Iron Hans

Iron Hans is the title character of a famous fairy tale. He is a wild man found on the floor of a drained pond. Wild men were mythical creatures thought to actually exist at the time this story was written, but Hans is different in that he's actually a king under a curse, which he can only break by removing a tyrant from the throne that belongs rightly to a boy he has abused for years.

Character History
When a royal pond is drained by order of a tyrant, a wild man is found on the bottom, and is imprisoned in the dungeon. A young man tends to his needs, and the wild man, lron Hans, eagerly teaches him magic spells. Unfortunately the young man bathes in a certain pool, forcing Hans to give him a suit of magical armour and an enchanted steed. With these, the young man - whose hair has turned gold from the pool's magic - performs acts of courage secretly that cause his people to be saved from various perils and finally - with the aid of a young servant girl, kill the tyrant. Only then is lron Hans's curse broken, and his true form restored.

"0nly by passing on to you my knowledge of magic could l break the witch's curse and return to normal, and then only after the tyrant had been slain!" he says happily to the young man, now the new king.