Hansel and Gretel

On the edge of a great forest there lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. They had little enough to put on the table at the best of times, and when a great famine came over the land, the woodcutter could no longer manage even their daily bread. One night he lay awake turning his worries over, tossing from side to side, and at last he sighed and said to his wife:

“What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children when we have nothing left even for ourselves?”

“I will tell you what, husband,” answered the woman. “Early tomorrow morning we will take the children out into the forest, to the thickest part of it. We will light them a fire and give each of them one more piece of bread, and then we will go off to our work and leave them there. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them.”

“No, wife,” said the man. “I will not do that. How could I bring myself to leave my own children alone in the forest? The wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.”

“Oh, you fool,” she said. “Then all four of us will starve, and you may as well start planing the boards for our coffins.”

She gave him no peace until he agreed.

“But I am sorry for the poor children all the same,” said the man.

The two children had been too hungry to fall asleep, and they had heard what their stepmother said to their father. Gretel wept bitter tears and whispered:

“Now it is all over with us.”

“Hush, Gretel,” said Hansel. “Do not fret. I will find a way to help us.”

And when the old folk had fallen asleep, he got up, pulled on his little coat, opened the bottom half of the door and slipped outside. The moon was shining brightly, and the white pebbles lying in front of the house glittered like newly minted silver coins. Hansel stooped down and filled his coat pocket with as many of them as it would hold. Then he went back indoors.

“Take comfort, dear little sister, and sleep in peace,” he said. “God will not forsake us.”

And he lay down again in his bed.

At daybreak, before the sun had even risen, the woman came and woke the two children.

“Get up, you lazybones. We are going into the forest to fetch wood.”

She gave each of them a small piece of bread.

“There is something for your dinner, but do not eat it before then, because you will get nothing else.”

Gretel carried both pieces of bread under her apron, because Hansel had his pocket full of stones. Then they all set out together on the way to the forest. When they had walked a little while, Hansel stopped and looked back at the house, and then he did it again, and again.

“Hansel, what are you staring at back there, and why do you keep falling behind?” said his father. “Pay attention, and do not forget how to use your legs.”

“Oh, father,” said Hansel, “I am looking at my little white cat. It is sitting up on the roof, wanting to say goodbye to me.”

“You silly boy,” said the woman. “That is not your cat. That is the morning sun shining on the chimney.”

But Hansel had not been looking at any cat. Each time he stopped, he had dropped one of the bright pebbles out of his pocket onto the road.

When they had come to the middle of the forest, their father said:

“Now gather some wood, children. I will make a fire, so that you do not get cold.”

Hansel and Gretel carried brushwood together until they had a little hill of it. The brushwood was lit, and when the flames were burning high, the woman said:

“Now lie down by the fire, children, and rest yourselves. We are going into the forest to cut wood. When we have finished, we will come back and fetch you.”

Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came they each ate their little piece of bread. They could hear the strokes of an axe, and so they believed their father was somewhere near. But it was not an axe at all. It was a branch he had tied to a dead tree, and the wind was knocking it back and forth. They had been sitting there so long that their eyes closed with weariness, and they fell fast asleep. When at last they woke, it was already black night. Gretel began to cry.

“How are we ever to get out of the forest now?”

But Hansel comforted her.

“Just wait a little, until the moon comes up. Then we will soon find the way.”

And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took his little sister by the hand and followed the pebbles, which shone like freshly minted silver and showed them the road. They walked the whole night through, and at break of day they came to their father’s house again. They knocked at the door, and when the woman opened it and saw that it was Hansel and Gretel, she said:

“You wicked children, why did you sleep so long in the forest? We thought you were never coming back at all.”

But their father was overjoyed, for it had cut him to the heart to leave them behind alone.

Not long afterwards there was want in every corner of the land again, and one night the children heard the woman saying to their father in bed:

“Everything is eaten up again. We have half a loaf left, and when that is gone we are done for. The children must go. We will lead them deeper into the forest, so that they cannot find their way out again. There is no other way of saving ourselves.”

The man’s heart grew heavy, and he thought to himself that it would be better to share the last mouthful with his children. But the woman would not listen to a word he said. She scolded him and heaped reproaches on him, and because he had given in the first time, he had to give in the second time as well.

The children were still awake, though, and had heard the whole conversation. When the old folk were asleep, Hansel got up again and wanted to go out and gather pebbles as he had done before, but the woman had locked the door and he could not get out. Still, he comforted his little sister.

“Do not cry, Gretel. Go to sleep quietly. God will help us.”

Early in the morning the woman came and took the children out of their beds. They were each given their piece of bread, but it was even smaller than the time before. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his in his pocket, and he kept stopping to throw a crumb on the ground.

“Hansel, why do you keep stopping and looking about you?” said his father. “Get along with you.”

“I am looking back at my little pigeon,” answered Hansel. “It is sitting on the roof, wanting to say goodbye to me.”

“Simpleton,” said the woman. “That is not your pigeon. That is the morning sun shining up there on the chimney.”

But little by little Hansel threw all his crumbs onto the path.

The woman led the children still deeper into the forest, further than they had ever been in their lives. A great fire was made again, and she said:

“Just sit there, children, and if you are tired you may sleep a while. We are going into the forest to cut wood, and this evening, when we have finished, we will come and fetch you.”

When noon came, Gretel shared her bread with Hansel, who had scattered his along the way. Then they fell asleep. The evening came and went, and nobody came to the poor children. They did not wake until it was black night, and Hansel comforted his little sister.

“Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises. Then we will see the breadcrumbs I scattered, and they will show us the way home.”

When the moon came up they set off, but they did not find a single crumb, for the many thousands of birds that fly about the woods and the fields had pecked them all up.

“We will find the way, never fear,” Hansel said to Gretel.

But they did not find it. They walked the whole night and the whole of the next day too, from morning until evening, and still they did not come out of the forest. They were terribly hungry, for they had nothing to eat but a few berries growing close to the ground. At last they were so tired that their legs would not carry them any further, so they lay down under a tree and fell asleep.

It was now the third morning since they had left their father’s house. They started walking again, but they only went deeper into the forest, and if help did not come soon they would die of hunger and weariness. At midday they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a branch, and it sang so sweetly that they stood still and listened. When it had finished its song, it spread its wings and flew on ahead of them, and they followed it until they came to a little house, where it settled on the roof. And when they came right up close, they saw that the house was built of bread and roofed with cake, and that the windows were made of clear sugar.

“Let us set to work on this,” said Hansel, “and have a proper meal. I will eat a piece of the roof, and you, Gretel, can eat some of the window. It will taste sweet.”

Hansel reached up and broke off a little of the roof, to try how it tasted, and Gretel stood at the panes and nibbled at them. Then a thin voice called out from inside the room:

Nibble, nibble, little mouse,who is nibbling at my house?

The children answered:

The wind, the wind,the heavenly child.

And they went on eating without letting themselves be put off. Hansel, who liked the taste of the roof very much, pulled down a great piece of it, and Gretel pushed out a whole round windowpane, sat down and ate it with great relish. Then all at once the door opened, and an old, old woman came creeping out, leaning on a crutch. Hansel and Gretel were so badly frightened that they dropped what they were holding. But the old woman wagged her head at them and said:

“Well now, you dear children, who brought you here? Do come inside and stay with me. No harm will come to you.”

She took them both by the hand and led them into her little house. Good food was set out for them: milk and pancakes with sugar, apples and nuts. Afterwards two pretty little beds were made up with clean white linen, and Hansel and Gretel lay down in them and thought they were in heaven.

The old woman had only pretended to be kind. She was in truth a wicked witch who lay in wait for children, and she had built the little bread house for no other reason than to lure them to her. When a child fell into her power she killed it, cooked it and ate it, and that was a feast day for her. Witches have red eyes and cannot see far, but they have a keen scent like animals, and they know when a human being is coming near. When Hansel and Gretel came into her part of the forest, she laughed spitefully and said with a sneer:

“I have them. They will not slip away from me.”

Early in the morning, before the children were awake, she was already up, and when she saw the two of them resting so sweetly with their full red cheeks, she muttered to herself:

“That will make a dainty mouthful.”

Then she seized Hansel with her withered hand, carried him out to a little stable and shut him in behind a barred door. He could scream as much as he liked; it did him no good. Then she went to Gretel, shook her awake and shouted:

“Get up, lazy thing. Fetch water and cook something good for your brother. He is out in the stable, and he is to be fattened. When he is fat, I shall eat him.”

Gretel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain. She had to do what the wicked witch ordered.

Now the best of food was cooked for poor Hansel, and Gretel got nothing but crab shells. Every morning the old woman crept out to the little stable and called:

“Hansel, stick out your finger, so that I can feel whether you will soon be fat.”

But Hansel would hold out a little bone to her, and the old woman, whose eyes were dim, could not see what it was. She thought it was Hansel’s finger, and she wondered why he would not fatten at all. When four weeks had gone by and Hansel was still as thin as ever, impatience got the better of her and she would wait no longer.

“Hey there, Gretel,” she called to the girl. “Look sharp and fetch water. Fat or thin, tomorrow I am going to kill Hansel and cook him.”

Oh, how the poor little sister sobbed as she carried the water, and how the tears ran down her cheeks.

“Dear God, help us,” she cried. “If only the wild animals in the forest had eaten us, at least we would have died together.”

“Save your howling,” said the old woman. “None of it will help you.”

Early in the morning Gretel had to go out, hang up the cauldron of water and light the fire.

“First we will do the baking,” said the old woman. “I have heated the oven already and kneaded the dough.”

She pushed poor Gretel out to the oven, where the flames were already leaping out.

“Creep in,” said the witch, “and see whether it is properly heated, so that we can put the bread in.”

Once Gretel was inside, the witch meant to shut the oven and let the girl roast in there, and then she would eat her too. But Gretel saw what she had in mind and said:

“I do not know how to do it. How do I get in?”

“Silly goose,” said the old woman. “The opening is big enough. Look, I could get in myself.”

And she scrambled up and put her head into the oven. Then Gretel gave her a shove that sent her right inside, slammed the iron door and pushed the bolt across. The witch began to howl, horribly, but Gretel ran away, and the godless old woman burned to death.

Gretel ran straight to Hansel, opened his little stable and cried:

“Hansel, we are saved! The old witch is dead!”

Then Hansel sprang out like a bird from a cage when the door is opened for it. How they rejoiced, and threw their arms around each other’s necks, and jumped about, and kissed each other. And as they had nothing left to be afraid of, they went into the witch’s house, and in every corner there stood chests full of pearls and precious stones.

“These are better than pebbles,” said Hansel, and he stuffed his pockets with as much as they would hold.

“I will take something home too,” said Gretel, and she filled her apron full.

“But now let us go,” said Hansel, “so that we get out of the witch’s forest.”

When they had walked for a couple of hours they came to a great stretch of water.

“We cannot get across,” said Hansel. “I can see no plank and no bridge.”

“And there is no boat either,” answered Gretel, “but there is a white duck swimming over there. If I ask her, she will help us across.”

Then she called:

Little duck, little duck, here we two stand,Hansel and Gretel, and no boat at hand.No bridge, no plank, and no way around:take us across on your back, safe and sound.

The little duck came to them, and Hansel sat down on her back and told his sister to sit beside him.

“No,” said Gretel. “That will be too heavy for the little duck. She shall carry us over one after the other.”

The good little creature did just that, and when they were safely on the other side and had walked on a while, the forest began to look more and more familiar to them, until at last they saw their father’s house in the distance. Then they began to run, burst into the room and threw their arms around their father’s neck. The man had not had one happy hour since he left the children in the forest, but his wife had died in the meantime. Gretel shook out her apron until the pearls and precious stones went bouncing about the room, and Hansel threw handful after handful out of his pocket to join them. Then all their troubles were over, and they lived together in nothing but happiness.

My tale is done,there runs a mouse.Whoever catches itmay make a great big fur cap out of it.