HANSEL AND GRETHEL
By Brothers Grimm
Translated by Margaret Hunt
Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor
wood-cutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and
the girl Grethel. He had little to bite and to break, and once when great
scarcity fell on the land, he could no longer procure daily bread. Now when he
thought over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety, 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 to-morrow morning we will take
the children out into the forest to 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 forest? —-the wild
animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.” “O, thou fool!” said she,
“Then we must all four die of hunger, thou mayest as well plane the planks for
our coffins,” and she left him no peace until he consented. “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 step-mother had said to their
father. Grethel wept bitter tears, and said to Hansel, “Now all is over with
us.” “Be quiet, Grethel,” said Hansel, “do not distress thyself, 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 glittered
like real silver pennies. Hansel stooped and put as many of them in the little
pocket of his coat as he could possibly get in. Then he went back and said to
Grethel, “Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in peace, God will not
forsake us,” and he lay down again in his bed. When day dawned, but before the
sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the two children, saying “Get up, you
sluggards! 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.” Grethel 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. When they had walked a short time, Hansel stood
still and peeped back at the house, and did so again and again. His father
said, “Hansel, what art thou looking at there and staying behind for? Mind what
thou art about, and do not forget how to use thy legs.” “Ah, father,” said
Hansel, “I am looking at my little white cat, which is sitting up on the roof,
and wants to say good-bye to me.” The wife said, “Fool, that is not thy little
cat, that is the morning sun which is shining on the chimneys.” Hansel,
however, had not been looking back at the cat, but had been constantly throwing
one 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 Grethel gathered brushwood together,
as high as a little hill. The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were
burning very high, the woman said, “Now, children, lay yourselves 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 Grethel 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 believed that their father was near. It was not, however,
the axe, it was a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the
wind was blowing backwards and forwards. And as they had been sitting such a
long time, their eyes shut with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep. When at
last they awoke, it was already dark night. Grethel began to cry and said, “How
are we to get out of the forest now?” But Hansel comforted her and said, “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 newly-coined 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 Grethel, 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, rejoiced, for it had
cut him to the heart to leave them behind alone.
Not long afterwards, there was once more
great scarcity in all parts, and the children heard their mother 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 for thee to share the last mouthful with thy children.” The
woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to say, but scolded and
reproached him. He who says A must say B, likewise, and as he had yielded the
first time, he had to do so a second time also.
The children were, however, still awake
and had heard the conversation. When the old folks were asleep, Hansel again
got up, and wanted to go out and pick up pebbles as he had done before, but the
woman had locked the door, and Hansel could not get out. Nevertheless he
comforted his little sister, and said, “Do not cry, Grethel, 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 stood still and threw a morsel on the
ground. “Hansel, why dost thou stop and look round?” said the father, “go on.”
“I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and wants
to say good-bye to me,” answered Hansel. “Simpleton!” said the woman, “that is
not thy little pigeon, that is the morning sun that is shining on the chimney.”
Hansel, however, little by little, threw 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 the mother 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, Grethel 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, Grethel, until the
moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have strewn
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 Grethel, “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, and were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but two or three
berries, which grew on the ground. And as they were so weary that their legs
would carry them no longer, they lay down beneath 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 mid-day, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on
a bough, which sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it.
And when it had finished its song, 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 alighted; and when they came quite up to little house they saw that 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 thou, Grethel, canst eat some of the window, it
will taste sweet.” Hansel reached up above, and broke off a little of the roof
to try how it tasted, and Grethel leant 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 heaven-born
wind,”
and went on eating without disturbing
themselves. Hansel, who thought the roof tasted very nice, tore down a great
piece of it, and Grethel pushed out the whole of one round window-pane, sat
down, and enjoyed herself with it. Suddenly the door opened, and a very, very
old woman, who supported herself on crutches, came creeping out. Hansel and
Grethel were so terribly frightened 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 Grethel 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
only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a
child fell into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a
feast day with her. Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have a
keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near. When
Hansel and Grethel came into her neighborhood, she laughed maliciously, and
said mockingly, “I have them, they shall not escape me again!” 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
with her shrivelled hand, carried him into a little stable, and shut him in
with a grated door. He might scream as he liked, that was of no use. Then she
went to Grethel, shook her till she awoke, and cried, “Get up, lazy thing,
fetch some water, and cook something good for thy brother, he is in the stable
outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat him.” Grethel began
to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain, she was forced to do what the wicked
witch ordered her.
And now the best food was cooked for poor
Hansel, but Grethel got nothing but crab-shells. Every morning the woman crept
to the little stable, and cried, “Hansel, stretch out thy finger that I may
feel if thou wilt soon be fat.” Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to
her, and the old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and thought it was
Hansel’s finger, and was astonished that there was no way of fattening him.
When four weeks had gone by, and Hansel still continued thin, she was seized
with impatience and would not wait any longer. “Hola, Grethel,” she cried to
the girl, “be active, and bring some water. Let Hansel be fat or lean,
to-morrow I will kill him, and cook him.” Ah, how the poor little sister did
lament 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 devoured us, we should at any rate have died together.” “Just
keep thy noise to thyself,” said the old woman, “all that won’t help thee at
all.”
Early in the morning, Grethel had to go
out and hang up the cauldron with the water, and light the fire. “We will bake
first,” said the old woman, “I have already heated the oven, and kneaded the
dough.” She pushed poor Grethel out to the oven, from which flames of fire were
already darting. “Creep in,” said the witch, “and see if it is properly heated,
so that we can shut the bread in.” And when once Grethel was inside, she
intended to shut the oven and let her bake in it, and then she would eat her,
too. But Grethel 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 Grethel gave her a push that drove her far into it,
and shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. Oh! then she began to howl quite
horribly, but Grethel ran away, and the godless witch was miserably burnt to
death.
Grethel, however, ran like 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 rejoice and embrace each other, and 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 thrust into
his pockets whatever could be got in, and Grethel said, “I, too, will take
something home with me,” and filled her pinafore full. “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 Grethel,
“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 Grethel 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 seated
himself on its back, and told his sister to sit by him. “No,” replied Grethel,
“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, the forest seemed to be more and more
familiar to them, and at length they saw from afar their father’s house. Then
they began to run, rushed into the parlour, 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. Grethel emptied her
pinafore until pearls and precious stones ran about the room, and Hansel threw
one handful after another out of his pocket to add to them. Then all anxiety
was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness. My tale is done,
there runs a mouse, whosoever catches it, may make himself a big fur cap out of
it.
+(1).jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment