Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel (German: Hänsel und Gretel) is a fairy tale of Germanic origin, adapted by the Brothers Grimm and earlier by Giambattista Basile.

Plot synopsis

Hansel and Gretel are the children of a poor wood cutter. Fearing starvation, the wood cutter's wife—the children's step-mother—convinces him to lead the children into the forest and abandon them there. Hansel and Gretel hear her plan and gather white pebbles to leave themselves a trail home. After their return, their stepmother again convinces the wood cutter to abandon them; this time however, they can only leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, the various animals of the woods eat their trail of breadcrumbs causing Hansel and Gretel to become lost.

Lost in the forest, they find a house made of bread (later versions call it gingerbread), with sugar windows, which they begin to eat. The inhabitant of the house, an old woman, invites them in and prepares a feast for them. The woman, however, is a witch who has built the house to entice children to her, so that she may fatten and eat them. She cages Hansel, and makes Gretel her servant. While she prepares to cook Hansel, she tells Gretel to climb into an oven to be sure it is ready to bake; but Gretel guesses that the witch intends to bake her, and tricks the witch into climbing into the oven, closing it behind her.

Taking jewels from the witch's house, they set off for home to be reunited with their father, whose wife has since died. "Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness."

Analysis

The tale as we know it from Brothers Grimm was meant to be a pleasant fable for middle class consumers of the 19th century, the original however was an admonishment of the hardships of Medieval life. Because of constant hunger and shortages of food, infanticide was a common practice in the Middle Ages, and in reality children were often abandoned in the woods to die or disappear because no one could feed them in times of strife.

In the first editions of Grimms' collection, there was no stepmother; the mother persuaded the father to abandon their own children. This change, as in Snow White, appears to be a deliberate toning down of the unpleasantness, for children.

In the arts

Hänsel und Gretel, an opera written after the fairy tale.
Gingerbread, an episode of the US TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, showed a reverse interpretation of the tale, in which the witch is merely a victim of a demon posing as Hansel and Gretel. The episode suggests that Hansel and Gretel were manipulators of their elders and that they kill the old woman to steal her jewels and make up a story about a witch. (The only witnesses to the tale would have been Hansel and Gretel themselves as the witch is dead.)
In Nursery Crimes, an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Grim transformed Billy and Mandy into Hansel and Gretel and sent them into supenatural fairly tale book. There Pinnochio kidnapped Billy, trying to eat his flesh, as "the only way to become a real boy, is to devour the flesh of the real boy".

Trivia

In Brazil and Portugal the story is known as João e Maria (John and Mary).

In German the umlauted "a" (ä), makes an English "e" sound. So Hänsel should be pronounced "Hensel" rather than "Hansel."

Sources

Project Gutenberg e-text

External links

SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: The Annotated Hansel and Gretel. Contains commercial advertising and products.
Hansel and Gretel.com. Contains commercial advertising and products.

Fictional pairs | Brothers Grimm | Fairy tales