often had to make his way in the world like the hero of Bearskin. In popular culture Tom Davenport produced an Americanized version of the story for the From the Brothers Grimm series. The story is set in rural Virginia after the Civil War with the protagonist being a desperate ex-Confederate soldier. The only changes made to the story are the crying man is a farmer who has lost all of his money and will lose his farm, and the Devil tells the audience, not Bearskin, that he gets two souls for the price of one. The tale is often considered the most chilling of the series. A Russian story version was written by Boris Shergin, called "Pron'ka the Dirty" (), later adapted into a cartoon called Mister Pron'ka (). There, the devil is replaced with a bored wealthy American who makes a bet with a Russian named Pron'ka, with the time limit of 15 years. In return for the standard limitations, Pron'ka is given wares to start a large scale business in Russia. The American, in the meantime, is publishing scientific works and articles about the experiment. By the end of the term, the Tsar himself is heavily in debt, and gives one of his daughters to Pron'ka in order to secure another loan. The American, upon returning to his homeland afterwards, is criticized for wasting all the time and money, but the criticism ends once the others learn that the Tsar's other two daughters, horrified at the prospect of having Pron'ka as a brother-in-law, eloped with the American's brothers; a fact of great national pride. A version of "Bearskin" appears in the Japanese animated series Grimm's Masterpiece Theater (known as Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics overseas). In this version, the soldier is named Johann. His fiancé's sisters are clearly upset when they find out what they lost, but they do not actually kill themselves and the Devil (here a "minor demon") does not get anything. Bearskin is a character in Bill Willingham's Fables series. American composer Stephen DeCesare composed a musical based on the fairy tale: Bearskin: (the musical). Operas Operas based on the tale were composed by Siegfried Wagner (op. 1, 1899) and by Arnold Mendelssohn (op.11, 1900). See also The Dragon and his Grandmother The Small-tooth Dog The Daughter of the Skies References External links SurLaLune's Annotated Bearskin including variants, modern interpretations and illustrations Bearskin Grimms' Fairy