The Mythology of Grimm by Nathan Robert Brown

Author:Nathan Robert Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2014-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

Gretel took Hansel’s crust and put it in the pocket of her apron along with her own, since Hansel’s pockets were full of the shiny pebbles he’d collected the night before. The siblings then started into the forest behind their parents. As they traveled, Hansel stopped every few paces in order to toss one of the pebbles from his pocket. This eventually caused him to lag behind, and their father noticed the boy wasn’t keeping up.

“What are you doing, Hansel? Stop falling behind and remember what your legs are for!” their father scolded.

“I’m just trying to get one last look at my white kitten, Father,” said Hansel. “He is perched on the roof, telling me good-bye.”

In reality, of course, Hansel wasn’t looking back at his cat. As already stated, he was really just stopping to throw pebbles down to mark the way back home.

Once they were deep in the forest, their father said to them, “Go gather some fallen wood to build a fire. We don’t want the two of you getting cold.”

Hansel and Gretel, ever the obedient children, did as their father said and gathered as much fallen brushwood as they could. Soon, a roaring fire was before them, and their parents headed off into the woods. When lunchtime rolled around, Hansel and Gretel ate their bread crusts. They could still hear what sounded like their father’s axe chopping wood. Believing he was nearby, they fell asleep next to the warm fire. However, the sound they heard was not their father’s axe. It was a branch he’d tied to a dying tree. As the wind blew, the wood knocked together to mimic the sound of an axe. When the siblings woke up, it was the middle of the night.

Gretel, in simple terms, freaked the hell out.

“We’re really in trouble now,” she fretted. “How will we ever get out of this forest on our own?”

“Just hang on,” Hansel told her. “Once the moon comes out, we’ll be able to find our way home.”

When the moon rose, it shone down on the ground, and its light reflected off the pebbles Hansel had strewn along the way. Hansel and Gretel walked through the night, hand in hand, until they found their way back home. They arrived just as the sun broke over the horizon. They knocked at the door, which was answered by their stepmother.

Though the arrival of Hansel and Gretel likely startled the living bejeezus out of their mean-as-hell stepmother, she did her best to mask her surprise.

“Where have you two layabouts been?” she said. “We’d begun to think you were going to spend the rest of your lives sleeping in the woods! We were wondering if you’d ever come back.”

Meanwhile, their father had been completely heartbroken by what he’d done to his own flesh and blood. So, unlike his evil wife, the woodcutter was delighted when he saw that his children had found their way home to him. He embraced them both and shed tears of joy.

The famine eventually passed. However, bad things tend to have a way of coming back around.

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