Hans Heiling is a legendary person in German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

n mythology.

The stories originate from German inhabitants of Loket

Loket

Loket is a town of some 3 000 inhabitants in the Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary region of the Czech Republic.Loket means "elbow" in English. The town is named this due to the town centre being surrounded on three sides by the Ohře River, and the shape the river takes is similar to that of an...

 (now in the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

). The son of a water fairy from the river Ohře

Ohre

The Ohře is a 316 km long river in Germany and the Czech Republic , left tributary of the Elbe. The basin area of the river has a size of 6,255 km², of which 5,614 km² are in the Czech Republic and 641 km² in Germany...

, who taught him to master magic and command spirits. Once he had become rich and powerful, he ordered the spirits under his command to build a great city. The granite rocks above the Ohře, named Hans-Heiling-Felsen (Svatošské Skály in Czech), were believed to be the ruins of this city. When Hans Heiling discovered that he could not achieve human happiness even with his supernatural powers, he discarded them and died fighting a bear. Another variant of the story is that the rock formation is a petrified

Petrifaction in mythology and fiction

Petrifaction, as definied as turning people to stone, is also a common theme in folklore and mythology, as well as in some works of modern fiction.-Historical:...

 wedding party. A notable opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 of the same name

Hans Heiling

Hans Heiling is a German Romantic opera in 3 acts with prologue by Heinrich Marschner with a libretto by Eduard Devrient, who also sang the title role at the première which occurred at the Königliche Hofoper , Berlin on 24 May 1833, and went on to become his most successful opera...

was inspired by the tale.