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"Iron John" (AKA "Iron Hans" or "Der Eisenhans") is a German fairy tale found in the collections of the Brothers Grimm, tale number 136, about an iron-skinned wild man and a prince. The original German title is Eisenhans, a compound of Eisen "iron" and Hans (like English John, a common short form of the personal name Johannes). It represents Aarne-Thompson type 502, "The wild man as a helper".
Most people see the story as a parable about a boy maturing into adulthood. The story also became the basis for the book Iron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly which spawned the mythopoetic men's movement in the early 1990s. The book spent 62 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 502, "The Wild Man as Helper".
The oldest variant to be preserved is the Italian Guerrino and the Savage Man. In chivalric romance the motif appears in recognizable if rationalized form in Roswall and Lillian.