Iron Hans (Fairy Tale)



"'Perhaps some accident has befallen him,' said the king, and the next day he sent out more huntsmen who were to search for him." - Iron Hans

The inspiration for this episode came from the Grimm Brothers' "Iron Hans." In this fairy tale, a king sends a number of huntsmen into a dangerous forest from which they never return. Some years later, a wandering explorer accompanied by a dog hears of these dangerous woods and asks permission to hunt in the forest, claiming that he might be able to discover the fate of the other hunters. The man and his dog are allowed to enter, and as they come to a lake in the middle of the forest, the dog is dragged under water by a giant arm. The hunter returns to the forest the next day with a group of men to empty the lake. There, they find a man with skin like iron and long shaggy hair all over his body.

In "Cat and Mouse," this story morphed into a bounty hunter theme with a "viva la resistance" twist for the episode. But outside of the hunt and the use of Hundjagers, much like the use of dogs in the tale, the stories don't carry many similarities. "Cat and Mouse" takes a more political direction, exploring the dangers of creature-human interaction and introducing us to new elements of the Grimm world, such as the Veratt.