"Strong Hans" (German: Der starke Hans) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in their collection as number KHM 166.
The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 650A, "Strong John".
Summary A two-year-old child named Hans and his mother are kidnapped by thieves and taken to their hideout in a cave, the woman forced to be the thieves' housemaid. When he is nine years old, Hans asks his mother where his father is, but the thieves' leader beats the boy. One year later, Hans asks again, beats the drunken thieves, and returns with his mother to his father, taking the bandits' gold with him.
Years later, now a youth, he walks the earth with his cane and meets two similarly strong individuals: one who can break pines into ropes and another who can break rocks with his fists. The three strike a friendship and agree to hunt together and cook the game at home.
One day, the two companions are defeated by a mysterious being in the woods, who asked for some meat. When Hans meets the creature (a dwarf), the youth gives him a piece of meat and follows it to its lair in the mountain. He calls his companions to help him enter the mountain with a long rope. There, Hans kills the dwarf and releases a king's daughter (a princess). When Hans takes the princess to his companions to pull her to the surface, the two companions cut the rope and the youth is trapped in the dwarf's lair. He soon finds a magic ring and uses it to teleport out of the mountain.
Analysis The German tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 650A. These types refer to stories where the hero is the fruit of the union between a human and an otherworldly character, often showing superhuman strength as he matures.Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 85-86. In other variants, the hero is nursed with milk from his mother or from a female animal and develops the wonderful attributes by which he will be known.Bálint Péter. Archaikus Alakzatok A Népmesében. Jakab István cigány mesemondó (a késleltető halmozás mestere) [Archaic Images in Folk Tales. The Tales of István Jakab, Gypsy Tale Teller (the master of delayed accumulation)]. Debrecen: 2014. p. 296.
Professor Stith Thompson remarked the great similarities between the ATU 650A, "Strong John", and tale type AT 301B, "John, the Bear" (Jean de l'Ours), since both types show a protagonist with superhuman attributes.Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 85-86. In his second expansion of Antti Aarne's folktale classification, he established that type AT 650A served as introduction to type AT 301B, "The Strong Man and his Companions" ("Jean de l'Ours").Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 225. In addition, some stories of type 650A feature an episode of type ATU 1000, "Anger Bargain (Bargain not to become angry)".Thompson, Stith. European Tales Among the North American Indians: a Study In the Migration of Folk-tales. Colorado Springs: Colorado College. 1919. pp. 434-435.
In some tales, the boy's employer (farmer, blacksmith, etc.) is so afraid of the boy's enormous strength that he sets a series of tasks to get rid of him, even sending the boy to a haunted mill. In these versions, the tale type, ATU 650A, merges with episodes of type ATU 326, "The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was" - a phenomenon that can already be seen in European variants.Itier, César. La littérature orale quechua de la région de Cuzco-Pérou. Paroles en Miroir n. 2. Centre de Recherce sur l'Oralité. Édtions Karthala et INALCO, 2004. pp. 152-153. This combination also occurs in Andean stories, which create a complex narrative by mixing types AT 301B, ATU 326 and ATU 650A.Fourtané, Nicole. "Le syncrétisme culturel andin dans les contes populaires. Entrecroisement de mémoires". In: América: Cahiers du CRICCAL, n°31, 2004. Mémoire et culture en Amérique latine, v2. p. 33 (footnote nr. 1). [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/ameri.2004.1640]; www.persee.fr/doc/ameri_0982-9237_2004_num_31_1_1640
It has also been suggested that tale types ATU 301 and its subtype Jean de l'Ours, ATU 650 ("Strong Hans"), ATU 302 ("Devil's Heart in the Egg") and ATU 554 ("The Grateful Animals") may have once comprised a single narrative, but, with time, the original story fragmented into different tale types.Frank, R. M. (2019). "Translating a Worldview in the longue durée: The Tale of “The Bear's Son”". In: Głaz A. (eds). Languages – Cultures – Worldviews. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 68-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28509-8_3
Parallels In the 19th century, Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn, collector of Balkanic folktales, remarked that "Strong Hans" tales are some of the most common folktales. He also compared the strong hero to Greek god Heracles, Germanic deity Thor and hero Siegfried, due to their heroic feats of defeating a dragon or serpent, as well as being great eaters and drinkers.Hahn, Johann Georg von. Griechische und Albanesische Märchen 1-2. München/Berlin: Georg Müller, 1918. pp. 446-447. A similar assessment was given by Heinrich Pröhle in Märchen für die Jugend, when he compared the variant he collected with Germanic Thor: the gluttony recalls his great appetite, and the iron cane reminded him of the powerful Mjollnir hammer.Pröhle, Heinrich. Märchen für die Jugend. Halle: 1854. pp. 230-231.
In the same vein, German philologist Paul Kretschmer saw parallels between Hercules and other counterparts of Strong Hans: Pomeranian starken Jochem; Italian Giovanni Benforte and Zuam (Giovanni) Valent; French Jean de l'Ours and Spanish Juan de l'Os.Kretschmer, Paul. "Mythische Namen. 5. Herakles". In: Glotta 8, no. 1/2 (1916): 128. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40264938.
Parallels have also been argued between the tale type and similar stories about strong men in Old Norse literature, such as Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss.Asplund Ingemark, Camilla. (2014). ""The Trolls in Bárðar Saga – Playing with the Conventions of Oral Texts?". In: Folklore in Old Norse - Old Norse in Folklore. Nordistica Tartuensia 20. Editors: Karen Bek Pedersen & Daniel Sävborg. University of Tartu Press. 2014. pp. 120-138.
Scholarship also points to similarities of the strong hero type with the giant Rainouart from old French chansons de geste. The youth is known for his gluttonous appetite and for his tinel, a huge weapon made of oak.Krappe, Alexander Haggerty. "The Origin of the Geste Rainouart." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 24, no. 1/4 (1923): 1-10. Accessed January 11, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43340344.
On the other hand, it has been suggested that the Strong John tale type (ATU 650A) shows signs of an initiation ritual, a hero's journey that echoes mythic narrative: hero's preternatural birth by an animal; the boy's rapid growth and further adventures in his youth; the entrance into the forest; hero's return home as a changed man.Прохазкова, К. [Procházková, K.]. "От мифа к волшебной сказке: зачем медведю снимать шкуру?". In: Живая Старина [Zhivaia Starina] Volume I (57). 2008. pp. 5-9. (in Russian)Nikolaev, Dmitry. "“Zhivaia Starina” (“Living Tradition”): An Academic Journal". In: FOLKLORICA - Journal of the Slavic East European and Eurasian Folklore Association. 14. February/2010. p. 181. DOI: 10.17161/folklorica.v14i0.3823
Distribution According to Stith Thompson, the tale type can be found "in nearly every European country".Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 86.
More than a thousand variants have been recorded in Europe, specially in Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia and Baltic countries. Outside Europe, the tale type is also recorded in Middle East folktale compilations.Dekker, Ton. "Sterke Jan". In: Van Aladdin tot Zwaan kleef aan. Lexicon van sprookjes: ontstaan, ontwikkeling, variaties. 1ste druk. Ton Dekker & Jurjen van der Kooi & Theo Meder. Kritak: Sun. 1997. p. 653. Scholar Stith Thompson reported nearly four hundred variants collected "in Estonia and Finland alone".Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 86.
Professor Jack Haney stated that the tale type is "very common among the Russians and Ukrainians".The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev. Volume I. Edited by Haney Jack V. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.115. Further scholarship describes the tale type as very popular in Eastern Europe and present "in the Uralic–Altaian tale corpus".Bálint Péter. Archaikus Alakzatok A Népmesében. Jakab István cigány mesemondó (a késleltető halmozás mestere) [Archaic Images in Folk Tales. The Tales of István Jakab, Gypsy Tale Teller (the master of delayed accumulation)]. Debrecen: 2014. pp. 295-296.
Variants Ireland In a variant from Ireland, collected in 1929 from Diarmiud 'Ac Giolla Chearra with the name Ashy Pet, the protagonist is a lazy boy with an enormous appetite who eats the porridge that his mother made for his father and his workmen. Fearing punishment, he flees home and finds work elsewhere. Under this new employer, the youth kills three giants, their mother, and descends into hell to ask the devils for barley seed.Ó Tuathail, Éamonn. "Ashy Pet". In: Béaloideas 2, no. 2 (1929): 148-56. Accessed May 10, 2021. doi:10.2307/20521574.
England Despite omitting its classification of the story, folklorist Katherine Mary Briggs summarized Joseph Jacobs's account of Tom Hickathrift's adventures to the main points, and they follow very closely the tale type: Tom suckles his mother's milk for twenty years and acquires superhuman strength; his employer is so frightened by him that the sends the boy on errands to keep him busy.Briggs, Katharine M. An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobglobins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures. New York: Pantheon Books. 1976. p. 190.
France French comparativist Emmanuel Cosquin collected three "pure" versions of the tale, which he named L'Homme Fort ("The Strong Man"). All three stories focus their narrative in the human boy: after he suckles his mother's milk and develops great strength, he travels the world to find a place to make good use of his powers. In one version, the boy's employer sends him on an errand to force the devil to pay his debt and in other to grind flour in "the devil's mill", from where no one has ever returned."XIV. Le Fils du Diable". In: Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine, comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers. Tome Premier. Paris: Vieweg, Librarie-Éditeur. 1886. pp. 158-164."XLVI. Bénédicité". In: Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine, comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers. Tome Second. Paris: Vieweg, Librarie-Éditeur. 1886. pp. 107-109."LXIX. Le Labourer et son Valet". In: Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine, comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers. Tome Second. Paris: Vieweg, Librarie-Éditeur. 1886. pp. 266-268.
Denmark Collector Svend Grundtvig published a Danish variant titled Stærke Hans ("Strong Hans").Grundtvig, Svend. Gamle Danske Minder I Folkemunde. Kjøbenhaven: C.G. Iversen, 1854. pp. 33-41.
Norway