- 3 months ago
Jim Henson's The Storyteller S01E05 Hans My Hedgehog
Category
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CreativityTranscript
00:00When people told themselves their past with stories,
00:13explained their present with stories,
00:16foretold the future with stories,
00:20the best place by the fire was kept for the storyteller.
00:30A story.
00:53Imagine a cold night and a dark night.
00:58A night like this one.
01:01And imagine a bed with a farmer and his wife fast asleep,
01:04snuggling up for warmth.
01:06And in this bed, the farmer, shivering, reaches out for his wife.
01:12But instead of a head, he finds a foot,
01:15because his missus is rubbing noses with their dog,
01:18who sleeps every night at the end of the bed.
01:21What kind of dog?
01:23I don't know. A dog. Some kind of dog.
01:26Some kind of dog. Terrific story.
01:30Should I bark?
01:32Oh, no!
01:34Just for tonight.
01:36Don't be dense, woman.
01:37One night, walnut. It might work.
01:40Sleeping upside down? What good's that gonna do?
01:43Midwife said it sometimes helps.
01:46You're not gonna get a child.
01:48If you want company, get a widow woman up from the village.
01:51I'll come up this end.
01:54I'm proper frozen.
01:58But the farmer's wife didn't want no widow for company.
02:03She wanted a baby.
02:05And she'd wanted this child for what seemed a lifetime
02:08until she couldn't bear to watch the lambs born,
02:11or the calves come, or the eggs hatch.
02:13It hurt her soul.
02:14And she drove the farmer mad with her cranky books
02:18and her cranky charms and remedies.
02:21They're stings.
02:23That's good.
02:25That's good?
02:26I'm making you a nice tonic and all.
02:28To be drunk night and morning.
02:30I want a child.
02:32I don't care if it were a strange thing
02:34made of marzipan or porridge.
02:36If it were ugly as a hedgehog.
02:37I want a baby to wrap in a bundle
02:42and sink to it and snoodle with
02:44and hug to bits.
02:49Now, to say you wouldn't care
02:51when you want something is a dangerous thing.
02:55That woman wanted a baby so bad
02:57she couldn't care what she got.
03:00If she got a hedgehog,
03:01she'd bring it snout to her breast.
03:04Here's twitch that shouldn't be listening.
03:06And no sooner said than done
03:09she got her wish, the farmer's wife.
03:11She's all swollen stomach
03:13and thinks it's the baths he took
03:15or the sleeping upside down.
03:17But in fact, of course,
03:18it's the saying you wouldn't care
03:20what you got, what gets you jiggered.
03:22As everyone knows what heard a proper story.
03:25She has her boy.
03:27And straight away, there he is.
03:29Little ball.
03:30As ugly as sin with a pointed nose
03:33and sprouting hair everywhere.
03:35Hedgehogs do not have hair.
03:39They have quills.
03:45But this hedgehog baby
03:48had quills as soft as feathers
03:50and his mother held him to her breast
03:53and wrapped him in a bundle
03:54and snoodled him and hugged him to bits.
03:56And she gave him the name Hans.
04:00Hans, my hedgehog, she called him.
04:03Oh, yes.
04:04The mother loved her baby all right.
04:07But not everybody did.
04:09What?
04:10There's a hedgehog.
04:11What a laughing stock.
04:15Guys, get out of here.
04:17Come on, mate.
04:18Come on, yes.
04:20Bring the freaks in there.
04:22Don't watch you in there now.
04:23What are you doing?
04:24We're going home.
04:25What about our chores?
04:27That's the end of parading ourselves in public.
04:30Don't cry, my sweet.
04:32Don't even cry like a proper baby.
04:36Could you shut that squealing?
04:37And the farmer grew to hate his son,
04:44Hans the Hedgehog Boy.
04:47Out in the field,
04:48he chopped and sighed and bundled and milked,
04:50but all the while,
04:52the shame of what had befallen him
04:53turned a knot in his heart.
04:56One moment, the rage welling up in him,
04:58the next, tears,
04:59huge tears splashing his boots.
05:04And time passed by.
05:06Day following day,
05:08Weak chasing weak,
05:09and the Hedgehog Boy grew up.
05:12Hey, Beastie!
05:13You, Clitterchub!
05:14Orange-a-chub!
05:14Triple Black!
05:15Hog heads!
05:16Grupple Hog!
05:17Grupple Hog!
05:19And Hans, my hedgehog,
05:21learned he was strange,
05:22and he learned he was ugly,
05:24and he learned to be sad,
05:26and he learned the name that was given him.
05:31Grupple Hog!
05:37Hans,
05:39Hans,
05:51Hans!
05:52really dealt him with the other beasts!
05:54Hans!
06:04Hans!
06:07Come on!
06:13Hans heard them, but he wouldn't answer.
06:16He lay there all night, his rooster for company,
06:19and thought and thought until he thought a hole in the ground.
06:23And his mother couldn't sleep, and his father wandered the dark hours,
06:27a great needle in his heart.
06:30In the morning, weary, the farmer returned.
06:34By the step asleep was his son, the grovel hog.
06:38I've trudged all night for you.
06:40You'll never eat for a week off my food.
06:43Father, I want you to do some things for me.
06:46Do what?
06:48I want you to go to the village and have me a saddle made for my rooster,
06:51so I can ride him.
06:53And I want some of your sheep and some hens and some pigs.
06:56Oh, do you now, fancy fine?
06:58I know which ones I'd like, and they would be happy to come with me.
07:01Come with you? Come with you where?
07:04Where I go, which is away, which is to somewhere where I can't hurt anyone,
07:09and no one can hurt me.
07:11And when are you planning this gad to away and somewhere?
07:15When I have the saddle.
07:17You can't go nowhere!
07:19What would your mother say?
07:22They're who dotes on you.
07:24Father, all night I lay out door to understand why you don't love me.
07:30And I've thought until I've thought a hole in the grass.
07:33And now it's all right.
07:35When I have the saddle, I'll go.
07:38And the farmer felt ashamed.
07:41And he brought home a saddle for the rooster.
07:43And he herded up the animals his son had asked for.
07:46And he told his wife, pack a pack lunch.
07:48And all the while, the grovel hog sat on the stoop and waited.
07:52And when all was done, he went to his mother and she kissed him.
07:55And then to his dad and hugged him.
07:58And the farmer knew for the first time how soft he was.
08:02They watched him until he was a faint smudge in the distance.
08:06And his mother felt a crack in her heart like a tiny pencil line.
08:10And each day after the pencil line got thicker and thicker.
08:13And one day, not long after, her heart split in half.
08:18And she died.
08:22Twenty years later, a king got lost in a great forest.
08:26And after he got lost, he got more lost.
08:29Until he was so lost he began to tug his ear,
08:31which is a sure sign of big trouble.
08:33When he heard a sound,
08:35which was a bitter sound and a sweet sound all at once,
08:38which began like hello and ended like goodbye.
08:41And tugging his ear like bilio,
08:43he followed the sound until he came to a clearing.
08:46And the palace the king saw before him
08:49was the most extraordinary palace in your whole borne.
08:54I am very lost and I am very hungry.
09:13And somewhere back there, a long time ago, I was a king.
09:19But now, so lost and so hungry, you would knock at a beast's house.
09:25Oh, well.
09:26You are welcome in my house, sir, and at my table.
09:31And the king sat at the grovel hog's table
09:36and ate of the greenest greens and the sweetest sweets
09:39and the juiciest juices.
09:41Oh, how very, very kind.
09:43After, his host took up the bagpipes and played old songs,
09:47which were bitter and sweet all at once
09:49and began like hello and ended like goodbye.
09:52And before he could think,
09:54I am full now and found,
09:56the king was asleep.
09:58Well, this king woke up the next morning
10:02after a night of the kind of dreams you only dream about.
10:05He opened his eyes and almost yanked off his ear
10:08because he found himself under a tree
10:10which certainly wasn't where he'd fallen asleep.
10:12And more confusing, it was a tree from which
10:15he could see the edge of his kingdom.
10:17And he began to dance as only kings once lost
10:20and then found can dance.
10:22A jig, a jiggle-joggle, and a leap.
10:24I've heard this story and you're telling it all wrong.
10:28Hmm.
10:29What happens is the king wants to give the grovel hog
10:32a reward for all his help.
10:34And so he says, name anything.
10:37And the hog thinks, says,
10:39give me the first thing to greet you
10:41when you arrive in your kingdom.
10:44And the king agrees because he knows
10:46the first thing to greet him
10:48will be his faithful flop-eared
10:50w-w-w-wagger, the royal dog.
10:53So the king says, yes.
10:55And the hog thing says,
10:56I'll collect my reward in a year and a day.
11:00And off he goes on his ridiculous rooster.
11:04But things don't go as he planned, do they?
11:08And it's not for w-w-wagger who gets there first.
11:12And the king lets go of the princess's sweetness and cherry pie,
11:22and his face clouds over.
11:24But then he shrugs, and turns back to his daughter and dog,
11:28and walks away for a year and a day.
11:31Here we are, dearie hoes, in the king's great hall.
11:40And lo and behold, a handsome storyteller has been summoned to court
11:44to entertain the royal family.
11:46King.
11:50Now, of course, the king here has been counting the days off his calendar,
11:54and it is a year ago today, you see,
11:56since he made his rash promise to the grovel hog.
11:59And tomorrow, you remember,
12:01is the day when the grovel hog is due to arrive to collect his reward.
12:07Princess.
12:09I'm very good at this.
12:18Eh?
12:19Get rid of him!
12:20Oh, idiot!
12:21Throw me in the dungeon!
12:23Feed him each by inch to my royal shard!
12:26No, no, no, you do not!
12:27What they won't eat, give to his dog!
12:29No, help, no, no!
12:31Put me down!
12:32Put me down!
12:33Your majesty, a huge army appears at the gates.
12:37Oh, does it?
12:38Not men, but animals, sire.
12:40Told you?
12:41Sire?
12:42I heard you!
12:44Let them in!
12:47Get off!
12:48Get off!
12:49Give a fella some space!
12:50I want to hear this!
12:53Do you remember me?
12:55I drew a year and a day have passed since last we met.
12:59Will you keep your promise to me?
13:02I will!
13:04He will?
13:07Do you know of me, lady?
13:12I do, sir.
13:14You saved my father and he owes you his life.
13:20Do you know of his promise to me?
13:23He promised you the first thing to greet him on his return.
13:28And what was that?
13:31Hmm?
13:32Me, sir.
13:37I am yours.
13:39Then I want you to be my wife and come live with me in the forest.
13:43I want you to be my princess of sweetness and cherry pie.
13:47I want to catch you up and sing to you.
13:51I want you to love me.
13:53Yes, sir.
13:54Do you find me very ugly?
13:56No, sir.
13:57Not so ugly as going back on a promise.
13:59Come on, shift yourselves.
14:00There's a royal wedding.
14:01You're all to be pardoned.
14:02I don't know why, I'm sure.
14:03Oh, come on.
14:04I don't know about wedding.
14:05Up there, it's more like a funeral.
14:06Good, good, good, good, good, good.
14:07A wedding.
14:08I might even be asked to tell a story or two.
14:09Who knows?
14:10It's on days like these that artists come into their own.
14:11What is wrong?
14:12This is a white man.
14:13No, I don't care.
14:14No, I don't care.
14:15No, I don't care.
14:16It's a white man.
14:17I don't care.
14:18No, I don't care.
14:19I don't care.
14:20I don't care.
14:21If you're a queen, you're all to be pardoned.
14:22I don't know why, I'm sure.
14:23Well, come on.
14:24I don't know about wedding.
14:25Up there, it's more like a funeral.
14:26Good, good, good, good, good, good, a wedding.
14:29I might even be asked to tell a story or two, who knows?
14:30It's on days like these that artists come into their own.
14:33The most unhappy wedding party you ever saw.
15:01And that night, in her bedchamber, it was a terrified princess who lay waiting for her new husband to join her.
15:31I'm lying there, half sweetness, half cherry pie.
15:58The princess could hardly credit what she'd seen.
16:03But creeping to the window, she looked down, and there, sure enough, a man moving among the animals in the quiet rain.
16:10And she found herself going to the abandoned coat of hair and quills, and touching it, soft and warm and remarkable.
16:21And the first rays of morning woke her from dreams of waterfalls and ice cream.
16:30And there she was, in her bed.
16:33And by the embers, the grovel hog, back again, beast again.
16:38And so had she dreamed all this peeling off of skin?
16:41Surely she must have.
16:44But that night, the same scene, her husband standing over her as she pretended to sleep.
16:50The tender touch on her arm, not prickly, but so smooth she felt an ache when he left her.
16:57And she found herself going to the skin and lying against it.
17:01And how comfortable she found it.
17:03And she felt drowsy, lying there by the fire, so peaceful.
17:08She felt herself drifting off, and knew she mustn't, but really couldn't help herself.
17:19Sir, I woke and you had gone, and left behind you your coat of quills.
17:23Which would you have for husband?
17:29The man, or the creature?
17:33I have a husband, sir.
17:35And he is what he is.
17:37No more and no less.
17:40Then forgive him, madam, if he returns to his skin.
17:44For I am enchanted and cannot leave it.
17:47But if you say nothing of this for a third night,
17:51then loyal love will break the spell.
17:53Forever.
17:55I promise.
17:58But we all know about promises, don't we?
18:02And secrets.
18:04What use are there when no one knows about them?
18:07When they twist and turn and tickle in our stomachs.
18:11When they tickly little fish wriggling into our conversations.
18:16Now you see, the princess had a mother,
18:18and mothers have this way of catching secret fish and promise fish.
18:22They eye us with wise eyes,
18:25and all our rivers are glass to them.
18:27Just so with the queen,
18:29who that morning at breakfast sees her daughter skip to the table.
18:33Eat, when for days no appetite.
18:35Hungry?
18:35Laugh.
18:36Yes.
18:36Went for days no laughter.
18:38Sleep well.
18:39Yes, thank you.
18:40Not troubled by the creature?
18:44No, mother.
18:45And please don't speak of him as a creature.
18:49Listen, daughter.
18:50Last night, your father and I went to a wise woman and told of your tragedy.
18:54And she knows of these creatures, these grovel hogs, and knows the remedy.
19:02He is enchanted, you see.
19:05I know.
19:06Oh?
19:08I mean, I knew that he must be something like that.
19:13Yes, I see.
19:15He's enchanted.
19:16He's told you, hasn't he?
19:19No, really, he hasn't.
19:21I just knew he must be.
19:24And, um, does he take off his skin?
19:28No.
19:29No, he doesn't.
19:32The only way to break the spell is to throw the skin into the fire.
19:36Cast the skin into the flames, and he will be free of it.
19:38That's not the way.
19:40So, he has told you.
19:44That night, the third, when everything happens as before,
20:08the princess is haunted by her mother's advice.
20:12And, oh, dear, oh, dear.
20:15Daughter!
20:42Daughter!
20:42Daughter!
20:42Daughter!
20:45and there she sat the princess of sweetness and cherry pie weeping into the fire and she would
20:51let no one see her not even me and i was her favorite no she thought and thought until she
20:57thought a hole in the hearth until she knew what she must do she went to the blacksmith and got
21:03from him a pair of iron shoes and that night when all slept she slipped out of the palace
21:08and set off to wander the world in search of her husband she walked and walked until she wore out
21:17the first pair of shoes and still no one had set eyes on the grovel hog and she got a second pair
21:23of shoes and began again never stopping always hoping and the second pair of shoes wore out
21:30and still she walked always looking always hoping to hear a music both bitter and sweet beginning
21:36in hello and ending in goodbye but nothing till one day weary and wretched she came to a stream
21:45and lay down by it and saw in the water's mirror her hair was now quite white and she sorrowed
21:53for her red hair and her husband both lost forever
21:58to the health of that most beautiful woman who could not keep her promise for one more day
22:16husband
22:19husband
22:23how did you find me
22:24i have walked the world to find you
22:27i have worn out the soles of three pairs of iron shoes
22:30my hair is no longer red
22:33but i come to claim you
22:35and catch you up
22:37and snoodle you and hug you to bits
22:39how did you think
22:46ma'am
22:47you
22:48you
22:49you
22:50you
22:52you
22:54you
22:56you
22:58you
22:59you
23:01you
23:02you
23:04and so the princess who could not keep her promise won back her husband through looking
23:21without hope of finding and holding on for dear life and in time her hair grew red again
23:27and there was another wedding all over and we were both invited and i told the best story there is to
23:35tell a story which begins in hello and ends in goodbye and for a gift she gave me a shoe worn to
23:43nothing and here it is
23:57so
23:59so
24:03so
24:07so
24:11so
24:17so
24:19so
24:21You