Artwork by Arthur Rackham, 1909.

Hansel and Gretel (German: ''Hänsel und Gretel'') is a fairy tale of Germanic origin, adapted by the Brothers Grimm and earlier by Giambattista Basile. Image File history File links Hansel-and-gretel-rackham. ... Image File history File links Hansel-and-gretel-rackham. ... An illustration from Alices Adventures in Wonderland Arthur Rackham (September 19, 1867 – September 6, 1939) was a prolific English book illustrator. ... A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ... For information about the other uses of the name, see Brothers Grimm (disambiguation). ... Giambattista Basile (1566 or 1575–February 23, 1632) was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. ...

Plot synopsis

Hansel and Gretel are the children of a poor woodcutter. Fearing starvation, the wood cutter's wife (variously called the children's mother or stepmother), 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 mother 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, who is 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. Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. ... Gingerbread A gingerbread house A gingerbread house Gingerbread is a sweet that can take the form of a cake or a cookie in which the predominant flavor is ginger. ...

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

Analysis

Hansel and Gretel, illustrated in a 1927 story anthology

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 probably an admonishment of the hardships of medieval life.^[1] Because of episodes of famine, war, plague and other reasons, abandoning children in the woods to die or fend for themselves was not unknown, in particular during the crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Many critics have posited that the tale likely stemmed from historical instances of abandonment caused by famine; see the works of Jack Zipes and Maria Tatar for example.^[2] , with the obvious message of not accepting the seeming generosity of strangers. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 412 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (605 × 880 pixel, file size: 155 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Hansel and Gretel From Childhoods Favorites and Fairy Stories, by Various Project Gutenberg etext 19993 http://www. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 412 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (605 × 880 pixel, file size: 155 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Hansel and Gretel From Childhoods Favorites and Fairy Stories, by Various Project Gutenberg etext 19993 http://www. ... A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... Around the start of the 14th century a series of events began that brought centuries of European prosperity and growth to a halt. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Stub ...

In the first editions of the 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.^[3] Snow White in her coffin, Theodor Hosemann, 1852. ...

That the mother or stepmother happens to die when the children have killed the witch has suggested to many commentators that the mother or stepmother and the witch are, in fact, the same woman, or at least that an identity between them is strongly hinted at. ^[4] Indeed, a Russian folk tale exists in which the evil stepmother (also the wife of a poor woodcutter) asks her hated stepdaughter to go into the forest to borrow a light from her sister, who turns out to be Baba Yaga- who, though her house is anything but enticing, is also a cannibalistic witch. Besides the stories highlighting the endangering the children- and indeed their cleverness- they have in common a preoccupation with food: the stepmother to avoid hunger, and the witch with her house built of food and her desire to eat the children.^[5] Yaga can refer to: Yajna (Hindu mythology) Baba Yaga (Russian mythology) Yaga (clothing company) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The tale is Aarne-Thompson type 327A.^[6] Another tale of this type is The Lost Children.^[7] Although they are not classified under this type, the Brothers Grimm identified the French Finette Cendron and Hop o' My Thumb as parallels to the story.^[8] The basic elements are found in tales throughout the world, although their simplicity makes it hard to tell whether a given instance is a borrowing or an independent invention.^[9] Antti Amatus Aarne (1867 - 1925) was a Finnish folklorist, who developed the initial version of what became the Aarne-Thompson classification system of classifying folktales, first published in 1910. ... The Lost Children is a French fairy tale collected by Antoinette Bon in Revue des traditions populaires. ... Finette Cendron is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame dAulnoy. ... Hop o My Thumb is an ancient folk tale first retold by Charles Perrault. ...

Notable derivatives

• Engelbert Humperdinck wrote a 1893 opera, Hänsel und Gretel, based on the fairy tale.
• A Book of Witches (1966), by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
• The novel The Magic Circle by the author Donna Jo Napoli.(1995)
• The Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode Gingerbread features Hansel and Gretel.
• In Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax discuss one of Granny's ancestors, Black Alice. Nanny Ogg tells Magrat that she was "shoved into her own oven by a couple of kids".
• Hansel and the witch (called Frau Totenkinder, translating to Ms. Dead children or 'Killer of Children') both appear as characters in the comic book series Fables, written by Bill Willingham, which was first published in 2003. Gretel also appears but only in flashbacks.
• Junko Mizuno did Hansel and Gretel as the second part of her fractured fairy tales manga stories.

Engelbert Humperdinck (September 1, 1854 – September 27, 1921) was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel (1893). ... Hänsel und Gretel is an opera by Engelbert Humperdinck (Humperdinck himself described it as a fairy opera. ... A Book of Witches is a 1966 anthology of 12 fairy tales from Europe that have been collected and retold by Ruth Manning-Sanders. ... Ruth Manning-Sanders (born 1895 in Swansea, Wales; died October 12, 1988, in Penzance, England) was a poet and author who was perhaps best known for her series of childrens books in which she collected and retold fairy tales from all over the world. ... Donna Jo Napoli is an author of childrens and young adult books, as well as a prominent linguist with work in syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical and comparative linguistics, Romance studies, structure of Japanese, structure of American Sign Language, poetics, writing for ESL students, and mathematical and linguistic analysis... Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated American cult television series that initially aired from March 10, 1997 until May 20, 2003. ... Gingerbread is Episode 11 of Season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ... Terence David John Pratchett OBE (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England[1]) is an English fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series. ... This article is about the novel. ... Gytha Ogg (usually called Nanny Ogg) is a character from Terry Pratchetts Discworld series. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Fables is a fictional fantasy comic series for mature readers published by DC Comics. ... Fables is a fictional fantasy comic series for mature readers published by DC Comics. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Fables is a Vertigo comic book series created and written by Bill Willingham. ... Bill Willingham (born December 1956 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia) is an American writer and artist of comic books. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Popular culture

• In Germany, there is a foundation set up to help abused children called the 'Hänsel+Gretel' foundation. German cross country skier Claudia Künzel donated her 4 x 5 km relay gold medal from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to benefit the foundation in the summer of 2007.^[10]
• The Simpsons, a television show, once parodied the story.
• In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Billy and Mandy turn Pinnochio into a wooden seat which the evil witch of Hansel and Gretel sits on (and breaks due to her weight).

Cross-country skiing (also known as XC skiing) is a winter sport popular in many countries with large snowfields, primarily Northern Europe and Canada. ... Claudia Künzel (born February 1, 1978 in Zschopau) is a German cross-country skier. ... The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were held in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. ... The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Salt Lake Citys top tourist draw. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, created by Maxwell Atoms, is an American animated television series that currently airs on Cartoon Network and Teletoon. ... Pinocchio is a work by Carlo Collodi published in 1880 in Italy. ...

References

See also

• Molly Whuppie
• The Witch
• Vasilissa the Beautiful
• Foundling-Bird
• Frau Trude
• Buttercup
• The Golden Stag

Molly Whuppie is an Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. ... The Witch is a Russian fairy tale. ... Ivan Bilibins illustration of the red rider from Vasilissa the Beautiful. ... Foundling-Bird is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 51. ... Frau Trude is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 43. ... Buttercup or Butterball is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe. ... The Golden Stag is a Romanian fairy tale. ...

External links

• Project Gutenberg e-text
• SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: The Annotated Hansel and Gretel. Includes an annotated version, literary history, public domain artwork, modern analysis, bibliography and book gallery.
• Hansel and Gretel. Aimed at young children: Story and Game