The Mythology & Folklore Database
Once upon a time there were a father and a mother who had two children, a girl and a boy. The girl's name was Gretel, and the boy's name was Hans. The children were disobedient, and often received beatings.
One day they wanted to go into the woods to pick strawberries, but their mother said, "You are not allowed to go out today. A thunderstorm is approaching, so you have to stay at home."
But the children did not obey. While their mother was busy working, the children took their little baskets from the wall and went into the woods. There they picked strawberries, but they had scarcely begun when it grew dark. A storm arose that whipped the trees fiercely against each other until the branches came flying down. It began to thunder and lightning, followed by hail and rain. The frightened children were sorry that they had not obeyed their mother and remained at home. Fortunately they found a rocky cave, and they crept inside and waited until the rain stopped.
After the thunderstorm had passed, they wanted to go home, but -- oh dear -- they no longer knew the way. They walked and walked, but instead of going out of the woods, they only went deeper and deeper into the woods. They grew terribly afraid and called out, "Father! Mother!" but no one heard them. Night fell, and they saw with terror that they would have to sleep in the woods.
Then Gretel said, "Hans, do you know what? Climb a tree. You like to climb trees, and you can look around. Maybe you'll see a light where we can go."
Hans did this, and he did indeed see a light in the distance. He came down from the tree, took Gretel by the hand, and led her in the direction of the light he had seen. When they arrived there, they saw a little house from which the light was glistening. Looking more closely, they found that it was made of gingerbread. The walls were of gingerbread and the roof of marzipan. They looked around for a ladder, and finding one, they leaned it on the roof and climbed up. There they made themselves comfortable and began breaking off one marzipan shingle after the other and eating them, until there was a hole clear through the roof.
Now a witch named Grule lived in this little house, and she liked to eat children more than anything else. She was just about to go to bed when she heard something on her roof.
Running outside, she said with a deep voice, "Who is robbing my house?"
"The wind, the wind," was Gretel's reply, with a very gentle voice.
Satisfied, she went back inside and went to bed.
In the meantime the moon had risen, and when the witch put out her light she noticed a large hole in the roof above her bed, and a child's head looking around. She jumped up, ran outside, pulled the children down from the roof, and said, "Just wait, you worthless brats. I'll teach you to ruin my house. Get inside. You can't leave." And with these words she put them in an empty chicken coop and locked the door.
The next days, and for some time afterward, the witch brought the children good things to eat, for she wanted to fatten them up in order to have a good roast from them. She brought the children all the things they liked to eat: cake, sweets, fruit, and many other things.
When she thought that the children must be fat enough, she took a knife to the coop. First she went to Gretel and said, "Girl, stick out your little finger, but Gretel thought, "No way," and held out her apron string.
Grule cut into it a little, and said, "Skinny, skinny."
Then she went to Hans and said, "Boy, stick out your little finger," and Hans held out his trouser string.
She likewise cut into it and said, "Skinny, skinny," then went away.
After this she thought, "What should I give the children to eat to make them fat? Good things don't make them fat. I'll try something else." And from then on she gave them nothing but flour porridge, which the children soon grew to hate.
Some time later the witch again came to the coop with a knife and said to Gretel, "Girl, stick out your little finger," and this time Gretel held out her finger. Old Grule cut into it a little, and a drop of blood appeared. Then the witch said, "Fat, fat."
Then she went to Hans and told him to hold out his finger as well, which he did, just as Gretel had done. She cut into it too, and when it bled a little, she again said, "Fat, fat."
She went to her kitchen and made a fire in her oven. After it had burned down she took a wooden crook and with it spread the coals evenly across the oven's entire surface. After a while she took a wet straw whisk and swept the coals to the front of the oven, then took them out. Then she went to the coop, opened it, and said, "Come, children, I have some baked plums in the oven. You can get them out for me."
The two ran for joy into the kitchen with Old Grule, thinking that at last they were going to get something other than the eternal flour porridge. Arriving there, the witch got a baker's peel and told the children to sit on it, so she could push them into the oven. But while Grule was gone, Gretel looked into the oven and saw that there were no plums in it at all. So when Old Grule told her to sit on the peel first, she pretended to be so awkward that she fell off. Then she said, "My dear Grule, I don't understand how I am supposed to sit on it. Show me, so I can see how."
Then Old Grule pulled her skirts together, sat down on the baker's peel, and said, "See. This is how to do it." And while she was thus sitting there, Gretel gave a sign to Hans, and bang, the children pushed the witch into the oven, and Old Grule burned up miserably.
Gretel and Hans returned home. Their parents were very happy to see them, for they thought their children had died, but still each of them was given a beating for being disobedient.