When the evening came the
hare-herd whistled once more, and looked to see if all were there, and
then drove them to the palace. The King wondered how Hans had been able
to take a hundred hares to graze without losing any of them; he would,
however, not give him his daughter yet, and said he must now bring him
a feather from the Griffin’s tail. Hans set out at once, and walked
straight forwards. In the evening he came to a castle, and there he
asked for a night’s lodging, for at that time there were no inns. The
lord of the castle promised him that with much pleasure, and asked
where he was going? Hans answered, “To the Griffin.” “Oh! to the
Griffin! They tell me he knows everything, and I have lost the key of
an iron money-chest; so you might be so good as to ask him where it
is.” “Yes, indeed,” said Hans, “I will do that.” Early the next morning
he went onwards, and on his way arrived at another castle in which he
again stayed the night. When the people who lived there learnt that he
was going to the Griffin, they said they had in the house a daughter
who was ill, and that they had already tried every means to cure her,
but none of them had done her any good, and he might be so kind as to
ask the Griffin what would make their daughter healthy again? Hans said
he would willingly do that, and went onwards. Then he came to a lake,
and instead of a ferry-boat, a tall, tall man was there who had to
carry everybody across. The man asked Hans whither he was journeying? “To the Griffin,” said Hans. “Then when you get to him,” said the man,
“just ask him why I am forced to carry everybody over the lake.” “Yes,
indeed, most certainly I’ll do that,” said Hans. Then the man took him
up on his shoulders, and carried him across. At length Hans arrived at
the Griffin’s house, but the wife only was at home, and not the Griffin
himself. Then the woman asked him what he wanted? Thereupon he told her
everything;—that he had to get a feather out of the Griffin’s tail, and
that there was a castle where they had lost the key of their
money-chest, and he was to ask the Griffin where it was?—that in
another castle the daughter was ill, and he was to learn what would
cure her?—and then not far from thence there was a lake and a man
beside it, who was forced to carry people across it, and he was very
anxious to learn why the man was obliged to do it. Then said the woman,
“But look here, my good friend, no Christian can speak to the Griffin;
he devours them all; but if you like, you can lie down under his bed,
and in the night, when he is quite fast asleep, you can reach out and
pull a feather out of his tail, and as for those things which you are
to learn, I will ask about them myself.” Hans was quite satisfied with
this, and got under the bed. In the evening, the Griffin came home, and
as soon as he entered the room, said, “Wife, I smell a Christian.”
“Yes,” said the woman, “one was here to-day, but he went away again;”
and on that the Griffin said no more. In the middle of the night when the Griffin was snoring loudly, Hans
reached out and plucked a feather from his tail. The Griffin woke up
instantly, and said, “Wife, I smell a Christian, and it seems to me
that somebody was pulling at my tail.” His wife said, “Thou hast
certainly been dreaming, and I told thee before that a Christian was
here to-day, but that he went away again. He told me all kinds of
things that in one castle they had lost the key of their money-chest,
and could find it nowhere.” “Oh! the fools!” said the Griffin; “the key
lies in the wood-house under a log of wood behind the door.” “And then
he said that in another castle the daughter was ill, and they knew no
remedy that would cure her.” “Oh! the fools!” said the Griffin; “under
the cellar-steps a toad has made its nest of her hair, and if she got
her hair back she would be well.” “And then he also said that there was
a place where there was a lake and a man beside it who was forced to
carry everybody across.” “Oh, the fool!” said the Griffin; “if he only
put one man down in the middle, he would never have to carry another
across.” Early the next morning the Griffin got up and went out. Then
Hans came forth from under the bed, and he had a beautiful feather, and
had heard what the Griffin had said about the key, and the daughter,
and the ferry-man. The Griffin’s wife repeated it all once more to him
that he might not forget it, and then he went home again. First he came
to the man by the lake, who asked him what the Griffin had said, but
Hans replied that he must first carry him across, and then he would
tell him. So the man carried him across, and when he was over Hans told
him that all he had to do was to set one person down in the middle of
the lake, and then he would never have to carry over any more. The man
was hugely delighted, and told Hans that out of gratitude he would take
him once more across, and back again. But Hans said no, he would save
him the trouble, he was quite satisfied already, and pursued his way. Then he came to the castle where the daughter was ill; he took her on
his shoulders, for she could not walk, and carried her down the
cellar-steps and pulled out the toad’s nest from beneath the lowest
step and gave it into her hand, and she sprang off his shoulder and up
the steps before him, and was quite cured. Then were the father and
mother beyond measure rejoiced, and they gave Hans gifts of gold and of
silver, and whatsoever else he wished for, that they gave him. And when
he got to the other castle he went at once into the wood-house, and
found the key under the log of wood behind the door, and took it to the
lord of the castle. He also was not a little pleased, and gave Hans as
a reward much of the gold that was in the chest, and all kinds of
things besides, such as cows, and sheep, and goats. When Hans arrived
before the King, with all these things—with the money, and the gold,
and the silver and the cows, sheep and goats, the King asked him how he
had come by them. Then Hans told him that the Griffin gave every one
whatsoever he wanted. So the King thought he himself could make such
things useful, and set out on his way to the Griffin; but when he got
to the lake, it happened that he was the very first who arrived there
after Hans, and the man put him down in the middle of it and went away,
and the King was drowned. Hans, however, married the daughter, and
became King. 166 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.