The VERY Messed Up Origins of Hansel and Gretel | Fables Explained - Jon Solo

[Music] what's up Solo cups my name is John solo and you're watching fables explain to show where I dive deep into folktale history and break down the often messed up origins behind your favorite childhood stories our last two fable episodes were back in November when we talked about the Billy Goats Gruff and all the different versions of Rumpelstiltskin from around the world so it's been a while for this series today we're discussing a folktale that we all heard at one point or another in our childhood Hansel and Gretel the little boy and girl who get lost in the woods find a witch with a house made of candy and push that witch in the oven when she tries to eat them also there's usually a trail of breadcrumbs involved while minor details change depending on where you heard the story be at the Disney cartoon Arthur the Opera or The Simpsons those four elements seem to remain constant and those were all taken from the version written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm what's interesting about that is that even though millions of people across time have been exposed to the Grimm brothers version I don't think they realize it nor have they read the story in its original form that's where I command will be starting today's journey through time with the final edition they published in their first collection of children's stories this is fables explained though so like always will be going much deeper than that and breaking down stories that are even more gruesome and more bizarre before we get started don't forget to smash that like button with all your heart so we can reach our goal of eight thousand likes and keep the solo fam growing strong and if you want content like this coming to your sub box every week subscribe and ring that bell to be notified whenever I upload and now fellas in females without further ado Hansel and Gretel the story starts by setting the scene we're following a little boy and girl named Hansel and Gretel who lived by a very large forest with their father and stepmother the father was a woodcutter and made very little money so the family was living on hard times for quite a while when a famine hit the region and left them with hardly any food and water late one night the father was laying in bed wide-awake and stressed about how he was going to support his family when his wife suggests that tomorrow morning they take his kids out to the forest and abandon them so they would have enough to eat to no surprise the father does not want to do this because those are his babies but his wife calls him a fool and says look it's either those two died or all four of us died do you prefer the woodcutter still wasn't convinced but just like any manipulative spouse she wouldn't let it go until he agreed what's probably the most heartbreaking part of this situation is that Hansel and Gretel were so hungry that night they couldn't fall asleep and they heard every word of their stepmothers plan Gretel began to cry but Hansel said worry not little sister I got this and he proceeded to sneak outside and stuff his pockets with little white pebbles that shined in the moonlight I'm sure you can figure out where this is going the next morning they were woken up rather rudely by their stepmother and taken deep into the forest where their father made them a little campfire and gave them each a piece of bread the stepmother tells them to wait by the campfire while she and their father gather wood the kids know what's going on but they're little kids so they do what they're told and wait in the forest until nightfall having already eaten their bread they were getting hungrier and more scared as time went on that is until the moon reached its peak and it's light shone down on the forest it turns out that Hansel was dropping those shiny white pebbles along the path they took with their parents and when the moon light illuminated those pebbles they found their way home by morning you're gonna love how the step mom greeted them by the way when she opened the front door and saw their adorable little faces looking up at her she yelled at them for sleeping so long in the forest and said we thought you wanted to stay there here's the things that's okay to say when you're at the McDonald's play place and your kid won't leave the ball pit you can start walking away and be sure they're gonna hop right out and be chasing after you and their socks shoes in hand I think this goes without saying but that's not okay to say when you abandon them in the woods to be eaten by wolves and bears and you're just a lying piece of garbage you'll be happy to know that the father was ecstatic that his kids made it home but it wasn't long before the family had almost completely run out of food and the wife suggested abandoning them in the forest again just like last time the woodcutter resisted but she broke him down eventually and once again Hansel and Gretel heard every word but unlike last time when Hansel tried sneaking outside he found the door had been locked so he had to come up with a new plan to try to find their way home fast-forward to the next day once again the kids are sitting by the campfire waiting to see if their parents come back of course they didn't and when the moon came up Hansel said to his sister come on I sprinkled some breadcrumbs on the way here so he can find her way home what Hansel didn't expect was for those breadcrumbs to be eaten by the wildlife and this time the parents brought them so deep into the forest they had no idea how to get the poor children wandered through the forest alone in Hungary for almost three days when they stumbled upon a house that appeared to be made entirely of food about 99% of the time when we hear this story the house is described as being made of candy but that wasn't exactly the case in the original version instead the houses walls were made of bread the roof was made of cake and the windows were made of clear sugar the children helped themselves but they weren't eating for long when they heard a voice call out nibble nibble little mouse who is nibbling at my house they responded the wind the wind the heavenly child and um I don't know exactly what that means because I'm not a religious scholar I can't tell you it wasn't in the stories first edition but more on those changes later an old woman comes out of the house soon after and starts gushing over the kids sympathizing with their being abandoned and says don't you angels worry about a thing I'm going to take care of you from now on she invites them inside makes him some pancakes puts them to bed and the kids fall asleep thinking everything's going to be alright however it didn't take long for this witch's friendly old lady charade to end in the next morning she picked up Hansel quietly while he was sleeping and locked him in a stall outside then she wakes up Gretel and orders her to fetch some water and make some food for her brother who she plans on fattening up and eating every day for the next four weeks Gretel was forced to make her brother a delicious meal while she was forced to eat only crab shells a little-known fact about witches is they have glowing red eyes and terrible eyesight if you've seen once upon a time this trait is reflected in their version of the tale whenever the witch would check to see how fat Hansel's got and he had to stick a finger through the cage but instead of his finger if the clever young lad would use a skinny little bone he found in his stall by the end of the month which was both confused and frustrated at how Hansel had eaten so much every day but remained skinny not to mention she was jealous of his wicked fast metabolism so one morning she wakes up Gretel and says fetch me some water whether your brother is fat or skinny tomorrow I'm gonna slaughter him boil him and eat him note that she said slaughter a word that we usually reserve for violent murder and for killing the animals that we eat I thought that was interesting because this was an artistic combination of both those things the next morning Gretel had to wake up early fill a kettle with water and build a fire imagine being a child than preparing the tools that are going to be used to kill and cook on family members talk about traumatizing once that was done than which dragged Gretel over to the oven and said we're gonna bake first because I already needed the dough and built the fire so I'm gonna need you to climb in and tell me if it's hot enough now Gretel ain't no chump she knows exactly what the witch is trying to do and responds climb in how exactly does one climb in the witch replies oh you stupid goose it's simple the opening is big enough even for me look and sticks her head in the opening at this moment Gretel saw her chance and took it she pushed the witch right into the oven slammed the door shut and stuck a metal bar through the handle so she couldn't get out the old woman was howling in pain but Gretel had no remorse she ran over to Hansel's cage and said we are free brother the witch shall trouble us no mole except it probably didn't sound as much like Thor talking to Loki now that they had nothin to fear they went inside the witch's house to look around and found chests of gold and jewels in every corner after stuffing their pockets with as many precious stones as they could they left for home they had been walking for a few hours when they came to a large body of water they had no way of crossing and recruited a helpful duck to carry them across once they got to the other side the wood started to grow more familiar and it wasn't long before they knew exactly where they were and how to get home when they finally saw their father's house off in the distance they broke into a dead sprint rushed inside and threw their arms around the woodcutter was overjoyed to see his babies again as he hadn't had a single happy moment since leaving them in the forest and in that time their stepmother had died can you say he got what she deserved then Hansel and Gretel turned out their pockets and showed their father all the golden jewels they stole from the wedge from that moment forward their troubles read an end and they lived happily ever after so that was the seventh and final edition of Hansel and Gretel and was published in 1857 their first edition was published in 1812 in their collection called children's and household tales and there are some differences between them admittedly most of them are just changes to the grammar and phrasing but one alteration I think you'll find interesting is the transformation from the mother character into the stepmother this happens in the fourth edition and from then on her character became harsher and more cruel to the children while the father became increasingly wet I can definitely see why they made that change it would have been a much weirder story if the real mother was that adamant about not to mention basically everyone has a bias against stepmothers including stepmothers so she made a good villain early on oh and also that random encounter with the duck wasn't in the original story either I don't know what compelled him to include that now as you guys know the Grimm's weren't just fairytale writers they were fairytale collectors and many of their stories were either inspired by or borrowed elements from tales they heard and read elsewhere experts believe they heard an earlier version of Hansel and Gretel at the home of Wilhelm's future wife sometime before they got together we don't know exactly what that story was but they did credit another collection of fairy tales published in 1634 for being a useful resource and highly influential over their own collection this book was called the Penta Maroni and written by the Italian author Geum Battista Vasily the pentamer Oni is interesting because in addition to the 50 stories it includes the book itself also has a plot in which those fifty stories are told if you've seen my episode on the messed-up origins of a lad and you might remember me mentioning the 1001 Arabian Nights collection which has a very similar format I want to make a video on each of these books because they both have plots I think you guys would find really messed up and really interesting so let me know what you think of that idea in the comments one of the stories in the penta Moroni is called Nanao and new nila and in addition to having similarities with Hansel and Gretel it also inspired the Grimm's to write another story called little brother and little sister we can't get into that one today but it's a very messed up story so I'll find an excuse to talk about it in the future anyway the setup is very similar nanio and danila who I'm just gonna call Nino and Ella for my sanity sake are the children of Janu Chiyo who's described as a good man they also have a stepmother who hates them with every fiber of her being a big difference in this story is the stepmother doesn't try to conceal her hatred at all excuse my language but she's a total also instead of convincing her husband to abandon his children so they don't all starve to death she does it solely because she doesn't want to look after someone else's kids and threatens to leave if she has to just like the woodcutter in the last story this guy is whipped so he gave in and brought his children deep in the woods with a basket of food instead of Nino being smart and dropping pebbles along the path Janu CHEO himself left a trail of ash on their way in he left his kids in the woods and said if they needed anything to follow the trail home the thing is they're little kids so as soon as nightfall came they got scared and immediately followed the trail home and their stepmom was not happy to see them here's the direct quote what fine piece of work is this is there no way of reading the house of these creatures is it possible husband that you were determined to keep them here to plague my very life out go take them out of my sight I'll not wait for the crowing of on the cackling of hens or else be assured that tomorrow morning I'll go off to my parents house for you do not deserve me I have not brought you so many fine things only to be made the slave of children who are not my own what I tell ya well Janu Chiyo was spineless so he gave in once more and brought the kids to the woods with a basket of food this time he left a trail of grain on the way in but just like in Hansel and Gretel the woodland creatures ate the path and as a result the children were lost in the woods it's at this point the story takes a big left turn and is no longer anything like Hansel and Gretel after wandering around the forest for a few days the children hear the sound of hunting dogs barking and out of fright Nino hides in a hollowed-out tree while Ella just books it in the opposite direction well as it turns out those were the princes hunting dogs and when he found Nina hiding in a tree he put the boy on his saddle and brought him to the royal palace it was there Nina learned a great many skills including carving and he became well known for his talents over the next four years meanwhile Ella ran so far and so fast when she heard those dogs she found her way out of the forest into the seashore where she was adopted by pirates wanted pirates when her new pirate daddy found out from his law clerk buddy that he was going to be arrested he fled to the high seas but that's where he wound up receiving his punishment a terrible storm capsized his boat and killed him and his entire family outside of Ella who didn't partake in his hoodrat shenanigans shortly after though she was swallowed by a giant fish who for some reason had beautiful gardens and a giant mansion inside his stomach yeah that came out of left field right the author doesn't provide any explanation for it either we're just supposed to accept that this is all in the fish's stomach she lived in that mansion for awhile when the fish brought her to Iraq that the princes vacation home just so happened to be on when the fish opens its mouth Ella sees Nino standing on a balcony and calls out to him saying brother brother your task is done the tables are laid out everyone but here in the fish I must sit in sigh oh brother without you I soon shall die a beautiful sonnet but sadly Nino didn't hear it fortunately though the prince did and he ordered his servants to draw the fish to land so they could save whoever wasn't sighs isn't this prince like a surprisingly good dude it's pretty awesome right it's so rare that royal characters and fairytales actually have a heart so it's kind of cool to see when he kept hearing the word brother being called out he asked every one of his servants if they ever lost a sister Nino responds that he recalls having a sister when he was young almost like it was a dream he approaches the fish at the exact moment it opens its mouth and out steps Ella who's overjoyed to be reunited with her brother she fills him in on some of the details of their previous lives and how they were abandoned and when the prince hears them he puts out a Royal Decree that anyone who lost two kids named neo and knew Neela should come to the Royal Palace I love the part that comes next Janu CHEO gets to the palace quick time and tells the prince the story of how he was pressured to abandon his kids after hearing all this the prince absolutely berated him for treating his children so poorly but as the book puts it after breaking janu Chios head with these words he applied a plaster of consolation he showed Janu Chiyo that Nina and Ella were alive and well and the man was overjoyed to see them again after the reunion was over the prince dress their father up all fancy-like and called upon the stepmother to ask her what kind of punishment does the person who wished to harm these children deserve this is where she dug her own grave thinking that she'd get some perks for being on the kids side she said well personally I'd lock him in a wine barrel and roll him down a mountain and that children is exactly what happened the most messed up part is she didn't even die from the initial roll down the mount but she stayed locked in the barrel phone's broken in countless ways until she suffocated to death meanwhile the Prince gave Ella to one of his richest friends to marry and gave Janu Chiyo the daughter of another friend to marry I know kind of weird the story ends with a great moral to him who mischief seeks shall mischief fall there comes an hour that recompense us all in other words you're not gonna get away with doing that thing that deep down you know you shouldn't be doing and that's a moral I can get behind so like I said you can definitely see the similarities between this story and Hansel and Gretel but they're definitely two totally different stories despite this they fall under the same category in the aren't Thompson type index which as you know is the official classification system use to organize folktales with similar narratives both can be classified as type 327 a the children in the wedge in the first story the witch is obviously the witch and in the second story the which is the stepmother but I did say 327 a which means there's a 327 be that category is called the small boy defeats the yogurt and it's where our next story belongs so this fable known as both little thumb and hop of my thumb was written in 1697 by Charles Perrault and was released along before Hansel and Gretel however it is pretty similar to the last few stories with some key differences instead of a little boy and girl being abandoned it's seven little boys and the youngest one was called little thumb because he was freakishly small and no one in his family liked them instead of a stepmother wanting to abandon the kids in this version it's the father who's worried he can't support them all in fact in this story his wife totally opposes the idea but ends up losing the argument so they try to abandon their sons the next day but little thumb heard their conversation that night and like Hansel left a trail of white pebbles so they could find their way home they weren't so lucky during the second attempt though and wandered the forest until they came upon a small house which they soon learned belonged to the cruelest ogre in the land that ogres wife who was a nice lady wanted to keep the boys and feed them but her good intentions backfired when the ogre returned and found the boys in his house he was gonna prepare them for eating that night but got blackout drunk instead and his wife convinced him to wait until the next morning now these two had seven ogre daughters and when the wife put the boys to bed they had to sleep in the same room as those daughters you might think this would lead to trouble for the boys but just the opposite because little thumb had a plan when he knew everyone in the room was asleep he swapped the night cabs that he and his brothers were wearing with the crowns that the ogre says were wearing later that night the ogre woke up and in his drunken stupor decided he was just gonna kill the boys now but because he was half blasted half asleep and it was dark he couldn't see exactly what he was doing and when he went into his daughter's room he felt their crowns on the boy's head mistaking them for his daughters he went to the other side where he felt the nightcaps and thought it was the boys in his confusion he cut the throat of each of his seven daughters then went back to bed as soon as little thumb heard the ogre nor he woke his brothers up and quietly said let's get dressed because it's time to go they snuck out the back door and ran through the forest all night long not even sure if they were going in the right direction the next morning when the ogre and his wife discovered his mistake he was absolutely furious and more determined than ever to kill the boys he put on his magic boots that allowed him to travel seven leagues with every step and took off after that when the boys were no farther than a hundred steps away from their old home they could see the ogre coming over the hills behind them so they hid inside a cave and waited by now the ogre was feeling exhausted from his journey and probably hungover so he laid down right next to that cave and took a nap while his brothers took the chance to run home little thump sneakily put the seven lead boots on himself they were enchanted so they could shrink to his tiny feet this con man in training then runs back to the ogres house and tells his wife that her husband had been captured by bandits and they were going to kill him if he didn't give them all his silver and gold the wife actually believes little thump too because he is after all wearing her husband's boots and how would that be possible if he didn't give them to him so she hands over all of their riches and little thumb runs back to his father's where he's welcomed back like a hero now for those who don't think that robbing that nice lady was the right thing to do don't worry there's an alternate ending little thumb uses those enchanted boots to start a messenger service that's faster and more reliable than any other and he and his family got very rich as a result so there you have it so Loaf am the original Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm and two of the messed up stories it was inspired by which one did you like best personally I think no neo and danila was my favorite but that was largely due to the writing style of the author which you guys only saw a snippet of I know you guys like hearing me tell these stories but I do recommend you check out the originals at some point because they're classics for a reason we're talking about them in 2019 for a reason anyway I think that'll do it for this episode of messed up origins if you had fun watching it and just as importantly learned yourself something do me a favor and smash that like button so we can reach our goal of 8000 likes this week and if you want more messed-up content just like this coming to your sub box almost every week subscribe and ring that bell as always for those diehard fans who want to stay updated on messed up origins news and what's going on behind the scenes you can follow me at any of the social media handles you see in front of you links are in the description down below thank you all for watching solo fam I'll be you very soon until then my name is John solo and remember John shot first [Music]

Channel: Jon Solo

Views: 1,636,982

Rating: 4.9531083 out of 5

Keywords: Messed Up Origins Hansel and Gretel, Messed up Origins, Fables Explained, Fables Explained Jon Solo, crypt fables explained, Hansel and Gretel story, Hansel and Gretel opera, brothers grimm stories, hansel and gretel brothers grimm, Messed up origins rumpelstiltskin, little red riding hood, disney explained, Little thumb, Jon Solo, Messed Up Origins Three Billy Goats Gruff, Humpty Dumpty, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Messed Up Origins of Aladdin, the ugly duckling story

Id: 3wP0uTTSKXU

Length: 19min 50sec (1190 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 08 2019