Huntsman


 * This article focuses on the character The Huntsman. For The Huntsman's Storybrooke counterpart, see Sheriff Graham.

"I gave up my heart so that the Queen would spare Snow's. Don't let my sacrifice be in vain."

- The Huntsman to Prince Charming

The Huntsman is a character on Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the seventh episode of Season One. He is played by starring cast member Jamie Dornan, and is the fairytale counterpart of Sheriff Graham.

History
The Huntsman kills the deer with a bow and arrow and cries over it, thanking it for its sacrifice. Just then, a low growl reverberates around the clearing and a giant wolf appears from the underbrush. The Huntsman seems to know it, and says that the two wouldn't go hungry that night.

Later, he goes to a bar to relax, and brings his wolf with him. Several patrons approach him and insult him, trying to get a rise out of him. Instead, the Huntsman replies softly and calmly, angering one patron. This patron attempts to attack the Huntsman, but instead is countered and stabbed. Unbeknownst to the Huntsman, the Evil Queen is watching from her magic mirror and decides that he will be the one to perform a job for her.

The Evil Queen's guards capture the Huntsman and bring him to the Evil Queen, who gives him a proposition. She wants him to kill someone for her, and promises many large rewards in exchange. The Huntsman reveals that he was brought up by wolves, and he wants her to promise him that the wolves would be protected. She agrees, and he asks her who he wants her to kill.

Later, he is walking with Snow White through the Enchanted Forest, disguised as one of the Evil Queen's men. However, Snow White sees through his disguise, kicks him, and runs away. He takes off some of the burdensome armor and chases after her. He quickly finds her in the middle of the forest, writing a letter to her step-mother. She asks him to give the letter to the Queen when she is dead, and he reads the letter.

The letter's contents are so emotional it makes him cry, and he fashions a whistle out of a twig for Snow White to use whenever she was in trouble. Snow White then runs away, and he takes the heart of a deer for the Queen instead.

He returns to the Dark Palace and gives the letter to the Queen, telling her that it was from Snow White. She wants nothing to do with it, but he reads it to her anyway. Halfway through, she rips it from his hands and throws it into the fireplace. Upon further inquiry, she reveals that Snow White betrayed her trust by revealing a well-kept secret. Then she demands Snow White's heart.

The Huntsman gives her the heart of the deer and they go to the Queen's chamber of hearts. She holds the heart up, but when none of the containers open, she realizes that she has been betrayed and that Snow White is still alive.

Furious, the Queen turns on the Huntsman and takes his heart as a replacement for Snow White's. She threatens that he was hers now, and if he ever crossed her again, all she had to do was squeeze. She demonstrates, and the Huntsman collapses on the ground in pain. The guards come into the chamber of hearts and she orders them to take him to her bedroom. The Huntsman is dragged out, helpless and trapped. ("The Heart is a Lonely Hunter")

He is instrumental in aiding Prince Charming in his escape from Regina's castle; killing a guard and giving Charming provisions for his quest to find Snow White. When Charming asks the Huntsman to join him, he says that he cannot, having been bound to Regina by sacrificing his heart in place of Snow White's. After Regina returns to find Charming gone, she threatens to kill the Huntsman for his incompetence and makes him swear to stop at nothing until Charming is hunted down. "("A Land Without Magic")

Trivia

 * The Huntsman does not give his name to the Queen. But in the Disney version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Huntsman's name is Humbert. Humbert is the last name of his Storybrooke counterpart, Graham.
 * His beeing brought up by wolves is a reference to Mowgli from the Disney movie "The Jungle Book".
 * The wolves that brough him up might be Anita's pack of wolves. They tought him to respect wolves.

Chasseur Cazador Jägersmann