Grimm Bros.’ “Hansel & Gretel:” The Stepmother’s Magical, Mysterious Death (Clip)

The Witch and the Stepmother: when they return home, the stepmom happens to be dead. I wonder if there is “folktale/myth logic” where their killing the witch also leads to the stepmother’s death.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Thresholds and birds border the transitions from the normal, albeit decrepit, world, and into a world of unknown, new and monstrous dangers like starvation and monsters.  LL points out the duck river ride after their saving (“salvation”) resembles a rebirth like a baptism.  I wonder why they have to do the crossing independently.  This is a departure from their constant handholding before Hans’ imprisonment.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Birds play a big role in this story.  LL points out birds are symbols of salvation in Christianity, that they often represent the Holy Spirit and I generalize this to the function of guidance in religion and spiritual transformation.  Birds in this story indeed move the story forward.  Even the bird that leads them to the gingerbread house saves them, for they had not eaten for three days.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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H & G survive by their wits where so many others haven’t.  The evil women in the story also chide them (“simpleton,” etc.), which reminds me of the old formula of hubris leading to destruction.  The story has a lot of reversal: non-nurturing women, the sentimental father, the children bring home the bacon, home is not a safe place.  Only when you go deep into the forest can you find sustenance.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Lots of deception in this story – of the parents to the children, of Hansel to his parents, between the Witch and Gretel.  Perhaps this is a reflection of the desperate times in which they live.  The gingerbread house is itself a multilayered deception – food that is not nutritious nor for their benefit, a hostess who lures guests in order to consume them; and yet they’re able to outwit the witch and solve the original problem.  There may be echoes of Theseus and the Minotaur here, and that may explain the ease of the denouement. Also notice the “magical logic,” where once the kids solve the original problem – parasitism in the land and resulting poverty – other seemingly unconnected problems – here, the conniving stepmother – disappear.  There may also be “folk logic,” where the problem of poverty in the land is given a moral and supernatural element – the hyper rational stepmother perhaps, and especially the dragon deep in the woods: the waylaying witch – and after the desperate hero slays that dragon, the land returns to prosperity.  There may be echoes here of primitive peoples’ belief in connections between general moral health and responses of the gods in terms of rain, crop success, etc. 

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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H & G loot the witch’s house, which is filled with treasures taken from a long series of victims.  They reach a river and cross it with the help of a white duck.  There is also singing here (like with the white bird before).  They make their way home this time… Dad is overjoyed; stepmom has passed.  Poverty and stepparent problems solved.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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H & G begin to eat the house, telling an inquiring voice from within that it’s merely the wind.  The hag comes out and invites them inside.  She forces Gretel to be her servant, helping the lady fatten up her brother.  Witches have dim eyes and so they use a chicken bone to fool her into thinking the boy isn’t gaining weight.  When the witch tries to cash in on her investment Gretel senses her intent and counter-tricks her into the oven.  Gretel then rescues her brother.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Time passes, and there is little food again for the family, and the kids again overhear the nocturnal calculations.  This time, the door is locked, so Hansel can’t retrieve his stones.  He instead uses breadcrumbs as they are taken deeper into the forest.  Waiting for the moonlight to light the way, they are dismayed, for the birds have eaten their trail. As they try to make their way back they become more lost in the forest.  Starving, they are guided by a snow white bird to a gingerbread house.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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As the family leaves home, Hansel drops pebbles, lying to his stepmother to cover what he’s doing.  In the forest, they build a fire and the parents leave the kids, tricking the kids with a twig tied to a tree.  They are able to make their way home and the father is happy and relieved.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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H & G overhear their stepmother planning their abandonment and persuading their father with reason. The older brother reassures his younger sister and prepares, gathering pebbles.  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode:

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.