It is easy to take the abundance of the modern world for granted. It's scary to think that if our food ran out, we all could be back in the same situation as Hansel and Gretel 's parents in a short time.
The alleged "abundance of the modern world" is taking a long time to reach the 3rd world. Plenty of people still starving out there. I think you're referring to first world abundance that depends on the looting and pillaging of the third world
@ryanpmcguire it's a lengthy historical development to describe but I'll try to summarize key details. Its started with the age of colonial empires. Western euorpane nations that would eventually become the 1st world conquered, looted, and raped entire continents and parts of Asia such as India and Vietnam primarily due to a huge technologicaladvantage. After sucking out resources and wealth from these places that would eventually become the 3rd world, the west allowed them to become. " independent" but still held great influence and control over their economy. Sometimes the 3rd world goes too far to act in their own interest, so the west intervenes with regime change to install a political leader that is more friendly to western business interests. Key examples of 3rd world countries having their resources and wealth exported to the 1st world are Dole(standard fruit company) in Central America, lithium extraction in Bolivia, and cobalt extraction in the Congo
@chriswaters2327Women were pretty much the property of their husband, so the father wasn't really viewed as evil no matter how he treated his wife and children.
its nature. lions kill the children of their new wives so the wife would he motivated to fornicate with him, thus making him pass on his genes. new partners of all species will always be jealous of their partner investing recourses into offspring of someone else.
I think it's unsaid that the mother was the witch. Please do the Juniper Tree and The Army Surgeons, also the Jew Among Thorns (early anti Semetic tale, really bad)
This story frightened me as a child. In the version I'm familiar with, Hansel would trick the which into thinking he was not yet fattened up by using a stick to fool the blind witch into thinking it was his finger. Little Red Riding Hood scared me also.
do you know that fairy tale about pauline who ended up literally being cremated because she used matches? the reason i didnt dare to touch matches until i was 7 lmao
I read the original little mermaid 🧜♀️ when I was a kid pre Disney version. It doesn’t turn out for her. It stuck with me to this day for some reason. I was at the beach last week and when the fog lifted and the sun started to hit the water I started saying to the person I was with, “have you ever heard the original little mermaid? 🧜♀️ She dies at the end. Cursed to be the shimmering reflection in the ocean.🌊” history was brutal.
I took a German fairy tale course in university, what is interesting is that originally the Brothers Grimm didn’t intend on having the stories be for children but they did eventually in later years publish a book intended for children as well as others copying the stories and publishing them too, this didn’t change much of the violence in the stories though. In actuality a lot of stories that later became fairytales were originally intended for an adult audience and contained a lot of sexual references and innuendos, the Brothers Grimm changed the stories so all of the sexual stuff was gone because they were scholars in good standing and very religious (they put a lot of Christian symbols in their versions of fairy tales, like sightings of doves by characters etc) and didn’t mind the violence but the sexual stuff was very much a no no for them. This makes sense in the context of them being very familiar with the bible and the violence in it. The violence in their stories is either “well deserved” in their eyes as in “God punishes the bad and evil characters for their sins” or it’s pointed out that it’s wrong and the good characters get saved somehow for the most part. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing that they left it in I just think that somethings would fly back then that would not today. Us and the Brothers Grimm live in vastly different times in lots of aspects. Edit: Also they usually changed the “bad mothers” or “evil mothers” to “step mothers” because they loved their own mother so much and didn’t want anyone to even have a chance to think that they may not like their own mother, they always wanted to honour her.
@@andrefilipe9042 I’m sure that they are documented somewhere, just not by the Brothers Grimm. There are also probably several different versions of the original vulgar stories since they were primarily told by word of mouth rather then read and written down, they were usually tavern/drinking stories of the common folk but also in latter years more sanitized and told to royalty and aristocracy by servants who were common folk themselves,like the man who is usually referenced as the origin of the story of Cinderella, Charles Perrault.
@@andrefilipe9042 The stories I know about are the original version of "Little Red Riding Hood" which actually ends with the wolf eating the girl. The Brothers Grimm didn't want it to end that way, so they took the ending of "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats" and pasted it to the story. Then there's the fact that "true love's first kiss" practically never is a way to save anyone. In "The Frog Prince", the princess doesn't kiss the frog to turn him back into a prince, she throws him against the wall. In "Snow White", the prince just falls in love with the beautiful dead princess and asks the dwarfs if he can have her. In an attempt to transport the glass coffin, it falls down and breaks, and through the impact, the bit of poisonous apple falls out of her throat and she awakens. In "Sleeping Beauty", it's not a prince, it's actually a king that finds her, and he doesn't kiss her, he just plainly r*apes her. She goes on sleeping and gives birth to twins, one of which, while trying to find the mother's breast, sucks on her finger and thus takes the splinter out, awakening her. In the absolutely darkest version, she then tries to find the father of her children, and succeeds only for the king's wife to get jealous, take her kids from her, cook them and serve them up to her unfaithful husband in revenge.
Stepmothers were super common as so many women died in childbirth. The stepmother was eager to do away with the OG children do her own children could inherit better.
Yes, but in many of the original stories, the birth mothers were alive and they were the ones being jealous of their children and harming them. The stories changed the mother to stepmother because the idea of birth mothers being so horrid to their children was a bit hard to take..... Even though it's happened and still does. Originally, Cinderella's father was alive, but constantly too drunk to know what was going on in his own home to his own daughter.
5:06 the music in the background is called Trollmors Vaggvisa and is a Swedish lullaby. My mother always used to sing it to me and my brother. It's about a troll mother singing to her 11 small trolls to sleep basically.
Same here, only in Norwegian, but the part about: "Aj, aj, aj, aj, aj, BOFF, Aj aj aj aj aj BOFF Aj AJ AJ AJ AJ AAAJ AJ, Aj, aj aj aj aj boff. " must be Swedish. 😛 Also "svansen" is kept in the Norwegian version, even if "halen" would be more logical. So I think you must be right about the origin.
@@bossdogs9199I'm not seeing it listed in the music credits but it sounds like La Folia to me (there's versions by Vivaldi and Correlli and a bajillion recordings of each). I wish there were specifics links to the recordings in the description; they're all really high quality versions of some of my favorite pieces and I'd like to know what specific performer it is
@@vivianhudson9145 Thank you so, so much! My knowledge of Classical and Baroque is next to none, I was at a complete loss. If I find the performance in this video I'll let you know. Thanks again
I wonder… my ex-husband used to work as a neurodiagnostics tech in a children’s hospital, and most of the “non-accidental trauma” done to children were of the step dads or the mom’s boyfriends… but that’s because a lot of the mothers of these poor babies were working while the guy was a home watching them. Back when the evil stepmother trope came about is because then it was 100% likely that men worked and women stay back to care for the kiddies.
That's so sad. Your husband must be really strong. I don't think I could deal with seeing kids in that state, especially knowing it's not an accident 😢
@@erikgilson1687 🥰, but it is not only a childrens story and I think it is much older than it is told here. Full of archetypes. I am German by the way and grown up with all these tales. I think children learn a lot out of it and get a lot of strengh ! I remember talking with my patient grandma about it after listening . Her answers to my questions and her reaction to my feelings were lessons for me. That makes it so wonderful to tell these stories to children. You take so much out of their expression and questions either and thus telling the story it is always a fresh and a new experience. You must respect childrens spirit seriously !
The only difference with my version of the story is that it was the stepmother the one who pushed her husband to abandon the kids. The rest is the same, so dark!
The brothers Grimm’s tales went through several editions fairly quickly when they were first published. Starting right after the first edition, Wilhelmina Grimm began sanitizing the stories, making them less jarring to readers. As a part of this, the evil mother in many stories became evil stepmothers (this is from the forward to the English language translation of the first edition by Jack Zipes.)
My mother was German and had a book of fables that terrified me. Two tales I remember (I'm70 ) were the schnitermiester, a scary guy with huge scissors that cut thumbsucker's thumbs off with an illustration of a geyser of blood shooting out of a crying kid's thumb that just got whacked and another about a boy whom always looked up until he walked off the end of a pier and drowned. While still in Germany my older (7yrs) brother was stuffed in a bag and carried away by Krampus. He complained about that until the day he passed.
Hey, did you mean "struwelpeter"? Like the short story collection? I'm German and we still have that book in the children's book section, even though no one reads those terrifying Storys to their children anymore. But at 21, my friends and I remember being read that by our (grand-) parents. It's more of a cultural thing know.
@@ninalanwert4298 I'm not German but lived there between the ages of 15months and 9 and a half years old, and yeah the Struwwelpeter book/collection of stories was present in my childhood - I hated both the Daumenlutscher story and the one of the girl who burnt herself down cause she kept playing with matchsticks
Fascinating backstory! It’s so interesting to see how oral traditions change over time based on cultural norms and beliefs; and how the renditions are exemplary of the different times and places of societies. Those picture are freaking awesome
It wasn't "shockingly common," it was "expectedly rare." There are very few accounts of cannibalism we have on record or through folk tale. During the great famine, that last a couple years, there are accounts of cannibalism, for example, although the specifics are often left out. I dig your platform, though. Cool video style.
@@jimmyjimmy7240 The b.s. euro-propaganda passed off as "history" is only currently believed by either small children and the small minded such as yourself.
i guess we can never confirm how often this happened, but i dont think it was that rare. there were dead people everywhere and even people selling meat saying it came from animals.. hunger is a crazy force which can make you do unimaginable things...
Continuing my swim upstream finding more great writing and art. Every video is incredibly educational and overflows with compassion. Keep letting it flow! 🧡
as others have already commented, cannibalism was exceedingly rare, even during the greatest famines. The reason why the hags or witches of folk tales are so keen on catching and eating children (or people in general) is that originally, they weren't human at all, they were fairies, just like many hags of celtic folklore. That's where their magic powers come from. Gradually, some of the fairy hags, able to fly and cast spells, were replaced or thought to be human women who sold their soul to the "devil" (invariably a fae-like figure based on celtic and other pagan deities), even though clearly, no human woman has any of the powers commonly ascribed to (real, supernatural) witches. Maybe because the officials needed some scapegoats to burn, and catching a supernatural entity is rather difficult :P
Thanks for the info, I didn’t consider it that way, I knew druids and animal forests were vilified. The Catholic Church worked really hard to get the monopole on religious beliefs…
An interesting dichotomy... A story about horrific and tragic children's stories told through artistic images, classical music and an articulate monologue! Well done!
I just got introduced to your channel, and I want to say that I find your content, not only very well told and interesting, but very calming. I am going through a very stressed and sleep depraved period, and your videos helped me gain some sleep and rest. Keep up with a great work! You have brilliant narration and ideas!
Napoleon didn't invade and fracture a "country" called Germany. Germany didn't exist until the end of the Franco-Prussian war in the 1870s. Germany, during the invasions of Napoleon, were hundreds of vaguely allied kingdoms, duchies, and principalities. Napoleon actually condensed Germany into a few states. Other than that, very entertaining and informative video. The mistake is easy to make, since the modern people we are, tend to simplify things like the HRE.
@@BigKnecht I'm not going to write a 10 page essay on the HRE here. He could've just said that Napoleon invaded the German people or that he invaded the HRE. It wasn't really the point of the video, so some simplification is acceptable, but just saying a plainly incorrect thing isn't good.
While this could easily be an audio only podcast, the choice or art work and type face through this video (and others) is amazing, i love it. Are any of the pieces original?
The medieval period is 476 to 1453 AD from the fall of Rome to the fall of Byzantiym. *The medieval church did not believe in witches* the medieval inquisitions and burnings were about *heresey* (professing a version of Christianity with any deviation from the Church's doctrine) and even that was mostly in high/late middle ages (after 1100), as previously the clergy had debates with heretics (but kept losing the debates, so decided to change tack to killing them). In Rennaissance period In 1486-1529 two German priests Kramer and later Spraeger published Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) trying to say demonalatry and sorcery were taking place especially among women and to categorize them as forms of heresey (which was already illegal and could result in being burnt alive). Its basically Kramer having issues about sex and women with an obvious torture kink. Even then the Catholic Church CONDEMNED the idea and book (maybe why the book became popular) and held a tribunal which was suspended due to Kramers obsession with sexual practices of alleged witches and his own illegalities. It was only in the EARLY MODERN PERIOD of 1600s that the book resurfaced and its methods really began to be widely employed. Even then, it wasnt so much the Church that sought after witches (they were still much more concerned with heretics) but the regular people. It was essentially a hysterical populist movement.
In Spain, I believe the context of their inquisition was a cover for political purging, since back then, religion and nationalism was intertwined. During the Reconquista, wars and battles were lost due to Muslim, Jewish and Christian spies. Heck, the Ottomans took Constantinople with the help of Christian spies at their service.
Yeah, Americans who make videos like this tend to ride roughshod over certain details to fit their own understandings of politics and culture. Another commenter pointed out that "Germany" was not a national entity at this point in time. The references to "politicians" and the "working class" in 13thc. Europe are also just laughable. Also, where did he get the idea that agriculture was only just spreading to Europe by then? A really good style and presentation on these videos, but the author or his scriptwriter need to brush up and stop pandering to an ill-educated Yankee crowd.
Thank you! So many misleading things in this video, like the idea that cannibalism was "common", it's a shame the misinformation that is being praised because of good visuals and high production value. The investigative part of it is certainly lacking.
I felt mesmerised watching the video. It's so well made, full of immaculate artistic visuals, with befitting background scores to amplify the experience. Absolutely loved it
1:04 “Napoleon successfully invaded Germany and fragmented the country”. What does this mean when Germany wasn’t a unified country at the time? How could it be even more fragmented than it was before?
Germany was the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation at the time. Meaning that essentialy all Germans were untited in one Reich under one German (Roman) Kaiser. Friedrich ll. Barbarossa being the most prominet example. The people back then considered themselves german, living in a german reich, under a german Kaiser. Naopleon came and destroyed the HRE. Annexing part of it and forcing parts of it under his rule, even forcing them to fight against thier own german brothers.
Your references to times in history are way off. Napoleon didn't shatter Germany, you could argue he even made it more united than it was. Also, agriculture spreading through Europe in the 13th century? So what did Romans eat?
I mean, Hänsel und Gretel we're made during the 1600s, during the thirty years war. Atleast, that's what's generally claimed where I live. But yeah, while my home was spared of witchmania, we suffered pretty badly during the war, so it's no wonder that even if it's from the 1300s, people who heard about it after the 30 years war broke out would assume it's about that war. I still can't help but doubt the medival interpretation tough, after all, 1300s was far before Luther popularized witches. Most folktales from that period had the devil making deals and bets, not witches. Papal authority was strong enough that superstition was still a punishable offense, as a precursor crime to heresy.
I remember back when I was in highschool back in the 1960s. Our history teacher taught us everything one needs to know about cannibalism. He was an exchange teacher visiting Australia for two years. He travelled all over the world teaching History and English literature. Learning other countries cultures. His knowledge on cannibalism was very detailed. Very detailed. The kids teased him about him being a caninabal he didn't deny it, said New Guinea was a good hunting spot.his knowledge on Mythology was also amazing.
@@henkdachiefSoufflé it but cook it slow human meat has a sweet taste too it but when cook fast at high temperatures can Give it more can change the taste of it
Your teacher had very outdated cannibalism stories considering I am from New Guinea and we don't do that sure our ancestors did at one point as either of pay homage to the dead or as to kill off their enemy's spirit but who else's ancestors in this world haven't practiced or practiced the consumption of human meat. The "New Guinea was a good hunting spot" is old and derogatory and a very biased joke white folks liked to use on the colored less white passing natives of the land check before you start posting on the internet
I think you meant the 16 and 17th century’s witch craze. The middle ages saw virtually no witch burnings as we understand them today. Since this time did indeed see increased famine and war in Europe and since the vast cases of accusations were brought by women against other women, it is thought that competition anxiety over dwindling resources may have played a part in the developing mass hysteria.
Witch craze was also mostly an Anglo and German thing. There was practically zero witch burnings in Italy and Spain, since they mostly focused on cracking down heresy. Believing in witches will actually get you more in trouble than being accused as a witch
Exactly thank you it’s also a misconception that Germans canabalized their children etc folklore is fabrication this guy is trying to breath life it to something that never existed, if they were that starving they would have resorted to eating dogs pets and rats.
There is a harrowing account of cannibalism from my neck of the woods during the Great Famine Of 1695-1697. A mother murdered her 6 year old daughter and had her son kill his 7 year old brother who were both eaten. They also killed and ate a boy who was looking for food.
It also happened durimg sieges. Even the generally, historically accepted parts of the Bible mention it. The woman who complained to the king that her friend suggested they eat the first woman's child first and then her own, but hid her own after helpimg eat the first child.
During the late Middle Ages (the period in question here) rural societies came with a lot of imagination to justify child slaughter during hard winters or famines. We don't know a lot about these rituals (because nothing was written about them, they were kept secret by villagers), however we do have a very specific description of one particular, central France ritual. Whenever someone (mostly mothers) wanted to abandon their child, they would gather other villagers and take the child to the forest. There, they took the child through certain trees, walking around them with them. When it was over, they let the child to his death, but they believed (or convinced them so) that little dwarfs and spirits of the forests would turn them in "changelins", a type of dwarf that belonged to the forest. The Church started to know about these rituals and punish some of these villagers accused by burying them alive (that was the sentence for child murder)
Idk if you have a team or what but even if you do these videos are ridiculously high quality. Everything fits perfectly the music the animations. Chefs kiss. As a side note your voice fits with the content so well. Fascinating history of world events and literature. Hope your channel picks up steam!
@@Evan345gdf As someone who draws and is an art historian some of the drawings that are here might look like they have the same kind of style but you can see some nuances that indicate that its not by a hand or by one artist. Also there’s a lack of a list in which he credits the artists and I doubt he drew so many drawings that basically shows the same scene P.s: found a comment where he said he used AI
@@Evan345gdfits also false information, it was not normal for people in the middle ages to eat kids or hunt witches. The witch hunts were really common in the period called „Frühe Neuzeit“. The Brothers Grimm were also born much later after the middle ages, which makes most of the points in the video pretty dumb. But it has become a common thing to blame all bad characteristics and events, in human history, on the Middle Ages even though research takes a completely different point of view on this.
I just want to make a slight correction - the famines and witch hunts of the little ice age technically began around the middle of the 16th century, making it part of the Renaissance or early modern period by most measures. Witch hunts in general were mostly more of a protestant thing, too. Medieval Catholics frequently relied on astrologers and witches for charms and healing, and there was more of a sense that only evil magic was definitely satanic (though certainly many theologians and saints were vocal in their condemnation of those "superstitions," the general consensus among many of the clergy was that it was mostly harmless unless used malevolently by someone who actually channeled demons (mostly they assumed they were just charlatans).
@@wormwoodcocktail thank you! Now, I should be clear that the middle ages were a long time (1,000 years), and there were many diverse cultures and trends, so there absolutely were places and times in that period when witch hunts did occur, but they were generally much less organized and over a shorter period of time/smaller area than in the "enlightenment" era (like most things 😅). Also, it's not that people in the middle ages were especially open minded or lacking superstition or fear of demons; it's just that in their worldview (generally, again it's a big span of time and multitudes of people), magic was just a natural part of the world (like applied science) and was only good or bad in the manner it was used.
@@M4TCH3SM4L0N3 Exactly. The demographics of who was targeted varied, too. I consider the witch hunts in places like continental Europe to be sexicides / mass murders of women for being women. However, you have cases like those in Iceland where most “witches” were men.
I think stigmatising and people and modern witchhunts are still very common here. At least in some villages, maybe its in the genetics :D Feels like people are more direct because irritation can lead to misunderstandings and fights back in barbaric villages times. It seems fear rules a lot of things in german society sadly. I mean the people are voting a far-right party like crazy, many knowing its not okay but the fear and hate took over. Its all subtle and indirect action, but its still the same or not? Hope im just seeing this to critical.
@@DerPijO What is 'far right' about them though? Far right to some can mean saying a man cannot get pregnant remember, or that a nation should have a border.
This video seems to follow a lot of the tropes and misconceptions about witches/witch hunts that are very common in pop culture but with very little historical backing
Strong similarities between folktales are logical when cultures are not geographically far apart like Germany and Italy. However, there is a Vietnamese folktale called Tấm and Cám that is eerily similar to Cindarella. Vietnam and Europe are definitely not geographically close. My guess is that many folktales just happen to converge through intrinsic values of right and wrong and end up similar by coincidence. Another possibility is that some folktales are spread through merchants or similar. Just a thought. *Edit* Typos
There are many version of cinderella, you have the chinese one with the fish and fur slippers, the ancient Egyptian one where cinderella was a greek slave who ended up marrying the pharaoh and so on.
I agree, it’s like moral and ethical reasoning is universal. I always found it fascinating that every ancient civilization has a story about the Great Flood.
Collective moral consciousness, and/or someone from one culture went to another culture, and both shared their culture. We see this with food, ideas, and goods due to trade that occurred between certain nations in the past, so I’m sure this also holds true for some of the fairy tales and legends.
hansel and gretel, has a happy ending... the mother wanting to abandon the kids dies. dad gets his kids back. and makes perfect logical sense for the mother and witch to be the same person. she was the one wanting to abandon the kids, knowing they'd stumble upon her witch house. and she can't very well easily cage one and enslave the other in the house with the father.
I like your storytelling but there are a lot of inaccuracies. It's Hänsel not Hansel and the pronunciation is wrong. The story is way older (oral tradition!) so it can't be explained by 1300s famines. The persecution of "witches" started waayy later (after the medieval ages) so has nothing to do with the story. Also the "cannibalism was common"-trope has no base. "Napoleon invaded Germany and fragmented the country" - ?? There was no German country, it was fragmented before and became united after (very simplified version). In most versions it's the stepmother that sends the children away, not the mother.
I believe that agriculture spread across Europe way earlier than medieval times . And famines went back much further too. It's been suggested that our fairy tales date back to prehistory.
and 6 days later he has 118K lol. he is great and is growing in extraordinary speed which is definitely deserved. now i wonder how much he will have by the end of the month
Stepmothers were often evil because they were more interested in funneling resources to their own children rather than to the kids of the previous wife... and as you said, lots of women died in childbirth, so there were many stepmothers.
My stepmother is like that; it's not only in the past. When my father died, all his property went to her children. My brother and I didn't even get photos (she hates us, so I suspect she threw them away).
My great grandmother was a midwife in Hungary before the first world war. My grandfather would tell me the story about how when a baby was delivered, she would look up to the parents, and if they reached out for the baby she handed them the baby to start nursing, etc. but if they turned away or looked at the floor, she covered their mouth or took the baby with her to leave supposedly in the woods and
There was a time of famine and witchunts much closer to the time of the Grimms than the 1300s, the 30 years war of 1618-48 was followed by famine and a series of witchunts.
The story of Hansel and Gretel is not a true story. But it was first created and told within a completely genuine and entirely true historical context. It is a faithful reflection of the 1310s. This is a story published for academics. This is a work of history, not fiction.
Hansel and Gretel’s parents: we don’t have enough food, we have to get rid of the children. Also Hansel and Gretel’s parents: leaves breadcrumb or oat trailz
Your voice is just great for these types of videos, especially for people where english is not their first language. It somehow keeps me listening closely - combined with the beautiful art and editing.
Abandoning the children as they are burdens to the food resources, reminds me of the tale of grandparents being carried out into the mountains in Japan. This is how people on all different continents dealt with the burden of having to feed a mouth that doesn’t seem to do much pulling up their own weight.
I would assume the mother or the step mother is the witch, as she died upon the return. Also I find it hard to see these households as patriarchal when the fathers are so pussy whipped into abandoning the children they don't want to abandon.
The man may have wanted to abandon his kids as well, but instead of admitting it, he blamed it on his wife, a convenient scapegoat. It's such a common trope in these stories, vs the reality of those times, that the origin of it all is likely boring old sexism, like Horse points out. In the end it's patriarchal in that the men can villainize women and continue to justify their poor treatment and lack of rights.
@@liptoncunningham6666A truer version of the story might be that, once out of sight of civilization, mother and father's hunger makes them the witch and the ogre. The parents literally could have a slaughter shed in the woods. The cannibalism case someone cited mentioned preying a strange child, so perhaps Hansel and Gretel were just the latest foundlings taken in and tricked into trusting their new parents. Gretel's servitude has the odd image of an apprentice, however (like a child procurer of other children) and the witch's death feels like someone tacking on a "all witches get burned so everyone is safe!" homily--with Gretel's collusion in her murder pointing how to avoid getting involved in witchcraft. Kill the witch first! Just some speculation.
I was taught that the stepmother trope comes from fears (or reality) of stepmothers killing off dad’s kids for inheritance to go to hers or theirs. I would guess it’s partly that & partly anti-royalty sentiment in general at the time, as greedy noble stepmothers have been known, historically, to do exactly this. I was also taught that the violence was included because that was just reality, children were extremely vulnerable to human predators like now, but also wolves, rivers, rocks etc - there’s almost no safety infrastructure at that time. Kids had to be aware of the dangers of the world, or they could easily be killed. We adjust our ethics & our sensitivities to the world we inhabit.
Well, i live in Germany, pretty close to the place where the Grimms came from and i still learn stuff about it i*ve actually never heard of by an American! That is just awesome, Dude. Big Fan of your work!
Your channel is so good. You get these messages all the time. And of course YT algo is shutting the bed on you. I am getting early days V sauce vibes re quality for my curiosity and learning "bone" but in a very unique and different vein. This almost feels like a stoics journal on their musings illustrated and narrated in the style appropriate to same mind.
Interesting theory, though the way I see it is nothing more than a recaption of two random articles that also tell us nothing about the actual backstory. I am happy to share the most common theory that I grew up with and it's actually still told by the German city of Quedlinburg (mind you, their research probably filled out a lot of blanks, too): Hansel and Gretel Metzger were not children but a married couple from Nuremberg. Before his marriage, Hansel had insistently pursued another woman called Katharina Schladerer. Schladerer earned her living as a baker. Her business was that successful that we have a number of documents to prove that she existed. Schladerer originated from Wernigerode and later Quedlinburg around 1618, where she learned the art of making gingerbread at the local monastery. When she moved to Nuremberg, she either became serious competition or Hansel simply saw an opportunity to get rich, we don't know. Anyhow, it is told that he stalked her and she turned him down. Hansel then married Gretel, they killed the baker in her home, looked for her famous gingerbread receipe in vain and, to cover up the crime, burned her corpse. They allegedly called Schladerer a witch and said that she had kidnapped and tried to eat Hansel. Thanks to Gretel's bravery, he was saved from cannibalism.
liked the style of the video, thanks for producing it. The only thing wondering me is the reference to "politicians", given that during these times democracy was still far away and the power lay in monarchy / aristocracy.
Hagazussa is a german film that deals with all these topics without being a Hansel and Gretel story. Wow european history is truly mostly people killing each other the whole time. Thanks for the awesome channel!
@@PeterTaviawkNewsWe have footage of chimpanzees going to organized war against other chimps. We have archaeological evidence of the same for Stone Age man and hominids. Violence is inherent in our system.
I don't know what he's on about. We don't print books for children with that kind of horror in them but the oral tradition is still just as grotesque and violent as it always have been. Today it's about escaped mental patients, evil clowns, a lady in the mirror, baby sitters cooking the family's chuldren etc. I think it's called urban legends when we talk about modern folklore.
I dont remember exactly where l heard it from but my favorite interpretation is who the antagonist of the story really was, not the step mother nor the witch, but the famine that brought starvation to all the characters, it was the famine that caused the parents to abandon their children, it was the famine that caused the siblings to be lured to the candied house, and the famine that cause the witch to eat children in the first place
Napoleon fragmented Germany? From where do you have these Informations? Napoleon ended the „Heiliges Römisches Reich“. Within this „Realm“ where a lot Feudal States and Ministates that now had to Regroup. But the Fragmentation started within the „Heilige Römische Reich“. The Whitch Hunts did not happen in the Dark Middle Ages but much later. Who told you History?
My late wife's mother is German. Born in 1937, she grew up a peasant in a tiny village in Bayern. Let me tell you - old German CHILDRENS' TALES were HARD CORE. I know this from German children's books she's collected that are reprints / retells of old folk tales that are at 100 yrs and MUCH older. I also know it from some of the tales she used to tell me. I also know it because she went through the stepmother crisis. Some of the tales are absolutely BIZARRE. "Der Struwwelpeter" is about a boy who won't stop sucking his thumbs so a tall tailor cuts the kid's thumbs off! There are MANY tales like this geared towards scaring obedience out of the kids. When I realized how strange this stuff was I could see just how much Hitler appealed to this dark malevolant militant side of German culture and thinking😳When her mother died in 1943 from illness, her father remarried. Her step-mother didn't put up with the abuse her mother was subjected to by her father but the stepmother was also a hard woman. It took Germany a good ten years after the war ended to finally start getting back on its feet, so her stepmother forced her to leave and go find work in Munich when my mother-in-law was just 14 yrs old. Can you imagine????
In first or second grade our class went to see a theater production of the original story and it was just as dark as you'd described it's kind of bizzare to look back on it and wonder about how disturbing my favourite folktales actually were. Between german theater and turkish light puppet shows of similarly violent tales (that probably wouldn't fly past sensors today) it's a wonder I grew up to be as well adjusted as I am. That said I do think Introducing children to some concepts of violence through as safe a format as a story or play is actually important for their development and something they will benefit from in the long run. But that's just my personal opinion on the matter. Anyways this was a wonderful video, I believe I learned a lot from it! ❤ Ps: If you haven't done it yet I think an analysis of Frau Holle like this could be interesting as well! Eitherway keep up the good work! 😊
The Old Testament is just like that. I am reading it now fully. And it is a historical recall we all need to know. We need to understand why the violence. Today we want no punishment for sin also. God has been merciful, but we were maybe best when the Lord would not. Overpopulation I think is the basic cause of all evil.
@@loanicastillo3327 Not Christian buddy, I follow another religion. I love my community and culture but my people are very traditionalist there's a lot about the "old ways" I don't agree with especially if they strip me of my basic human rights. I'm a hobby literary historian I love analyzing old texts and I do agree that there's a lot we can learn when looking back at the wisdom of or ancestors but I find it important to not dismiss the phylosophy and wisdom of the present. There's a lot we have forgotten but there's just as much we've discovered and learned. Learn from the past but don't turn your back to the present.
@@acanimatics906 Well, present philosophy is about having sex without ever being married and promoting lgbtiq ideas in public and using non organic materials like plastic that we never reuse or recycle and a lot of Industry and Zero labor and manual work in the fields just as women not being house wives anymore but workers. I find just killing people was a lot more assertive and ecological.
I would not blame sexism for the antagonists being women since the heroine, if you think about it, it is also of the same sex. Both the witch and the mother show a cruel logic and a conniving way of acting but so does Gretel, although she showed patience (by persevering when her brother could not, doing the chores without causing any waves until the perfect moment arrives) which both the antagonist were lacking, making her more virtuous, and the hero by saving her brother and returning to her family
As a child I was read these stories by my grandfather, i continue this tradition today with my own son. Great Children's stories no matter how people feel about them.
I always thought the "evil stepmother" trope was based on some Roman empress or noble woman. She wanted to kill her stepson so her own son could be emperor? I thought it was Messalina, but I'm not sure.
I grew up rural for parts of my childhood. Like ten+ miles from the closest neighbor. The school was a single room chapel, pioneer style. There was only one tiny mom and pop shop. And the tiniest library you could imagine (my personal one is bigger now). It was about a hundred miles from the closest actual small town with a grocery store... When the winter hits; you start really eyeing how well the dog gets to eat and feeling jelli. I tell my kids a lot, there's two sets of rules in the world: when there's a famine and when there's not. Everyone fallows these rules; we're just lucky enough to live in a country and time where we are blessed with food made available to even the poorest of families (healthy food is a different story, of course; but I digress).
