Hansel and Gretel

Once upon a time there was a poor woodcutter who lived near a large forest together with his wife and two children, Hansel and Gretel. There wasn’t much food and he wasn’t able to give them enough to eat. He sighed and said to his wife: “Whatever shall we do? We can’t feed our poor children, we have scarcely enough for ourselves.”) “Do you know what?”), the wife answered. “Tomorrow we shall take the children out into the forest where it is at its most dense. Then we shall set off to work and leave them alone. They won’t be able to find their way home and we’ll be rid of them.”) “No, woman”), the man answered, “I haven’t got the heart to leave my children alone in the forest.”) “You fool”), she said, “then all four of us will starve to death!”)

The man’s heart was heavy and he thought: “It would be better if you shared the last morsel of food with your children.”) But the wife didn’t listen to what he said. Early next morning the wife led the children deep into the forest where they had never been before in their lives. “Just sit there and wait, children”), their mother said. “We are going into the forest to chop wood and in the evening we shall return and fetch you.”) Evening passed, but nobody came to the poor children. In the dark night they wanted to go home but could not find the way. They walked on and on, but went deeper and deeper into the forest. Finally they reached a cottage which was built of bread and whose roof was made of cakes; but the window-panes were made of clear sugar. Hansel broke a piece off the roof and Gretel stood at the window-panes and nibbled at them. Suddenly a weak voice sounded from inside the little house: “Nibble, nibble, is a mouse nibbling at my house.”) The children answered: “It’s the wind, the wind so mild, that heavenly child!”), and continued eating. Then the door was opened and an old woman came out. Hansel and Gretel were frightened. But the old woman nodded her head and said: “Come in, children, come and stay with me, nothing will happen to you.”) And they were given a good meal and afterwards they lay down in two beds between crisp white sheets, and Hansel and Gretel thought they were in heaven.

The old woman, however, had only pretended to be friendly. She was in fact a wicked witch. Early the next morning, before the children were awake, she grabbed Hansel and locked him in a little shed. Then she shook Gretel until she woke up and said: “Get up, lazybones, cook something good for your brother, he’s in the shed and needs fattening up. And when he’s fat enough, I’ll eat him.”) Gretel started to weep bitterly, but it was to no avail, she had to do what the wicked witch told her.

Every morning the old woman crept to the shed and shouted: “Hansel, poke out your finger so that I can feel if you are fat enough.”) But Hansel poked out a little bone instead, and the old woman, who couldn’t see well, thought it was Hansel’s finger and wondered why he wasn’t getting fat at all. When four weeks had passed, she didn’t want to wait any longer. “Hansel might be fat or thin, tomorrow I’ll kill him and cook him.”) Oh, how his little sister wailed, and her tears flowed down her cheeks. “Please, God, help us”), she cried. “If only the wild animals in the forest had eaten us, at least we would have died together.”

”)First of all we’ll bake”), the witch said, “I’ve stoked up the fire under the oven already.”) She pushed poor Gretel out to the oven, from which big flames were coming. “Look inside”), the witch said, “and see if it’s hot enough.”) And once Gretel was in the oven, the witch would close the door and let Gretel bake alive. But Gretel guessed what the old woman was up to, and she said: “I don’t know how to do it; how do I get inside?”) “Stupid girl!”), the old woman said. “The opening is wide enough, even I could get inside myself, and she poked her head into the oven. Then Gretel gave her a big push inside, shut the iron door and bolted it, and the wicked witch was burnt alive.

But Gretel shouted: “Hansel, we’re saved, the old witch is dead!”) They were happy and hugged each other. In the witch’s house they found boxes filled with pearls and jewels. Hansel put them in his pockets and Gretel filled her apron with them. “But now let’s be off”, Hansel said, “so that we get out of the witch’s forest. After they had been walking for several hours, the forest became more and more familiar to them and finally they saw their father’s house. They started to run, dashed through the door and flung their arms round their father’s neck. The man hadn’t spent a peaceful moment since he had left his children in the forest. The wife had died. Gretel emptied her apron and the pearls and jewels rolled all over the floor of the house, and Hansel threw down one handful after the other from out of his pockets. They never had any worries any more, and they all lived happily ever after.