# The Hare and the Hedgehog explained — Household Tales

> Chapter companion for Household Tales by Jacob Grimm.

## What happens

A hedgehog, insulted by a haughty hare about his short legs, challenges the hare to a race. Using clever trickery, he and his wife swap places at each end of the field, causing the hare to run himself to death. The story concludes with a moral against arrogance and the importance of marrying someone of equal station.

## Themes in this chapter

### Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished

The hedgehog's cleverness and humility are rewarded with victory, while the hare's arrogance leads to his death.

### Social Class and Marriage

The moral explicitly advises marrying someone of equal station, as the hedgehog's wife looks just like him, enabling their trick.

## Character check-ins

### Hans the Hedgehog

The hedgehog protagonist who uses wit to defeat the hare.

### the maiden

The hedgehog's wife, who helps him by impersonating him during the race.

### the rich man

The hare, a haughty and arrogant character who underestimates the hedgehog.

## Key lines

> The hedgehog, however, only ran about three paces, and then he stooped down in the furrow, and stayed quietly where he was.

The hedgehog barely moved before hiding in the furrow.

_Highlights the hedgehog's deceptive strategy._

> At the seventy-fourth time, however, the hare could no longer reach the end. In the middle of the field he fell to the ground, blood streamed out of his mouth, and he lay dead on the spot.

After seventy-three races, the hare collapsed and died from exhaustion.

_Emphasizes the fatal consequence of the hare's pride._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters/the-hare-and-the-hedgehog
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters