Prevod

Once upon a time there was a farmer who had a great deal of money and property, but rich as he was, something was still missing from his happiness: he and his wife had no children. Often, when he went into town with the other farmers, they mocked him and asked why he had no children. This made him angry, and when he came home he said, “I will have a child, even if it is a hedgehog!” Then his wife gave birth to a child that was a hedgehog above and a boy below, and when she saw the child she took fright and said, “See what you have done! You have put a curse on us!” The man said, “What good does it do to say that now? The boy must be christened, but we cannot ask anyone to stand godfather.” His wife said, “And we can call him nothing but Hans My Hedgehog.” When he had been christened, the parson said, “With those spines of his, he cannot be put in a proper bed.” So a little straw was laid behind the stove, and Hans My Hedgehog was put there. Nor could he suckle at his mother’s breast, for he would have pricked her with his spines. And so he lay behind the stove for eight years, until his father grew tired of him and wished he would die; but he did not die and went on lying there. Now it happened that a market was being held in town, and the farmer meant to go, so he asked his wife what he should bring her back. “A little meat and a few rolls, things we need for the household,” she said. Then he asked the maid, who wanted a pair of slippers and stockings with embroidered clocks. At last he said, “And Hans My Hedgehog, what would you like?” “Dear Father,” he said, “do bring me a set of bagpipes!” When the farmer came home again, he gave his wife what he had bought her, the meat and rolls, then gave the maid her slippers and embroidered stockings, and at last went behind the stove and gave Hans My Hedgehog the bagpipes. Once Hans My Hedgehog had his bagpipes, he said, “Dear Father, go to the smithy and have my cockerel shod for me. Then I will ride away and never come back.” His father was glad to be rid of him and had the cockerel shod, and when it was ready, Hans My Hedgehog mounted it and rode away, taking pigs and donkeys with him to tend out in the forest. In the forest, the cockerel had to fly up into a tall tree with him, and there he sat, watching over the donkeys and pigs. He stayed there for many years, until the herd had grown very large, and his father heard nothing of him. As he sat in the tree, he played his bagpipes, and the music was very beautiful. One day a king who had lost his way came driving past and heard the music. He was astonished and sent his servant to look about and see where it was coming from. The servant looked around but saw nothing except a little creature sitting high in a tree: it looked like a cockerel with a hedgehog on its back, and the hedgehog was making the music. The king told his servant to ask why he was sitting there and whether he knew the way to the king’s kingdom. Hans My Hedgehog climbed down from the tree and said he would show the way if the king would promise him, in writing, whatever first came to meet him at the royal court when he returned home. The king thought, “I can easily do that. Hans My Hedgehog will not understand it, and I can write whatever I please.” So the king took pen and ink and wrote something down, and when that was done, Hans My Hedgehog showed him the way, and he arrived safely home. But when his daughter saw him in the distance, she was so full of joy that she ran to meet him and kissed him. Then he remembered Hans My Hedgehog and told her what had happened: how he had been asked to promise a strange creature, in writing, whatever first came to meet him at home, and how the creature had sat astride a cockerel as though it were a horse and played beautiful music. But he had written that it should not have what it asked for, since Hans My Hedgehog could not read it anyway. The princess was glad to hear this and said it was just as well, for she would never have gone with him.

Meanwhile, Hans My Hedgehog tended his donkeys and pigs, always merry, sitting in the tree and playing his bagpipes. Now it happened that another king came driving through with his servants and footmen, and he too had lost his way and could not find the road home, for the forest was so vast. He likewise heard the beautiful music in the distance and told one of his footmen to go and see what it could be. The footman went beneath the tree and saw the cockerel sitting there with Hans My Hedgehog on its back. He asked him what he was doing up there. “I am tending my donkeys and pigs. But what is it you want?” The footman said they had lost their way and could not get back to the kingdom, and asked whether he would show them the road. Hans My Hedgehog climbed down from the tree and told the old king that he would show him the way if he would give him, for his own, whatever first came to meet him before the royal palace when he reached home. The king agreed and signed a promise that Hans My Hedgehog should have it. When that was done, he rode ahead on his cockerel and showed the king the way, and the king returned safely to his kingdom. There was great rejoicing when he arrived at court. Now he had an only daughter, who was very beautiful, and she ran to meet him, threw her arms about his neck and kissed him, delighted to have her old father back. She also asked where in the world he had been for so long. He told her that he had lost his way and very nearly never come home at all, but that as he was driving through a great forest, he had found a creature, half hedgehog and half man, sitting astride a cockerel high in a tree and playing beautiful music. This creature had helped him out and shown him the way, but in return he had promised him whatever first came to meet him at the royal court, and that was she, which now grieved him sorely. But she promised him that, for her old father’s sake, she would gladly go with the creature when he came.

Hans My Hedgehog went on tending his pigs, and the pigs had more pigs, until there were so many that the whole forest was full of them. Then Hans My Hedgehog decided he no longer wished to live in the forest and sent word to his father that all the sties in the village were to be emptied, for he was coming with such a great herd that anyone who wished could slaughter a pig. His father was distressed to hear this, for he thought Hans My Hedgehog had died long ago. But Hans My Hedgehog mounted his cockerel, drove the pigs before him into the village and had them slaughtered. Oh, what a butchering and chopping there was! It could be heard two hours’ journey away. Afterwards Hans My Hedgehog said, “Dear Father, have my cockerel shod at the smithy once more, and then I will ride away and never come back as long as I live.” So his father had the cockerel shod and was glad that Hans My Hedgehog did not mean to return.

Hans My Hedgehog rode away to the first kingdom. Now the king had ordered that if anyone came riding on a cockerel and carrying bagpipes, they were all to shoot, slash and stab at him, so that he could not enter the palace. When Hans My Hedgehog came riding up, they rushed at him with bayonets, but he spurred his cockerel, flew up over the gate and alighted before the king’s window. There he called out that the king must give him what he had promised, or he would take both his life and his daughter’s. Then the king pleaded with his daughter to go out to him and so save both their lives. She dressed in white, and her father gave her a carriage drawn by six horses, splendid servants, money and possessions. She climbed into the carriage, and Hans My Hedgehog sat beside her with his cockerel and bagpipes. Then they said farewell and drove away, and the king thought he would never see her again. But things turned out otherwise, for when they had gone a little way beyond the town, Hans My Hedgehog stripped the king’s daughter of her fine clothes and pricked her with his hedgehog skin until she was covered in blood. “That is the reward for your deceit,” he said. “Go away. I do not want you.” With that he drove her home, and she was disgraced for the rest of her life.

Hans My Hedgehog rode on with his cockerel and bagpipes to the second kingdom, whose king he had also shown the way home. This king, however, had ordered that if anyone like Hans My Hedgehog should come, the guards were to present arms, admit him freely, cry “Long live!” and bring him into the royal palace. When the king’s daughter saw him, she took fright, for he looked so very strange; but she thought there was no help for it, since she had given her father her promise. So she welcomed Hans My Hedgehog and was married to him. He had to join them at the royal table, and she sat beside him, and they ate and drank. When evening came and they were about to go to bed, she was very much afraid of his spines. But he told her not to be frightened, for no harm would come to her. Then he told the old king to appoint four men to keep watch outside the bedchamber door and build a great fire. When he went into the room and was about to lie down, he would crawl out of his hedgehog skin and leave it lying before the bed. The men must then hurry in, throw it into the fire and stay beside it until it had been consumed. When the clock struck eleven, he went into the bedchamber, slipped off his hedgehog skin and left it lying before the bed. The men came in, quickly took it up and threw it into the fire, and when the fire had consumed it, he was freed from the spell and lay in bed as an ordinary man, but he was coal-black, as though he had been burned. The king sent for his physician, who washed him with healing ointments and anointed him with balm, until his skin grew white and he was a handsome young man. When the king’s daughter saw this, she was glad, and the next morning they rose in high spirits and ate and drank. Now the wedding was celebrated in earnest, and the old king gave Hans My Hedgehog his kingdom.

When some years had passed, he drove with his wife to his father’s house and told him he was his son. But his father said he had no son: he had once had one, but he had been born with spines like a hedgehog and had gone out into the world. Then he made himself known, and his old father was overjoyed and went back with him to his kingdom.