There was once a great wood in the kingdom of King Brand, full of all kinds of game. One day, the King sent a hunter into the wood, but the hunter never returned. Worried, the King sent two more hunters after the first, but they didn’t come back either. On the third day, full of dread, the King sent the entire corps of the Kingdom’s hunters, telling them to spare no effort to recover their three missing comrades.
But none of the corps returned either. With a heavy heart, the King declared the forest haunted and forbade anyone from ever entering it again.
The Man in the Water
Many years later, a hunter came and petitioned the King to be allowed to hunt in the wood that had, by then, developed a reputation as a dark and foreboding place. The King denied the request, but the hunter, a strange looking man known by some as Aadne, insisted.
The King finally relented and let the hunter do as he wished. “You go at your own peril, hunter, and without expectation of Our aid.” And Aadne went at once, with a white hunting dog by his side.
The hunter and the dog had not been in the wood long when they came upon a still pool. Out of curiosity, the dog approached the water when suddenly a naked arm reached out of the water and pulled the dog under. Aadne saw this and immediately returned to his camp just outside the wood. There, he recruited six men and armed them with buckets.
The seven – Aadne and his six recruits – returned to the pool and taking care to keep a safe distance from the water’s edge, started draining the pool with their buckets.
With the water gone, they saw a wildman lying on the bottom, amongst the bows and arrows and daggers of the missing hunters. His skin was the color of rusty iron and his hair hung down to his knees like moss from a tree. Neither the missing hunters nor Aadne’s dog were anywhere to be found.
The wildman was immediately bound tightly and marched back to the castle. The King, who had heard of the capture, ordered the castle’s smithies to build a cage of iron which was to be placed on a platform erected in the main square.
Everyone turned out to see the arrival of the captive wildman, gawking at his size and rust-colored skin. When he was brought before the King, he glowered with such ferocity that the people assembled drew back with a collective gasp. The King laughed and congratulated Aadne on accomplishing what no one had been able to, and offered the hunter a boon.
Aadne thanked the King for his generosity and asked only that the rust-colored wildman be treated humanely. The King guaranteed that wild man would be treated well, even if he was imprisoned in the iron cage. Aadne, seeing the steely set of the King’s jaw as he declared his intentions, saw fit to accept the King’s decree with no question and immediately took his leave of the King, the castle, and as far anyone knew, the kingdom.
With a great show of ceremony and pomp, the King gave the key to the cage to the Queen, loudly proclaiming that the people of the Kingdom could once again return to the wood.
The King’s Son
A few days later, when the novelty of the captive wildman – now called Eisenrost by many because of the color of his skin – had worn off, the King’s 8-year old son – Gerd – accidentally tossed his golden ball into the iron cage. The boy ran up to the cage and demanded that the Isenross return the ball.
“Not until you’ve opened this cage,” Eisenrost replied softly in a gravelly voice. The boy, fearful of his father’s anger, refused and started to turn away. The wildman huffed and held the ball in his massive hand. Out of the corner of his eye, Gerd saw the ball and wanted to cry.
The next day, Gerd stood before the cage and once again demanded to be given his ball back. “Open the cage,” the wildman said simply.
“I won’t!” Gerd replied indignantly. “If I do, you will run away and go back into the woods again and people will hate me for it!”
“But you will have your ball back.”
That night, Gerd returned once more, his eyes red and swollen from crying. In a small voice, the King’s son confessed, “I don’t know where the key is.”
“The key is under your mother’s pillow,” the wildman replied. “Tomorrow, your father will ride out to hunt, taking all his huntsmen and finest soldiers with him. The Queen will be called away to her mother’s castle, and she will take her ladies-in-waiting with her along with the rest of the soldiers in the garrison, leaving the castle empty save for the grandmothers in the kitchen with the scullery girls and boys. Get the key then, and open this cage.”
The following day, everything happened exactly as the wildman had said. When he could no longer see his mother’s carriage from the window of his room, Gerd ran to his mother’s chamber, found the key where the man said it would be, and ran back down to the cage.
Panting, Gerd inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The cage door creaked open softly and the man stepped out, dropping the ball behind him. As Gerd picked the ball up, he saw the scullery maid named Fenya, staring at him with a look of shock and surprise on her face.
Seized with a sudden fear of his father, the King, Gerd whirled around and called after the wildman who, even then, was striding towards the gate. “Take me with you!” the Prince cried. “I don’t want to be whipped!”
Without a word, the wildman came back, hoisted the young prince up to his shoulders, and ran off into the woods.
When the King returned that night, he immediately saw the empty cage and flew into a royal rage. He summoned the Queen – who had returned earlier but had not seen the open cage – and demanded to know where the key was. Puzzled by the King’s anger, the Queen took him to her bed chamber and slipped her hand underneath her pillow. When she felt no key there, a gasp of dismay escaped her lips. Hearing his Queen, and realizing that his worst fears had come true, the King ordered the entire household to be brought before him.
One by one, the King interrogated the household, and all told him that they had not seen anything or anyone out of the ordinary. Until finally, the last one the King interrogated spoke timidly. “I saw the Prince, your majesty,” Fenya the scullery maid said. “His highness was picking up his ball inside Eisenrost’s cage and the cage was open.”
At that exact moment, the Queen ran into the room screaming “My son, my son! The Prince is not in his room!”
The Golden Spring
Back in the great wood, the rust colored wildman set the boy down and waited for the sobbing to subside. “You will not see your father and mother again,” the wildman said. “But since you set me free and I bear you no ill will, I will keep you with me.”
Seeing the stricken look on the boy’s face, the man hastened to add “If you do as I say, I promise you that things will go well for you, for I have more gold and treasure than anyone else in the world.”
As it was getting dark, the man made a bed of moss for Gerd and told him to rest. Exhausted, the boy quickly nodded off, even as the wildman started humming. “Goodnight, Eisenrost,” the boy said. “Call me Iron Hans,” the wild man replied before resuming his humming.
The following morning, Gerd awoke to the sound of the wildman humming. “What is that song?” the boy asked. “Awake now, are you?” the wildman replied. “Come, I have a task for you.”
The man took Gerd deeper into the wood until they arrived at a small clearing where a spring bubbled up from a riven rock. “See this spring? All I want you to do is to make sure that nothing falls into it, or else it will be fouled. Do you think you can manage that?”
The boy nodded and took a seat on a rock next to the spring. As the day wore on, Gerd peered deep into the pool created by the spring. From time to time, he would see a golden fish swimming in the depths. Sometimes, it was a golden snake.
When the sun was at its highest, Gerd felt a sharp pain in his finger and, without thinking, dipped it into the cool water. When he realized with a shock what he had donw, he quickly pulled his finger out again. A small cry of dismay escaped his lips when he saw that his finger had been completely covered in gold. He tried desperately to wipe it off, but to no avail. In desperation, he put his hand in his pocket and waited for the day to end.
When the sun was just a sliver over the distant mountains, Iron Hans returned and right away asked Gerd what had happened to the spring. Squirming, with his hands thrust deep into his pockets, the boy replied “Nothing.”
Iron Hans shook his head slowly and said: “You put your finger in the water, boy. I can let it go this time, but do not let it happen again or the spring will be fouled.”
The next day, as the boy sat watch over the spring, his finger hurt again. Rather than risk dipping it into the pool once more, the boy ran his hand through his hair. Much to his dismay, a hair fell into the pool. By the time he had fished it out, the strand of hair glinted golden in the sunlight.
He heard the humming long before Iron Hans appeared before him that evening, he didn’t even bother to ask what had happened. “A hair,” the wildman said, disappointment dripping from his voice. “I will give you another chance, boy, but let this happen a third time and we will have to part ways.”
On the third day, the boy sat on his hands and stayed away from water, determined not to make any sort of mistake again. But as the day got older, the boy found himself staring at his reflection in the pool. Closer and closer he leaned in, wanting to look at his reflection in the eyes, when suddenly, his long hair fell down in waves around his head and into the water. The boy pulled his head back suddenly but it was too late – every hair on his head had turned to gold.
When evening came, he tried to hide his hair under a bandana, but as always, Iron Hans already knew what had happened. “Take off the bandana,” and the boy’s golden locks tumbled out, falling in waves over his dejected shoulders.
“You have failed the test, Gerd, and can no longer stay here with me. Go out into the world and learn about poverty and hardship, sweat and toil. But as I know you to be good at heart, I shall grant you this one boon,” Iron Hans said.
“Should you ever have need, only come to the edge of the wood and call out my name. I shall come and help you, for my power is greater than you can imagine, and my treasures are beyond measure.”
Into the World
With a heavy heart, the boy Gerd, left the woods and followed the tracks of the world wherever they led him. On and on he walked, living off the land and the kindness of strangers, until one day many years later, he came upon the great walled city of Mauerburg. He tried to find a job to earn a living, but as he had not been able to learn a trade in the years of his wandering, no one would give him a job. Desperate, he went to the castle of the King beyond the city walls and asked to be taken in.
The people in the castle immediately took a liking to the golden haired young man – for Gerd had grown – and soon, the cook gave him a job carrying wood and raking up the ashes from the hearth.
One day, when no one was left in the kitchens to do it, the cook sent Gerd up to the royal table with a laden tray. Afraid to show his golden hair, the young man put on a cap. On seeing him, the King of Mauerburg, Arnulf, told him to remove his cap at once.
Flustered, Gerd stammered out his reply. “Oh n-n-no sir. I cannot,” he replied, sounding for all the nobles like a yokel. “I have an ugly scab on my head!”
The King immediately summoned the cook and upbraided him for taking an insolent boy into the service. “His manner is a discourtesy to us,” the King said, “and it is better if he be given a day’s wage and sent on his way.” Fortunately, the cook took pity on the young man and told him to change places with the gardener’s boy. “Stay away from the castle,” the cook said sternly, “and don’t ever cross paths with King Arnulf ever again.”
Thankful for the second chance, the young man worked his hardest as the garder’s boy, always keeping his cap on and slinking away whenever anyone from the royal family ever wandered around in the garden. At his new job, Gerd grew taller and stronger as the years went by. Unable to cut his hair, it grew longer and longer each year until, hidden under his cap, it often grew intolerably hot, especially in the summer.
One summer day, as he was working alone in the garden, it grew so hot that he took off his cap to air his head. But just as he doffed his cap, the sun emerged from behind a cloud and caught in his hair, making it glow and shine. Unbeknownst to him, the rays reflected from his hair and into the royal princess’s bedroom. Intrigued by the sudden flash of light that illuminated her room, the Princess Adette looked out the window and saw Gerd’s head of golden hair.
“Boy!” the Princess called from her open window, barely able to suppress a giggle. “Bring me a bouquet of flowers at once!”
Startled, Gerd jammed his cap back on and quickly gathered up a bouquet of wildflowers. On his way up the Princess, he met the gardener who asked him who the flowers were for. “The Princess asked for them,” he replied brightly.
“You can’t bring her those weeds,” the gardener grumbled. “Pick a better bouquet.” But Gerd was already running off and shouting back over his shoulder, “she’s going to love these! They smell sweeter!”
When he got to the her room, the Princess Adette asked him to take his cap off. When he refused, the Princess snatched the cap away and let out a startled yelp when she saw his golden locks. Gerd looked terrified at having been found out, so the Princess – who really didn’t know any better – gave him a handful of gold coins instead.
Still in shock, Gerd thrust the coins into his pocket and put his cap back on. That night, he gave the coins to the gardener’s children to play with, and went to sleep without telling anyone what had happened.
The next day, the princess asked for flowers again. When he got to her room, Gerd kept a tight grip on his hat. Unable to snatch it off this time, the Princess handed him more gold coins. On the third day, the same thing happened, but each time, he gave the gold coins to the gardener’s children to play with.
The fourth day after the Princess saw his hair, news of war broke out.
War
When war came, the King called upon all his knights and told them to prepare for battle. From a small corner in the great hall of the castle, Gerd spoke up. “I want to fight!” he announced, beating his chest. The knights who heard him laughed and told him to wait until they had ridden out, and that they would leave a steed for him in the stable.
That night, Gerd fell asleep with visions of battlefield valor in his mind. The following morning, When he woke up the following day, Gerd rushed to the stable, eager to get on the steed he had been promised, only to find the lame horse everyone called Gebro.
Undeterred, Gerd mounted lame horse and as soon as he could, rode as fast as he could to very edge of the wood and called out “Iron Hans” three times. Before the last echoes of his voice died out, Iron Hans stood before him. “What need have you, boy?” the rust colored man said.
“A strong horse,” Gerd replied. “I am going to war.”
“Then a horse you shall have, Iron Hans thundered, “and more besides!”
Iron Hans walked back into the wood and before long, emerged with a stable boy, leading a massive charger that pawed at the earth and snorted from great flaring nostrils. Behind them, emerging from amongst the trees, marched an army of iron-armored knights, each one wielding a long pike and wearing a sword at the hip.
Gerd left Gebro with the stable-boy, and after having been helped by a squire into armor befitting the leader of such a powerful army, mounted the charger.
By the time Gerd and his army arrived on the battlefield, many of the King’s knights had already fallen. With a loud battle cry, Gerd’s army crashed into the opposing armies, beating them back easily, and pursuing those who tried to flee and cutting them down like weeds.
When the enemy had been routed, the King’s knights rode home, expecting to see the conquering knight behind them. But Gerd had wheeled around and, taking a roundabout route, returned to the edge of the wood where, once again, he called out to Iron Hans.
“What need have you?” the rust colored wildman asked.
“Please give me back my Gebro and take your horse and army,” Gerd replied gratefully. And it happened exactly as he had asked.
That night, as the returned knights waited for the great feast to be served, the King told the story of the strange knight to his daughter, the Princess Adette. Intrigued, she asked about the gardener’s boy and was told that he had just returned, astride the lame steed, and telling everyone that he had done more to chase off the enemy than anyone had. On hearing this, the weary knights gathered in the castle’s great hall just laughed, and the Princess hid her face in her hands, unable to hide her mirth.
The king then stood to address the hall. “I decree a great three-day tournament to celebrate our victory. At the end of each day of merriment and competition, the Princess shall throw a golden apple into the air. Perhaps in this way, our unknown savior will come and make himself known to us!” The assembled knights roared in appreciation and the feasting began.
The Tournament
On the first day of the tournament, Gerd returned to the edge of the wood and called out to Iron Hans. “I need to catch the Princess’s Golden Apple,” he said, to which Iron Hans replied: “You shall have all you require.”
From the wood there then emerged the stable boy, this time leading a fiery chestnut horse, and a squire carrying a complete suit of red armor. Thus attired, Primin rode to the festival and, unrecognized by anyone, bested every knight he jousted against. At the end of the day, the Princess Adette stood upon the raised dais and flung the apple hard over the heads of the gathered knights.
With seeming no effort, the red knight rose up his stirrups and snagged the apple out of mid-air, to the surprised grumbling of the knights who thought they had it. As everyone turned to see who had caught the apple, Gerd spurred his horse on and rode away.
That night, Primin returned to the gardener’s home and gave the children the golden apple to play with.
The following day, outfitted as a white knight by Iron Hans, Gerd took his place among the assembled knights and once again easily caught the second golden apple. As he galloped away, the King grew angry and ordered his knights to give chase. But Gerd had too big a lead and no one was able to catch up.
“This knight,” King Arnulf declared, “does us a discourtesy. Although we are indebted to him and his army, his continued refusal to present himself before us gives us reason to doubt his nobility.” The knights roared in assent. “Therefore,” the King proclaimed,”should this strange knight come and claim the apple tomorrow, I charge all of you faithful knights to bring him to me that we may look upon him and know who he is.”
Unknown to the King, at that very moment, Gerd was giving the second apple to the gardener’s children who played with it while he slept.
On the third day of the festival, Iron Hans presented Gerd with an armor of jet, black as the night, and a steed to match. As usual, Gerd caught the apple but before he had time to wonder why no one seemed to have reached for it other than himself, an arrow came flying at him and struck him in the leg.
Startled, the horse broke into a run, with the rest of knights giving chase until Gerd reached the outer hedge that ringed the tournament grounds. At his goading, the horse leapt so violently that Gerd’s helm flew off and everyone saw his glowing golden hair. The knights rode back to the great hall and reported everything they had seen to the King, while the Princess listened intently.
When the knights came to the part about the black knight’s hair, the Princess leapt up and asked for the gardener to be summoned and questioned immediately. The gardener, not knowing anything was amiss, dutifully reported that his helper had just arrived from watching the festivities at the tournament. “If he is in any trouble your majesties,” the gardener pleaded, “kindly have mercy on him. He is a good lad and he loves my children. Why just last night, he gave them another golden apple to play with!”
“Another!” the Princess exclaimed jubilantly. Guards were sent to find the gardener’s boy and bring him before the King. When the boy arrived, Princess Adette snatched off his cap, releasing waves and waves of golden hair that cascaded down to his shoulders. Throughout the great hall, everyone fell silent in amazement.
“Are you the knight who, with iron army, fight off the invaders who came to our shores?” the King finally asked in a booming voice, looking at Gerd very closely. “It was I, your majesty,” the young man replied.
“Are you then also the knight,” the King asked, “who came on three different days, clad in three different colors, and ran off with the three golden apples?”
Bowing low and speaking humbly, Gerd replied “I am he, your majesty. But I beg your pardon, I cannot return the three apples. I only have one left, and the other two I gave to a friend’s children for to play with.”
Hearing that, King Arnulf guffawed. “Why in the world would I want you to return the apples?” Flustered, Gerd replied, “but didn’t your majesty send your knights after me to get them?” And with that, he showed the court the wound he had suffered in the pursuit.
The King rose from his throne and clapped a hand across Gerd’s back. “You are no gardener’s boy, surely! Tell me whence you came, good knight.”
“My father, your Majesty,” Primin replied, “is King Brand of the Kingdom of Andere, on the other side of the great wood, from whom cruel fate took me when I was but a boy.”
“King Brand is known to us,” the King Arnulf replied, “and I have long wondered whether the people beyond the great wood night not be our allies when the invaders return.” Turning to his daughter, the King continued. “If the Princess Adette will have you, I can think of no better way to seal the friendship of our families than through a royal wedding.”
The princess laughed and said, “I knew from the moment I saw his golden hair that he was no gardener’s boy.” With little hesitation, the Princess went to Primin and held out her hand for him to kiss. At the sight of Gerd bending down to kiss the Princess Adette’s fingers, a thunderous cry rose up from everyone in the great hall.
Reunions and a Revelation
The following day, King Arnulf sent royal emissaries to Andere with news that Prince Gerd had been found and was to be married to the Princess Adette of the Kingdom of Mauerberg.
A week later, the emissary returned at the head of the great caravan of gilded carriages bearing the nobles of Andere, and wagons overflowing with treasures. From the castle walls, Gerd and Adette watched as the caravan approached, until they could see the royal carriage which they immediately rode out to meet.
When they saw their son and his bride to be riding up to them, King Brand and his Queen alighted from their carriage and a tearful reunion followed. At the Queen’s side stood Fenya, the scullery maid who, in the aftermath of Gerd’s disappearance, had been a boon for the grieving mother. Now a young lady, Fenya had the stately bearing of one noble born and both Gerd and Adette embraced her heartily.
That night, after the feast in the great hall, Gerd rode out alone to the edge of the wood and called to Iron Hans.
“What need have you, boy?” the wildman said.
“I came only to thank you, Iron Hans, and give you this,” Gerd said, holding out the third golden apple. Iron Hans took the apple, turned, and disappeared into the darkness of the great wood.
The following day, as Gerd, Adette, and their parents dined in the great hall, a page burst in, unannounced.
“Forgive me, my lords and ladies,” the page panted. “Outside …. outside… they’ve come … come see for yourselves!” Gerd went to the window and looked out into the courtyard of the castle and saw there a cohort of hunters, wearing the livery of Andere, standing in formation, with their bows and arrows and daggers. Among them, a white hunting dog cavorted; and overhead, an eagle soared.
Before Gerd could ask what was happening, he heard a humming behind him. Whirling about, he found himself face to face with a man of proud and stately bearing, with an ancient looking kingly crown on his brow.
“I am König Hannar, whom you have come to know as Iron Hans” the stately man said. “I had been transformed into the creature you saw by a magic spell that was cast upon me a hundred years ago – a spell that you broke, for which I shall forever be in your debt.”