Jan and Hanna (Poland)

Old Grule (Moravia)

Now once upon a time there were a father and a mother who had a large flock of children. The father went to town and bought a scoopful of peas and gave each child one pea, but Jan and Hanna did not get any. This made them cry.

Once upon a time there were a father and a mother who had two children, a girl and a boy. The girl's name was Gretel, and the boy's name was Hans. The children were disobedient, and often received beatings.

The father said, "Be quiet and don't cry. I am going into the forest to chop wood. You can come along and look for berries." The father took a breadboard and a rolling pin with him and hung them on a tree. He said to Jan and Hanna, "Just go and pick berries. You can pick berries as long as I am chopping wood."

The wind blew the breadboard and the rolling pin against each other, and they thought their father was still chopping wood, so they continued to pick berries. After they had eaten until they were full and had filled their little buckets as well, they went and looked for their father. They came to the place where the breadboard and the rolling pin were hanging, but no father was there. They cried, then ran about in the woods shouting, but they did not find anyone.

One day they wanted to go into the woods to pick strawberries, but their mother said, "You are not allowed to go out today. A thunderstorm is approaching, so you have to stay at home."

But while their mother was busy working, the children took their little baskets from the wall and went into the woods. There they picked strawberries, but they had scarcely begun when it grew dark. A storm arose that whipped the trees fiercely against each other until the branches came flying down. The frightened children were sorry that they had not obeyed their mother but they found a rocky cave, and they crept inside and waited until the rain stopped. after the storm had passed, they wanted to go home, they walked and walked, and went deeper and deeper into the woods. They grew afraid and called out, "Father! Mother!" but no one heard them. Night fell, and they realised they would have to sleep in the woods.

Suddenly they came to a little gingerbread house. They began to crumble off some little pieces: crumble, crumble from Old Vera's little house

Then Gretel said, "Hans, do you know what? Climb a tree. Maybe you'll see a light where we can go." So Hans did this, and coming down from the tree took Gretel by the hand, and led her to the light he had seen. They saw a little house from and looking more closely, they saw that the walls were of gingerbread and the roof of marzipan. They looked around for a ladder, and finding one, they leaned it on the roof and climbed up. There they made themselves comfortable and began breaking off one marzipan shingle after the other and eating them, until there was a hole clear through the roof.

Then Old Vera came running out. "Who's there?" The children hid themselves so she could not find them. But continued to crumble little pieces off the little house: crumble, crumble from Old Vera's little house.

Then Old Vera ran out very fast and caught them. She took them inside and said, "Now I am going to fatten you up," and she locked them into a little stall and gave them nothing but bread and milk to eat.

Now a witch named Grule lived in this little house, and she liked to eat children more than anything else. She was just about to go to bed when she heard something on her roof.

Running outside, she said with a deep voice, "Who is robbing my house?" "The wind, the wind," was Gretel's reply, with a very gentle voice. Satisfied, she went back inside and went to bed.

But when the witch put out her light she noticed a large hole in the roof above her bed, and a child's head looking around. She jumped up, ran outside, pulled the children down from the roof, and said, "Just wait, you worthless brats. I'll teach you to ruin my house. Get inside. You can't leave." And with these words she put them in an empty chicken coop and locked the door.

After a while Old Vera wanted to see if they were fattened up enough. "Jan, stick out your finger. Are you fattened up yet?" But he stuck out the little whistle he had brought from home. She made a cut in it. "Oh, you are not fat enough yet."

"Hanna, you stick out your finger. Are you fattened up yet?" But she stuck out a finger that had a ring on it. Old Vera made a cut in the ring. "Oh, you are not fat enough yet either."

Then they cried a lot, and Jan lost his little whistle, and Hanna lost her ring.

Old Vera came again to see if they were fattened up enough. "Jan, stick out your finger." Old Vera made a cut in it, and it bled a little. "Hanna, you stick out your finger." Old Vera made a cut in it, and it bled a little. "Yes, you are fattened up enough. Now I am going to roast you."

The next days, and for some time afterward, the witch brought the children cake, sweets, fruit and good things to eat, for she wanted to fatten them up in order to have a good roast from them.

When she thought that the children must be fat enough, she took a knife to the coop. First she went to Gretel and said, "Girl, stick out your little finger, but Gretel thought, "No way," and held out her apron string. Grule cut into it a little, and said, "Skinny, skinny."

Then she went to Hans and said, "Boy, stick out your little finger," and Hans held out his trouser string. She likewise cut into it and said, "Skinny, skinny," then went away.

After this she thought, "Good things don't make them fat. I'll try something else." And from then on she gave them nothing but flour porridge, which the children soon grew to hate.

Some time later the witch again came to the coop with a knife and said to Gretel, "Girl, stick out your little finger," and this time Gretel held out her finger. Old Grule cut into it a little, and a drop of blood appeared. Then the witch said, "Fat, fat."

Then she went to Hans and told him to hold out his finger as well, which he did, just as Gretel had done. She cut into it too, and when it bled a little, she again said, "Fat, fat."

Old Vera heated up her oven very hot, took Jan and Hanna and said, "Sit on the bread pusher." They sat on the bread pusher, now this way, and now that way. Vera told them how they were supposed to sit, but every time they fell off. "We don't know how we are supposed to sit. You show us."

Then Old Vera sat on the bread pusher, and bang! they pushed her into the glowing oven. Old Vera burned up completely, so the little gingerbread house was theirs, and if they haven't sold it, they still have it to this very day.

Grule went to her kitchen and made a fire in her oven. After it had burned down she took a wooden crook and with it spread the coals evenly across the oven's entire surface. Then she went to the coop, opened it, and said, "Come, children, I have some baked plums in the oven. You can get them out for me."

The two ran for joy into the kitchen with Old Grule, thinking that at last they were going to get something other than the eternal flour porridge. Arriving there, the witch got a baker's peel and told the children to sit on it, so she could push them into the oven. But while Grule was gone, Gretel looked into the oven and saw that there were no plums in it at all. So when Old Grule told her to sit on the peel first, she pretended to be so awkward that she fell off. Then she said, "My dear Grule, I don't understand how I am supposed to sit on it. Show me, so I can see how."

Then Old Grule pulled her skirts together, sat down on the baker's peel, and said, "See. This is how to do it." And bang, the children pushed the witch into the oven, and Old Grule burned up miserably.

Gretel and Hans returned home. Their parents were very happy to see them, for they thought their children had died, but still each of them was given a beating for being disobedient.