It was written down in Swiss dialect (Alemannic) from the oral tale told by Freidrich Schmidt.
[5][6] The correct Alemannic title was "Vogel Gryf", as in the printed text by Otto Sutermeister (1873).
The peasant then sent his second son, Seame, who encountered the iron man, answering "Hogs' bristles", and making the same discovery as his older brother and receiving the same reception.
The youngest son, Hans, who was rather a fool, begged to go until his father finally agreed.
When Hans met the iron man, he said the basket contained the apples which the princess would eat to make herself well.
Seame suffered the same fate, but when Hans told the iron man he was making a ship that would travel over land and sea, he made such a boat.
The king set Hans to catch a hundred hares in a meadow in one day.
Elements from the story feature in the episode "The Luck Child" from Jim Henson's The Storyteller.