Character guide

the girl

major

Also known as The girl, herself

She is the obedient stepdaughter whose beauty and patience provoke her stepmother's envy, and whose kindness to three little men in the forest earns gifts of growing loveliness, gold from her mouth, and a king's hand. Her story turns on the contrast between her quiet generosity and her stepsister's greed, and it sets the moral machinery of reward and punishment in motion. Her winter journey is the hinge on which the tale's early arc swings.

the maiden

major

Also known as the maiden, The maiden

She is the honest daughter of a wicked witch, caught between loyalty to her mother and her instinct to protect the strangers who arrive at their door. Her warning about the poisoned parting draught sets off a chain of accidents that kills the witch, a raven, and a den of murderers, leaving a proud princess and a riddle contest ahead. Her quiet decency marks her as the tale's moral counterweight to her mother's malice.

the youth

major

Also known as the youth, The youth

He is a young man so untroubled by terror that he asks strangers, wagoners, and innkeepers how to learn to shudder, and his indifference to danger makes him an unlikely hero. When the king offers his daughter and the castle's treasure to anyone who can survive three nights among evil spirits, the youth asks only for a fire, a lathe, and a cutting-board. His calm in the face of cats, corpses, and worse is the tale's central joke and its engine.

Clever Hans

major

Also known as Hans, The good Hans, Stupid Hans, dear Hans, stupid Hans

He is a boy who grows up tall and strong among robbers, taught to read by his captive mother, and who at nine demands to know his father's identity. When the captain boxes his ears, Hans waits a year, then returns with his club and beats the whole band senseless. His stubborn courage and the enormous sack of gold and silver he hauls home make him both a comic and a triumphant figure in the tale's opening arc.

the boy

major

Also known as the boy, The boy

He is the child of a captive mother and an absent father, growing up among godless robbers who would never let him leave. His mother teaches him to read from an old book of knights, and at nine he hides a club behind the bed and confronts the captain. His stubborn insistence on knowing his father, and the beating he gives the band, drive the tale's early movement toward escape and reunion.

Hans the Hedgehog

supporting

Also known as Hans, old Hans

He is a hedgehog who, when a hare mocks his crooked legs, proposes a race across a long field and enlists his wife to stand in the lower furrow and cry 'I am here already.' The hare runs seventy-three times and drops dead, while the hedgehog collects his winnings and goes home delighted. His trickster cunning and domestic partnership with his wife make him a sly, memorable figure in the tale's comic contest.

the son

major

Also known as the son, The son

Raised in a robbers' cave on his mother's tales of knights, Hans builds a fir-club and demands the father he has never seen.

Unknown

minor

A placeholder for unnamed narrators or generic focal characters.

Brother Lustig

supporting

Also known as Brother

A discharged soldier with more appetite than scruples, he wanders the roads bargaining, cadging, and testing the patience of St. Peter himself.

the princess

major

Also known as the princess, The princess

A king's daughter who trades a promise for a road home, then must keep it — knife in hand — before an iron stove in the forest.

Thumbling

supporting

Also known as little Thumbling, therefore Thumbling, Happily Thumbling, poor Thumbling

No taller than a thumb but quicker than anyone around him, he rides in a horse's ear and talks his way out of every trap.

Grethel

supporting

Also known as poor Grethel, Clever Grethel

A servant girl whose quick wits and steady hands carry her through witches, elves, and kitchens where others would falter.

the young King

supporting

Also known as The young King, the young king

A young ruler whose crown sits lightly at first, until the wants of those around him begin to reshape his kingdom.

the drummer

supporting

Also known as The Drummer, The drummer

A brave drummer whose road to a princess runs across a glass mountain, where nerve and a steady beat matter more than rank or riches.

the master

minor

Also known as The master

A generic authority figure in various tales, often a craftsman or employer.

Mrs. Cat of Kehrewit

minor

Also known as Mrs. Cat, Catherine

A feline character who marries and schemes in animal tales.

St. Peter

supporting

Also known as So St. Peter, this St. Peter, Therefore St. Peter

The apostle who walks the roads of these tales as a quiet tester of souls, watching what mortals do when they think no one of consequence is looking.

Faithful John

supporting

Also known as Most faithful John, John, dear John

A servant so loyal that he reads his master's fate in the stars, and would rather bear its cost himself than let the king stumble into it.

Little Snow-White

major

Also known as Snow, Snow-white, little Snow-white, Little Snow

A girl whose beauty is spoken of by a magic mirror, and whose gentleness keeps opening the door to the very danger that hunts her.

the rich man

minor

Also known as the Rich Man

A wealthy but often unkind character in moral tales.

the poor man

minor

Also known as the poor man, The poor man

A humble character who often receives magical help or rewards.

the servant

minor

Also known as The servant

A generic servant character appearing in many tales.

the luck-child

minor

Also known as the luck - child

A fortunate child who succeeds against all odds.

the stranger

minor

Also known as The stranger

A mysterious visitor who appears in various tales.

Master Pfriem

minor

Also known as Pfriem

A grumpy cobbler who learns a lesson about contentment.

Cinderella

major

A girl kept in ashes and scorn by her own household, whose patience and hidden worth wait for the one night that will change everything.

old Mr. Fox

supporting

Also known as young Mr. Fox, the late Mr. Fox, Fox, Mr. Fox, a Fox, The Fox, the Fox, little Fox, the trusty Fox

A cunning fox whose death becomes a courtship, as suitors line up to test themselves against the standards his widow still keeps.

Hänsel

supporting

Hans grows up tall and strong among robbers, taught to read by his captive mother, who withholds his father's identity to keep him from longing for a home he cannot reach. At nine he hides a club behind the bed; at ten he beats the whole band senseless and walks out of the cave into daylight he has never seen. His enormous strength and blunt persistence set the story's course—and the sack of gold he hauls home is only the first thing his size will overturn.

Death

supporting

Personified as a keeper of countless candles, each one a human life, Death grants gifts and bargains but never surrenders his authority. When a physician pleads to be made king and husband of the princess, Death pretends to comply, then deliberately fumbles the wick so the new candle falls and goes out. His cold, exact bookkeeping—one must go out before a new one is lighted—frames the tale's lesson about mortality and the limits of mortal pleading.

Rapunzel

major

Rapunzel lives sealed in a windowless tower, her long hair the single rope by which her captor climbs to her. Isolated and unknowing, she becomes the object of a prince's nightly visits, and her innocence is both her vulnerability and the story's quiet engine. Her confinement and the secret she keeps from her keeper drive the early arc toward the moment the tower's arrangement can no longer hold.

Little Redcap

major

Also known as Redcap, the little Redcap, little Redcap

Little Redcap is a dutiful, trusting girl whose mother sends her to her sick grandmother with food and strict instructions not to stray. Her willingness to chat with a stranger in the forest—and to be diverted by flowers—exposes the gap between her innocence and the wolf's patient cunning. Her journey is the story's whole early arc: the errand, the delay, and the arrival at a door that should have been familiar.

Bearskin

supporting

Also known as bearskin

Bearskin is a discharged soldier with no trade and no prospects, who agrees to wear a bearskin and carry neither money nor weapons for a set term in exchange for future wealth. His pact demands he neither wash nor pray, and his monstrous appearance makes him an outcast even as his hidden gold buys him a place at an inn. His story turns on the tension between outward degradation and inward worth—and on whether the terms of the bargain can be survived.

Ferdinand

minor

Also known as Ferdinand the Faithful

A faithful servant who overcomes trials with magic help.

Allerleirauh

supporting

Allerleirauh flees her father's house disguised in a fur mantle, taking only three dresses—sun, moon, and stars—and a set of golden trinkets. She works as a scullery maid, mocked and ordered about, yet slips into the king's festivals in her hidden finery and leaves a golden token in his soup each time. Her double life—rough-skinned drudge and radiant dancer—creates the tension that pulls the king toward the truth she cannot afford to reveal.

Simpleton

supporting

Also known as the Simpleton

Hans is the drudge of the mill, fed scraps and denied a bed while his brothers bring home blind horses and lame ones. His patience and quiet service to a strange cat go unnoticed by everyone but the reader, and the tale's whole moral hinges on whether such unnoticed faithfulness can outlast mockery. When the princess arrives asking for the miller's boy, the story's early contempt suddenly reverses.

Mrs. Fox

minor

Also known as Mrs. Fox First Story

A fox's wife who remarries after his supposed death.

Saint Peter

supporting

Also known as Peter, The apostle Peter

Peter travels as the Lord's companion and purse-holder, giving Gambling Hansel three groschen for bread and then three more when the first are lost at cards. Where the Lord already knows everything, Peter is the one who grows exasperated, urging action when Hansel traps Death in a tree and halts all dying. His running alarm gives these tales their comic human counterweight to divine forbearance.

Maid Maleen

supporting

Also known as Maleen

Maleen defies her father for the sake of a suitor, and her punishment is a lightless imprisonment that would break most people. Her constancy is the point: she endures silence, hunger, and the collapse of everything she knew, and emerges still expecting to find her prince. The tale's early arc rests on whether such loyalty can survive the world's indifference, and Maleen's quiet stubbornness is the answer it keeps testing.

the master-thief

supporting

Also known as The master-thief, The Master-Thief

Hans grows up among bandits with a mother who teaches him to read and a father he has never seen, and his first act of will is to demand the truth with a fir-tree club. His strength and cunning are inseparable from his longing for a real home, and the sack of stolen gold he hauls back to his father's cottage breaks the floor beneath its weight. He matters because his skill at taking things will soon be tested against a king's impossible demands.

the Virgin Mary

minor

Also known as The Virgin Mary, Mary

The mother of Jesus who appears as a helper in religious tales.

the judge

minor

Also known as The judge

A legal authority figure in various tales.

Dummling

minor

A simple-minded youngest son who wins a princess through kindness.

Trina

minor

Also known as fat Trina, Harry, lazy Harry and fat Trina

A lazy wife who lives carelessly with her husband Harry.

Gambling Hansel

minor

Also known as Hansel

A compulsive gambler who loses everything to the devil.

the servants

minor

Also known as The servants

A group of generic servants in various tales.

the Griffin

minor

Also known as Griffin, The Griffin

A mythical creature who gives advice or tests heroes.

the Flounder

supporting

Also known as Flounder

The Flounder is bound to answer when the fisherman calls, and the sea's shifting colors—green and yellow, then purple and dark-blue—register each request before it is spoken. He never argues or refuses; he simply grants, and the granting is the punishment. His calm compliance is what makes the wife's escalating demands so quietly terrifying, and the fisherman's dread of returning is the story's true barometer.

Old Sultan

minor

Also known as Sultan

An aging dog who outwits his master to avoid being killed.

Sweetheart Roland

minor

Also known as Roland

A young man who rescues his love from a witch.

the priest

minor

Also known as The priest

A religious figure appearing in various tales.

Briar-Rose

major

Also known as Briar-rose, Rose-red, Rose, The Rose

Briar-Rose is the center of a kingdom's long pause, a girl whose curse is not her fault and whose rescue depends on a stranger's goodness rather than her own deeds. The tale lingers on the still household, the ivory bed, the pearl-embroidered shoes, and the servants frozen mid-task, making the sleep feel less like rest than a held breath. Her awakening is the story's release, and the thorns outside are the world's way of asking who deserves to enter.

the Devil

supporting

Also known as The Devil, Stupid Devil

He corners the miller at the mill with promises of treasure, claiming what stands behind it — and returns three years later to collect the daughter. His power collapses against her washed hands, her weeping, and finally her maimed arms, exposing a creditor who cannot seize what he cannot soil. His escalating demands — no water, then no hands — drive the story's central rupture between father and child.

Lazy Harry

minor

Also known as Harry

A lazy man who avoids work with his equally lazy wife.

the captain

minor

Also known as The captain

A military officer in various tales.

Mother Holle

supporting

Also known as Mother

She keeps a strange household where the weather itself depends on her bedding, and she takes in girls who arrive frozen, hungry, and sent by cruel stepmothers. Her test is simple and unforgiving: shake the feather-bed dutifully and gold falls; shirk, and pitch clings. Her rewards and punishments set the moral arithmetic of the tale, sorting the deserving from the idle before the world does.

St. Joseph

minor

The foster father of Jesus, appearing as a helper in the forest.

Bear

minor

Also known as Dear hunstman, Dear Bear, the Bear, Dear Mr. Bear

A bear character in various animal tales.

King Thrushbeard

supporting

He is the suitor a haughty princess laughs at, and rather than withdraw, he returns in rags to marry her as a wandering minstrel. His disguise lets him watch her pride crack against poverty, menial work, and humiliation she never imagined. His patient, almost theatrical lesson shapes the tale's middle, turning courtship into a slow correction of character.

a swineherd's daughter

minor

Also known as a swineherd ’s daughter

A low-born girl who becomes a queen through cleverness.

the two children

minor

Also known as The two children

A pair of siblings who appear together in several stories.

Clever Elsie

minor

Also known as Elsie, Lisa

A girl who thinks herself clever but makes foolish mistakes.

Frederick

minor

A character in various tales, often a prince or young man.

Joringel

minor

A young man who rescues his love Jorinda from a witch.

Marlinchen

minor

Also known as little Marlinchen

A girl who helps her brothers and faces a witch.

Old Rinkrank

minor

Also known as Rinkrank

A troll-like figure who imprisons a princess in a glass mountain.

his master

minor

Also known as His Master

A generic master of a servant or apprentice.

Conrad

minor

A boy who appears in a tale about a magic table and a talking bird.

little Two-eyes

minor

Also known as Two-Eyes, Two-eyes

A girl with two eyes who is mistreated by her sisters.

Frau Trude

minor

A witch who lures and punishes a curious girl.

Master Schulz

minor

Also known as Schulz

A foolish tailor who imagines himself a hero.

my master

minor

Also known as My master

A master referred to by a servant or animal.

the doctor

minor

Also known as The doctor, The Doctor

A medical figure appearing in various tales.

master

minor

Also known as Master

A generic title for an employer or teacher.

Eve

minor

The biblical first woman, appearing in a tale about children's fates.

Lina

minor

A girl who appears in a tale about a magic bird and a tree.

Kate

minor

A character in a humorous tale about a foolish wife.

the head-servant

minor

Also known as The head-servant

A senior servant in a household.

their former master

minor

A past employer of servants or animals.

Fundevogel

minor

A foundling boy who escapes a witch with his foster sister.

the servant who took away the dish

minor

A minor servant in a tale about a magic table.

Benjamin

minor

The youngest of twelve brothers who protects his sister.

Herr Korbes

minor

A man whose house is invaded by animals seeking shelter.

Domestic Servants

minor

Generic household staff in various tales.

Uele

minor

A character in a tale about a magic fiddle and dancing.