A Tale Dark and Grimm

These opening chapters introduce Hansel and Gretel, the world of Grimm (built upon the stories by the Grimm Brothers), and the conflicts that set Hansel and Gretel on their adventures. In A Tale Dark and Grimm, Hansel and Gretel’s story begins before their birth, which shows how there is always more to a story than might appear.

These chapters illustrate The Power of Storytelling. By linking different stories, Gidwitz shows a larger picture than each self-contained fairy tale and comments on the nature of narrative. In Chapter 2, the narrator reveals how the familiar story of two children lured into a house of sweets is only part of the greater tale. Chapter 1 is the setup for Hansel and Gretel’s story, as well as a story in its own right, and Chapter 3 continues the Hansel and Gretel story, showing what might have happened after the children escaped the candy house.

A Tale Dark and Grimm is ultimately a story about family and relationships, and The Importance of Supporting Others. However, Gidwitz shows how family members, even though acting with good intentions, are flawed and make questionable decisions. In Chapter 1, the king beheads his own children to bring back Johannes, who then restores Hansel and Gretel to life. This is all accomplished because of magical “rules” that are not explained, as is traditional for fairy tales. It doesn’t matter how the magic works, so long as it allows the story to progress.

The narrative subverts fairy tale tropes. Hansel and Gretel’s decision to run away upends traditional fairy tales by showing it as a logical reaction to what their parents did. In traditional fairy tales, the characters undergo awful events or are treated poorly, only for all to be forgiven so the story can end. Gidwitz’s Hansel and Gretel choose not to accept what has been done to them and instead look for a better situation.

Chapter 1 is based on the Brothers Grimm tale of the same name, “Faithful Johannes.” Gidwitz stays true to the story while inserting his signature humor characteristic of the book. In the original fairy tale, the dying king asked Johannes to show the prince the entire castle, except for the picture of the princess (referred to as the princess of the golden roof), and the prince is overcome with love and the desire to win her heart. The princess is tricked out of her castle in the original story as well; Gidwitz comments on this by having the narrator explain that it is a terrible way to go about winning someone’s affection. In the original fairy tale, the princess forgave the prince for kidnapping her and agreed to wed him as soon as she learned he was royalty. A Tale Dark and Grimm subverts this trope of early fairy tales by offering modern-day commentary on the ethics of tricking someone to earn their love and trust.

Chapter 2 rewrites the traditional Hansel and Gretel story with some twists. In the original tale, Hansel and Gretel (spelled Grethel) were the children of a poor woodcutter; Gidwitz makes the children royalty in A Tale Dark and Grimm to fit the overall narrative and interweaving of stories. Gidwitz inserts humor by having Hansel unknowingly take leftovers with him into the oven and by thinking he smells delicious while he’s cooking. This detracts from some of the ominousness and makes the story more appropriate for younger readers. The story ends as the original tale does—with Hansel and Gretel trapping the woman in the oven and running away. Rather than returning home, though, the children move on to the next part of their adventure.

Chapter 3 is based on the Grimm tale “The Seven Ravens,” and Gidwitz yet again stays mostly true to the Grimm version. In the Grimm version, the man and woman had a daughter who was born sickly. The seven sons dropped the tub into the well filling it for an emergency baptism of the daughter, which shows the influence Christianity played in the original Grimm stories. Like in Gidwitz’s version, the father curses his sons to turn into birds; in the Grimm tale, this curse might have had religious significance. Like Hansel and Gretel, the daughter in Grimm’s tale set forth to find her brothers, crossing paths with the hot sun and creepy moon; Gidwitz pokes fun at this by having the narrator confess he looked up the original story and discovered the moon does eat children, again adding humor and mitigating the dark subject matter.

To rescue the sons, Hansel and Gretel gain aid from the stars, a common trope of fairy tales. Stars are known for granting wishes and possessing magic. The chicken bone that the stars give Gretel to unlock the Crystal Mountain (the Glass Mountain in the Grimm version) is true to their helpful nature.