Hansel and Grettel Commentary

The original tale has the father aware of the children being abandoned by his wife as he assists her in that treachery. Then at the end the children return to the father with treasure galore and all live happily ever after. The Grimm Fairy tales (as well as others) for whatever reason, term rewards in the sense of generic riches of money and jewels. It seemed to me that the true restoration at the end of the tale was the implied end of the famine, which occured after the death of the wicked keeper of the house of cakes and candy. And thus the variation here on the end where I identify the Sugarhouse Woman as Famine Maker, and rather than have the children escaping with bags of jewels, I have them walk out of the forest to instead find the land being restored to a fruitful state.

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