This tale was probably forgotten over the years due to the strong nature of its heroine. Fairy tales we remember tend to be the ones with damsels in distress, but Gretel in this story is smart and strong of character. She needs no saving, which is one reason I admire the tale.
The tale is one of gluttony and an insane sense of reasoning. This cook, Gretel, is to make dinner for her master and a guest. She finishes before the guest arrives, they will be eating freshly cooked chickens, and sends the master to check on the whereabouts of the guest. One thing leads to another while he is gone, and she eats both chickens and polished off a couple bottles of wine. Her wits save her from the master’s wrath in the end, though.
This is a folk tale that has probably been lost because it deals with a child as its hero. Just like women were supposed to be weak, so were children. The only tales that survive and remain popular with children as heroes are Hänsel and Gretel, and Jack and the Beanstalk, at least in their original forms. Little Red Riding Hood was never a heroine in the original tale. It is also a rather bloody tale and so isn’t seen as tame enough for modern children to read.
There was a couple who had way too many children and not nearly enough means to feed and clothe them all. So they took the three youngest and left them in a wood to fend for themselves. The youngest was Molly Whuppie. They find themselves at s giant’s house, and we all know giants batter and kill strange children, but they go in anyway they are so hungry. The giant comes home and Molly finds a way to trick him, and he ends up beating his own children to death instead. The three wayfarers escape and meet up with a king, who promises them marriages if Molly does three tasks to prove her cleverness. In the end, she accomplishes the feats, but things get even bloodier by the end. She is exceedingly smart, but the tale is full of too many deaths of innocents.
3. The Brothers Grimm had many a tale just like this one, with bravery and wits overcoming brute strength and weakness of mind. Many of these tales actually survived and made their way into our modern fairy tales like the aforementioned Jack and the Beanstalk, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This one may have been a little too extraordinary to believe, and so was left behind in the retelling of tales from generation to generation.
This little tailor killed seven flies with one blow of his towel, and thus began his series of heroic deeds. Except his deeds weren’t quite heroic, not in the typical sense. He tricked and hoodwinked people, giants, and animals, including a king, a wild boar, and a unicorn, so that he had truly “earned” the title of hero. He even swindled the king out of his daughter and half his kingdom. Everyone was so afraid of him in the end that his kingdom was secure, and it was all built on a series of lies and a false bravado bred from killing flies.
2. Blue Beard
I am fascinated by this folk tale because it introduces the ideas of prejudice and an acknowledged serial killer, something rare in the world of folk tales. We, as readers, are predisposed to feel for Blue Beard because people are afraid of him due to the color of his beard. But then we find out he is a serial killer and that pity goes completely away. I believe this tale didn’t survive for many reasons, not the least of which was the gruesome death cellar his recent wife stumbles onto due to her curiosity.
Blue Beard was very wealthy, with many lands and possessions, but no one wanted to wed him for two reasons. He had a shocking blue beard, which freaked people out to no end. Difference was not accepted in the land of this tale. The second reason was that he had been married several times previously, and no one knew what had happened to his former wives. Of course we find out he has killed them and kept their dead bodies in a small room in his house. His current wife’s curiosity leads her to the room and he promises to kill her too. She is saved by her brothers, however, and Blue Beard is slayed. The moral of the story is that curiosity brings regret. Luckily the villain does not win the day in this instance.
1. The Frog King or Iron Heinrich
This one is a little trickier than the previous four because, odds are, you’ve heard some variations of this tale. Indeed, the great Disney even did a loose version of it in its stellar film, The Princess and the Frog. However, the original tale by who else but the Brothers Grimm included Heinrich, and I believe he actually makes the tale, improving upon it vastly. He is inexorably left out of the modern tellings, and the king from the title has often been made a mere prince instead.
The princess here is quite spoiled and full of herself, unlike most damsels in distress we see in surviving fairy tales. They are usually sweet, caring, and appreciative, but she is none of the above. When the poor frog rescues her ball from the spring, she agrees to make him her companion for life, but then leaves him there. She doesn’t think of the consequences that her actions bring, and when he follows her home, she attempts to again get out of the promise she made. The king, her father, is honorable, unlike a lot of kings we see in these tales, and he tries to teach her how to honor her commitments and promises. I am impressed with him, but she obeys him quite grudgingly. After dashing the frog against the wall because she finds him nasty, somehow she is still rewarded when he turns into a king and she marries him.
The glory of the tale, though, is in the young servant, Heinrich, who is everything the princess is not. He is loyal and faithful to his duties and promises. He had three iron rings forged around his heart to keep it from breaking when his master was turned into a frog by sorcery and he is overjoyed that the curse has been lifted. Indeed, his iron rings break one by one from his heart being joyous at his master’s return to form. He is the real focus of the story, and its moral as well. Funny how he was lost along the way, as forgotten as the precious four folk tales.
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 
I remember n°3. He was impressed with killing the flies, he made himself a belt that said seven at one blow. People thought he meant something other than flies and that’s how he got into adventures.
Blue beard’s name was Gilles de Retz (Rais) and he lived near the western coast of France, south of Brittany.
I love these connections you’ve drawn here!
Read The Light Princess.
Off to do as bidden, princess.
George MacDonald is my favorite fairy tale-r. : )
Ha ha. Tale-r, sounds like tailor. Brave man was he. On chapter three…
Of the Light Princess, how? And he was a fairy tailor, too. 😉
I found a website where it was broken up into chapters, ma’am. Yes indeed, fairies abound everywhere, Tink.
I’ll have to clap my hands.
Are you liking it?
Now you got me singing. “Clap yo hands. Clap yo hands…” And yes, I thought it was an entertaining read. Thanks for suggesting it!