Cannibalism & Witchcraft: The True Story of 'Hansel and Gretel'

Images made with Midjourney AI V4

music:
Arietta Op. 12 Nr. 1 - Edvard Grieg
Cello Concerto Op. 85 In E Minor, Op. 85 I. Adagio - Edward Elgar
Sarabandes - Erik Satie
Sonata No. 14 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 2 'Moonlight' - Ludwig van Beethoven
Swan Lake Dance of the Little Swans Act II - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Trollmors Vaggsang

sources:
Lucas, Henry S. (October 1930). "The great European Famine of 1315, 1316, 1317"
Nelson, Dr. Lynn H. "The Great Famine and the Black Death 1315–1317, 1346–1351"

[ctubbs]

It is easy to take the abundance of the modern world for granted. It's scary to think that if our food ran out, we all could be back in the same situation as Hansel and Gretel 's parents in a short time.

[everettlopez]

you have the perfect voice for video essays. these tales of child cannibalism are so soothing to my ears

[karennorris]

This story frightened me as a child. In the version I'm familiar with, Hansel would trick the which into thinking he was not yet fattened up by using a stick to fool the blind witch into thinking it was his finger. Little Red Riding Hood scared me also.

[julienicol]

I took a German fairy tale course in university, what is interesting is that originally the Brothers Grimm didn’t intend on having the stories be for children but they did eventually in later years publish a book intended for children as well as others copying the stories and publishing them too, this didn’t change much of the violence in the stories though. In actuality a lot of stories that later became fairytales were originally intended for an adult audience and contained a lot of sexual references and innuendos, the Brothers Grimm changed the stories so all of the sexual stuff was gone because they were scholars in good standing and very religious (they put a lot of Christian symbols in their versions of fairy tales, like sightings of doves by characters etc) and didn’t mind the violence but the sexual stuff was very much a no no for them. This makes sense in the context of them being very familiar with the bible and the violence in it. The violence in their stories is either “well deserved” in their eyes as in “God punishes the bad and evil characters for their sins” or it’s pointed out that it’s wrong and the good characters get saved somehow for the most part. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing that they left it in I just think that somethings would fly back then that would not today. Us and the Brothers Grimm live in vastly different times in lots of aspects. Edit: Also they usually changed the “bad mothers” or “evil mothers” to “step mothers” because they loved their own mother so much and didn’t want anyone to even have a chance to think that they may not like their own mother, they always wanted to honour her.

[radioruin]

The evil step mother trope is WAAAAY older than that. it’s a trope in ancient Roman literature

[heidismutti]

Stepmothers were super common as so many women died in childbirth. The stepmother was eager to do away with the OG children do her own children could inherit better.

[TheVioletWolf]

I wonder… my ex-husband used to work as a neurodiagnostics tech in a children’s hospital, and most of the “non-accidental trauma” done to children were of the step dads or the mom’s boyfriends… but that’s because a lot of the mothers of these poor babies were working while the guy was a home watching them. Back when the evil stepmother trope came about is because then it was 100% likely that men worked and women stay back to care for the kiddies.

[kitten_]

5:06 the music in the background is called Trollmors Vaggvisa and is a Swedish lullaby. My mother always used to sing it to me and my brother. It's about a troll mother singing to her 11 small trolls to sleep basically.

[erikgilson]

Where did Hansel get the breadcrumbs if they were starving. Sounds like he was holding out on bread he'd stashed

[Noelliuss]

The only difference with my version of the story is that it was the stepmother the one who pushed her husband to abandon the kids. The rest is the same, so dark!

[Tommuli_Haudankaivaja]

Napoleon didn't invade and fracture a "country" called Germany. Germany didn't exist until the end of the Franco-Prussian war in the 1870s.

Germany, during the invasions of Napoleon, were hundreds of vaguely allied kingdoms, duchies, and principalities. Napoleon actually condensed Germany into a few states.

Other than that, very entertaining and informative video. The mistake is easy to make, since the modern people we are, tend to simplify things like the HRE.

[Hiitsmeagain]

I remember back when I was in highschool back in the 1960s. Our history teacher taught us everything one needs to know about cannibalism. He was an exchange teacher visiting Australia for two years. He travelled all over the world teaching History and English literature. Learning other countries cultures. His knowledge on cannibalism was very detailed. Very detailed. The kids teased him about him being a caninabal he didn't deny it, said New Guinea was a good hunting spot.his knowledge on Mythology was also amazing.

[jimmyjimmy]

It wasn't "shockingly common, " it was "expectedly rare." There are very few accounts of cannibalism we have on record or through folk tale. During the great famine, that last a couple years, there are accounts of cannibalism, for example, although the specifics are often left out.

I dig your platform, though. Cool video style.

[kle]

Fascinating backstory! It’s so interesting to see how oral traditions change over time based on cultural norms and beliefs; and how the renditions are exemplary of the different times and places of societies.

Those picture are freaking awesome

[Kannot]

The purpose of fairy tales is to prepare kids for life not to entertain.

[philr]

My mother was German and had a book of fables that terrified me. Two tales I remember (I'm70 ) were the schnitermiester, a scary guy with huge scissors that cut thumbsucker's thumbs off with an illustration of a geyser of blood shooting out of a crying kid's thumb that just got whacked and another about a boy whom always looked up until he walked off the end of a pier and drowned. While still in Germany my older (7yrs) brother was stuffed in a bag and carried away by Krampus. He complained about that until the day he passed.

[ThatOneMarveller]

I am truly shocked that you aren’t super popular by now. Your content is amazing. Thank you for posting. You will be very big very soon.

[MalO.ver..x]

The original stories behind a lot of those fairy tales are sometimes more wicked and disturbing than anyone could ever imagine.

[PySimpleGUI]

Continuing my swim upstream finding more great writing and art. Every video is incredibly educational and overflows with compassion. Keep letting it flow! 🧡

[AzuraTarot]

as others have already commented, cannibalism was exceedingly rare, even during the greatest famines. The reason why the hags or witches of folk tales are so keen on catching and eating children (or people in general) is that originally, they weren't human at all, they were fairies, just like many hags of celtic folklore. That's where their magic powers come from.
Gradually, some of the fairy hags, able to fly and cast spells, were replaced or thought to be human women who sold their soul to the "devil" (invariably a fae-like figure based on celtic and other pagan deities), even though clearly, no human woman has any of the powers commonly ascribed to (real, supernatural) witches.
Maybe because the officials needed some scapegoats to burn, and catching a supernatural entity is rather difficult :P