Part 4/11:
The central portion involves a detailed recounting of the fairy tale Hans My Hedgehog, a story rich with themes of duty, honor, sacrifice, and transformation. It begins with a childless farmer who, frustrated and longing for progeny, wishes for a child—even if it's a hedgehog. His wife bears him a grotesque hybrid child with a human upper half and a hedgehog's lower half. The parents are horrified, and the child is neglected, sequestered behind a stove for years.