Once upon a time, there lived a woodcutter with his wife and two children from a previous marriage. The little boy was called Hansel and a little girl called Gretel.
The family were very poor, and they had barely enough to eat.
In bed one night, the woodcutter said to his wife, “how will we feed our children, when we have no money?”
His wife had an idea. She said, “In the morning we can take the children deep into the forest and leave them there. They are more than able to look after themselves now, and with two less mouths to feed, there will be enough food for us.”
The woodcutter did not agree with this plan. He loved his children and didn’t want them to leave.
His wife got angry, “If we don’t do this now, we will all become ill from having nothing to eat!”
Hansel and Gretel overheard the conversation between their dad and stepmum, they began to worry about what may happen to them.
Gretel was very upset. “Please don’t cry Gretel,” Hansel said, “I will make sure we will be OK.”
When their parents had gone to sleep, Hansel snuck out of the back door and into the garden. He noticed that the small stones scattered on the ground, sparkled in the moonlight and he had an idea. He collected as many stones as he could and put them in his pocket.
The next morning, their stepmum woke Hansel and Gretel and told them they were all going into the forest to collect some wood.
She gave them both a slice of bread and told them not to eat it before dinner as there was nothing else to eat.
Hansel knew what the stepmum had planned, so he walked a little slower behind them, dropping the stones he had collected onto the path.
Deep in the forest, their dad told them to find some wood to build a fire, so they could keep warm.
When the fire was made their dad and stepmum told them to rest while they go into the forest to collect more wood.
A long time passed and it was starting to get dark but their parents never returned.
Gretel started to worry. Hansel told her they would wait until the moon comes up, follow the trail of sparkling stones he had dropped, and it would guide them back home. His plan worked.
Their dad was so happy to see them when they arrived home, but their stepmum was not. She pretended to be worried about them being out in the woods all night, but really, she was annoyed they had made it back home.
The shortage of food and having no money was getting worse day by day.
One night, the children overheard their parents talking once again, but this time their stepmum said they should take them even deeper into the woods, so there was no way the children could find their way back and they would be forced to look after themselves.
Their dad did not like the plan at all but his evil wife would not listen.
Hansel planned to collect more stones from the garden as he did before but this time his stepmum had locked the back door!
Gretel began to cry and Hansel reassured her that everything would be OK.
The next day their stepmum woke them both and gave them each a slice of bread for dinner.
They all left for the forest. Hansel walked a little slower behind them, this time dropping breadcrumbs from his pocket instead of stones.
They walked for a long time, deeper and deeper into the forest. They eventually stopped to make a huge fire, and their parents told the children to rest. Their stepmum told them they would be back soon and off they went.
Hansel and Gretel waited for them to return but they never did.
When the moon came up they tried to follow the breadcrumbs back home but the birds had eaten them all and now they were lost.
Three whole days passed and they had still not found their way home.
One day they stumbled upon a cottage. It was an entire building made with bread and cakes with sugar for windows. They had never seen anything like it – it was beautiful.
They were so hungry that they started to eat bits of the delicious house. They were so busy eating, they did not notice the very old lady standing at the cottage door.
“Come in poor children!” she cried, “You look so hungry, let me look after you.”
She sat them at a large table, and they ate lots of yummy food until they were full. Then they both had a nap on one of the comfiest beds they had ever slept on.
The old lady had been very kind to them but what they didn’t know was that she was a witch!
The witch had built the delicious breadhouse to entice children into her cottage, so she could keep them there with her to do all the chores and look after her forever.
The witch quickly realised that Hansel was a very clever boy and would soon figure out that she was a witch, so she locked him in a cage preventing him from escaping.
Gretel was given a huge list of chores to do including cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening, and sewing. Every day the list of chores got bigger and bigger. From the moment she woke up, until the moment she went to sleep, Gretel did not stop working.
One afternoon, the witch asked Gretel to bake some bread to feed Hansel. She had noticed he hadn’t been eating much. The witch needed him to be strong to do repairs on the breadhouse and fetch fire wood.
Gretel mixed the ingredients together to make the bread and she had an idea. She pretended that she didn’t know how to use the oven to cook the bread. The witch was annoyed, “You silly girl, I have shown you this so many times. Give it here, let me do it!”
As the witch bent down to put the bread into the oven, Gretel took the chance to push her inside, shut the door and lock her in!
She ran to Hansel and unlocked the cage. Inside the cottage the witch had lots of precious gems and baskets full of pearls. They took as many as they could carry and ran out of the door into the woods.
They ran and ran until they reached a river but there was no way to get across.
Sat on the riverbank, they saw a little duck. They asked the duck if she could take them across and she took them across one at a time.
When they reached the other side, they walked a little further into the woods and realised they now knew where they were. Their dad’s house was just around the corner, so they started running as fast as they could.
They arrived at the house and their dad was so very happy and relieved to see them. He had missed them both so much.
He told them that their stepmum had left some time ago and he was living all alone. They showed him the precious gems and pearls they had taken from the witch’s cottage and he could not believe his eyes.
From that day on they were no longer poor and never went hungry again. They all lived happily ever after.
