---
title: "Hansel and Gretel"
story_id: "d36b8960-669c-4f2a-9e48-c63722015b3d"
text_id: "f12762fb-c767-468a-96ce-82f7ff95ee30"
language: "en"
version: "modern"
part: 1
part_count: 1
url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/hansel-and-gretel"
recommended_version: "modern"
recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/hansel-and-gretel"
web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics"
---

# Hansel and Gretel

> OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits.
> [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/hansel-and-gretel)

Version: Modernized

In this German tale from the Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, a brother and sister, are abandoned in the forest. Hansel tries to find the way home by following the pebbles and then the breadcrumbs he has scattered. But the children get lost. Hungry and tired, they discover a little house made of bread, with a roof of cakes and windows of sugar…

**Content warning:** This tale contains child abandonment, threats of cannibalism and a killing by fire.

![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/5d4dd6ed-70e9-4d54-869a-1faaadad8fa0)



A poor woodcutter lived close to a great forest with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little to eat, and when a great famine struck the land, he could no longer get enough bread for each day. At night, he lay in bed thinking about this, tossing and turning with worry. 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 tomorrow morning we will take the children into the thickest part of the forest. We will light a fire and give each one another piece of bread. 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 kill them.” “Oh, you fool!” said she, “Then all four of us must die of hunger! You might as well smooth the planks for our coffins.” 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 been too hungry to sleep. They had heard what their stepmother had said to their father. Gretel wept bitter tears, and said to Hansel, “Now we are done for.” “Be quiet, Gretel,” said Hansel, “do not worry. I will soon find a way to help us.” And when their parents had fallen asleep, he got up, put on his little coat, opened the lower half of the door, 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 Gretel, “Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in peace, God will not abandon us.” Then 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 lazy children! 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.” Gretel 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. After they had walked a little way, Hansel stopped and peeped back at the house. He did this again and again. His father said, “Hansel, what are you looking at, and why are you falling behind? Pay attention, and do not forget to use your 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 your 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 dropping white pebbles from his pocket onto the road, one by one.

When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said, “Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire so you will not be cold.” Hansel and Gretel gathered brushwood together, as high as a little hill. The brushwood was lit, and when the flames were burning very high, the woman said, “Now, children, lie 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 Gretel sat by the fire. At noon, each ate a little piece of bread. They heard what sounded like blows of the wood-axe and believed their father was near. But it was not the axe. It was a branch their father had tied to a dead tree, which the wind swung backwards and forwards. And as they had been sitting such a long time, their eyes closed with tiredness, and they fell fast asleep. When at last they awoke, it was already dark night. Gretel 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 minted silver coins 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 Gretel, 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 broken his heart to leave them behind alone.

Not long afterwards, there was once again a severe shortage of food everywhere, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their father, “All the food is gone again. We have half a loaf left, and after that there will be nothing. The children must go. We will take them farther into the wood, so they cannot find their way out again. There is no other way to save ourselves!” The man’s heart was heavy, and he thought “it would be better to share your last mouthful with your children.” The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to say, but scolded and reproached him. Once you have said A, you must say B, and as he had yielded the first time, he had to yield a second time.

The children were, however, still awake and had heard the conversation. When their parents were asleep, Hansel got up again. He wanted to go out and pick up pebbles as before, but the woman had locked the door. Hansel could not get out. Nevertheless he comforted his little sister, and said, “Do not cry, Gretel, go to sleep quietly, the good God will help us.”

Early in the morning the woman came, and took the children out of their beds. Each child was given a piece of bread, but it was even smaller than 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 do you keep stopping and looking around?” 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 your 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, children. If you are tired, you may sleep a little. We are going into the forest to cut wood. This evening, when we are done, we will come and fetch you.” When it was noon, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who had scattered his by the way. Then they fell asleep. 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, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the breadcrumbs I have scattered. They will show us the way home.” 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 Gretel, “We shall soon find the way,” but they did not find it. They walked all night and all the next day, from morning till evening. But they did not get out of the forest. They were very hungry: they had nothing to eat but two or three berries growing 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 kept going deeper into the forest. If help did not come soon, they would die of hunger and exhaustion. At midday, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a branch, 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 ahead of them. They followed it to a little house, where it landed on the roof. When the children reached the house, they saw that it was built of bread and roofed with cakes. Its windows were made 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 you, Gretel, can 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 Gretel 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 worrying. Hansel, who thought the roof tasted very nice, tore down a great piece of it, and Gretel 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 Gretel were so terribly frightened that they dropped what they were holding. 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 Gretel lay down in them, and thought they were in heaven.

The old woman had only pretended to be so kind. She was really a wicked witch who lay in wait for children. She had built the little house of bread only to lure them there. When a child fell into her power, she killed it, cooked it and ate it. That was a feast day for her. Witches have red eyes and cannot see far. But they have a sharp sense of smell, like animals, and know when people come near. When Hansel and Gretel 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. Seeing them sleeping so prettily, with their plump red cheeks, she muttered to herself, “That will be a delicious mouthful!” Then she seized Hansel with her shrivelled hand, carried him into a little stable, and shut him in with a door with bars. He could scream as much as he liked; it did no good. Then she went to Gretel, shook her till she awoke, and cried, “Get up, lazy thing, fetch some water, and cook something good for your brother. He is in the stable outside, and we must fatten him up. When he is fat, I will eat him.” Gretel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain. She was forced to do what the wicked witch ordered.

And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Gretel got nothing but crab shells. Every morning the woman crept to the little stable, and cried, “Hansel, hold out your finger so I can feel whether you are getting fat.” Hansel, however, held out a little bone. The old woman’s eyesight was poor, so she could not see it clearly and thought it was his finger. She was astonished that she could not fatten him up. After four weeks, Hansel still seemed thin. She lost patience and would not wait any longer. “Hola, Gretel,” she cried to the girl, “hurry up and bring some water. Whether Hansel is fat or thin, tomorrow I will kill him, and cook him.” Ah, how the poor little sister cried when she had to fetch the water, and how the tears flowed down her cheeks! “Dear God, do help us,” she cried. “If only the wild animals in the forest had eaten us, at least we would have died together.” “Just keep your noise to yourself,” said the old woman, “none of that will help you.”

Early in the morning, Gretel had to go out and hang up the cauldron full of 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 Gretel out to the oven, from which flames were already leaping. “Creep in,” said the witch, “and see if it is properly heated, so that we can shut the bread in.” If Gretel went inside, the witch intended to shut the oven and bake her in it. Then she would eat her too. But Gretel understood what the witch was planning, 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 Gretel gave her a push that drove her far into it, and shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. The witch cried out, but Gretel ran away, and the godless witch died in the fire.

Gretel, 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, stuffing as much as he could into his pockets. Gretel said, “I, too, will take something home with me,” and filled her pinafore—the apron over her dress. “But now we must leave,” said Hansel, “so we can get out of the witch’s forest.”

When they had walked for two hours, they came to a broad stretch of water. “We cannot get over,” said Hansel, “I see no plank to walk across, and no bridge.” “And no boat crosses either,” answered Gretel, “but a white duck is swimming there; if I ask her, she will help us over.” Then she cried,

“Little duck, little duck, can you see us two?  
Hansel and Gretel are waiting for you.  
There’s never a plank or bridge in sight,  
Take us across on your back so white.”

The duck came to them. Hansel sat on its back and told his sister to sit beside him. “No,” replied Gretel, “that will be too heavy for the little duck; she must take us across, one after the other.” The good little duck did so. Once safely across, they walked a little farther. The forest seemed more and more familiar, and at last they saw their father’s house in the distance. Then they began to run, rushed into the sitting room, 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. Gretel emptied her pinafore, and pearls and precious stones scattered about the room. Hansel added one handful after another from his pocket. Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness. My tale is done, there runs a mouse, whoever catches it can make a big fur cap from it.

## Modernization notes

- Oh! then she began to howl quite horribly, but Grethel ran away, and the godless witch was miserably burnt to death. → The witch cried out, but Gretel ran away, and the godless witch died in the fire.: Exceptional softening for children: the witch’s death in the fire remains explicit, but the emphasis on her agonising cries is reduced. The narrator’s religious judgement remains, and the original is preserved.
- tear them to pieces → kill them: Exceptional softening for children: keep the father’s fear that wild animals will kill the children, without the graphic image of their bodies being torn apart. The original is preserved.
- door below → lower half of the door: The door has an upper and a lower half. The German text names the lower half, which can open separately.

## Presented text (with modernization)

© OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved.

## Original text

Grimm’s Household Tales, with the Author’s Notes, volume 1, 1884, George Bell and Sons, London

- author: Jacob Grimm
- author: Wilhelm Grimm
- translator: Margaret Hunt

## Illustration

[John R. Gruelle](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/5d4dd6ed-70e9-4d54-869a-1faaadad8fa0) — Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1914, Cupples & Leon Company, New York

## Reading music

Hansel and Gretel — Overture  
Engelbert Humperdinck  
Hochschulsymphonieorchester München (orchestra)  
Marcus Bosch (conductor)  
[CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

## Quiz

### Who conducted the first performance of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in 1893?

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Richard Strauss (Correct answer)
- Ludwig van Beethoven

Hansel and Gretel became an opera. Richard Strauss conducted the first performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's score in Weimar in 1893.

[Metropolitan Opera — Sugar Shock](https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/articles/sugar-shock/)

### Which plant part do we eat as ginger?

- A root
- A dried flower
- An underground stem (Correct answer)

Ginger is an underground stem, rather than a root. It was among the early spices brought from Asia to Europe through the spice trade.

[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Zingiber officinale](https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:798372-1/general-information)

### Which plant part gives us Ceylon cinnamon?

- Inner bark (Correct answer)
- Seeds
- Petals

Cinnamon is tree bark. Ceylon cinnamon comes from the fragrant inner bark of the cinnamon tree.

[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Cinnamon](https://www.kew.org/plants/cinnamon)

### How can honeybees direct other bees to a rich food source?

- By leaving a trail of feathers
- By dancing (Correct answer)
- By drawing on leaves

Honeybees can dance directions to food. Their movements tell other bees the direction and distance of a rich feeding spot.

[Okada et al. — The dance of the honeybee (2008)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18652388/)

### What sweet surprise is in James Smithson's 1770 cookbook?

- Two gingerbread recipes (Correct answer)
- An ice-cream recipe by Andersen
- A chocolate recipe by the Grimms

Old cookbooks hold sweet surprises. The Smithsonian preserves James Smithson's copy of a 1770 cookbook containing two gingerbread recipes.

[Smithsonian Libraries — James Smithson’s Gingerbread and more](https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2011/12/16/cooking-from-the-collections-james-smithsons-gingerbread-and-more/)

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- [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/hansel-and-gretel?format=markdown)

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