The Griffin (fairy tale)

"The Griffin" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's
Fairy Tales.[1]
It is Aarne-Thompson type 610, Fruit to Cure the Princess; and type 461, Three H
airs from the Devil.[2] The Brothers Grimm noted its similarity to The Devil Wit
h the Three Golden Hairs.[1]
The opening type is seldom a stand-alone tale; it combines with others, such as
type 461, as in this, or type 570, the Rabbit Herd, as in The Three May Peaches,
to form a complete tale.[3] The opening also features in Jesper Who Herded the
Hares.
Synopsis[edit]
A king's daughter was ill, and it was foretold she would be made well by eating
an apple. The king declared that whoever brought the apple to cure her would mar
ry her. A peasant with three sons sent the oldest, Uele, with a basket of apples
. He met a little iron man who asked him what was in the basket and said "Frogs'
legs." The man said that so it was, and when he reached the king, it did contai
n frogs' legs. The king drove him out. The peasant sent his second son, Seame, w
ho answered "Hogs' bristles", made the same discovery and received the same rece
ption.
The youngest son, Hans, who was rather a fool, begged to go too, until his fathe
r let him. When he met the iron man, he said the basket contained the apples whi
ch the princess would eat to make herself well. The iron man said that it was so
. The basket held apples when he reached the castle, and the princess was cured.
The king, however, refused to let them marry until he had a boat that traveled o
ver dry land and sea. Hans went home and told his father. His father sent Uele t
o the forest to make such a ship; the iron man came to him and asked what he was
making; when Uele said "Wooden bowls" that was what he made. Seame suffered the
same fate, but when Hans told the iron man he was making a ship that would trav
el over land and sea, he made such a boat.
The king set Hans to watch a hundred hares in a meadow
losing any. The king sent a maid to beg one from him,
it, but said he would give one to the king's daughter.
m a whistle that would summon any hare back. Hans gave
e but then whistled it back.

all day. Hans did so, not

for guests. Hans refused
Then the iron man gave hi
the king's daughter a har

The king sent Hans to fetch him a feather from the griffin's tail. On the way, a
lord of a castle asked him to ask the griffin where was the lost key to his mon
ey chest; another lord, how their ill daughter could be cured; a giant, why he h
ad to carry people over a lake. At the griffin's castle, he met the griffin's wi
fe, who warned him that the griffin would eat him, but at night, he could pull o
ut a feather, and then she would get the answers for him.
Hans did as she said, and when he pulled the feather, the griffin woke. The wife
told him that a man had been there and gone away, but told her some stories fir
st. She repeated them, and the griffin said that the key was in the wood house,
under a log; that a toad had made a nest of the daughter's hair, but she would r
ecover if they took the hair out; that the giant had only to put someone down in
the middle of the lake and he would be free. Hans left and told the other lords
what he had learned; they gave him rich treasures. When he reached the king, he
claimed the griffin had given them. The king set out to get some, but he was th
e first man to reach the giant, who put him down in the lake, where he drowned.
Hans married the princess and became king.