Lost in the Rabbit Hole

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Are you ready for PART TWO, where we continue the tale of the abandoned children, "Little Brother and Little Sister", aka Hansel and Gretel?

"Tale Types: Abandoned Children
What’s always so fun about these tales is to see how they are often mash-ups of other sorts of tales, but with a core narrative running through. For many of these abandoned children tales, we have three recurrent patterns:

1. the children are lost in some manner in a forest,
2. they meet an ogre,
3. there’s a “show me how” moment within the tale, and
4. the children return home."

Versions Referenced in this episode:

• "Little Brother and Little Sister" aka "Hansel and Gretel" (Germany, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, 1812-1840)
• "Ninnillo and Nennella" (Italy, Giambattista Basile, 1635) also here
• "Little Thumb" aka "Hop on my Thumb" (France, Charles Perrault, 1697)
• "Jan and Hanna" (Poland, author unknown, 1863)
• "Finette Cedron" aka Cunning Cinders, (France, Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, 1967)
• "Little Earth Cow" (Alsace, Martin Montanus, 1557)

Reference Materials
The Golden Age of Folk and Fairy Tales: From the Brothers Grimm to Andrew Lang by Jack Zipes
The Classic Fairytales, Iona and Peter Opie
The Third Horseman A STORY OF WEATHER, WAR, AND THE FAMINE HISTORY FORGOT By William Rosen