HANSEL AND GRETHEL

HANSEL AND GRETHEL



By Brothers Grimm



Once upon a time,there lived a woodcutter,his wife

and their two children near a forest.

The boy’s name was Hansel and the girl’s name was

Gretel.When the children were very small their mother

died and after two years the woodcutter remarried.His

new wife came from a wealthy family and she hated

living near the forest. The woodcutter was very poor

and couldn’t feed his children.

One day, as he was laying in his bed, he said to his

wife: This is terrible.What will we do?We can’t even

feed our children.I will tell you what we can do,listen’

answered his wife. Tomorrow we will take them into

the forest. We will give them a piece of bread and we

will leave them alone in the forest. They can’t find the

way back home,because in the it is always very foggy

in the morning.

‘I can’t do that.I can’t leave my children alone in the

forest.’said the man.‘Oh,you fool!’answered his wife,

‘than we will all starve to death. Do you want that?

We will take the children into the forest and we will

leave them there!’

The children were awake and they heard the whole

conversation between their step mother and their

father.Grethel started crying.What can we do now?

We will die in the forest.’ But Hansel was calm.

Don’t worry. I have a plan’ he said to his sister,and

When everybody in the house was asleep, he put on

His little coat than he quietly crept outside,and filled

his pockets with little white stones.

The next morning the step mother awakened the two

children. ‘Wake up, you lazy children! We are going

into the forest to cut wood. Here is a piece of bread

for each of you. It is your dinner.’

The whole family started walking towards the forest.

Hansel dropped the white stones on the ground.

In the afternoon, their father and step mother made a

fire for them. We will be back soon., wait’ they said

and then left the children alone,but of course they

didn’t come back.At night the sound of the wolfs were

very scary. Later they found their way back home, as

the little white stones were shining under the moonlight.

They knocked on the door. Their stepmother opened

it.‘You naughty children!Why did you sleep so long?’

Their father was very happy to see them alive and well.

After a short while,the stepmother started complaining

to her husband again.‘We have only one loaf of bread

left. ‘We must take the children into the forest again

and leave them there , or we will all starve to death !’

The father resisted again , because he loved his

children very much and he was glad they were alive.

But the stepmother didn’t listen to his pleas.

The children weren’t asleep and they heard everything.

Grethel started crying,but Hansel comforted him:

‘Don’t cry my dear sister,I have a plan,God will help

us.’

The next morning,the stepmother pulled the children

out of their beds, and she gave them each a piece of

bread. On their way to the forest, Hansel crumbled

his bread and threw crumbles of bread on the

ground. When they arrived at the forest, the father

and step mother made a fire again. ‘Stay here and

when you feel tired you can sleep.Now we are going

to cut wood and we will come back later to take you

home. ’

In the evening the children fell asleep and by the time

they woke up it was midnight.

Hansel and Grethel tried to find the way back home

under the moonlight,but they couldn’t.They were very

hungry and they had nothing left to eat.As they were

walking in the forest ,they saw a beautiful bird sitting

on a tree branch and singing sweetly. They sat down

and listened to the bird. When the bird finished it flew

away and Hansel and Grethel followed him. Finally

they came to a house. The house was made of bread,

cholocate and cakes. The windows were full of sugar.

Let’s eat said Hansel to his sister. I’ll have some of

the roof and you can eat the sugar from the windows.

So they started eating.Suddenly they heard a thin voice:

‘Who is eating my house?’An old woman opened the

the door of the house . Hansel and Grethel were very

frightened, but the woman smiled and said: ‘Oh, my

dear children, you look very hungry. Come inside,I’ll

give you more food. You can stay here.’

The old woman was a wicked witch and she killed and

ate children.

In the morning, the wicked witch woke up Hansel and

locked him in a little stable. Then she grabed Grethel:

‘Get up you lazy girl and cook something nice for your

brother!He must eat and when he is fat enough,I’ll eat

eat him.’ Grethel began to cry, but she had to listen to

the witch. So she cooked the most delicious meals for

Hansel and she stayed hungry the whole day.

The witch came in the kitchen and shouted at Grethel:

Look into the oven and see if it is hot !’ Grethel knew

that the witch wanted to kill her too. So Grethel said:

I can’t open the oven door. You stupid girl, I’ll open

it said the witch. When the witch opened the oven

door, Grethel pushed her into the oven and shut the

iron door. The witch howled as she burned. Grethel

quickly rescued her brother from the stable.

They also found some gold and pearl in the house.

Grethel put them in her pocket. However they still

didn’t know how to find their home. They went into

the forest again and they saw a river.’ How can we

cross this river? It’s impossible, there is no bridge.’

said Grethel . Then a duck came to help them.First

the duck carried Hansel and then Grethel across the

river. When they were on the other side of the river

the forest was more familiar.After a short walk, they

easily found their home. Their father was very happy

to see them alive. The step mother was dead. Their

father promised he would never leave them again ,

but there was another surprise for him.Grethel took

out all the gold and pearls from her pockets. They

never had money problems anymore and lived in

happiness for many years.