"Hansel and Gretel" was adapted from a fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Hansel and Gretel are a brother and sister abandoned in a forest, where they fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread. The cannibalistic witch intends to fatten the children before eventually eating them, but Gretel outwits the witch and kills her. The two children then escape with their lives and return home with the witch's treasure.

Although Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm credited "various tales from Hesse" (the region where they lived) as their source, scholars have argued that the brothers heard the story in 1809 from the family of Wilhelm's friend and future wife, Dortchen Wild, and partly from other sources. A handwritten note in the Grimms' personal copy of the first edition reveals that in 1813 Wild contributed to the children's verse answer to the witch, "The wind, the wind,/ The heavenly child," which rhymes in German: "Der Wind, der Wind,/ Das himmlische Kind."

According to folklorist, the tale emerged in the Late Middle Ages Germany. Shortly after this period, close written variants began to appear. Scholars argue that the episode of the paths marked with stones and crumbs, were already found in the France. A house made of confectionery is also found in a 14th-century manuscript about the Land of Cockayne.

Copyright 2024 Steve Adams

Bedtime Stories for Children is produced by Magic Monorail