The story of Hansel and Gretel, a German brother and sister abandoned in the woods by their parents only to happen upon a witch’s home made of sweets, has been around in written form ever since the Brothers Grimm published the tale in 1812, though, as with most fairy tales, it has probably existed in some form for much longer. The tale became more complex later on, with the mother becoming an evil stepmother who, like the witch, meets a terrible end. As I’ve mentioned already in the Bauer article, children in older fairy tales, even if they are fay and dainty creatures, are rarely whimpering weaklings completely at the mercy of those around them. They’re smart and resourceful, even occasionally brutal, as demonstrated by Gretel’s act of shoving the witch into the oven. Sometime around the Victorian era our conception of kids began to change—we started to see them as weak, dependent and malleable, and so too kids’ stories changed with the times. The violence and sexual undertones of the old tales were bowdlerized, watered down or eliminated altogether. But the fable of Hansel and Gretel has endured the decades of shifting social, political and psychological views of children, a testament to its unique appeal.
Scott Gustafson – Hansel and Gretel
Scott Gustafson – Hansel and Gretel (detail)
Ana Juan – Hansel and Gretel
Scholastic: Ana Juan (archived version)
Arthur Rackham – Hansel and Gretel
Hermann Vogel – Hansel and Gretel (1894)
Kay Neilsen – Hansel and Gretel
Ludwig Richter – Hansel and Gretel
Wikipedia: Adrian Ludwig Richter
Rene Cloke – Hansel and Gretel (1930s)
Additional Resources:
Ellen Turning Pages: Hansel and Gretel (Has some nice large scans of the book illustrated by Rie Cramer.)
A fairly in-depth discussion of Hansel and Gretel at Absolute Astronomy.
In Quebec, french province of Canada, authors have been making remakes of children stories, making them very dark and among them, one author, Yvan Godbout, have done Hansel and Gretel on such a version that it as to go in front of supreme court acquited him after a long process because he was accused of producing and distributing juvenile pornography with his version of the story. I havnt read it right now but it is sure that im gonna get this book very soon!
https://actualitte.com/uploads/images/hansel-gretel-26cb45a4-584b-47d7-be9f-9d2214f5f011.jpg
Its french, for those who would like it.
Its part of a collection of books called Forbidden Tales (Contes Interdits).