| “ | This one belongs to the champion of our world. And since Hesse is pretty much all forest, the Protector of the Forest is the champion of the world by default. | „ |
| ~ Jack in the Green introduces his successor to the Thanatos Arrow, in Fables #152 — "The Black Forest Chapter Two: Pandemonium" |
The Hesse is a world that is the Homelands version of Germany. It first appears in the prose story Fables: Legends in Exile — "A Wolf in the Fold."
Description
The Hesse,[1][4] also known as just Hesse,[1][2] is a world[3] that is the Homelands version of Germany.[4] It is about the same size as the mundane world, but has fewer population centers.[6]
The entire continent of the Hesse is blanketed by the Schwarzwald, the endless Transylvanian Black Forest.[1] As a result, Hesse is "pretty much all forest."[3]
History
Pre-Empire
Centuries ago, the North Wind fell in love with a white she-wolf named Winter. In canine form, he stayed by her side for two seasons but eventually returned to being wind, leaving Winter heartbroken. Shortly after, she gave birth to a litter in the Black Forest, including the runt, Bigby, who was mocked as the "Big Bad Wolf" by his brothers. When his brothers left in search of the North Wind, Bigby stayed behind to guard Winter's remains but was too small to defend her. Driven by his loss, he vowed vengeance, wanting to grow strong enough to confront his father.
One day, a grown-up Big Bad Wolf passed by the area where the Three Little Pigs lived. Thinking that the three pigs would make a fine meal, he huffed and puffed, successfully destroying the houses of Colin and another pig,[7] made of straw[8] and sticks respectively. This left the three pigs with no choice but to seek shelter in the remaining brother's sturdy brick house.[7]
The Woodsman, a desperate drunk who stole to survive, overheard Red Riding Hood's grandmother discussing her granddaughter's upcoming visit with treats. He devised a plan to take the goodies and assault Red Riding Hood. Following the grandmother to her cottage, he fell unconscious while waiting. When Red Riding Hood arrived, she was attacked by the Big Bad Wolf. As the Woodsman regained consciousness, he heard her screams and rushed in to help. Upon entering, he found the wolf threatening them and had to defend himself. He struck the wolf down with his enchanted axe, inadvertently saving both Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.[9] He filled the wolf's belly with stones and discarded him into the river.[10]
As Bigby began eating humans, he grew unnaturally large. He soon grew to gargantuan size and regularly devoured entire towns, defeated armies, and even killed a dragon.[7]
The Empire
Boxing League member Dunster Happ spent seven years in the Hesse trapping the last of the "baleful Hernes,"[11] meaning either Herne or his son of the same name.[12]
Peter Piper and his brother Max were sons of traveling minstrels from Hesse. While the Pipers visiting the Peep family, the Empire's army attacked, causing them to flee into the Black Forest, where Peter, Max, and Bo Peep became separated. Peter ended up in Hamelin and joined a thieves' guild, while Bo Peep joined an assassin's guild. Max, given a magical flute named Fire by Frau Totenkinder, turned to evil and became the notorious Pied Piper of Hamelin. After reuniting and marrying, Peter and Bo Peep were headed to sanctuary in the mundane world, but Max attacked them with his flute. Peter defended himself with his own flute, Frost, unintentionally crippling Bo.[13]
In the days leading up to the Exodus, the Big Bad Wolf hunted armies of men and goblins in the Black Forest, making it his personal mission to destroy corrupted invading forces and their camps, devour their night watchmen and destroy their supply trains. In furtherance of his attempts to frustrate the Adversary, the Wolf took up the task of leading Fables who wished to escape the Adversary through the portal.[7]
Hansel and Gretel were abandoned by their parents in the Black Forest, where Frau Totenkinder lured them to her gingerbread house to sacrifice them. The children outsmarted her and burned her in her own oven, sparking Hansel's obsession with witch hunting. After escaping the forest, they found a world transformed and overrun by the Empire's troops.[14]
Meanwhile, Snow White and Rose Red fled from the Adversary's forces together. Along the way, they found the badly burned Frau Totenkinder in the Black Forest and nursed her back to health. Although Snow White wished to leave her behind, Rose encouraged staying, sharing stories of the mundane world as they traveled together, but they eventually became separated during their journey.[15] Both sisters were captured by the Adversary's forces and imprisoned. However, the Big Bad Wolf, tasked with guarding the gateway to the mundane world, killed their captors, and freed the sisters and the other prisoners, leading to their escape to the mundane world.[16]
Hansel and Gretel sought refuge in various churches, relying on charity until they eventually discovered the sanctuary of the mundane world years later.[14]
Fall of the Empire
After Fabletown's destruction,[17] Snow White and Bigby Wolf settled down with their cubs in the Black Forest of the Hesse, which used to be the home of Bigby, "for a thousand leagues in any direction." Bigby was eager to reclaim his old home and noted that he might need to lay claim to the entire world eventually.[18]
After one thousand years passed, the Wolf family did own the entire world, along with a dozen connecting worlds, something which began as a project to keep Snow and Bigby safe and comfortable without being disturbed by outsiders.[5]
Points of interest
The Black Forest
| The Black Forest, the fabled version the forested mountain range of the same name, is located in the Hesse and is the home of Bigby Wolf,[18] the former home of Frau Totenkinder,[14] and home to a whole array of malign ghosts, witches, ogres, giants, fell spirits and all sorts of monsters.[19] |  |
History
The Last Story Home is located in the Black Forest[18] and was built by the former Jack in the Green and his companion Iago Warduck over the course of six hundred years.[20] Most Hessians are afraid to enter the Black Forest, save for the safe paths they have carved out and tamed for generations, with spells of warding and patrols of armed men.[21] It is therefore not known whether the Forest itself was taken over by the Empire. The rest of the Hesse, on the contrary, was indeed conquered. In Peter & Max: A Fables Novel, it is revealed that the Adversary's troops did enter the Black Forest on numerous occasions, to try to hunt the Big Bad Wolf, as well as to travel to Hamelin. After Snow White and Bigby settled down in this world, they built themselves[12] a new home there,[22] called Wolfholm.[5] | |
Hamelin Town
Hamelin Town is the fabled version of Hamelin.[21]
Old Winsen River
Old Winsen Town is the the fabled version of Winsen.[1]
River Weser
River Weser is the fabled version of the Weser.[21]
Residents
Appearances
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Etymology
The name Hesse is derived from one of the larger states in Germany.
Trivia
Despite the fact that the fairy tales of "Snow White" and "Snow-White and Rose-Red" are of German origin, these characters' homeworld is not the Hesse. During the Wolf family reunion in Fables #150 — "The Last Snow and Bigby Story," Rose Red states that she has never been to the Hesse before, and mistakenly believes that "Hesse" is the name of the local area rather than the world.[5] While Rose Red and Snow White did discover the burned out remains of Frau Totenkinder's cottage in the Black Forest in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, the prose story "A Wolf in the Fold" confirms that the two were not from this world: When Bigby Wolf first met the sisters (after they were separated from Totenkinder, according to 1001 Nights of Snowfall), he stated that their accents marked them as distant strangers, and concluded that they weren't from his land.
References
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Notes
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