Gambling Hansel
Introduction
'Gambling Hansel' is the 82nd tale in Grimm (in Low German, 'De Spielhansl'). Folklorists class it as type ATU 330 — the great 'Smith Outwits the Devil' family of comic legends about 'a sly little nobody outwitting Death and Hell.' It is a close brother to 'Brother Lustig' and 'The Tailor in Heaven,' which we've read: all tell of an idle but endearingly clever fellow who gives shelter to God and St. Peter travelling in disguise, wins a reward, and then, by one mishap after another, turns the afterworld upside down. Its most famous scene is the magic tree that 'no one who climbs up can climb down' — Hansel coaxes Death up it to pick fruit and keeps him trapped for seven whole years, so that for a time no one on earth can die. 'Tricking Death or the Devil up a tree and keeping him stuck' is a very widespread motif. Here's a striking fact worth mentioning: scholars, borrowing the methods biologists use to trace family trees of genes, have reconstructed the 'ancestry' of ATU 330 tales like 'The Smith and the Devil' and estimate that its earliest form may be astonishingly old — reaching back thousands of years, perhaps to the Bronze Age, making it one of the oldest stories known to humankind. And this tale's ending is a classic 'origin legend': Hansel is thrown out of Heaven, his soul shattered to fragments that 'went into the gamblers alive this very day' — so it turns out to be an old joke explaining 'where the world's gamblers came from.'
Vocabulary from "Gambling Hansel"
12 key words from this story with definitions and original context sentences for language learners.
To risk money on cards, dice or a game of chance.
赌博；赌钱。
There was once a man who did nothing at all but gamble, and for that reason nobody ever called him anything but Gambling Hansel.
从前有个人，成天除了赌钱什么也不干，所以谁也不叫他别的名字，只叫他赌徒汉赛尔。
People to whom money is owed.
债主。
On the very day before his creditors were to take the house from him, the Lord and Saint Peter came by and asked him for a night's shelter.
债主要来收房子的前一天，主和圣彼得路过，向他讨一夜的落脚地。
A place that protects you from weather or danger.
住处；栖身之所。
On the very day before his creditors were to take the house from him, the Lord and Saint Peter came by and asked him for a night's shelter.
债主要来收房子的前一天，主和圣彼得路过，向他讨一夜的落脚地。
People who wander about with no home or steady work.
流浪汉；无赖。
But when he passed the house where the other gambling vagabonds were gathered, they greeted him with a great shout, although they had already won everything he had.
可他路过那些赌棍聚头的屋子时，他们冲他大声嚷嚷起来——尽管他身上的一切早被他们赢光了。
The channel at the edge of a road that carries away water.
阴沟；路边水沟。
As soon as Gambling Hansel appeared, he made out that the money had rolled into the gutter, and went on raking about in it to look for it.
赌徒汉赛尔一露面，便装作钱掉进了阴沟，一直在里头扒拉着找。
"Led astray" means talked into doing something wrong.
误入歧途；被带偏。
Saint Peter gave him three groschen again, and this time he did not let himself be led astray, but brought back the loaf.
圣彼得又给了他三个格罗申，这一回他没再让人拉走，把面包买了回来。
Large wooden barrels for wine or beer.
酒桶。
"Alas, sir, the casks are all empty," he said.
“唉，先生，桶都空了，”他说。
A room below a house, often used for storing wine.
地窖；酒窖。
But the Lord sent him down to the cellar, saying the best wine of all was waiting there.
可主打发他下地窖去，说最好的酒还在那儿等着。
Small cubes with spots, thrown in games of chance.
骰子。
But Gambling Hansel asked for a pack of cards that would win him everything, for dice that would win him everything, and for a tree that would grow every kind of fruit, and from which nobody who had climbed up could come down again until he gave the word.
可赌徒汉赛尔求的是：一副能赢遍一切的纸牌，一副能赢遍一切的骰子，还有一棵能结各种果子的树——凡是爬上去的人，不等他发话就下不来。
"In earnest" means seriously and for real.
认真地；动真格。
Now Gambling Hansel set to gambling in real earnest, and before long he had won half the world.
赌徒汉赛尔这下动起真格来了，没多久就赢下了半个世界。
Badly or strangely shaped.
畸形的；样子扭曲的。
Lucifer had nothing to lose but his misshapen devils, and Gambling Hansel won every one of them from him — as he could hardly fail to do with those cards.
路西法除了那群畸形的小鬼再没别的可输，赌徒汉赛尔就把它们一个个全赢了过来——凭他那副牌，想输也难。
A loud, continuous, unpleasant noise.
喧闹声；嘈杂。
But Gambling Hansel started to play the very moment he was inside, and there was such a din and confusion that nobody could hear a word anyone said.
可赌徒汉赛尔一进门就赌了起来，闹得又吵又乱，人说话彼此都听不见。
Reading Together & Learning More
The Moral
This is a comedy at once absurd and quietly pointed. God gives Hansel a golden chance to 'ask for Heaven,' yet all he can think of is gambling — he asks for unbeatable cards and dice. With that 'cheat code' he wins half the world, tricks Death, and cleans out Hell, but what does it come to in the end? Heaven won't have him, Purgatory finds him too noisy, Hell he throws into uproar, and at last even his soul is shattered to fragments. Through this gambler whom no place will take, the story tells us: when a person is gripped fast by an addiction, even the greatest luck and opportunity will only be fed to that bottomless craving — until he leaves himself nowhere to belong.
Educational Value
Good for talking with older children about addiction and choice: faced with a chance to 'ask for anything,' Hansel reveals what he truly values most — not Heaven, but to keep on gambling. This is a fine springboard for reflection: what a person chooses when they 'could wish for anything' shows best what really has hold of them. The story is also an 'origin legend' (it ends by saying his shattered soul went into 'all the gamblers alive today'), a way to meet the old folk-tale delight in 'explaining where something came from.'
Tips for Parents
A note: this tale is full of religious and cultural elements — God, St. Peter, Death, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, Lucifer — and has 'gambling' as an explicit theme, so it's best read to children over 8 who can take it as an exaggerated fable. Please note clearly: the story is in no way 'encouraging gambling' — quite the opposite, it uses a whole series of absurd comeuppances (driven off everywhere, his soul shattered) to mock the man who cannot quit his gambling habit. As you read, you can point out that irony: Hansel can win anything, yet the one thing he loses is a home to belong to. It's also a natural opening to talk about 'why gambling pulls people in deeper and deeper.' The religious settings (Heaven / Purgatory / Hell) are European cultural background — treat them as a window onto a foreign culture, with no need to delve into doctrine.
Talk About It
- God lets Hansel make three wishes, expecting him to ask for Heaven, yet he asks for unbeatable cards and dice. What does that choice reveal about what he values most?
- Hansel uses his unbeatable gambling tools and the tree that traps Death, and wins almost everything. So why does he end up refused by Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell alike?
- The story is certainly not praising gambling — it mocks Hansel by having him 'driven off everywhere.' Why do you think the author gives him such an absurd comeuppance?
- Hansel traps Death in the tree for seven years, and no one on earth dies. That sounds like a good thing — but if truly 'no one could ever die,' what would the world become?
- The story ends by saying his shattered soul became 'all the gamblers of today.' Do you know any other old stories that 'explain where something came from'?
