« Den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht sehen » is a German idiom that translate literally to « not seing the forest because of all the trees ». This visual idiom is quite straightforward, it simply means to not see what is obvious, the full picture, because one might loose itself into the details of a situation.

Here the forest is the hedgehog. The hare, not able to see through the hedgehog’s ruse, keeps running until he exhausts himself, leading to the inevitable death.

At no moment, the hare stops to wonder why the hedgehog, physically inferior, would keep winning the race.

I chose this German idiom as a reference to the Grimm brothers who wrote in German, it’s also a nod to my own story as I was born in Germany and am fluent in German.

I picked this tale, because it is praising intelligence and cunning and not physical prowess.

I have to give credit to the hare for dedication, but ultimately the mind wins.