Hansel and Grethel
A German Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, near the borders of a dense forest, there dwelt a poor man who earned his living by cutting wood.
One day, on his way home through the wood, he found a poor little girl who had been carried away by an eagle, and left high up on the branch of a tree to die. He took the little girl home to his wife, and they called her Grethel, and brought her up with their only son, Hansel. But the wife died, and the woodcutter married again. After a little while he became very poor indeed, and could hardly earn enough money to buy bread.
One night as they were lying awake, weak from hunger, Hansel and Grethel heard their stepmother say to their father:
“In a few days we shall die of hunger. If we had only ourselves to keep we might manage to live. I know what we must do. Tomorrow morning we will take the children far into the forest and leave them there.”
“No, wife,” said the man. “How can I have the heart to leave my children alone in the forest for wild beasts to devour?”
But the hardhearted woman talked and talked until the poor man agreed to what she proposed.
Hearing this dreadful plan, Grethel wept bitterly. But Hansel comforted her.
“Do not cry, dear Grethel,” he said; “I will find a way to get home safely.”
He then got up quietly, crept out of the house, and filled his pockets with little white pebbles. At sunrise their stepmother wakened Hansel and Grethel, saying: “Get up, children! We are going into the forest to gather wood”; and she gave them two slices of bread for their dinner. Grethel carried both pieces in her apron, as Hansel’s pockets were full of pebbles.
As they went along, Hansel kept looking back, until at last his stepmother asked him sharply why he kept lingering and looking behind.
“I can see my little white cat sitting on the roof, and I am sure she is crying for me,” said Hansel.
“You stupid!” she replied. “It is only the sun shining on the chimney pot.”
When they reached the middle of the wood their stepmother said: “Run and collect twigs, and we will make a bonfire to keep warm.”
And Hansel and Grethel soon had a blazing bonfire of brushwood. Tired with their long walk, they fell asleep; when they woke up it was dark, and they were alone. Grethel began to cry bitterly; but Hansel said: “We shall be able to find our way home all right when the moon rises, because I dropped a white pebble every time I looked behind this morning.”
When they reached home they were scolded by their stepmother for straying away; but their father was pleased to see them come back safely.
Not long afterward, however, the same poverty came upon them, and the stepmother persuaded her husband to take the children much farther into the wood. The children again overheard the cruel scheme; but Hansel was unable to get a pocketful of stones because his mother bad locked the door. He bravely lingered behind, however, and dropped crumbs from his piece of bread all the way along.
“Why do you lag behind so, Hansel?” said the woman.
“I am looking at my little dove sitting on the roof to say good-bye to me,” replied Hansel.
“Silly!” said she. “It is only the morning sun shining on the housetop.”
Their parents left them when they were asleep, just as before. When they awoke Grethel said: “What are we to do, Hansel, for the night is coming on and we are much farther in the forest than we were last time?” Hansel replied: “Do not fear, dear Grethel; I have left all my bread in little crumbs on the wayside.”
So Grethel dried her eyes and shared her piece of bread with Hansel. When the moon rose they started off; but, to their alarm, they found that there were no crumbs to be seen. The birds had eaten them all up. They wandered about the forest all through the night and the next day, finding only berries to eat; but they could not find their way home, so they lay down and went to sleep.
About noon the next day they saw a lovely snow-whitebird sitting on a branch, and singing so beautifully that they listened to it for a long while. When it had finished singing it flew slowly away, looking round at the children as if inviting them to follow. This Hansel and Grethel did, and after a little while the bird perched on the roof of a tiny house.
To their surprise they found that the walls of this little house were made of gingerbread, the roof of cake and the windows of frosting.
“Oh! Something to eat at last!” cried the hungry Hansel. And the two children pulled pieces of gingerbread off the walls, and ate to their heart’s content. Suddenly came a voice from within: “Munching, crunching, munching,
Who is eating up my house?”
And the children answered: “The wind, the wind, ‘Tis only the wind ‘” and went on eating hungrily.
In a minute or two the door opened, and a little old woman hobbled out.
“Poor little children,” said she. “How tired and hungry you look! Come in with me, and I will give you plenty to eat and drink.”
The children followed her in, and had a meal of milk and pancakes and apples and nuts. And then she put them into two pretty little beds, and they fell asleep.
Now, the old woman was really a bad witch, who had built this gingerbread house to attract children, so that she could capture them and eat them. So when Hansel was asleep she took hold of him and quickly shut him up in an iron cage. Then she shook Grethel, and said: “Get up, lazy-bones, and help me get water and cook some food, for I am going to fatten your brother and eat him.”
After breakfast the old woman went out. Grethel immediately ran and told Hansel all the old woman had said.
“The old woman must be a witch,” said Hansel. “Search for her magic wand and pipe, and then help me out of this cage.”
So Grethel found the wand and pipe, and they ran away together. After some time the old witch came back, and was very angry to find that Hansel and Grethel had escaped. She put on her seven-league boots, and quickly caught up with the children.
As soon as she saw the witch, however, Grethel waved the magic wand, and changed herself into a lake, and Hansel into a swan floating on it. The witch tried hard to entice the swan to the shore by offering him crumbs of bread and cake, but he would not move, so she gave it up and went home in disgust. Grethel then changed Hansel and herself back into their proper forms, and on they went. Next day they saw the witch overtaking them again. This time Grethel changed herself into a rose in a prickly hedge, and Hansel sat on a mossy bank beside it and waited.
The witch soon came up and mounted the bank to pick the rose which she knew must be Grethel. Hansel quickly put the pipe to his mouth and began to play. Now, as it was a fairy pipe, everyone who heard its music had to dance, even the old witch, and there she capered and jigged, till she was fixed firmly into the hedge, where the sharp thorns tore her clothes off and pricked her skin.
Grethel freed herself and the children once more started for home, but, getting tired, they went to sleep in an old hollow tree.
In the morning when they awakened, the sun had risen high above the trees, and it was very hot. Little Hansel said: “Sister, I am very thirsty; if I could find a brook I would go and drink, and fetch you some water too. Listen! I think I hear the sound of one.”
Then Hansel rose up and took Grethel by the hand and went in search of a brook. But the witch had found out all that had happened, and was ready to do them harm. When they had found a brook that ran sparkling over the pebbles, Hansel wanted to drink, but Grethel thought she heard the brook, as it babbled along, say: “Whoever drinks here will be turned into a tiger.” Then she cried out: “Ah, brother, do not drink, or you will be turned into a wild beast and tear me to pieces.”
“I will wait,” said Hansel, “for the next brook.”
But when they came to the next, Grethel listened again, and thought she heard: “Whoever drinks here will become a wolf.”
Then she cried: “Brother, brother, do not drink, or you will become a wolf and eat me!”
So he did not drink, but said: “I shall wait for the next brook; there I must drink, say what you will, for I am so thirsty.”
As they came to the third brook, Grethel listened, and heard: “Whoever drinks here will become a fawn.”
“Ah, brother,” said she, “do not drink, or you will be turned into a fawn and run away from me!”
But Hansel had already stooped down upon his knees, and the moment he put his lips into the Water he was turned into a fawn.
Grethel wept bitterly over the poor creature, and the tears, too, rolled down his eyes as he laid himself beside her. Then she said: “Rest in peace, dear fawn; I will never leave you.”
So she took off her little bead necklace, and put it around his neck, and plucked some rushes and plaited them into a soft string to fasten it, and led the poor little thing by her side farther into the wood.
After they had traveled a long way they came at last to a little cottage; and Grethel having looked in and seen that it was empty, thought to herself, “We can live here.” Then she went and gathered leaves and moss to make a soft bed for the fawn, and every morning she went out and plucked nuts,. roots and berries for herself, and sweet shrubs and tender grass for her companion; and it ate out of her hand, and was pleased; and played and frisked about her. They lived thus a long while in the wood by themselves, till it chanced that the king of that country came to hold a great hunt there. And when the fawn heard all around the echoing of the horns, and the baying of the dogs, and the merry shouts of the hunts- men, he wished very much to go to see what was going on.
“Ah, sister,” said he, “let me go out into the wood. I can stay no longert”
And he begged so hard that at last she agreed to let him go.
“But,” said she, “be sure to come to me in the evening. I shall bar the door to keep out those wild hunts- men; and if you tap at it, and say: ‘Sister, let me in,’ I shall know you; but if you don’t speak, I shall keep the door fast.”
Then away sprang the fawn and frisked and bounded along in the open air. The king and his huntsmen saw the beautiful creature and followed, but could not overtake him; for when they thought they were sure of their prize, he sprang over the bushes and was out of sight in a moment.
As it grew dark he came running home to the hut, and tapped, and said: “Sister, sister, let me in.” Then she opened the little door, and in he jumped, and slept soundly all night on his soft bed of moss.
Next morning the hunt began again; and when he heard the huntsmen’s horns, he said: “Sister, open the door for me, I must go again.”
Then she let him out, and said: “Come back in the evening, and remember what you are to say.”
When the king and the huntsmen again saw the fawn with the beaded collar they chased him; but he was too quick for them. The chase lasted the whole day; but at last the huntsmen nearly caught up with him, and one of them wounded him in the foot, so that he could hardly crawl home. The man who had wounded him followed close behind, and hid himself, so that he heard the little fawn say: “Sister, sister, let me in.” Then the door opened, and shut again. The hunts- man went to the king and told him what he had seen and heard. The king replied: “To-morrow we shall have another chase.”
Grethel was very much frightened whe’i she saw that her dear little fawn was wounded; but she washed the blood away and put some healing herbs on it, and said: “Now go to bed, dear fawn, and you will soon be well again.”
The wound was so small that in the morning there was nothing to be seen of it, and when the horn blew, the little creature said: “I can’t stay here; I must go to look on.”
But Grethel said: “I am sure they will kill you this time; I will not let you go.”
“I shall die,” answered he, “if you keep me here. When I hear the horns, I feel as if I could fly.”
Then Grethel was forced to let him go; so she opened the door with a heavy heart, and he bounded out gaily into the wood.
When the king saw him, he said to his huntsmen: “Now chase him all day long till you catch him; but let none of you do him any harm.”
The sun set, however, without their being able to overtake him, and the king called away the huntsmen, and said to the one who had watched the fawn: “Now come and show me the hut.”
So they tapped on the door, and said: “Sister, sister, let me in.”
Then the door opened, and the king went in, and there stood a maiden more lovely than any he had ever seen. Grethel was frightened to see that it was not her fawn but a king with a golden crown. However, he spoke kindly:
“Will you come with me to my castle and be my wife?”
“Yes,” said the maiden. “But if I do, my fawn must go with me.”
“Well,” said the king, “he shall come and live with you, and want for nothing.”
Just at that moment in sprang the fawn, and his sister tied the string to his neck.
Then the king took Grethel to his palace, and celebrated the marriage in great state. And she told the king all her story; and he sent for the witch and punished her. And the fawn was changed into Hansel again, and he and his sister and the king lived happily together all their days.
