushes, grabbed the mother and child, and carried them far into the dark forest where no one ever came.

The poor woman begged the robbers to let her and her child go, but their hearts were made of stone. They would not listen to her prayers and forced her to go on. After they had pushed through bushes and thorns for about two miles, they came to a rock where there was a door.

The robbers knocked, and the door opened at once. They had to go through a long dark passage, and at last they came into a great cave. A fire burned on the hearth and lit up the cave. On the wall hung swords, sabers, and other weapons that gleamed in the light.

In the middle stood a black table where four other robbers were sitting and gambling, and the captain sat at the head. As soon as he saw the woman, he came and spoke to her, telling her not to be afraid.

They would not hurt her, but she must take care of the housekeeping. If she kept everything in order, she would be treated well. Then they gave her something to eat and showed her a bed where she could 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 that she found in the cave.

When Hans was nine years old, he made himself a strong club out of a fir branch, hid it behind the bed, and then went to his mother and said, "Dear mother, please tell me who my father is.

I must and will know." His mother was silent and would not tell him, so that he might not become homesick. She also knew that the godless robbers would not let him go away. But it almost broke her heart that Hans could not go to his father.

That night, when the robbers came home from their robbing trip, Hans brought out his club, stood before the captain, and said, "Now I want to know who my father is. If you do not tell me at once, I will strike you down." The captain laughed and gave Hans such a slap on the ear that he rolled under the table.

Hans got up again, said nothing, and thought, "I will wait another year and try again. Maybe I will do better then." When the year was over, he brought out his club again, rubbed the dust off, looked at it carefully, and said, "It is a strong, stout club." That night the robbers came home, drank one jug of wine after another, and their heads began to feel heavy.

Then Hans brought out his club, stood before the captain, and asked him who his father was. But the captain again gave him such a hard slap on the ear that Hans rolled under the table.

However, it was not long before he was up again, and he beat the captain and the robbers with his club so that they could no longer move their arms or legs. His mother stood in a corner, full of admiration for his bravery and strength.

When Hans had finished his work, he went to his mother and said, "Now I have shown that I am serious. But now I must also know who my father is." "Dear Hans," answered his mother, "come, we will go and seek him until we find him." She took the key to the entrance door from the captain, and Hans fetched a large meal sack and packed it full of gold and silver and everything else beautiful that he could find.

Then he lifted the sack onto his back. They left the cave, and Hans's eyes opened wide when he came out of the darkness into the daylight. He saw the green forest, the flowers, the birds, and the morning sun in the sky.

He stood there and marveled at everything, as if he were not very wise. His mother looked for the way home, and after they had walked for a couple of hours, they came 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 thought they were both dead. Hans, although he was not yet twelve years old, was a head taller than his father. They went into the little room together.

But Hans had barely put his sack on the bench by the stove when the whole house began to crack. The bench broke down, then the floor, and the heavy sack fell through into the cellar. "God save us!" cried the father. "What was that?

Now you have broken our little house to pieces!" "Don't worry about that, dear father," answered Hans. "In that sack there is more than enough for a new house." Then the father and Hans began to build a new house at once. They bought cattle and land and started a farm.

Hans plowed the fields, and when he pushed the plow into the ground, the oxen hardly had to pull. The next spring, Hans said, "Keep all the money and have a walking stick made for me that weighs a hundred pounds.

I want to go traveling." When the stick was ready, he left his father's house, and traveled until he came to a deep, dark forest. There he heard something crunching and cracking. He looked around and saw a fir tree that was twisted like a rope from the bottom to the top.

When he looked up, he saw a huge fellow who had grabbed the tree and was twisting it like a willow branch. "Hello!" cried Hans. "What are you doing up there?" The fellow answered, "I gathered some firewood yesterday, and now I am twisting a rope out of it." "That is what I like," thought Hans.

"He has some strength." He called to him, "Leave that alone and come with me." The fellow came down, and he was a whole head taller than Hans, and Hans was not small. "Your name is now Fir-twister," Hans said to him.

Then they went further and heard someone knocking and hammering with such force that the ground shook with every blow. Soon they came to a mighty rock. There stood a giant, striking great pieces off the rock with his fist.

When Hans asked what he was doing, he answered, "At night, when I want to sleep, bears, wolves, and other vermin come sniffing and snuffling around me and won't let me rest. So I want to build myself a house to lie down in, so I can have some peace." "Oh, indeed," thought Hans.

"I can use this one too." He said to him, "Leave your house-building alone and come with me. You shall be called Rock-splitter." The man agreed, and they all three roamed through the forest. Wherever they went, the wild beasts were terrified and ran away from them.

In the evening they came to an old, deserted castle. They went in and lay down in the hall to sleep. The next morning Hans went into the garden. It had grown wild and was full of thorns and bushes. As he was walking around, a wild boar rushed at him.

He gave it such a blow with his club that it fell down at once. He lifted it onto his shoulders, carried it inside, put it on a spit, roasted it, and they enjoyed themselves.

Then they agreed that each day two of them would go hunting, and one would stay home and cook nine pounds of meat for each of them. The first day Fir-twister stayed home, and Hans and Rock-splitter went hunting.

While Fir-twister was cooking, a little wrinkled old dwarf came to him in the castle and asked for some meat. "Go away, you sly hypocrite," he answered. "You don't need any meat." But how astonished Fir-twister was when the little dwarf jumped at him and beat him with his fists so that he could not defend himself.

He fell to the ground and gasped for breath. The dwarf did not leave until he had fully vented his anger. When the two others came home from hunting, Fir-twister said nothing about the old dwarf or the blows he had received.

He thought, "When they stay at home, they can try their luck with the little scrub brush." The mere thought gave him pleasure.

The next day Rock-splitter stayed home, and the same thing happened to him as to Fir-twister. The dwarf beat him badly because he would not give him any meat. When the others came home in the evening, Fir-twister could easily see what he had suffered. But both kept silent, thinking, "Hans must taste that soup too."

Hans had to stay home the next day. He did his work in the kitchen as it had to be done. As he was standing there skimming the pot, the dwarf came and without further ado demanded a piece of meat. Hans thought, "He is a poor wretch.

I will give him some of my share so the others won't run short." So he handed him a piece. When the dwarf had devoured it, he asked for more meat. Good-natured Hans gave it to him and told him it was a nice piece and that he should be satisfied.

But the dwarf asked a third time. "You are shameless!" said Hans, and gave him none. Then the mean dwarf wanted to jump at him and treat him as he had treated Fir-twister and Rock-splitter. But this time he had picked the wrong man.

Without exerting himself much, Hans gave him a couple of blows that sent the dwarf flying down the castle steps. Hans tried to run after him but tripped and fell over him because he was so tall. When he got up, the dwarf had gotten a head start.

Hans hurried after him as far as the forest and saw him slip into a hole in the rock. Hans went home but he had marked the spot. When the two others came back, they were surprised to see that Hans looked so well.

He told them what had happened, and then they no longer hid how they had fared. Hans laughed and said, "It served you right. Why were you so stingy with your meat? It is a disgrace that you, who are so big, let yourselves be beaten by a dwarf." Then they took a basket and a rope, and all three went to the hole in the rock where the dwarf had disappeared.

They let Hans and his club down in the basket. When Hans reached the bottom, he found a door. He opened it, and inside sat a maiden as lovely as a picture—so beautiful that words cannot describe her. Beside her sat the dwarf, grinning at Hans like a sea cat.

The maiden was bound with chains and looked so sorrowfully at Hans that he felt great pity for her. He thought, "I must free her from this wicked dwarf." He gave the dwarf such a blow with his club that he fell down dead.

At once the chains fell from the maiden, and Hans was overjoyed by her beauty. She told him she was a king's daughter, stolen away from her home by a savage count and imprisoned there among the rocks because she would not have anything to do with him.

The count had set the dwarf as a guard, and the dwarf had made her suffer greatly. Then Hans placed the maiden in the basket and had her pulled up. The basket came down again, but Hans did not trust his two companions.

He thought, "They have already shown themselves to be false and told me nothing about the dwarf. Who knows what they plan against me?" So he put his club in the basket, and that was lucky. When the basket was halfway up, they let it fall.

If Hans had been sitting in it, he would have been killed. Now he did not know how to get out of the depths. He walked back and forth, but could not think of a way.

"It is truly sad," he said to himself, "that I have to waste away down here." As he wandered about, he once more came to the little chamber where the maiden had been sitting. There he saw that the dwarf had a ring on his finger that shone and sparkled.

He pulled it off and put it on. When he turned the ring on his finger, he suddenly heard a rustling above his head. He looked up and saw air spirits hovering above him. They told him they were his servants and asked what he desired.

Hans was speechless at first, but then he said they should take him back up. They obeyed instantly, and it felt as if he flew up himself. When he reached the top, he found no one there. Fir-twister and Rock-splitter had fled and taken the beautiful maiden with them.

But Hans turned the ring again, and the air spirits came and told him that the two were out on the sea. Hans ran without stopping until he came to the seashore. There, far out on the water, he saw a little boat with his faithless comrades.

In fierce anger, without thinking, he jumped into the water, club in hand, and began to swim. But the club weighed a hundred pounds and dragged him down until he nearly drowned. Just in time he turned his ring, and at once the air spirits came and flew him like lightning into the boat.

He swung his club and gave his wicked comrades the reward they deserved. He threw them into the water. Then he sailed with the beautiful maiden, who had been terribly frightened, back to her father and mother. He married her, and everyone rejoiced greatly.