The Hero of Bremen, German Folktale

The city of Bremen, in the northern part of Germany, is situated along the River Weser. Many ships passed by it trading different goods. The city grew, leaving no pasture for any animals and this created a problem, which needed to be solved.

A long time ago in the city of Bremen lived a poor cobbler named Hans. He was a crippled man, who used his knuckles and knees to move around. He lived in a tiny cellar with a small window, where he mended shoes to support himself. Hans was a hard working man putting his heart and soul into his work.

Nevertheless, he always found time to tell stories to the kids, who stopped by his place. Hans enjoyed telling stories of knights the most. And his favorite one was of Roland whose uncle made Bremen a free city. Hans let the children believe that Roland, who died during one of the battles, still watched over Bremen and would come back if the city needed him.
 

The city was in desperate need of more lands. The mayor of the city discussed the matter with the city council and the decision was made to buy more lands from the Countess Emma. She owned all the lands surrounding Bremen, which were supposed to be inherited by her nephew. He wasn’t happy about his aunt considering selling some lands, but the day was set for a meeting.
 

The day of the meeting came and the people of Bremen gathered around the marketplace. Hans made his way through to the front where he witnessed with other people how negotiations where done. The countess wanted more money for less land and the mayor wanted more land for less money. So the bargaining went back and forth till the nephew spoke at last. “I have an idea. The people may have as much land for free as a man can walk around in a day, under two conditions. The first, a man has to leave the east gate at dawn and enter the west gate at sunset. The second, I will pick a man to perform this task.” The people agreed without thinking much. The countess was very proud of his nephew being so generous. The nephew looked at the crowd and pointed at Hans saying, “This is the one that has to complete the mission.”

The mayor’s smile turned into a worry. The crowd’s cheers turned into a disappointment. They thought to themselves, “We have been tricked.”
 

At dawn, Hans appeared at the east gate. He was followed by the servants of the countess, who were marking the path made by him. The land varied. It started as pasture, then turned into a swamp and ended as forest. It wasn’t an easy task, but Hans set his mind to finish the task that meant so much to so many people.

It was the noontime, when Hans made his way through the pastureland and turned into the marshlands. All the kids went home for some lunch, but one girl, who showed the Hans the way to go around the marshlands.

The sun was already starting to set down, when Hans arrived at the age of the forest. He was exhausted. He laid down and was about to close his eyes, when he heard trotting. He looked up and recognized the rider right away. It was Roland, the knight of Bremen. “Let me help you by taking you to your destination,” said Roland.

“I greatly appreciate it, but I must walk,” answered Hans.

“Then let me walk with you,” said the knight. And so they walked to the west gate of Bremen. The little girl caught up with Hans, but she saw only him surrounded by light. She passed by him and straight into the city to tell the news. The people of Bremen quickly gathered at the west gate to welcome Hans as the sun was setting down. Hans became the hero of Bremen who won the lands for the people of Bremen.