I've read on the Internet that, supposedly, the original version of Hansel and Gretel had a part where Hansel dies and is cooked into a meal by Gretel. Is that true? If so, is there a PDF of it online anywhere? Excerpt of the post that I've read about the supposed original version:
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1sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm015.html Hansel doesn't die in the Grimm version which is, to the best of my knowledge, the earliest extant version– ValorumCommented Sep 6, 2021 at 5:39
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Are there any fantasy elements in Hansel and Gretel?– user14111Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 7:23
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3There's an evil witch and a giant duck.– user73910Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 7:25
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2The gingerbread house seems kind of fantastic. Did the witch have supernatural help in building that?– user14111Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 7:59
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4How do you define "the original version" of something that one mother one boring evening came up with, told her children, who then told it to other children, whose mothers then heard it from their children, told it to other mothers and other children, each time with small variations, never written down, until finally, generations and decades later, Wilhelm Grimm condenses multiple different and contradicting versions of the story into one?– Jörg W MittagCommented Sep 6, 2021 at 8:56
1 Answer
According to The Disturbing True Story Behind Hansel and Gretel, the Grimm version is just one of the collections of that tale. The version you refer to seems to be The Little Boy and the Wicked Stepmother:
In this fairy tale, two children are abandoned and find their way home following a trail of ashes. But when they return home, the stepmother kills the little boy and forces the sister to prepare his corpse for a family meal. The horrified girl obeys...