These things don’t get written overnight.
And while I take notes (and I have lots and lots of notes) it’s helpful to flip through artwork, even if it’s from 500-odd years after someone originally dreamed up the story. This painting (from Wikimedia Commons) is by Alexander Zick (1845 – 1907).
The thing about Hansel & Gretel, the bit that we don’t really know anymore, is that the story comes to us from a time of widespread famine in Europe. There was a local shift in the climate, and it rained on the whole damned continent for all of 1315-1317. This was WAY worse than Noah. Although, to be sure, it was biblical in scale.
To make a long story short, people starved. Everywhere. And there was — possibly — cannibalism in Europe.
Suddenly, the story of Hansel & Gretel makes sense.
I learned about this at an art history lecture a couple of winters ago, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.. Having heard those words for the first time — cannibalism in Europe — I knew what my next story was going to be. And everything else about the lecture was wiped from my memory. Really. I can’t remember a single detail.
But that’s okay. I know where I’m going with this. Check in with me from time to time.