Hans My Hedgehog

A farmer who had long wished desperately for a son, in a moment of bitter frustration, declared he would take any child at all, even one born half hedgehog — and to his shock, his wife soon gave birth to a boy who was indeed half hedgehog from the waist up, with sharp quills and all, whom they named Hans. Ashamed and unable to love the strange child properly, the father kept him hidden away, and Hans grew up largely alone, learning to play the bagpipes for company.

Eventually, tired of his father's rejection, Hans asked only for a rooster to ride and his bagpipes to play, and set off into the forest to live among the animals, where he found genuine peace tending a great herd of pigs and donkeys that grew under his care, playing music from his perch in a tall tree each evening.

Twice, lost kings passing through the forest were guided safely home by Hans in exchange for a promise: marriage to whichever daughter greeted them first upon arrival. The first king broke his promise once safely home, secretly instructing his daughter to refuse Hans if he ever came to collect, and was cursed for the betrayal. The second king kept his word faithfully, and his daughter, though initially frightened by Hans's quills, treated him with genuine kindness and respect regardless of his strange appearance. On their wedding night, Hans asked that his hedgehog skin be burned in the fire while he wore an ordinary man's clothes beneath — and the moment it burned away entirely, he was revealed as a full, handsome young man underneath, the curse of his strange birth undone entirely by a bride's willingness to accept him exactly as he first appeared, before she ever knew what lay beneath the quills.