Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren (2009)

The King rides with his retinue to the poor peasants of his kingdom to collect taxes. In a remote house in a village, he finds a blind old woman who is said to be able to see the future. She lives there with her newborn grandson, whose parents recently died of miliaria. She prophesies to the King that the boy will one day marry the King’s newborn daughter, because he was born with a caul, which is a sign of this. The King takes the child with him, under the pretense of looking after him. But when he is alone on the way back to his castle, he sets the child adrift in a wicker basket on the river. The basket floats downstream and the child is rescued at a mill by the miller and his wife, who have apparently just lost their own child; they take him in and raise the boy. Seventeen years later, the grown boy, Hans, is sitting in a tree, watching the King in a clearing. The King’s horse has been startled by a snake and has bolted. Hans leaps onto the horse, manages to calm it, and saves the King. He invites the King to visit his family at the mill. His parents recognize the King and casually tell him how Hans came to them. The King immediately realizes which boy Hans is. Afraid of the prophecy, he sends Hans off with a letter to the Queen, telling her to have Hans executed at once. Hans sets out immediately and encounters robbers in the forest. He asks them for a place to sleep, but they think he is the King’s spy and lock him up. They also take his letter and read it. Now convinced that Hans is no spy, and wanting to spite the King, they write a new letter saying that the Queen is to marry Hans to the Princess immediately. The next morning, they send the unsuspecting Hans on his way with the switched letter. On the road, Hans encounters the carriage of Prince Willibald, the Princess’s intended bridegroom. He manages to travel in the carriage unnoticed and reaches the castle at the same time as the Prince. He delivers what appears to be the King’s letter, is immediately betrothed to the Princess, and is to marry her the following day. Prince Willibald is sent back home. Shortly after the betrothal, the King returns to court and realizes he has been tricked. He suspects Hans forged the letter and wants him executed. The Queen, however, persuades him that he cannot do so, since the betrothal has already taken place. To get rid of Hans nonetheless, the King sends him to Hell to cut off the Devil’s three golden hairs. If Hans brings them back, he may marry the Princess. With the help of a falcon, Hans sets out. He comes to a village where the well has run dry and the fields are withering. The people tell him that only the Devil knows why. Hans promises to find out and continues on his way. Soon he arrives at an inn where business has dried up, the bread is stale, the soup is watery, and the apple tree that once bore golden apples no longer produces any fruit. Here, too, he is told that only the Devil knows why. Hans again promises to find out the answer to the riddle and continues toward Hell. When he reaches a river, he meets a taciturn ferryman. Hans learns from him that he has to keep ferrying people back and forth without relief, and cannot stop; only the Devil knows why. Hans promises to bring back the solution to his problem on his return journey. Once in Hell, Hans meets the Devil’s grandmother, who is delighted by the brave young man. After he helps her catch a fly, she promises to help him get the three golden hairs and solve the riddles. During the meal and while the Devil is half asleep, she coaxes the secrets out of him and pulls out his hairs. Hans manages to get the hairs from her and escape from the Devil. On the way back, he tells the ferryman that he can be free if he puts his oar in the hands of the next person who wants to cross, because from then on that person will have to ferry others. Back at the inn, Hans tells the people how to make their apple tree bear fruit again: mice are gnawing at its roots. The villagers catch the mice, and the tree immediately begins bearing golden apples again. As his reward, Hans receives one of the apples and continues on his way to his Isabella. Meanwhile, she is once again to be married to Prince Willibald, who has already arrived with his chamberlain and, this time, his mother as well. In the village with the dry well, Hans tells the people that a toad is blocking it and that this is why it has dried up. As a reward for his help, he receives a horse, but he also learns about Isabella and Willibald’s planned wedding. He quickly rides toward the castle. He outwits and shakes off the Devil, who is now chasing him. He reaches the castle just in time to stop the wedding and become Princess Isabella’s husband himself. The King is delighted with the fine horse and the golden apple, but thinks Hans is an idiot for not bringing back more. Hans agrees, saying that only someone who wasn’t an idiot could do that. The King immediately asks how to get to the Devil, and Hans explains the way and sends him to the ferryman. Prince Willibald and his mother leave, and Hans’s parents, the miller and his wife, are summoned to the wedding. By now the King has reached the river, where the ferryman puts his oar in the King’s hands. The ferryman regains his freedom, and the King receives his just punishment.