Foreign fairy tale Hansel and Gretta. Hansel and Gretel - Brothers Grimm
There lived on the edge of a dense forest a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children: the boy’s name was Hansel, and the girl’s name was Gretel. The woodcutter lived from hand to mouth; and one day the cost of living in that land became so high that he had nothing to buy even a piece of bread.
One evening he lies in bed, does not sleep, but everything turns over from side to side, sighs and finally says to his wife:
What will happen to us now? How can we feed our children? We have nothing to eat ourselves!
“And you know what,” the wife answered, “tomorrow morning we’ll take the children early into the forest, into the thicket; Let's make a fire there and give them a piece of bread. Let's go to work and leave them alone. If we can’t find a way back for them, we’ll get rid of them.
No, wife,” says the woodcutter, “I won’t do this: my heart is not a stone, I can’t leave my children alone in the forest.” Wild animals will attack them and eat them.
What a fool! - says the wife. “Then all four of us will have to starve, and you will have only one thing left - to knock together coffins.” - And she pestered him until he agreed with her. 
But I still feel sorry for my poor children! - said the woodcutter.
The children could not sleep from hunger and heard everything that the stepmother said to their father. Gretel cried bitter tears and said to Hansel:
Poor you and I, poor people! It looks like we'll have to disappear now!
Hush, Gretel, don't worry! - said Hansel. - I'll think of something.
And so, when his parents fell asleep, he got up, put on his jacket, opened the door to the hallway and quietly climbed out into the street. The moon was shining brightly in the sky. The white stones in the yard glittered under its rays, like money. Hansel bent down and filled his pocket full of them.
Then he returned home and said to Gretel:
Be comforted, dear sister, sleep peacefully now! - And with these words he went back to bed.
Just as it began to get light, the stepmother came and began to wake up the children.
Get up, lazy people! We need to go to the forest for firewood. “Then she gave them a piece of bread and said: “This bread will be for your lunch.” Just watch, don’t eat it now, you won’t get anything else.
Gretel took all the bread and hid it under her apron. Hansel had nowhere to hide the bread; his pocket was filled with stones. Then they all went into the forest. They walk, and Hansel still stops and looks back. His father tells him:
Why do you, Hansel, keep turning around and falling behind? Go quickly.
“I, father,” Hansel answered, “I keep looking at my white cat.” She sits on the roof and looks at me so pitifully, as if she’s saying goodbye.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” said the stepmother, “this is not your cat at all, it’s a white pipe glistening in the sun.”
And Hansel didn’t look at the cat at all, but took shiny pebbles out of his pocket and threw them on the road.
So they came to the very depths of the forest, and the woodcutter said:
Well, children, gather firewood, and I’ll light a fire so you don’t get cold.
Hansel and Gretel collected a whole bunch of brushwood. When the fire burned well, the stepmother said:
Well, children, now lie down by the fire and have a good rest, and we will go into the forest to chop wood. When we finish work, we'll come back for you.
Hansel and Gretel sat down by the fire, and at noon they ate their bread. They kept hearing the sound of an ax and thought that their father was working somewhere nearby. And it wasn’t an ax that was tapping at all, but a dry branch that my father had tied to an old tree. The branch was swayed by the wind, it hit the trunk and knocked. They sat like that and sat, their eyes began to close from fatigue, and they fell fast asleep.
When they woke up, it was already completely dark in the forest. Gretel cried and said:
How can we find our way home now?
“Wait,” Hansel consoled her, “the moon will rise, it will become brighter, and we will find the way.”
And sure enough, the month soon rose. Hansel took Gretel by the hand and walked from pebble to pebble - and they glittered like money and showed the children the way. They walked all night, and at dawn they came to their father’s house and knocked on the door. The stepmother opened the door, saw Hansel and Gretel standing in front of her, and said:
Oh, you bad children, why did you sleep in the forest for so long? And we already thought that you didn’t want to go back at all.
The father was happy to see the children. It was hard for him to leave them alone in the forest. But soon hunger and need set in again, and there was nothing to eat in the woodcutter’s house. And then the children heard how the stepmother at night, lying in bed, said to her father:
Once again, we’ve already eaten everything, only half a crust of bread remains, and then we’re done for! We need to get rid of the children - we’ll take them further into the forest so that they won’t find their way back! We have no other choice.
But the children did not sleep and heard their entire conversation. When his father and stepmother fell asleep, Hansel got out of bed and wanted to go into the yard to pick up pebbles, like last time. But the stepmother locked the door, and Hansel could not leave the hut. He began to console his sister and said:
Don’t cry, Gretel, sleep well, you will see that we will not be lost.
Early in the morning, the stepmother woke them up and gave them a piece of bread, it was even smaller than the last time. They went into the forest, and Hansel crumbled bread in his pocket along the way, stopped and threw bread crumbs on the road. His father tells him:
Why do you, Hansel, keep stopping and looking around? Go quickly.
“I, father,” answered Hansel, “I am looking at my white dove. He sits on the roof and looks at me so pitifully, as if he’s saying goodbye.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” his stepmother tells him. - This is not your little dove at all, this white pipe glitters in the sun.
And Hansel dropped everything and threw bread crumbs on the road. The stepmother took the children even deeper into the forest, where they had never been before. They lit a big fire again, and the stepmother said:
Sit here, kids, and when you get tired, get some sleep. And we will go into the forest to chop wood and in the evening, when we finish work, we will come for you.
When noon came, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, because he had crumbled his bread along the way. Then they fell asleep. Now the evening has passed, but no one came for the poor children.
They woke up - and it was already dark night in the forest. Hansel began to console his sister:
Wait, Gretel, soon the moon will rise, and we will find our way along the bread crumbs. 
When the moon rose, they set out to find the road. They looked for her and looked for her, but they never found her. Thousands of birds fly in the forest and in the field - and they all pecked them.
Hansel says to Gretel: “We’ll find the way somehow,” but they didn’t find it. They walked all night and all day from morning to evening, but could not get out of the forest. The children were very hungry: after all, apart from the berries that they picked along the way, they did not have a single piece in their mouths. They were so tired that they could barely move their legs, they lay down under a tree and fell asleep.
It was already the third morning since they left their father’s hut. They moved on. They walk and walk, but the forest gets deeper and darker, and if help had not arrived, they would have been exhausted.
Then midday came, and the children noticed a beautiful snow-white bird on a branch. He sits and sings, so well that the children stopped and listened. The bird fell silent, flapped its wings and flew in front of them, and they followed it until they finally reached the hut, where the bird sat on the roof. The children came closer and saw that the hut was not a simple one: it was made entirely of bread, its roof was made of gingerbread, and its windows were made of sugar. 
Hansel says:
Now we're going to have a great meal. I'll get to work on the roof, it must be very tasty.
Hansel stretched out to his full height and broke off a piece of the roof to try what it tasted like, and Gretel began to feast on the windows.
Suddenly a thin voice was heard from inside:
Who's walking under the window there?
Who's gnawing at my sweet home?
Children answer:
This is a wonderful guest
Wind from heaven!
And they continue to tear off and eat pieces from the delicious house.
Hansel liked the roof very much, and he tore off a large piece from it, and Gretel broke out a whole round glass of sugar and, sitting down near the hut, began to devour it.
Suddenly the door opens and an old, old old woman comes out, leaning on a crutch. Hansel and Gretel got scared and dropped all the treats from their hands. The old woman shook her head and said:
Hey kids, how did you get here? Well, come to me, I won’t harm you.
She took them both by the hands and led them to her hut. She brought a treat - milk with pancakes sprinkled with sugar, apples and nuts. Then she made two beautiful beds for them and covered them with white blankets. Hansel and Gretel lay down and thought: “We must have gone to heaven.”
But the old woman only pretended to be so kind, but in fact it was an evil witch who lay in wait for the children, and built a hut out of bread as bait. If any child fell into her hands, she killed him, boiled him in a cauldron and ate him, and this was the greatest delicacy for her. Her eyes, like all witches, were red, and they saw poorly, but they had a subtle sense of smell, like animals, and they sense the proximity of a person.
When Hansel and Gretel approached her hut, she laughed evilly and said with a grin: “So they got caught! Now they won’t get away from me!”
Early in the morning, when the children were still sleeping, she got up, looked at how they were sleeping peacefully and how plump and rosy their cheeks were, and said to herself: “This will be a tasty morsel!” She grabbed Hansel with her bony hand, carried him into the barn and locked him behind the lattice door - let him scream as much as he wants, nothing will help him! 
And then Gretel woke up and said:
Get up quickly, lazy one! Go get some water and cook something tastier for your brother, he’s sitting over there in the stable. I want it to become fatter, then I will eat it.
Gretel cried bitterly. But what could she do, she had to carry out the orders of the evil witch. And so she prepared the most delicious dishes for Hansel, and she herself received only scraps. Every morning the old woman hobbled to the stable and said:
Come on, Hansel, give me your finger, I want to see if you’re fat.
And Hansel took it and handed the witch a bone instead of a finger. The witch couldn’t see well, felt the bone and wondered why Hansel wasn’t getting fat. So four weeks passed, and Hansel still did not gain fat. The old woman got tired of waiting, and she shouted to the girl:
Hey Gretel, bring some water quickly! Fat or skinny, I’ll slaughter and cook Hansel tomorrow morning. 
Oh, how the poor sister grieved when she had to carry water! Tears kept flowing down her cheeks.
It would be better if we were torn to pieces by wild animals in the forest, then at least we would die together!
Well, no need to whine! - the old woman shouted. - Nothing will help you now.
Early in the morning, Gretel had to get up, go out into the yard, hang a pot of water and light a fire.
“First we will bake bread,” said the old woman, “I have already lit the oven and kneaded the dough.” - And she pushed poor Gretel to the very stove, from where a large flame was blazing. “Well, climb into the oven,” said the witch, “and see if it’s well heated, isn’t it time to plant grains?”
Gretel was about to climb into the oven, and at that time the old woman wanted to close it with the damper so that Gretel could be fried and eaten. But Gretel guessed what the old woman was up to and said:
Yes, I don’t know how to do this, how can I get through there?
“Here’s a stupid goose,” said the old woman, “look how big the mouth is, and I could climb up there,” and she climbed onto the pole and stuck her head into the stove.
Then Gretel pushed the witch, so much so that she ended up right in the oven itself. Then Gretel covered the stove with an iron damper and locked it. Wow, how terribly the witch howled! But Gretel ran away, and the damned witch burned to the ground. 
Gretel rushed quickly to Hansel, opened the barn and shouted:
Come out, Hansel, we are saved! The old witch burned in the stove!
Hansel jumped out of the barn, like a bird from a cage when the door is opened. How happy they were, how they threw themselves on each other’s necks, how they jumped for joy and kissed! Now they had nothing to fear anymore, and so they entered the witch’s hut and saw that there were caskets with pearls and precious stones standing there in the corners.
Well, this will probably be better than our pebbles,” said Hansel and filled his pockets full with them.
And Gretel says:
“I also want to bring something home,” and she poured a full apron of them.
“And now let’s quickly run away from here,” said Hansel, “because we need to get out of the witch’s forest.”
They walked like this for two hours and finally came to a large lake.
“We can’t get across it,” says Hansel, “we can’t see a bench or a bridge anywhere.” 
“And you can’t see the boat,” Gretel answered, “but there’s a white duck swimming over there; if I ask her, she will help us cross to the other side.
And Gretel called to the duck:
There is no bridge anywhere
Take us across the water!
A duck swam up, Hansel sat on it and called his sister to sit with him.
No, Gretel answered, it will be too hard for the duck. Let her transport you first, and then me.
The good duck did just that. They happily crossed to the other side and moved on. And there the forest seemed completely familiar to them, and finally they saw their father’s house from afar.
Then the children started running, flew into the room and threw themselves on their father’s neck.
From the time the father abandoned the children in the forest, he did not have a moment of joy, and his wife died. Gretel opened her apron, and pearls and precious stones scattered around the room, and Hansel threw whole handfuls of them out of his pocket. And their need and grief came to an end, and they lived happily and well.
Not far from the forest lived a woodcutter with a son named Hansel, daughter Gretel and his second wife.
Despite the fact that the woodcutter worked from morning to evening, his family was starving. One night, when the children were asleep, the wife said to her husband:
- It can't go on like this. Tomorrow we will take your children to the forest and leave them there.
- What are you saying, crazy woman? If the children remain in the forest, they will die - the woodcutter shouted.
- They will die if they stay here. They will not die from a wild animal, but from hunger. “And this way we can live,” the stepmother continued.
The children heard a terrible conversation. Hansel secretly left the house and collected white pebbles. The next morning the whole family went into the forest. As they walked, Hansel threw stones along the road.
Closer to noon, the stepmother said:
- Stay here and eat bread! We’ll go and chop down the trees, and then we’ll come back and pick you up.
- Don't worry! The moon will soon come out and illuminate the pebbles that I threw along the road.
And so it happened. The pebbles sparkled and the children followed them back home. When the father saw them, he was very happy, but the stepmother did not have time to hide her displeasure.
Some time has passed. The wife started this conversation again with her husband. Hansel, who no longer trusted his stepmother, listened carefully to the conversation she had with his father. When I heard that they were thinking of leaving them in the forest again, I wanted to leave the house to collect white pebbles, but the door was closed.
The next morning the stepmother gave one piece of bread to each child and the four of them went into the forest. Hansel crumbled bread along the way, so that later he could return back bit by bit. Soon the parents left the children and left. Gretel began to cry:
- They left us alone again, Hansel! What are we going to do now?
- Don't worry, little sister. Follow me. The bread crumbs will show the way to the house - her brother tried to calm her down.
How much time has passed? The birds pecked up all the crumbs. This time the children got lost. We went wandering through the forest and when it got completely dark we saw one gingerbread house, and the windows were made of sugar. The children approached the house and Hansel broke off a piece from the wall, which was made of chocolate. Gretel began to help herself to part of one window.
When the children had eaten with appetite, they heard a voice:
- Who is eating my house?
And at that moment one smiling old woman appeared and told them:
- Come in, come in, kids! Are you lost? Don't worry, I'll feed you.
So she did. After that, she prepared clean beds and put her brother and sister to bed. The children were enchanted by the warmth and care, and so they fell asleep. But when they woke up, the good-natured old woman turned into a terrible witch who locked Hansel in a cage, and Gretel forced everything to clean, wash and cook...
Every day the girl prepared one large dish of food and brought it to her brother according to the witch’s commandment.
Every evening before going to bed, the evil witch came to the cage and said:
- Show me your hand, I want to feel it, see if it has gained weight.
And Hansel took advantage of the fact that the witch was blind and gave her a bone that he found in the cage. And the old woman kept wondering why the boy wasn’t gaining weight from healthy, fatty foods.
When the witch got tired of waiting, she said to Gretel:
- Tomorrow I will eat your brother, regardless of whether he is thin or fat.
At dawn, the witch ordered the fire to be lit and a large vat of water to be placed. When everything was ready, the evil old woman wanted the girl to stick her head into the oven to check if it was hot enough. Gretel guessed that they wanted to bake her, and said in an innocent voice:
- I don’t know how the stove opens, be so kind as to show me.
The impatient old woman replied:
- Fine! How useless and stupid you are! You're not good for anything! It's good that my wait will end soon.
The witch opened the stove and bent down to stick her head inside. The girl pushed her inside and closed the lid with all her might so that the witch could not get out. Then she opened the cage with her brother and said that the old woman had died. The children opened the closet where the witch kept jewelry and treasures, put them in one bag and quickly left from there.
They walked for several hours in a row until they came to the river, but there was no bridge nearby. Then Gretel suggested to her brother:
- Hansel, look! Let's ask the white duck to take us to the other side.
They said it and did it. The white duck carried them to the other side and the children recognized this part of the forest. We walked along the path and came to his house, the father saw his children and cried with joy that they were alive. And the stepmother died of anger. The children told their father what had happened, gave him a bag of jewelry that they had taken from the witch’s house, and from that moment the three of them began to live happily ever after.
Fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm
Artist St. Kisiova
Hello, young literary scholar! It’s good that you decided to read the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm; in it you will find folk wisdom that has been edified by generations. It is amazing that with empathy, compassion, strong friendship and unshakable will, the hero always manages to resolve all troubles and misfortunes. The desire to convey a deep moral assessment of the actions of the main character, which encourages one to rethink oneself, was crowned with success. Rivers, trees, animals, birds - everything comes to life, is filled with living colors, helps the heroes of the work in gratitude for their kindness and affection. It is very useful when the plot is simple and, so to speak, life-like, when similar situations arise in our everyday life, this contributes to better memorization. Thanks to children's developed imagination, they quickly revive colorful pictures of the world around them in their imagination and fill in the gaps with their visual images. Once again, re-reading this composition, you will certainly discover something new, useful, edifying, and essential. You can read the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm for free online countless times without losing your love and desire for this creation.
On the edge of a dense forest lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children: the boy’s name was Hansel, and the girl’s name was Gretel. The woodcutter lived from hand to mouth; and one day the cost of living in that land became so high that he had nothing to buy even a piece of bread.
One evening he lies in bed, does not sleep, but everything turns over from side to side, sighs and finally says to his wife:
What will happen to us now? How can we feed our children? We have nothing to eat ourselves!
“And you know what,” the wife answered, “tomorrow morning we’ll take the children early into the forest, into the thicket; Let's make a fire there and give them a piece of bread. Let's go to work and leave them alone. If we can’t find a way back for them, we’ll get rid of them.
No, wife,” says the woodcutter, “I won’t do this: my heart is not a stone, I can’t leave my children alone in the forest.” Wild animals will attack them and eat them.
What a fool! - says the wife. “Then all four of us will have to starve, and you will have only one thing left - to knock together coffins.” - And she pestered him until he agreed with her.
But I still feel sorry for my poor children! - said the woodcutter.
The children could not sleep from hunger and heard everything that the stepmother said to their father. Gretel cried bitter tears and said to Hansel:
Poor you and I, poor people! It looks like we'll have to disappear now!
Hush, Gretel, don't worry! - said Hansel. - I'll think of something.
And so, when his parents fell asleep, he got up, put on his jacket, opened the door to the hallway and quietly climbed out into the street. The moon was shining brightly in the sky. The white stones in the yard glittered under its rays, like money. Hansel bent down and filled his pocket full of them.
Then he returned home and said to Gretel:
Be comforted, dear sister, sleep peacefully now! - And with these words he went back to bed.
Just as it began to get light, the stepmother came and began to wake up the children.
Get up, lazy people! We need to go to the forest for firewood. “Then she gave them a piece of bread and said: “This bread will be for your lunch.” Just watch, don’t eat it now, you won’t get anything else.
Gretel took all the bread and hid it under her apron. Hansel had nowhere to hide the bread; his pocket was filled with stones. Then they all went into the forest. They walk, and Hansel still stops and looks back. His father tells him:
Why do you, Hansel, keep turning around and falling behind? Go quickly.
“I, father,” Hansel answered, “I keep looking at my white cat.” She sits on the roof and looks at me so pitifully, as if she’s saying goodbye.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” said the stepmother, “this is not your cat at all, it’s a white pipe glistening in the sun.”
And Hansel didn’t look at the cat at all, but took shiny pebbles out of his pocket and threw them on the road.
So they came to the very depths of the forest, and the woodcutter said:
Well, children, gather firewood, and I’ll light a fire so you don’t get cold.
Hansel and Gretel collected a whole bunch of brushwood. When the fire burned well, the stepmother said:
Well, children, now lie down by the fire and have a good rest, and we will go into the forest to chop wood. When we finish work, we'll come back for you.
Hansel and Gretel sat down by the fire, and at noon they ate their bread. They kept hearing the sound of an ax and thought that their father was working somewhere nearby. And it wasn’t an ax that was tapping at all, but a dry branch that my father had tied to an old tree. The branch was swayed by the wind, it hit the trunk and knocked. They sat like that and sat, their eyes began to close from fatigue, and they fell fast asleep.
When they woke up, it was already completely dark in the forest. Gretel cried and said:
How can we find our way home now?
“Wait,” Hansel consoled her, “the moon will rise, it will become brighter, and we will find the way.”
And sure enough, the month soon rose. Hansel took Gretel by the hand and walked from pebble to pebble - and they glittered like money and showed the children the way. They walked all night, and at dawn they came to their father’s house and knocked on the door. The stepmother opened the door, saw Hansel and Gretel standing in front of her, and said:
Oh, you bad children, why did you sleep in the forest for so long? And we already thought that you didn’t want to go back at all.
The father was happy to see the children. It was hard for him to leave them alone in the forest. But soon hunger and need set in again, and there was nothing to eat in the woodcutter’s house. And then the children heard how the stepmother at night, lying in bed, said to her father:
Once again, we’ve already eaten everything, only half a crust of bread remains, and then we’re done for! We need to get rid of the children - we’ll take them further into the forest so that they won’t find their way back! We have no other choice.
But the children did not sleep and heard their entire conversation. When his father and stepmother fell asleep, Hansel got out of bed and wanted to go into the yard to pick up pebbles, like last time. But the stepmother locked the door, and Hansel could not leave the hut. He began to console his sister and said:
Don’t cry, Gretel, sleep well, you will see that we will not be lost.
Early in the morning, the stepmother woke them up and gave them a piece of bread, it was even smaller than the last time. They went into the forest, and Hansel crumbled bread in his pocket along the way, stopped and threw bread crumbs on the road. His father tells him:
Why do you, Hansel, keep stopping and looking around? Go quickly.
“I, father,” answered Hansel, “I am looking at my white dove. He sits on the roof and looks at me so pitifully, as if he’s saying goodbye.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” his stepmother tells him. - This is not your little dove at all, this white pipe glitters in the sun.
And Hansel dropped everything and threw bread crumbs on the road. The stepmother took the children even deeper into the forest, where they had never been before. They lit a big fire again, and the stepmother said:
Sit here, kids, and when you get tired, get some sleep. And we will go into the forest to chop wood and in the evening, when we finish work, we will come for you.
When noon came, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, because he had crumbled his bread along the way. Then they fell asleep. Now the evening has passed, but no one came for the poor children.
They woke up - and it was already dark night in the forest. Hansel began to console his sister:
Wait, Gretel, soon the moon will rise, and we will find our way along the bread crumbs.
When the moon rose, they set out to find the road. They looked for her and looked for her, but they never found her. Thousands of birds fly in the forest and in the field - and they all pecked them.
Hansel says to Gretel: “We’ll find the way somehow,” but they didn’t find it. They walked all night and all day from morning to evening, but could not get out of the forest. The children were very hungry: after all, apart from the berries that they picked along the way, they did not have a single piece in their mouths. They were so tired that they could barely move their legs, they lay down under a tree and fell asleep.
It was already the third morning since they left their father’s hut. They moved on. They walk and walk, but the forest gets deeper and darker, and if help had not arrived, they would have been exhausted.
Then midday came, and the children noticed a beautiful snow-white bird on a branch. He sits and sings, so well that the children stopped and listened. The bird fell silent, flapped its wings and flew in front of them, and they followed it until they finally reached the hut, where the bird sat on the roof. The children came closer and saw that the hut was not a simple one: it was made entirely of bread, its roof was made of gingerbread, and its windows were made of sugar.
Hansel says:
Now we're going to have a great meal. I'll get to work on the roof, it must be very tasty.
Hansel stretched out to his full height and broke off a piece of the roof to try what it tasted like, and Gretel began to feast on the windows.
Suddenly a thin voice was heard from inside:
Who's walking under the window there?
Who's gnawing at my sweet home?
Children answer:
This is a wonderful guest
Wind from heaven!
And they continue to tear off and eat pieces from the delicious house.
Hansel liked the roof very much, and he tore off a large piece from it, and Gretel broke out a whole round glass of sugar and, sitting down near the hut, began to devour it.
Suddenly the door opens and an old, old old woman comes out, leaning on a crutch. Hansel and Gretel got scared and dropped all the treats from their hands. The old woman shook her head and said:
Hey kids, how did you get here? Well, come to me, I won’t harm you.
She took them both by the hands and led them to her hut. She brought a treat - milk with pancakes sprinkled with sugar, apples and nuts. Then she made two beautiful beds for them and covered them with white blankets. Hansel and Gretel lay down and thought: “We must have gone to heaven.”
But the old woman only pretended to be so kind, but in fact it was an evil witch who lay in wait for the children, and built a hut out of bread as bait. If any child fell into her hands, she killed him, boiled him in a cauldron and ate him, and this was the greatest delicacy for her. Her eyes, like all witches, were red, and they saw poorly, but they had a subtle sense of smell, like animals, and they sense the proximity of a person.
When Hansel and Gretel approached her hut, she laughed evilly and said with a grin: “Here they are!” Now they won’t get away from me!”
Early in the morning, when the children were still sleeping, she got up, looked at how they were sleeping peacefully and how plump and rosy their cheeks were, and said to herself: “This will be a tasty morsel!” She grabbed Hansel with her bony hand, carried him into the barn and locked him behind the lattice door - let him scream as much as he wants, nothing will help him!
And then Gretel woke up and said:
Get up quickly, lazy one! Go get some water and cook something tastier for your brother, he’s sitting over there in the stable. I want it to become fatter, then I will eat it.
Gretel cried bitterly. But what could she do, she had to carry out the orders of the evil witch. And so she prepared the most delicious dishes for Hansel, and she herself received only scraps. Every morning the old woman hobbled to the stable and said:
Come on, Hansel, give me your finger, I want to see if you’re fat.
And Hansel took it and handed the witch a bone instead of a finger. The witch couldn’t see well, felt the bone and wondered why Hansel wasn’t getting fat. So four weeks passed, and Hansel still did not gain fat. The old woman got tired of waiting, and she shouted to the girl:
Hey Gretel, bring some water quickly! Fat or skinny, I’ll slaughter and cook Hansel tomorrow morning.
Oh, how the poor sister grieved when she had to carry water! Tears kept flowing down her cheeks.
It would be better if we were torn to pieces by wild animals in the forest, then at least we would die together!
Well, no need to whine! - the old woman shouted. - Nothing will help you now.
Early in the morning, Gretel had to get up, go out into the yard, hang a pot of water and light a fire.
“First we will bake bread,” said the old woman, “I have already lit the oven and kneaded the dough.” - And she pushed poor Gretel to the very stove, from where a large flame was blazing. “Well, climb into the oven,” said the witch, “and see if it’s well heated, isn’t it time to plant grains?”
Gretel was about to climb into the oven, and at that time the old woman wanted to close it with the damper so that Gretel could be fried and eaten. But Gretel guessed what the old woman was up to and said:
Yes, I don’t know how to do this, how can I get through there?
“Here’s a stupid goose,” said the old woman, “look how big the mouth is, and I could climb up there,” and she climbed onto the pole and stuck her head into the stove.
Then Gretel pushed the witch, so much so that she ended up right in the oven itself. Then Gretel covered the stove with an iron damper and locked it. Wow, how terribly the witch howled! But Gretel ran away, and the damned witch burned to the ground.
Gretel rushed quickly to Hansel, opened the barn and shouted:
Come out, Hansel, we are saved! The old witch burned in the stove!
Hansel jumped out of the barn, like a bird from a cage when the door is opened. How happy they were, how they threw themselves on each other’s necks, how they jumped for joy and kissed! Now they had nothing to fear anymore, and so they entered the witch’s hut and saw that there were caskets with pearls and precious stones standing there in the corners.
Well, this will probably be better than our pebbles,” said Hansel and filled his pockets full with them.
And Gretel says:
“I also want to bring something home,” and she poured a full apron of them.
“And now let’s quickly run away from here,” said Hansel, “because we need to get out of the witch’s forest.”
They walked like this for two hours and finally came to a large lake.
“We can’t get across it,” says Hansel, “we can’t see a bench or a bridge anywhere.”
“And you can’t see the boat,” Gretel answered, “but there’s a white duck swimming over there; if I ask her, she will help us cross to the other side.
And Gretel called to the duck:
There is no bridge anywhere
Take us across the water!
A duck swam up, Hansel sat on it and called his sister to sit with him.
No, Gretel answered, it will be too hard for the duck. Let her transport you first, and then me.
The good duck did just that. They happily crossed to the other side and moved on. And there the forest seemed completely familiar to them, and finally they saw their father’s house from afar.
Then the children started running, flew into the room and threw themselves on their father’s neck.
In a large forest at the edge of the forest lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children: the boy’s name was Hansel, and the girl’s name was Gretel.
The poor man's family was both poor and hungry; and ever since the high prices set in, he sometimes didn’t even have his daily bread.
And then one evening he lay in bed, thinking and tossing from side to side from worries, and said to his wife with a sigh: “I really don’t know what we should do! How will we feed our children when we ourselves have nothing to eat!”
“Do you know what, hubby,” the wife answered, “early tomorrow we’ll take the children out into the thicket of the forest; There we’ll light a fire for them and give each one another piece of bread to spare, and then we’ll go to work and leave them there alone. They won’t find their way home from there, and we will get rid of them.”
“No, little wife,” said the husband, “I won’t do that. I can’t bear to leave my children alone in the forest - perhaps wild animals will come and tear them to pieces.”
- “Oh, you fool, fool! - she answered. “So, wouldn’t it be better if all four of us die of hunger, and you know how to plan the boards for the coffins?”
And until then he was nagged that he finally agreed. “Still, I feel sorry for the poor children,” he said, even agreeing with his wife.
But the children also could not sleep from hunger and heard everything that the stepmother said to their father. Gretel cried bitter tears and said to Hansel: “Our heads are gone!”
“Come on, Gretel,” said Hansel, “don’t be sad!” I’ll somehow manage to help the trouble.”
And when his father and stepmother fell asleep, he got out of bed, put on his little dress, opened the door, and slipped out of the house.
The moon was shining brightly, and the white pebbles, of which there were many lying in front of the house, glittered like coins. Hansel bent down and put as many of them into the pocket of his dress as he could fit.
Then he returned home and said to his sister: “Calm down and sleep with God: he will not leave us.” And he lay down in his bed.
As soon as it began to get light, the sun had not yet risen - the stepmother came to the children and began to wake them up: “Well, well, get up, lazy people, let’s go into the forest for firewood.”
Then she gave everyone a piece of bread for lunch and said: “Here’s bread for lunch, just make sure you don’t eat it before lunch, because you won’t get anything else.”
Gretel took the bread under her apron, because Hansel had a pocket full of stones. And so they all headed into the forest together.
After walking a little, Hansel paused and looked back at the house, and then again and again.
His father asked him: “Hansel, why are you yawning and falling behind? If you please, pick up your pace."
“Oh, father,” said Hansel, “I keep looking at my white cat: she’s sitting there on the roof, as if she’s saying goodbye to me.”
The stepmother said: “You fool! Yes, this is not your cat at all, but a white pipe glistens in the sun.” But Hansel didn’t even think to look at the cat, he just quietly threw out a pebble from his pocket onto the road.
When they came to the thicket of the forest, the father said: “Well, children, collect dead wood, and I’ll light a light for you so that you don’t get cold.”
Hansel and Gretel hauled brushwood and piled it up in piles. The fire was lit, and when the fire flared up, the stepmother said: “Here, lie down by the fire, children, and rest; and we will go into the forest and chop wood. When we finish our work, we will return to you and take you with us.”
Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when dinner hour came, they ate their pieces of bread. And since they heard the blows of the ax, they thought that their father was somewhere right there, not far away.
And it wasn’t an ax that was tapping at all, but a simple branch that the father had tied to a dry tree: it was swayed by the wind and hit the tree.
They sat and sat, their eyes began to close from fatigue, and they fell fast asleep.
When they woke up, it was dark night all around. Gretel began to cry and say: “How will we get out of the forest?” But Hansel consoled her: “Just wait a little until the moon rises, then we will find the way.”
And just as the full moon rose in the sky, Hansel took his sister by the hand and walked, finding the way along the pebbles, which glittered like newly minted coins and showed them the way.
They walked all night long and at dawn they finally came to their father’s house. They knocked on the door, and when the stepmother opened the door and saw who was knocking, she said to them: “Oh, you crappy kids, why did you sleep in the forest for so long? We already thought that you wouldn’t come back at all.”
And the father was very happy with them: his conscience was already tormenting him that he had left them alone in the forest.
Soon after that, a terrible need came again, and the children heard their stepmother one night once again begin to tell their father: “We ate everything again; We only have half a loaf of bread left, and that’s the end of the song! The guys need to be sent away; We will lead them even further into the forest so that they will never be able to find the way to the house. Otherwise we will have to disappear along with them.”
My father’s heart was heavy, and he thought: “It would be better if you shared the last crumbs with your children.” But his wife did not want to listen to him, scolded him and expressed all sorts of reproaches to him.
“You called yourself a milk mushroom, so get into the back!” - says the proverb; So he did: he gave in to his wife the first time, he had to give in the second time too.
But the children did not sleep and listened to the conversation. When the parents fell asleep, Hansel, like last time, got out of bed and wanted to pick up pebbles, but the stepmother locked the door, and the boy could not leave the house. But he still calmed his sister down and told her: “Don’t cry, Gretel, and sleep well. God will help us."
Early in the morning the stepmother came and got the children out of bed. They received a piece of bread - even less than what was given to them last time.
On the way to the forest, Hansel crumbled his piece in his pocket, often stopping and throwing the crumbs on the ground.
“Hansel, why do you keep stopping and looking around,” his father told him, “go on your way.”
“I look back at my little dove, who is sitting on the roof and saying goodbye to me,” answered Hansel. “Fool! - his stepmother told him. “This is not your dove at all: this is a pipe that turns white in the sun.”
But Hansel, little by little, managed to scatter all the crumbs along the road.
Again a big fire was lit, and the stepmother told them: “Sit here, and if you are tired, you can sleep a little: we will go into the forest to chop wood, and in the evening, when we finish work, we will come for you and take you with us.” .
When lunch hour arrived, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who crumbled his portion along the way.
Then they fell asleep, and it was already evening, and yet no one came for the poor children.
They woke up when the dark night had fallen, and Hansel, consoling his sister, said: “Wait, Gretel, the month will rise, then we will see all the bread crumbs that I scattered along them and we will find the way home.”
But then the month rose, and they got ready to set off on their journey, but they could not find a single crumb, because thousands of birds fluttering in the forest and in the field had long since eaten those crumbs.
Hansel said to his sister: “We’ll find the way somehow,” but they didn’t find the road.
So they walked all night and another day from morning to evening and still could not get out of the forest and were terribly hungry, because they had to eat only berries, which they found here and there along the road. And since they were tired and could barely stand on their feet from exhaustion, they lay down again under the tree and fell asleep.
It was the third morning since they left their parents' house. They walked through the forest again, but no matter how much they walked, they only went deeper into its thicket, and if help had not arrived for them, they would have had to die.
At midday they saw a beautiful snow-white bird in front of them; She sat on a branch and sang so sweetly that they stopped and began to listen to her singing. Having sung her song, she spread her wings and flew, and they followed her until they came to a hut, on the roof of which the bird sat down.
Coming closer to the hut, they saw that it was all built from bread and covered with cookies, and its windows were made of pure sugar.
“So we’ll get to work on it,” said Hansel, “and eat.” I’ll eat a piece of the roof, and you, Gretel, can break off a piece from the window for yourself - it’s probably sweet.” Hansel reached up and broke off a piece of the roof for himself to taste what it tasted like, and Gretel went to the window and began to gnaw at its window frames.
Knocking noises under the window?
Who's knocking on my door?
And the children responded:
Wind, wind, breeze.
Clear sky son!
And they continued to eat as before.
Hansel, who really liked the roof, broke off a decent piece of it for himself, and Gretel planted a whole round window for herself, sat down at the hut and feasted on it at her leisure - and suddenly the door to the hut swung wide open, and an old, old old woman came out of it leaning on a crutch.
Hansel and Gretel were so frightened that they even dropped their tasty morsels from their hands. And the old woman just shook her head and said: “Uh, kids, who brought you here? Come in and stay with me, I won’t do you any harm.”
She took the children by the hand and led them into her hut. There was already plenty of food on the table: milk and sugar cookies, apples and nuts. And then two clean beds were laid out for the children, and Hansel and his sister, when they lay down in them, thought that they had gone to heaven.
But the old woman only pretended to be affectionate, but in reality she was an evil witch who lay in wait for the children and built her bread hut just to lure them.
When any child fell into her clutches, she killed him, boiled his meat and devoured him, and this was a holiday for her. Witches' eyes are red and not far-sighted, but their sense of smell is as subtle as that of animals, and they sense the approach of a person from afar. When Hansel and Gretel were just approaching her hut, she was already laughing evilly and saying mockingly: “These guys have already been caught - I bet they won’t escape me.”
Early in the morning, before the children woke up, she was already up, and when she saw how sweetly they were sleeping and how the blush was playing on their plump cheeks, she muttered to herself: “This will be a tasty morsel!”
Then she took Hansel in her hard hands and carried him into a small cage, and locked him in with a lattice door: he could scream there as much as he wanted, and no one would hear him. Then she came to her sister, pushed her aside and shouted: “Well, get up, lazy one, fetch some water, cook something tastier for your brother: I put him in a special cage and will fatten him up. When he gets fat, I'll eat him."
Gretel began to cry bitterly, but only wasted her tears - she had to do everything that the evil witch demanded of her.
So they began to cook the most delicious food for poor Hansel, and his sister got only scraps.
Every morning the old woman made her way to his cage and shouted to him: “Hansel, give me your finger, let me feel it, will you be fattened soon?” And Hansel pushed a bone through the bars to her, and the half-sighted old woman could not notice his tricks and, mistaking the bone for Hansel’s fingers, was amazed that he was not getting fat at all.
When four weeks had passed and Hansel was still not getting fat, then the old woman was overcome by impatience, and she did not want to wait any longer. “Hey, Gretel,” she shouted to her sister, “bring water quickly: tomorrow I want to kill Hansel and boil him - no matter what he is, thin or fat!”
Oh, how the poor sister lamented when she had to carry water, and what large tears rolled down her cheeks! “Good God! - she exclaimed. - Help us! After all, if wild animals had torn us to pieces in the forest, at least we would both have died together!”
- “Stop talking about nonsense! - the old woman shouted at her. “Nothing will help you anyway!”
Early in the morning, Gretel had to leave the house, hang a pot of water and light a fire under it.
“Let’s make the cookies first,” said the old woman, “I’ve already lit the oven and kneaded the dough.”
And she pushed poor Gretel towards the stove, from which the flames were even gushing out.
“Climb there,” said the witch, “and see if it’s hot enough and if you can plant bread in it.”
And when Gretel bent down to look into the oven, the witch was about to close the oven with a damper: “Let her bake there, then I’ll eat her too.”
However, Gretel understood what was on her mind and said: “Yes, I don’t know how to climb there, how to get into the inside?”
- “Stupid! - said the old woman. “But the mouth of the stove is so wide that I could fit in there myself,” yes, she went up to the stove and stuck her head into it.
Then Gretel pushed the witch from behind so that she immediately found herself in the stove, and she slammed the stove damper behind the witch, and even pushed the bolt back.
Wow, how terribly the witch howled then! But Gretel ran away from the stove, and the evil witch had to burn there.
Meanwhile, Gretel rushed straight to Hansel, unlocked the cage and shouted to him: “Hansel! You and I are saved - there is no longer a witch in the world!
Then Hansel fluttered out of the cage, like a bird when the door is opened.
Oh, how they rejoiced, how they hugged, how they jumped around, how they kissed! And since they had no one to fear, they went to the witch’s hut, in which there were boxes with pearls and precious stones in all corners. “Well, these pebbles are even better than pebbles,” said Hansel and filled his pockets with them, as much as he could fit; and there Gretel said: “I also want to take a little of these stones home,” and poured an apron full of them.
“Well, now it’s time to hit the road,” said Hansel, “to get out of this enchanted forest.”
And they went - and after two hours of travel they came to a large lake. “We can’t cross here,” said Hansel, “I don’t see either a pole or a bridge.” “And there is no boat,” said the sister. - But there is a white duck swimming over there. If I ask her, she will, of course, help us cross.”
And she shouted to the duck:
Duck, beauty!
Help us cross;
Not a bridge, not a pole,
Carry us on your back.
The duck immediately swam up to them, and Hansel sat on its back and began to call his sister to sit next to him. “No,” answered Gretel, “it will be hard for the duck; she will transport us both one by one.”
This is what the good duck did, and after they had crossed safely and walked through the forest for some time, the forest began to seem more and more familiar to them, and finally they saw their father’s house in the distance.
Then they started running, ran to the house, burst into it and threw themselves on their father’s neck.
The poor fellow had not had a joyful hour since he left his children in the forest; and meanwhile the stepmother died.
Gretel immediately shook out her entire apron - and pearls and precious stones scattered all over the room, and Hansel also began throwing handfuls of them out of his pocket.
For two centuries now, the treasury of the world's author's fairy tales has included the works of Jacob and the Brothers, who have collected and processed more than two hundred folklore works of European peoples, including the quite popular “Cinderella”, “Rapunzel”, “Hansel and Gretel”, “The Bremen Town Musicians”, “Little Red Riding Hood” " and many others. Despite the fact that the authors are often accused of describing excessive cruelty, they remain beloved by many generations of children, as they teach resilience and the ability to withstand adversity, kindness and mutual support, and the desire for justice.
Features of artistic processing
The contribution of the Brothers Grimm to the development of world, and in particular German, literary fairy tales is truly invaluable. The main advantage of their works is that the authors, borrowing the plot from folklore, almost completely preserved the content, ideological concept, composition, character traits and speech of the characters. This is confirmed, for example, by “Hansel and Gretel” - a fairy tale in German, which is distinguished by its maximum closeness to the original source. The authors only slightly changed the language form, making the work more exciting and accessible to read. This approach was fundamental when processing folk tales, as it made it possible to convey the peculiarities of the way of life of Europeans, mainly during the Middle Ages.
The basis of the gingerbread house plot
According to surviving information, the Grimm brothers heard a fairy tale about two children named Hansel and Gretel from Dorothea Wilt - she later became Wilhelm’s wife. The folklore work differs from the author’s version known to us in that the little heroes were sent into the forest, doomed to inevitable death by their own mother and father. The Brothers Grimm somewhat softened the plot of the original principle, introducing the image of a stepmother who put pressure on her weak-willed husband. By the way, a work with a similar plot can be found in the collection of another German storyteller, L. Bechstein, as well as in folk poems and songs, which indicates the great popularity of the story about the gingerbread house among the people.
As for the cruel act of the parents, then, most likely, it has very real circumstances. In 1315-17, a terrible famine broke out in Europe, including Germany, the consequences of which were felt for another five years. Historians note that at this time there were quite possible cases of cannibalism, which are mentioned in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” - meaning the episode with the witch. In addition, similar stories can be found in some European stories about children who, by chance, ended up in the hands of terrible cannibals and managed to eventually defeat them thanks to their fearlessness and ingenuity.
The Gingerbread House story was included in the first collection of Brothers Grimm's fairy tales, published in 1812, and has been translated into many languages. The best Russian translation was the text processed by P. Polev.
Meet the heroes
Hansel and Gretel, brother and sister, were the children of a poor woodcutter. They lived with their father and unkind stepmother. But then difficult times came, when there was no money to buy bread. And one night they heard their parents talking. In response to the father's complaint that there was no food left, the stepmother offered to take the brother and sister to the forest and leave them there alone. At first the woodcutter was indignant: the heart is not made of stone - dooming one’s own children to inevitable death. Then everyone will have to die - that was the woman’s answer. The wicked stepmother finally convinced her husband that there was no other way to do it.
The sister burst into tears when she learned about the fate that awaited them, and her brother began to calm her down and promised to come up with something. This is how the famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm “Hansel and Gretel” begins.
First trip to the forest
The boy waited until his father and stepmother fell asleep, got dressed and went outside, where he collected pebbles that glittered in the moonlight.
Early in the morning, the parents went to the forest to get firewood, woke up the children and took them with them. On the way, Hansel quietly threw a pebble - he collected a pocket full of them. So we got to the thicket itself. The woodcutter lit a fire, and the stepmother ordered the children to go to bed and promised to return for them in the evening. Hansel and Gretel - the fairy tale here repeats the motif of the cruelty of the stepmother, popular in European folklore - were left alone by the fire. All day they heard dull blows in the forest, and hoped that it was their father chopping wood. In fact, it was a branch tied by the parents to the tree that was knocking.
At lunch, the children ate a piece of the bread given to them in the morning and soon, tired, fell asleep. When they opened their eyes, it was already dark night. The sister burst into tears again, and her brother began to calm her down: “The month will rise, and we will find our way home.” And indeed, the stones sparkled in the moonlight, and by morning Hansel and Gretel were already at their home door.
Meeting with parents
The stepmother who let the children in scolded them for walking in the forest for too long. The father was glad that they returned alive.
But soon the situation became even worse. And again the brother and sister heard the already familiar argument between their parents. The woodcutter resisted for a long time, but, having yielded once, he succumbed to persuasion this time too. Hansel and Gretel thought about their future again. thus, like any other of the magical group, it is built on the repetition of the same event. But this time my brother was unable to collect the stones - his prudent stepmother closed the door for the night, and he was unable to go outside. His sister was even more frightened, but the boy promised to come up with something. And in the morning, when the stepmother again gave them a piece of bread and ordered them to go with her and their father into the forest, he broke his portion in his pocket and began to sprinkle the crumbs on the road.
Lost
The woodcutter and the stepmother walked for a long time through the forest until they found themselves in a wilderness where they had never been before. And again the parents left the children alone by the fire and went home. But at night, when the moon rose, Hansel and Gretel could not find their way, since the birds had eaten all the bread crumbs. Morning came, and then evening, and they all wandered through the forest. Only by lunchtime the next day, tired and hungry, the children saw a snow-white bird on a tree. She sang so well that the children listened and then followed her. And suddenly a hut appeared ahead, which the hungry Hansel and Gretel could not pass by.
The fairy tale, the summary of which you are reading, is built according to all the laws of the genre. The walls of the wonderful house that suddenly appeared before the children’s eyes were made of bread, the roof was made of delicious gingerbread, and the windows were made of sugar. Thus, a sweet house from a fabulous land of abundance called Kokan is mentioned here. It was often mentioned in folk legends and was attractive because you didn’t have to do anything about it yourself, since all the food grew right on the trees.
History of gingerbread houses
Although the plot of a tasty hut at the beginning of the 19th century could not be considered unusual, it was after the publication of the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” that a new tradition appeared in Germany and in a number of other European countries. For two hundred years now, housewives have been baking gingerbread houses for Christmas and decorating them with colorful icing, candied fruits, berries, etc. The sweets are put on the festive table, sent to various exhibitions and competitions and, of course, distributed to children. The main thing is that you can first admire such gingerbread and then enjoy the great taste.
Meeting with a witch
But let's return to the fairy tale that the Brothers Grimm wrote down. Hansel and Gretel - a brief summary gives a general picture of what was happening at that moment - seeing such abundance, they decided to feast on it. The brother broke off a piece from the roof, and the sister decided to try the window. They were eating sweets with pleasure, when suddenly they heard a rather pleasant voice from the hut. And a little later a very ancient old woman appeared on the threshold. The children were scared at first, but she immediately calmed them down, then took them into the house, generously treated them and put them to sleep on a soft bed under a snow-white blanket. The tired and exhausted children felt like they were in real paradise. Hansel and Gretel did not yet know that they were visiting an evil witch. Her dream and favorite delicacy was some kind of child. And although this old woman had very little vision, she could smell the human smell perfectly. And the bread house, decorated with sweets, became a bait for children like Hansel and Gretel. The tale, thus, largely repeats the plots of the famous cycle “Children and the Ogre,” which is included in the international index of folklore works of this genre.
“Here will be a tasty morsel”
In the morning, the witch looked at the sleeping children and decided that the boy with rosy and chubby cheeks would be very good for lunch. You just need to feed him a little more. She locked the awakened Hansel in a barn behind a lattice door, and Gretel ordered her brother to be fattened so that he would become fatter. This went on for four weeks, during which the sister prepared the most delicious dishes for her brother, and she herself ate scraps. All this time, the resourceful Hansel managed to deceive the witch, who had difficulty seeing. When she came to check how much her “future lunch” had recovered, he slipped a bone into her hand instead of his finger, and she still could not understand why the boy remained so thin. But one day the old woman’s patience ran out, and she decided to definitely eat Hansel, not even fat enough, the very next day. And the girl had to apply water, in which her own brother would then be cooked. “It would be better if we were torn to pieces by wild animals in the forest, then we would die together,” she sobbed.
The witch was deceived
The next morning, the old woman decided to deal with Gretel, and then proceed to her brother. She lit the stove and ordered the girl to climb into it to see if the heat was ready for baking bread. Gretel began to fulfill the witch’s demand, when she suddenly realized what the old woman really wanted from her. And she was not mistaken: she was really just getting ready to close the damper and fry the girl. “I don’t know how to get there,” said the sister. The angry witch scolded her and began to show her how to get into the oven correctly. At that moment, Gretel pushed her forward and then immediately closed the flap. So she saved both herself and her brother from inevitable death. And the old woman, who found herself in the oven, howled terribly and burned to the ground. Thus, the winners in this confrontation with the cannibal witch are Hansel and Gretel.
The tale of brother and sister, apparently, also has a connection with the ancient traditions of European peoples and some tribes. Thus, many linguists often associate the episode of the burning of a witch with a fairly widespread initiation rite, the essence of which was the transition of a teenager to adulthood, the entry of a person into some secret society or his initiation into the ranks of shamans and leaders. This is also not a new motif for the Brothers Grimm, as it is found in many other folk and original fairy tales, including, for example, “Tom Thumb” by C. Perrault.
The freed children examined the hut and found many precious stones and pearls in it. They took them with them and went to look for a way out of this witch forest.
So, thanks to their ingenuity and resourcefulness, Hansel and Gretel were able to get rid of the hated cannibal witch. The tale ends with a description of their journey home.
Happy Return
A couple of hours later the children went out to an unknown lake, but saw neither a bridge nor a boat nearby. Only the duck swam. The girl turned to her with a request to transport them to the other side, and very soon the brother and sister found themselves in a familiar forest. And here it was easy for them to find their way to the woodcutter’s house. They rushed, happy, to their father and threw themselves on his neck. The woodcutter was very happy when he saw that his children were alive and unharmed, since he did not know a minute of peace and joy after parting with them.
It turned out that his wife died unexpectedly - this fact allows many linguists to identify the images of an evil stepmother and a witch who decided to take revenge on the hated children. And from then on the woodcutter and his children lived happily and well. And the family was saved from poverty by the pearls and precious stones that Hansel and Gretel brought from the forest hut.
A story about the adventures of a brother and sister in art
Today Hansel and Gretel are famous all over the world. The tale about them is included in the collected works of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and has been translated into many languages. In addition, her characters have repeatedly become heroes of works of other forms of art. So, in 1893, E. Humperdinck’s opera appeared, written especially for Christmas. Theatrical productions of the fairy tale were prepared several times. Many did not remain indifferent to the work
With the advent of cinema, screenwriters also turned to the famous plot. Among the films that are quite popular today is the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” in English, filmed in 1988. The authors slightly changed the original version: the children, at the request of their mother, went into the forest to pick berries and got lost, after which they ended up in the gingerbread house of the witch Griselda. Another option is the 2012 American film, based on the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel,” in which a father, tormented by remorse, goes in search of his children.
In 2013, an action film appeared, telling about what happened to the heroes after their return home. And although the plot of the film has little in common with the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm, it emphasizes that interest in the plot continues in our time.
