Hansel and Gretel: Hard Facts Behind the Fairy Tale

Hansel and Gretel is a great example to study how Jacob and William Grimm transformed from collectors and scholars into authors and educators. They started writing tales to preserve the cultural heritage, but soon decided to publish them in a different form: instead of how they were, they presented them as they believed they should be.

• In the 1810 the first manuscript titled Little Brother and Little Sister was written. Don't confuse it with another fairy tale with the same title.

• In 1812 first edition of Household Tales was published. Grimms already added children's names (Hansel and Gretel are products of their imagination). Parents are still their biological mother and father, but they changed one important detail. Father, who bears an equal share of guilt in manuscript became reluctant at mother's suggestion of kids' abandonment.

• In the second edition, published in 1819 Grimms began adding religious elements (mentioning of God, Christian symbols,...).

• It was only in 1840, in the fourth edition of Household Tales, when Hansel's and Gretel's mother became - a step-mother. Evil step-mother is one of signature signs of classic fairy tales.

• In fifth edition, published in 1857, additional background (famine) was added, to further justifies father's weakness and inability to protect the kids. This is recognized as a final edition of Hansel and Gretel by brothers Grimm.

Let's check only a few important elements:

• Color white: as a color of goodness, innocence and purity it's in strong contrast with dark tones of the woods, witch's cottage or even Hansel and Gretel's home. We have white pebbles and bread crumbs, showing the way home, white birds showing the way to safety, white moon leading the kids through the forest, ... White is not so dominant color in this story like some other color in other ones (red in Red Cap or blue in Little Mermaid), but it is still obvious and powerful.

• Birds are probably the most studied symbol in this fairy tale. Hansel is looking at (imaginary) white doves on the roof of their house when the kids are leaving their home, a bird is showing them the way to witch's cottage and a duck helping them to cross the water at return. Birds are children's guidance and guardians, with a religious background of the authors in mind, they can be definitely represented as a holy ghost.

• Bread is a staple food all over the world and simple indicator of poverty. The scarcity of bread in the house (in this fairy tale mentioned several times) is a clear sign of the family's misery.

There is more of symbolism in Hansel and Gretel with a short summary and simple analysis of the story.

• It's easy to see biographical elements of Grimms, especially with their (well documented) rewrittings in mind. They lost a father when they were still kids and the father of Hansel and Gretel (like many other fathers in their collection) is so weak like he was not there at all. They loved their mother and it was hard to present a cruel character, like the mother in original manuscript had. So they, like in several of other fairy tales, replaced it with a step-mother. We have already mentioned religious elements, there is also very touching closeness among siblings, like at brothers Grimm, etc.

• Historical parallels are harder to see. Cannibalism and abandonment of children in a 19th century, when this story was written and published, was close to non-existent, but it seems in folklore it was still very much alive. Father as a woodcutter is a typical representative of a lowest working class, living on the edge of survival. Witch, on the other hand, represents the successful capitalist. She is obviously loaded with goods, and eating children is more of a delicacy than a need for her.

• A psychological view of Hansel and Gretel is definitely the most well-known when this story is in question. A step-mother could be, for instance, explained as the summary of negative characteristics in children's real mother. The emotional conflict in kid's mind when he loves and hates his own mother is solved by splitting her into two separate characters. After that, the symbolic killing of step-mother ends the problem and he can find safety in his mother's arms again. There is much more, of course, but we won't go into that here.

While many readers with shallow knowledge about fairy tales insist on stereotypes, which can hurt children's development, we can't accuse Hansel and Gretel of any of the most popular ones. Especially the myth about a passive lady in distress waiting for the prince on the white horse is out of the question in this case.

Gretel is a smart, resolute and well-developed character in this story. The motif of active female characters rescuing their brothers or lovers is actually quite often: we can find it in several Grimms' tales, Andersen's Snow Queen, Russian fairy tales about Vassilissa, Morgiana in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves ...

We could find hundreds and hundreds of amazing facts and speculations about witches in general and also the particular witch in this story. Instead of that, let's just focus on her death. Many readers overlook the fact of overlapping of witch's death with the death of kids' step-mother. Everybody knows how the witch died, but only small percentage of variations explain how the stepmother died.

Well, it's really not important - both characters represent the same problem for kids. If they want to survive, both have to die and this is just a part of natural order when old is dying to make a place for new.

One of the most powerful marketing campaigns in human history - propaganda in Hitler's Germany - was built on fairy tales. They were already in virtually all households, they had (and still have) tremendous influence on children, and they address the most basic fears of mankind.

It's natural to blame other for everything that is wrong in one's life and in Germany between the World wars. Jews were more than a convenient scapegoat. Negative characters, including the witch in Hansel and Gretel, were often portrayed with characteristics of Jews and Goebbels personally supervised adaptations.

The original gruesome feel of the tale from the 19th century was restored in a new light in 2013 when Hansel and Gretel became witch hunters. We should never forget that fairy tales were originally made for adults!

Sure, we can learn a lot from this fairy tale, which shows two brave kids who managed to not only save their lives but also destroy powerful enemies and found a treasury by the way. But there are also not so negligible details to think about.

Children in this story are definitely not well-mannered. They are gluttonous, they don't respect the private property of others, they don't learn from their experience and - if we can add a pinch of humor - don't show understanding for differences between their in witch's different cultural background.

Father is not punished. He is too weak to protect his own children. He even helps to deceive them by tying a bough on a tree, so they believed they were hearing his ax when a wind knocked with it. But in the end, kids return to him and reward his incompetence and insincerity with wealth.

Material wealth is the ultimate goal and everything you need for happiness. This is the final message of the story. Hansel and Gretel clearly come from dysfunctional family and a death of the stepmother is only the first step of the solution. But it seems precious stones in Hansel's pockets can solve everything. Is this really the message we should bring to our children?

After all said we can find several parts of the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel which are hardly suitable for small children, but it seems the modern audience is particularly susceptible to the part where parents leave kids in the wood. It's hard to say if children today are more suspicious than they were a century or more ago or are their parents just more willing to listen to their fears. Being this or that, many publishers decided to change that part and in their sanitized versions Hansel and Gretel are simply lost, not abandoned in the woods.

While in this case children retain trust to their parents, they also lose the satisfaction of dealing with the evil part of their mothers (if psychologists are correct). In my personal opinion, Hansel and Gretel should be told in 'original' version - the version of abandoned children. This is not only suggesting them cruelly, yet realistic fact that sometimes people closest to us can hurt us, it also tells them they have the power to deal with this world as it is: hard, dangerous, but also sweet (remember the cottage, made of sweets?) and full of opportunities.

But to tell the true story of Hansel and Gretel, we need to know if the listeners can deal with this realization. Some children can handle it earlier, some later and some never. It is our job, the job of parents and best storytellers to our kids, to tell the best stories when our children can make the most of them. Or in other words: it is not a question of which version to tell, but when to tell it!