Lost in the Rabbit Hole

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