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.[9] 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."[2]

According to folklorist Jack Zipes, the tale emerged in the Late Middle Ages (1250–1500).
Shortly after this period, close written variants like Martin Montanus' Gartengesellschaft (1590)
began to appear.[3] Scholar Christine Goldberg argues that the episode of the paths marked with
stones and crumbs, already found in the French "Finette Cendron" and "Hop-o'-My-Thumb"
(1697), represents "an elaboration of the motif of the thread that Ariadne gives Theseus to use to
get out of the Minoan labyrinth".[10] A house made of confectionery is also found in a 14th-
century manuscript about the Land of Cockayne.[7]

Editions

Sculpture of Hansel on the duck by Ignatius Taschner. Märchenbrunnen, Berlin.

From the pre-publication manuscript of 1810 (Das Brüderchen und das Schwesterchen) to the
sixth edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Grimm's Fairy Tales) in 1850, the Brothers Grimm
made several alterations to the story, which progressively gained in length, psychological
motivation, and visual imagery,[11] but also became more Christian in tone, shifting the blame for
abandonment from a mother to a stepmother associated with the witch.[1][3]

In the original edition of the tale, the woodcutter's wife is the children's biological mother,[12] but
she was also called "stepmother" from the 4th edition (1840).[13][5] The Brothers Grimm indeed
introduced the word "stepmother", but retained "mother" in some passages. Even their final
version in the 7th edition (1857) remains unclear about her role, for it refers to the woodcutter's
wife twice as "the mother" and once as "the stepmother".[2]

The sequence where the duck helps them across the river is also a later addition. In some later
versions, the mother died from unknown causes, left the family, or remained with the husband at
the end of the story.[14] In the 1810 pre-publication manuscript, the children were called "Little
Brother" and "Little Sister", then named Hänsel and Gretel in the first edition (1812).[11] Wilhelm
Grimm also adulterated the text with Alsatian dialects, "re-appropriated" from August Ströber's
Alsatian version (1842) in order to give the tale a more "folksy" tone.[5][b]

Goldberg notes that although "there is no doubt that the Grimms' Hänsel und Gretel was pieced
together, it was, however, pieced together from traditional elements," and its previous narrators
themselves had been "piecing this little tale together with other traditional motifs for centuries."[6]
For instance, the duck helping the children cross the river may be the remnant of an old
traditional motif in the folktale complex that was reintroduced by the Grimms in later editions.[6]
Plot

Hansel and Gretel meeting the witch, by Alexander Zick.

The story is set in medieval Germany. Hansel and Gretel are the young children of a poor
woodcutter. When a great famine settles over the land, the woodcutter's wife (originally the
children's mother but in revised editions she is their stepmother) decides to take the children into
the woods and leave them there to fend for themselves, so that she and her husband do not starve
to death, as the children eat too much. The woodcutter opposes the plan but finally, and
reluctantly, submits to his wife's scheme. They are unaware that in the children's bedroom,
Hansel and Gretel have overheard them. After the parents have gone to bed, Hansel sneaks out of
the house and gathers as many white pebbles as he can, then returns to his room, reassuring
Gretel that God will not forsake them.

The next day, the family walk deep into the woods and Hansel lays a trail of white pebbles. After
their parents abandon them, the children wait for the moon to rise and then they followed the
pebbles back home. They return home safely, much to their stepmother's rage. Once again
provisions become scarce and the mother angrily orders her husband to take the children further
into the woods and leave them there to die. Hansel and Gretel attempt to gather more pebbles,
but find the doors locked and find it impossible to escape.

Illustration by Ludwig Richter, 1842

The following morning, the family treks into the woods. Hansel takes a slice of bread and leaves
a trail of bread crumbs for them to follow home. However, after they are once again abandoned,
they find that the birds have eaten the crumbs and they are lost in the woods. After days of
wandering, they follow a beautiful white bird to a clearing in the woods, and discover a large
cottage built of gingerbread, cakes, candy and with window panes of clear sugar. Hungry and
tired, the children begin to eat the rooftop of the house, when the door opens and a "very old
woman" emerges and lures the children inside with the promise of soft beds and delicious food.
They enter without realizing that their hostess is a bloodthirsty witch who built the gingerbread
house to waylay children to cook and eat them.

The next morning, the witch locks Hansel in an iron cage in the garden and forces Gretel into
becoming a slave. The witch feeds Hansel regularly to fatten him up, but when she tries to touch
him to see how fat he has become, Hansel cleverly offers a bone he found in the cage
(presumably a bone from the witch's previous captive) and the witch feels it, thinking it to be his
finger. Due to her blindness, she is fooled into thinking Hansel is still too thin to eat. After weeks
of this, the witch grows impatient and decides to eat Hansel, "be he fat or lean".

She prepares the oven for Hansel, but decides she is hungry enough to eat Gretel, too. She coaxes
Gretel to the open oven and asks her to lean over in front of it to see if the fire is hot enough.
Gretel, sensing the witch's intent, pretends she does not understand what the witch means.
Infuriated, the witch demonstrates, and Gretel instantly shoves the witch into the hot oven, slams
and bolts the door shut, and leaves "The ungodly witch to be burned in ashes". Gretel frees
Hansel from the cage and the pair discover a vase full of treasure, including precious stones.
Putting the jewels into their clothing, the children set off for home. A swan ferries them across
an expanse of water, and at home they find only their father; his wife died from some unknown
cause. Their father had spent all his days lamenting the loss of his children, and is delighted to
see them safe and sound. With the witch's wealth, they all live happily ever after.