Once upon a time there was a couple who had an only son. The family lived alone in a remote valley.
Once the woman took Hans, who was only two years old, to the woods to pick fir branches.
Because it was spring and flowers were blooming, they were happy to see the colorful flowers. Suddenly, two robbers jumped out of the jungle, kidnapped the mother and child, and took them to the dark depths of the forest, where no one had been for many years.
The poor woman begged the robbers to let her and her son go, but the robbers were hard-hearted and didn't listen to her pleas at all. They just drove them forward.
After about two hours, they came to a rock wall with a door. The robbers knocked on the door and it opened. They walked through a long dark passage and finally came to a large cave, which was lit up like day by the fire. On the walls were swords and other weapons, shining coldly in the light of the fire. In the middle was a black table, and four other robbers were sitting there gambling. The man at the top was their leader.
When the chief of the robbers saw the woman coming, he came up to her and spoke to her, telling her not to be afraid, and to be at ease, for they would do her no harm, but that she must keep the house, and if she kept everything in order, they would treat her well. Then he gave her something to eat, and showed her her bed and that of the child.
The woman lived in the robbers' den for many years, and Hans had grown up and become strong. His mother told him stories and asked him to read an old knight's book that she found in the cave.
When Hans was nine years old, he made a strong stick out of pine branches, hid it behind his bed, and went to ask his mother: "Mom, now please tell me who my father is. I really want to know!"
The mother remained silent and refused to say anything to him for fear that he would fall in love with her. She knew that those lawless robbers would never let Hans go, but her heart almost broke at the thought that Hans could not go back to his father.
At night, when the robbers came back from their robbery, Hans took out his club, went up to the leader and said, "Now I want to know who my father is. If you don't tell me right away, I will beat you to death."
When the bandit leader heard this, he burst into laughter and slapped Hans in the face, causing him to roll under the table.
Hans got up without saying anything, thinking, "I will wait another year, then I will try again, maybe it will be better."
Another year passed, and he took out the stick again, wiped off the dust, looked at it carefully, and said, "This is a very strong and powerful stick."
At night, the robbers came back, drinking one jar of wine after another, and then they all lowered their heads in drunkenness.
At this time Hans took out his stick, walked up to the bandit leader and asked him who his father was.
The bandit leader just slapped him once and knocked him off the table.
But before long he got up again, picked up a stick and started beating the leader and other bandits so badly that their hands and feet were paralyzed.
His mother stood in the corner, her face filled with surprise at how brave and strong he was.
After Hans had beaten the robber, he went up to his mother and said, "Now I have to get down to business, but I want to know who my father is."
"Dear Hans, come, we will go and look for him now, and we must find him." She took the key from the leader to open the door, and Hans went to find a large flour bag, filled the bag with gold, silver and treasures, put it on his shoulders, and they left the cave.
Hans walked from the dark cave into the sun. What appeared before him was the green forest, countless flowers and birds, and the rising sun in the sky. He stood there with his eyes wide open, as if everything before him was a dream.
His mother took him to find the way home. After a few hours, they finally arrived safely in a lonely valley, and their cabin was right in front of them.
The father was sitting at the door, and when he recognized his wife and heard that Hans was his son, he cried for joy, for he had thought that they had died long ago. Although Hans was only twelve years old, he was a head taller than his father.
They returned together, and Hans had just put the sack on the bench by the fire when the room began to creak and shake, and the bench broke.
The father cried out, "Oh my God! What has happened? Now you have broken my house into pieces."
"Don't worry, Dad," said Hans. "There's more stuff in this bag than we need to build a new house."
The father and son immediately started to build a new house, bought livestock and land, and started to run the farm. Hans plowed the field, walking behind the plowshare and pressing the plow deeply into the soil, so that the oxen in front of him hardly needed to pull.
The next spring , the cow died . Hans said to his father, "Dad, keep this money. Please make me a 100-pound traveling stick. I'm going on a long journey."
After the walking stick was made, Hans left home. He walked and walked until he came to a deep dark forest.
There he heard something snapping, and looking around him he saw a pine tree twisted together from bottom to top like a rope. Looking up again he saw a large man who was holding the trunk and twisting it this way and that, as if it were not a tree at all, but a willow branch.
"Hey! What are you doing up there?"
The man said, "I tied up some firewood yesterday and wanted to make a rope to tie it up."
Hans thought, "He's quite strong." So he shouted to the man, "Stop doing this and come with me."
The man climbed down from the tree. He was a whole head taller than Hans.
"You may as well call yourself 'Tree Twister,'" Hans said to him.
As they walked on, they heard something knocking on the ground, and the ground shook with every knock.
Soon, they came to a rock wall and saw a giant standing there, knocking down large chunks of rock with his fists.
Hans asked him what he was doing. The giant replied, "When I go to bed at night, bears, wolves, and other wild animals always sniff around me and keep me awake. So I want to build a house and sleep in it at night. That way I can have more peace."
"Well," thought Hans, "you can use this fellow, too." So he said, "Don't bother making him, but come with us. You may be called 'Stonesplitter.'"
The giant agreed and walked through the forest with them. Wherever they went, the wild animals were frightened and ran away from them.
At night they came to an old, uninhabited palace, went in, and slept in the great hall.
The next morning, Hans went into the garden in front of the palace, and found it all deserted and full of thorns.
As he was walking about, a wild boar suddenly rushed at him, but he hit it with his stick and it fell down immediately. Then he took the boar on his shoulders and took it upstairs, and the others roasted it on a pole and had a great time eating it.
They took turns to go hunting every day, leaving one person at home to cook, and each person could eat nine pounds of meat every day.
On the first day the tree-twister stayed at home while Hans and the stone-splitter went hunting. While the tree-twister was busy cooking, a little old man with a wrinkled face walked into the palace and asked him for meat.
"Go away, you damned fellow! What meat do you want to eat?" he replied. But to his surprise, the inconspicuous little man jumped on the tree twister and beat him with his fists. He was unable to resist and finally fell to the ground gasping for breath. The old man did not leave until he was completely relieved of his hatred.
When the other two came back from hunting, the tree twister said nothing about the old man or the beating. He thought to himself, "When they stay at home, they will also have a taste of the power of that aggressive old man." Just this thought was enough to make him happy for a while.
The next day the Stone Splitter stayed at home, and the same thing happened to him as it happened to the Tree Twister, for he refused to give him meat, and the old man gave him a good beating. When they came back the Tree Twister knew what had happened to him, but they both kept silent, thinking, "Let Hans have a taste of the same."
On the third day, it was Hans' turn to stay at home and cook. He was working hard in the kitchen, standing on the stove to beat the foam in the pot, when the little man came and asked for meat without any hesitation.
Hans thought: "This is a poor old man. I will give him some of my share so that no one else will suffer any loss."
So he handed him a piece of meat. After the dwarf finished eating the beef , he asked for another piece. The kind-hearted Hans gave it to him again and told him that this piece of meat was very good and he should be satisfied. Unexpectedly, the dwarf asked for it for the third time.
"You are so shameless," said Hans, and he stopped giving him meat.
The wicked dwarf was about to jump on Hans and treat him like a tree-twister and a stone-splitter, but he had the wrong man.
Hans slapped him effortlessly several times, causing him to tumble down the steps. Hans went to chase him, but because he was tall and had long legs, he was tripped by the dwarf. When Hans got up, the dwarf was laughing in front of him.
Hans chased him into the forest and saw him slip into a cave. Hans had to go home, but he remembered the place.
When the two came back, they were surprised to see Hans safe and sound. Hans told them everything that had happened, so they no longer hid their experiences. Hans laughed and said, "It's all your fault. Who told you to be so stingy with your meat? You are so big, but you were beaten by a little man. It's really shameful."
So the three of them took the basket and the rope, and went to the hole in the ground where the dwarf had slipped in. They made Hans sit in the basket, with the stick, and lowered him into the hole.
After Hans got down to the bottom, he found a door. He opened it and found a beautiful girl sitting there. She was so beautiful that it was beyond description. Next to the girl sat the dwarf, who was staring at Hans coldly, like a wild cat. The girl was chained and looked at Hans pitifully, which aroused Hans' great sympathy.
Hans thought, "I must save her from this wicked dwarf." So he struck him with his stick, and he fell dead to the ground. At once the girl's chains fell loose.
She told Hans that she was a princess who was captured by a brutal duke and locked up here. Because she refused to marry him, the duke asked the dwarf to be her guard, and she was fed up with his torture.
Then Hans put the girl into the basket and let the two men pull him up.
The basket was put down again, but Hans no longer trusted his two companions. He thought, "They have already behaved dishonestly by not telling me about the dwarf. Who knows what they are up to?"
So he put only his stick in. Fortunately, for the basket was suspended in the air until they let it down again, for if Hans had sat in it he would have fallen to his death.
Hans was trapped in the cave and didn't know how to climb out. He thought about it, but couldn't think of a good way. So he walked around and came to the hut where the girl had stayed. He found a ring on the dwarf's finger, which was shining. So he took it off and put it on his own hand. He then turned the ring and suddenly heard something making a noise above his head. He looked up and saw that there were several fairies flying in the sky. They said that he was their master and asked him what he wanted to do.
Hans said nothing at first, but soon ordered them to carry him up.
They did as he was told, and he felt as if he were flying. But when he reached the top, he could not see them. He went back to the palace, but there was no one there either. The tree twisters and stone splitters had all gone, taking the beautiful princess with them.
Hans then turned the ring again, and the angel came again and said that the two men were out at sea. Hans ran and ran until he reached the seashore. There he looked out and saw a small boat far out at sea, with his unfaithful companion sitting in it.
Hans was so angry that he jumped into the water without thinking and swam forward with his stick. However, the stick was too heavy and dragged him down and almost drowned him.
So he turned the ring quickly, and in the twinkling of an eye the fairy came again, bringing him close to the boat like lightning. Hans swung his stick and knocked them both into the water, giving the two guys the punishment they deserved. The beautiful princess was frightened just now, but Hans saved her again, rowed her back to her parents' home, and later married her, and everything was happy.