Hansel and Gretel was a horror story of youthful alienation centuries before Germany’s Brothers Grimm collected it in book form. According to the folklore emerging from medieval Europe’s great famine of the early 14th century, the brother and sister were abandoned in the woods by starving parents who could no longer feed them, only to encounter a predatory cannibalistic witch.
A master of deception, the witch aimed to fatten the naive children with her tempting gingerbread house and then gorge upon their youth.
