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Tale Summary

There was once a poor woodcutter, who had a wife and two children from a previous marriage, but not enough money to feed them well. When a great famine came, his wife convinced him that they should leave the brother and sister, named Hansel and Grethel, in the woods so as not to have more mouths to feed. The children overheard this, and Hansel snuck outside to gather up white pebbles which shone in the moonlight. The next morning the children were given bread and brought out into the woods, and all along the way he dropped these pebbles under the guise that he was saying goodbye to his cat. Deep into the forest, the woodcutter and his wife told the children to rest, and that they would wake them up when they had finished chopping wood. They thought that they were close by because they could hear an ax, but it was really a branch the woodcutter had tied with a string to make noise in the wind. That night the two followed the glow of the pebbles in the moonlight back to their parent’s house, and their father was very happy. Another famine soon came and the woman talked her husband into the same deed, and although Hansel overheard, he could not leave to gather pebbles because the door was locked. The next morning on their way through the woods, he let fall a trail of crumbs from his bread under the guise that he was saying goodbye to his dove. That night when the children tried to follow the trail back home, they found that birds had eaten all of the crumbs and became very lost. On the third morning after leaving their father’s house, they saw a beautiful white dove who sang a pretty song, and when they followed it they were led to a house made of sweets. They began eating it, and when a voice from inside asked who was there, they said it was the wind and continued eating. A little old woman invited them inside and they had a delicious dinner before going to sleep. The kind woman was, in reality, an evil witch who ate children, and in the early morning she grabbed Hansel and shut him up in a cage. Next she grabbed Grethel and made her cook for her brother until he got fat enough to eat, while she only got morsels. Every morning the witch felt Hansel’s fingers through the bars to see if he was ready, but he always held out a little bone which tricked the witch because she had poor eyesight. After four weeks of this the witch was so impatient that she decided to eat him and began making preparations. She told Grethel to crawl into the oven to see if it was hot enough, wanting to trick her into getting inside so she could bake her. Grethel perceived this and asked if the witch could show her how, and so when she stuck her head in the girl pushed her inside and killed her. She released her brother and the two of them gathered pearls and precious stones from the house before setting off. They walked until they came to a large piece of water with no bridge, but a little white duck carried them across one at a time. They found their house again and their father was overjoyed and told him that his wife had died. The children presented their riches and all of their troubles were gone.

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