Riddle me this...

[temporus]

Okay,

If Hansel and Gretel were being left in the woods because their family couldn't afford to feed them, how the heck did Hansel manage to have enough bread that he thought his trail of breadcrumbs would lead him back home?   I mean, is it just me, or is that one heck of a plot hole?

(Yes, I have been reading my son fairy tales, why do you ask?)

Comments

[imago1.livejournal.com]

The stepmother was hoarding.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

See, these are the critical details that the kid versions leave out. But then, what did I expect from a picture book that cost a dollar and looks like 50 cents worth of production value.

[imago1.livejournal.com]

Hee, dunno if I'm right. Although, the versions I've read indicate abandoning the children is a preventative measure, so there's still food in the house....

The original tales are ghastly. Snow White's stepmother was made to dance during SW's wedding ceremony in red-hot iron shoes until she died, frx.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I honestly would not be surprised. It's been quite some time since I studied folklore in college, and we only went over a few of the classics. They were certainly not the Disnified versions all neat and pretty. I can't say that people were more morbid in prior centuries, but it sure seems so. I was listening to New Music monday night on NPR, and they were playing several versions of a 17th C (or 18th not sure) English Murder Ballad, and it was quite haunting, and yet the tune and the words have been with me all week.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Lol, good point :)

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was evidence of the poverty -- they only had the one bit of bread, no cheese or meat or fruit or anything to eat with it. A very meager lunch.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I imagine the bread was made with sawdust mixed in with the flour, to stretch it out. Still, just how long a trail could you even make with a whole loaf of bread. Even if you could manage to keep the birds away?

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen an estimate for how many miles it is from the normal world into fairyland *g*

It's also much more likely that they would be eaten by a wolf or die of hypothermia than that they'd take refuge in a house made of candy. That kind of logic just isn't how fairy tales operate.