who takes his hedgehog skin and burns it. In a Latvian tale translated into German as Das Igelpelzchen and into English as The Porcupine's Little Quill Coat, a poor couple prays to have a son, even if he is a little hedgehog. Suddenly, a hedgehog appears to them and declares to be their son. Years later, the little hedgehog offers to take care of their pigs. Three years pass, and the little hedgehog becomes a fine swineherd. One day, the ruler of the country loses his way in the forest and the little animal offers his help, in exchange for the ruler's youngest daughter in marriage. The ruler refuses and keeps losing his way in the woods, until he relents and accepts the hedgehog's proposal. The ruler's youngest daughter marries the hedgehog and takes him to the bridal chambers. The animal takes off the animal skin. The girl takes the animal skin and burns it. However, her husband (now a man) has a fever and a pained state, but endures it and becomes a man for good. Analysis Deformed dwarf The Hans the Hedgehog character is a half-hedgehog, of clearly tiny stature. In the tale he rides a cock like a horse, and the two together is mistaken for some "little animal". Hans is treated as a "monster" in his folktale world, and thus distinguished from Thumbling or Tom Thumb who are merely diminutive humans. Unlike the other Grimms' tale characters who are portrayed as a fully animal form, Hans is the only half-animal half-human hybrid, thus increasing his overall outlandishness. The researcher Ann Schmiesing engages in a disability studies analysis of the tale and its protagonist. According to her, the Grimms implicitly suggest Hans's outward appearance as symbolic of "a disease or impairment that stunted physical or cognitive growth", and thus Hans's condition is to be associated with disability as well as deformity. Hans therefore qualifies as being classed as the "cripple", or rather the "super cripple (supercrip)" hero figure. The fairy tale "cripple" is stereotypically ostracized and shunned by society, but even after he turns "supercripple", i.e., demonstrates "extraordinary abilities" and "overachievement", this does not vindicate him in the eyes of other folk in the story, but rather only exacerbates his "enfreakment", according to Schmiesing. To the readership, however, the able underdog is a figure that "defies pity". In this analysis, His level of "freakiness" is also heightened