Gretel
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They received their little pieces of bread, even less than the last time. On the way to the woods, Hansel crumbled his piece in his pocket, then often stood still, and threw crumbs onto the ground. But little by little Hansel dropped all the crumbs onto the path. The woman took them deeper into the woods than they had ever been in their whole lifetime.
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Once again a large fire was made, and the mother said, "Sit here, children. If you get tired you can sleep a little. We are going into the woods to cut wood. We will come and get you in the evening when we are finished. When it was midday Gretel shared her bread with Hansel, who had scattered his piece along the path.
Then they fell asleep, and evening passed, but no one came to get the poor children. It was dark at night when they awoke, and Hansel comforted Gretel and said, "Wait, when the moon comes up I will be able to see the crumbs of bread that I scattered, and they will show us the way back home.
When the moon appeared they got up, but they could not find any crumbs, for the many thousands of birds that fly about in the woods and in the fields had pecked them up. They walked through the entire night and the next day from morning until evening, but they did not find their way out of the woods.
They were terribly hungry, for they had eaten only a few small berries that were growing on the ground. And because they were so tired that their legs would no longer carry them, they lay down under a tree and fell asleep. It was already the third morning since they had left the father's house.
Translator's note
They started walking again, but managed only to go deeper and deeper into the woods. If help did not come soon, they would perish. At midday they saw a little snow-white bird sitting on a branch. It sang so beautifully that they stopped to listen. When it was finished it stretched its wings and flew in front of them. They followed it until they came to a little house. The bird sat on the roof, and when they came closer, they saw that the little house was built entirely from bread with a roof made of cake, and the windows were made of clear sugar.
That will be sweet. Hansel reached up and broke off a little of the roof to see how it tasted, while Gretel stood next to the windowpanes and was nibbling at them. Then a gentle voice called out from inside: Nibble, nibble, little mouse, Who is nibbling at my house? The wind, the wind, The heavenly child. They continued to eat, without being distracted. Hansel, who very much like the taste of the roof, tore down another large piece, and Gretel poked out an entire round windowpane. Suddenly the door opened, and a woman, as old as the hills and leaning on a crutch, came creeping out.
Hansel and Gretel were so frightened that they dropped what they were holding in their hands. But the old woman shook her head and said, "Oh, you dear children, who brought you here? Just come in and stay with me. No harm will come to you. She took them by the hand and led them into her house. Then she served them a good meal: Afterward she made two nice beds for them, decked in white. Hansel and Gretel went to bed, thinking they were in heaven. But the old woman had only pretended to be friendly. She was a wicked witch who was lying in wait there for children. She had built her house of bread only in order to lure them to her, and if she captured one, she would kill him, cook him, and eat him; and for her that was a day to celebrate.
Witches have red eyes and cannot see very far, but they have a sense of smell like animals, and know when humans are approaching. When Hansel and Gretel came near to her, she laughed wickedly and spoke scornfully, "Now I have them. They will not get away from me again. Early the next morning, before they awoke, she got up, went to their beds, and looked at the two of them lying there so peacefully, with their full red cheeks. Then she grabbed Hansel with her withered hand and carried him to a little stall, where she locked him behind a cage door.
Cry as he might, there was no help for him. Then she shook Gretel and cried, "Get up, lazybones! Fetch water and cook something good for your brother. He is locked outside in the stall and is to be fattened up. When he is fat I am going to eat him. Gretel began to cry, but it was all for nothing. She had to do what the witch demanded. Now Hansel was given the best things to eat every day, but Gretel received nothing but crayfish shells.
"Hansel and Gretel" (/ˈhænsəl, ˈhɛn- ˈɡrɛtəl/; also known as Hansel and Grettel, Hansel and Grethel, or Little Brother and Little Sister; German: Hänsel und. Gretel is a German shortening of the name Margarete. It may refer to: one of the main characters in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel · Gretel Beer.
Every morning the old woman crept out to the stall and shouted, "Hansel, stick out your finger, so I can feel if you are fat yet. But Hansel stuck out a little bone, and the old woman, who had bad eyes and could not see the bone, thought it was Hansel's finger, and she wondered why he didn't get fat. When four weeks had passed and Hansel was still thin, impatience overcame her, and she would wait no longer. Whether Hansel is fat or thin, tomorrow I am going to slaughter him and boil him. Oh, how the poor little sister sobbed as she was forced to carry the water, and how the tears streamed down her cheeks!
She pushed poor Gretel outside to the oven, from which fiery flames were leaping. But Gretel saw what she had in mind, so she said, "I don't know how to do that. How can I get inside? The opening is big enough. See, I myself could get in. Then Gretel gave her a shove, causing her to fall in. Then she closed the iron door and secured it with a bar. The old woman began to howl frightfully. But Gretel ran away, and the godless witch burned up miserably.
Gretel ran straight to Hansel, unlocked his stall, and cried, "Hansel, we are saved. The old witch is dead. Then Hansel jumped out, like a bird from its cage when someone opens its door. How happy they were! They threw their arms around each other's necks, jumped with joy, and kissed one another. Because they now had nothing to fear, they went into the witch's house. In every corner were chests of pearls and precious stones.
After walking a few hours they arrived at a large body of water. If I ask it, it will help us across. Then she called out: The next day, the witch prepares the oven for Hansel, but decides she is hungry enough to eat Gretel too. She coaxes Gretel to the open oven and prods her to lean over in front of it to see if the fire is hot enough. Gretel, sensing the witch's intent, pretends she does not understand what she means. Infuriated, the witch demonstrates, and Gretel pushes her into the oven. She bolts the door shut, leaving "the ungodly creature to be burned to ashes", screaming in pain until she dies.
Gretel frees Hansel from the cage and the pair discover a vase full of treasure and precious stones. Putting the jewels into their clothing, the children set off for home.
Hansel and Gretel
A duck ferries them across an expanse of water and at home they find only their father who revealed that their mother died from an unknown cause. Their father had spent all his days lamenting the loss of his children and is delighted to see them safe and sound. With the witch's wealth, they all live happily ever after. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm heard "Hansel and Gretel. In later editions, some slight revisions were made: Another revision was that some versions claimed the mother died from unknown causes, left the family, or remained with the husband at the end of the story.
The fairy tale may have originated in the medieval period of the Great Famine — , [5] which caused desperate people to abandon young children to fend for themselves, or even resort to cannibalism. Folklorists Iona and Peter Opie indicate in The Classic Fairy Tales that "Hansel and Gretel" belongs to a group of European tales especially popular in the Baltic regions, about children outwitting ogres into whose hands they have involuntarily fallen. In both tales, the Opies note, abandoned children find their way home by following a trail.
In "Clever Cinders", the Opies observe that the heroine incinerates a giant by shoving him into an oven in a manner similar to Gretel's dispatch of the witch and they point out that a ruse involving a twig in a Swedish tale resembles Hansel's trick of the dry bone. Linguist and folklorist Edward Vajda has proposed that these stories represent the remnant of a coming-of-age rite-of-passage tale extant in Proto-Indo-European society. The fact that the mother or stepmother dies when the children have killed the witch has suggested to many commentators that the mother or stepmother and the witch are metaphorically the same woman.
In the Russian Vasilisa the Beautiful , the stepmother likewise sends her hated stepdaughter into the forest, to borrow a light from her sister, who turns out to be Baba Yaga , who is also a cannibalistic witch. Besides highlighting the endangerment of children as well as their own cleverness , the tales have in common a preoccupation with food and with hurting children: Hansel and Gretel's trail of breadcrumbs inspired the name of the navigation element " breadcrumbs " that allows users to keep track of their locations within programs or documents. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the fairy tale. For other uses, see Hansel and Gretel disambiguation. Children's literature portal Germany portal.
Retrieved June 24, The Standard Operas Google book 12th ed. Retrieved 15 October Once Upon A Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. Opie, Iona ; Opie, Peter The Classic Fairy Tales.
More Than a Bedtime Story Speech. See, I myself could get in. The Standard Operas Google book 12th ed. It should take us across one at a time. He is locked outside in the stall and is to be fattened up.
The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. Vajda, Edward 26 May