[PW] Hexenäuschen history (gingerbread house)

[Nina Gilbert]

Dear stumpers,

DEADLINE ALERT:  this is my last-minute finishing of a project that is due at noon Tuesday 8/14.

I'm still pursuing gingerbread and Lebkuchen!  I have my recipes now (will let you know when our study guide is online in a few weeks), but I have a new question.  

Which came first:  Hansel and Gretel, or gingerbread houses?

Background/notes:

- The Grimm brothers started collecting fairy tales around 1803 and published their first collection in 1812.  I'm vaguely aware of Giambattista Basile's Neapolitan fairy tales from the early seventeenth century -- while I haven't seen that, I think that his early version of Hansel & Gretel doesn't have a gingerbread house.

- Traditional German Christmas decorations include _Hexenäuschen_ -- a witch's house, made of Lebkuchen and decorated with candy.  I'm trying to follow up my educated guess that gingerbread houses migrated from that tradition into the Hansel & Gretel story rather than the other way around.

- I see "gingerbread-work" traced by the Oxford English Dictionary to 1748 as a description of "gaudy and tasteless" architectural ornaments.

- I've also traced the history of gingerbread's texture -- it got softer around the turn of the 20th century with the development of modern baking powder and baking soda.

- I would be thrilled to find a pre-1800 drawing of a gingerbread house.

Thank you,

Nina Gilbert
Education and Community Programs Manager, Boston Lyric Opera
 
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Nina Gilbert
ninagilbert at yahoo.com