Blog Post #10: Grimm

 

One subject I wish we focused more on during this semester’s class is how witches play into Medieval European folklore. In light of this, a tale that is particularly interesting to me is that of Hansel and Gretel. This has been especially true ever since I heard the original version of said tale, as well as the cultural events that spawned it. And, although this version is not dramatically different from the well-known story today, the context from which the Brothers Grimm’s first edition (an edition that was meant for fellow scholars, not children) was informed makes the story much more psychologically sobering.

To the original story, then: it is 1300’s Northern Germany; a famine has crippled the region after the widespread introduction of agriculture spurned a population boom (of which the land was not capable of supporting) and, subsequently, a mini ice age. So, because they cannot feed a family of four, a mother and father decide to leave their children, Hansel and Gretel, in the woods, hoping that whatever type of death befell them there would be more merciful than one by starvation. However, Hansel, having overheard his parents’ discussion, decides to leave a trail of breadcrumbs back to their house. Unfortunately, birds swoop down on the breadcrumbs and eat them, leaving Hansel and Gretel to wander the woods in search of civilization. Instead, Hansel and Gretel happen upon a house made of cake and candy, a house that is, of course, the alluring trap of a witch who wishes to eat the lost children. After Hansel and Gretel eventually defeat the witch though, they steal her jewels, head back home, and make it through the rest the famine.

Now, while the understanding that Hansel and Gretel’s own parents left them to starve in the woods shocked me during this reread, what is even more shocking is the understanding that such an action was actually commonplace. Yes, the German Famine of 1315 was, in fact, real, meaning many parents eventually faced the same abhorrent decision as Hansel and Gretel’s did, with some even choosing to eat their children themselves. Scarcity breeds creativity, after all.

Kidding aside, this harsh reality was not the only one reflected in Hansel and Gretel’s story. Indeed, after the Great Famine had ceased, the German populace searched far and wide for a scapegoat, someone to blame for the suffering they had just endured. Naturally, witches and/or old, ostracized women were the first subject of finger-pointing, with the politicians of the day fanning this rumor so that they themselves were not the next object of public ire. Either way, such finger-pointing eventually led to one of the largest witch hunts in recorded history, as 3,200 people were killed in Southwestern Germany alone. Part this high degree of death was due to the fact that anyone accused of witchcraft was liable to receive an unethical amount of torture, even if their accuser’s evidence was as scarce as their country’s crops a year prior. Even some of the politicians that fanned this rumor were accused and convicted by their aristocratic rivals.

However, examples aside, the point remains: mass paranoia can occur at any time. Whether its 1310s Germany, 1690s Salem, or 1950s America, when a civilization is firmly convinced that their life, afterlife, or way of life is threatened by an invisible enemy, that civilization is subsequently subject to a significant moral nadir.

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