Extrapolating Manhood from Iron Hans and The Wild Man

In the Iron Hans stories, the boy learns a series of lessons, and grows from a child to a man. If we were to extrapolate the lessons he learns to a general view on those values which were construed as masculine at the time, we would assume that society admired men who were physically able, capable of self-restraint, extraordinarily brave, and humble about their deeds. The descriptions of beauty in the story are absent, so it would be difficult to infer what qualities were considered physically beautiful (as opposed to in a story like Snow White where we are told lots of features which would have been considered beautiful). The stories promote the pursuit of physical ability by having the boy prove his muster in battle before finally achieving his ultimate success. For showing his worth as a warrior, he is ultimately rewarded. However, he must first deny being the able warrior. It would be unbecoming for him to boast about his feats. He is instead expected to deny them, until everyone finds out by their own accord. The understated hero is the more worthy hero. It's also interesting that the boy finds success from freeing the wild man, but in order to do so he must defy his mother. In both cases, the boy steals the key from his mother's possession, from under her pillow in Iron Hans and from her pocket in The Wild Man, and this seems to be the correct action. The boy is taught that defying its mother, aside from its immediate threat of punishment, can be a rewarding venture. This a far cry from the stories with female heroines (Red Riding Hood stories for example) where the defying of the natural mother seems to always be punished. It's surprising that this mother is not called a step-mother to suggest some amount of evil about her. The call for a man to have self-restraint, as evidenced by the punishment the boy receives for dipping his hand in the enchanted pool, might hint at a common problem of indulgent men at this time. While this idea certainly hasn't completely dissipated, I can imagine that in an agrarian society where populations were far further spread, as well as a society that was extremely patriarchal, abusive husbands and fathers were more common. Without proper means of policing, it would have been accredited to the man's self-control for him to resist sexual deviance and physical violence. Violence is only to be dealt in time of war or self-preservation. It's also interesting that the Wild Man's identity in terms of good and evil is not immediately expressed in Iron Hans. In the Wild Man, the story begins by calling him a "wild man who was under a spell" but in the Iron Hans story we have to deduce the character of the Wild Man as we go. In this way, it's much more literary.