The version we usually hear is :
The little children who lived in a family with too little food; so their evil step-mother made their father take the children to the middle of the woods. After a scary night alone, the children find their way to a gingerbread house. At first the witch who lives there is nice to them, but then she locks up the boy (Hansel) in a cage and makes Gretel (the girl) do housework for her. Every day the witch checks if Hansel is fattening up, but he fools her by putting out a bone rather than his finger for the witch to feel up. After a while the witch is tired of waiting so prepares to cook him anyway; Gretal manages to push the witch into the fire instead. The children find their way home where their parents repent of abandoning them, especially as the children have brought the witch's treasure with them.
The original brothers Grimm story is similar, but has some interesting details. The children know that their parents are going to abandon them, and try hard to prevent this. The witch's house is only made of cake (not necessarily gingerbread). When the children start eating her house the witch says:
Nibble, nibble, little mouse,
Who is nibbling at my house?
The reader is informed that witches have red eyes and bad eyesight, but a terrific sense of smell. Gretel knows that the witch wants to boil her, too. A little duck carries the children across a lake on their way home. And the children's mother (she may or may not have been a step-mother) dies by the time the children return home.
The little children who lived in a family with too little food; so their evil step-mother made their father take the children to the middle of the woods. After a scary night alone, the children find their way to a gingerbread house. At first the witch who lives there is nice to them, but then she locks up the boy (Hansel) in a cage and makes Gretel (the girl) do housework for her. Every day the witch checks if Hansel is fattening up, but he fools her by putting out a bone rather than his finger for the witch to feel up. After a while the witch is tired of waiting so prepares to cook him anyway; Gretal manages to push the witch into the fire instead. The children find their way home where their parents repent of abandoning them, especially as the children have brought the witch's treasure with them.
The original brothers Grimm story is similar, but has some interesting details. The children know that their parents are going to abandon them, and try hard to prevent this. The witch's house is only made of cake (not necessarily gingerbread). When the children start eating her house the witch says:
Nibble, nibble, little mouse,
Who is nibbling at my house?
The reader is informed that witches have red eyes and bad eyesight, but a terrific sense of smell. Gretel knows that the witch wants to boil her, too. A little duck carries the children across a lake on their way home. And the children's mother (she may or may not have been a step-mother) dies by the time the children return home.
