Hansel and Gretel
Hard-by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his two children and his wife who was their stepmother...
By The Brothers Grimm
Hard-by
a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his two children and his
wife who was their stepmother. The boy was called Hansel and the girl
Gretel. The wood-cutter had little to bite and to break, and once when a
great famine fell on the land he could no longer get daily bread. Now
when he thought over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his
trouble, he groaned, and said to his wife:
"What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?"
"I'll
tell you what, husband," answered the woman, "early tomorrow morning we
will take the children out into the woods where it is the thickest -
there we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one piece of
bread more, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. 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 can I bear to leave my
children alone in the woods? - the wild beasts would soon come and tear
them to pieces."
"Oh, you fool!" said she. "Then we must all four
die of hunger - you may as well plane the planks for our coffins." And
she left him no peace until he said he would do as she wished.
"But I feel very sorry for the poor children, all the same," said the man.
The two children had also not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their father's wife had said to their father.
Gretel wept bitter tears, and said to Hansel, "Now all is over with us."
"Be quiet, Gretel," said Hansel, "do not be troubled - I will soon find a way to help us."
And
when the old folks had fallen asleep, he got up, put on his little
coat, opened the door below, and crept outside. The moon shone brightly,
and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house shone like real
silver pennies. Hansel stooped and put as many of them in the little
pocket of his coat as he could make room for. Then he went back, and
said to Gretel, "Be at ease, dear little sister, and sleep in peace -
God will not forsake us." And he lay down again in his bed.
When the day dawned, but before the sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the two children, saying:
"Get
up, you lazy things! we are going into the forest to fetch wood." She
gave each a little piece of bread, and said, "There is something for
your dinner, but do not eat it up before then, for you will get nothing
else."
Gretel took the bread under her apron, as Hansel had the
stones in his pocket. Then they all set out together on the way to the
forest, and Hansel threw one after another of the white pebble-stones
out of his pocket on the road.
When they had reached the middle
of the forest, the father said, "Now, children, pile up some wood and I
will light a fire that you may not be cold."
Hansel and Gretel drew brushwood together till it was as high as a little hill.
The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning very high the woman said:
"Now,
children, lie down by the fire and rest - we will go into the forest
and cut some wood. When we have done, we will come back and fetch you
away."
Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came,
each ate a little piece of bread, and as they heard the strokes of the
wood-axe they were sure their father was near. But it was not the axe,
it was a branch which he had tied to a dry tree, and the wind was
blowing it backward and forward. As they had been sitting such a long
time they were tired, their eyes shut, and they fell fast asleep. When
at last they awoke, it was dark night.
Gretel began to cry, and said, "How are we to get out of the forest now?"
But Hansel comforted her, saying, "Just wait a little, until the moon has risen, and 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 bright silver pieces,
and showed them the way.
They walked the whole night long, and by break of day came once more to their father's house.
They
knocked at the door, and when the woman opened it, and saw that it was
Hansel and Gretel, she said, "You naughty children, why have you slept
so long in the forest? we thought you were never coming back at all!"
The father, however, was glad, for it had cut him to the heart to leave them behind alone.
Not
long after, there was once more a great lack of food in all parts, and
the children heard the woman saying at night to their father:
"Everything
is eaten again - we have one half- loaf left, and after that there is
an end. The children must go - we will take them farther into the wood,
so that they will not find their way out again - there is no other means
of saving ourselves!"
The man's heart was heavy, and he thought, "It would be better to share our last mouthful with the children."
The
woman, however, would listen to nothing he had to say, but scolded him.
He who says A must say B, too, and as he had given way the first time,
he had to do so a second time also.
The children were still awake
and had heard the talk. When the old folks were asleep, Hansel again
got up, and wanted to go and pick up pebbles, but the woman had locked
the door, and he could not get out.
So he comforted his little sister, and said:
"Do not cry, Gretel - go to sleep quietly, the good God will help us."
Early
in the morning came the woman, and took the children out of their beds.
Their bit of bread was given to them, but it was still smaller than the
time before. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his in his
pocket, and often threw a morsel on the ground until little by little,
he had thrown all the crumbs on the path.
The woman led the
children still deeper into the forest, where they had never in their
lives been before. Then a great fire was again made, and she said:
"Just
sit there, you children, and when you are tired you may sleep a little -
we are going into the forest to cut wood, and in the evening when we
are done, we will come and fetch you away."
When it was noon,
Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who had scattered his by
the way. Then they fell asleep, and evening came and went, but no one
came to the poor children.
They did not awake until it was dark night, and Hansel comforted his little sister, and said:
"Just
wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of
bread which I have scattered about - they will show us our way home
again."
When the moon came they set out, but they found no
crumbs, for the many thousands of birds which fly about in the woods and
fields had picked them all up.
Hansel said to Gretel, "We shall soon find the way."
But
they did not find it. They walked the whole night and all the next day,
too, from morning till evening, but they did not get out of the forest -
they were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but two or three
berries which grew on the ground. And as they were so tired that their
legs would carry them no longer, they lay down under a tree and fell
asleep.
It was now three mornings since they had left their
father's house. They began to walk again, but they always got deeper
into the forest, and if help did not come soon, they must die of hunger
and weariness. When it was midday, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird
sitting on a bough. It sang so sweetly that they stood still and
listened to it. And when it had done, it spread its wings and flew away
before them, and they followed it until they reached a little house, on
the roof of which it perched - and when they came quite up to the little
house, they saw it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that
the windows were of clear sugar.
"We will set to work on that,"
said Hansel, "and have a good meal. I will eat a bit 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 leaned against the window and nibbled at the panes.
Then a soft voice cried from the room,--
"Nibble, nibble, gnaw, Who is nibbling at my little house?"
The children answered:
"The wind, the wind, The wind from heaven" -
and
went on eating. Hansel, who thought the roof tasted very nice, tore
down a great piece of it - and Gretel pushed out the whole of one round
window-pane, sat down, and went to eating it.
All at once the
door opened, and a very, very old woman, who leaned on crutches, came
creeping out. Hansel and Gretel were so scared that they let fall what
they had in their hands.
The old woman, however, nodded her head,
and said, "Oh, you dear children, who has brought you here? Do come in,
and stay with me. No harm shall happen to you."
She took them
both by the hand, and led them into her little house. Then good food was
set before them, milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts.
Afterwards two pretty little beds were covered 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 so kind - she was in reality a
wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had built the little
bread house in order to coax them there.
Early in the morning,
before the children were awake, she was already up, and when she saw
both of them sleeping and looking so pretty, with their plump red
cheeks, she muttered to herself, "That will be a dainty mouthful!"
Then
she seized Hansel, carried him into a little stable, and shut him in
behind a grated door. He might scream as he liked,--it was of no use.
Then she went to Gretel, shook her till she awoke and cried: "Get up,
lazy thing - fetch some water, and cook something good for your brother -
he is in the stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I
will eat him."
Gretel began to weep, but it was all in vain - she was forced to do what the wicked witch told her.
And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Gretel got nothing but crab-shells.
Every
morning the woman crept to the little stable, and cried, "Hansel,
stretch out your finger that I may feel if you will soon be fat."
Hansel,
however, stretched out a little bone to her, and the old woman, who had
dim eyes, could not see it - she thought it was Hansel's finger, and
wondered why he grew no fatter. When four weeks had gone by, and Hansel
still was thin, she could wait no longer.
"Come, Gretel," she
cried to the girl, "fly round and bring some water. Let Hansel be fat or
lean, to-morrow I will kill him, and cook him."
Ah, how sad was the poor little sister when she had to fetch the water, and how her tears did flow down over her cheeks!
"Dear
God, do help us," she cried. "If the wild beasts in the forest had but
eaten us, we should at any rate have died together."
"Just keep your noise to yourself," said the old woman - "all that won't help you at all."
Early in the morning, Gretel had to go out and hang up the kettle with the water, and light the fire.
"We will bake first," said the old woman. "I have already heated the oven, and got the dough ready."
She pushed poor Gretel out to the oven, from which the flames of fire were already darting.
"Creep
in," said the witch, "and see if it is heated, so that we can shut the
bread in." And when once Gretel was inside, she meant to shut the oven
and let her bake in it, and then she would eat her, too.
But Gretel saw what she had in her mind, and said, "I do not know how I am to do it - how do you get in?"
"Silly
goose," said the old woman. "The door is big enough - just look, I can
get in myself!" and she crept up and thrust her head into the oven. Then
Gretel gave her a push that drove her far into it, and shut the iron
door, tight.
Gretel ran as quick as lightning 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 its cage when the door is opened for
it. How they did dance about and kiss each other. And as they had no
longer any need to fear her, they went into the witch's house, and in
every corner there stood chests full of pearls and jewels.
"These
are far better than pebbles!" said Hansel, and filled his pockets, and
Gretel said, "I, too, will take something home with me," and filled her
pinafore.
"But now we will go away," said Hansel, "that we may
get out of the witch's forest." When they had walked for two hours, they
came to a great piece of water. "We cannot get over," said Hansel - "I
see no foot-plank and no bridge."
"And no boat crosses, either,"
answered Gretel, "but a white duck is swimming there - if I ask her, she
will help us over." Then she cried,--
"Little duck, little duck,
dost thou see, Hansel and Gretel are waiting for thee? There's never a
plank or bridge in sight, Take us across on thy back so white."
The duck came to them, and Hansel sat on its back, and told his sister to sit by him.
"No," replied Gretel, "that will be too heavy for the little duck - she shall take us across, one after the other."
The
good little duck did so, and when they were once safely across and had
walked for a short time, they knew where they were, and at last they saw
from afar their father's house.
Then they began to run, rushed
in, and threw themselves into their father's arms. The man had not known
one happy hour since he had left the children in the forest - the
woman, however, was dead. Gretel emptied her pinafore until pearls and
precious stones rolled about the floor, and Hansel threw one handful
after another out of his pocket to add to them. Then all care was at an
end, and they lived happily together ever after.
My tale is done - there runs a mouse - whosoever catches it may make himself a big fur cap out of it.
