Includes mentions ofFoodLossAnimalsFireWeatherForestChildren
Hansel and Gretel
A Sleepbound Bedtime Retelling
Tonight's reading is free — and part one of every series stays free, always. Over 500 more, and every new one first, are on Sleepbound Premium. → patreon.com/c/SleepBound
Our other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after: → Sleepbound Nights — original cosy bedtime stories for grown-ups: Apple Podcasts → Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts
Tonight we step back to the edge of the great forest — Hansel with the wooden wren in his pocket, Gretel watching for the white bird among the bean-rows, and their father humming a slow going-down tune into the dark after them. The hunger hasn't come yet. The good years are still going by, quiet as a stream.
This is a slow, fairy-tale reading for sleep — soft spoken, no music. No urgency. Just the woodcutter's fire, the sound of cold water over mossy stone, and two children who know the wood the way other children know the rooms of a house.
We've taken the old story and breathed more room into it — room for summer afternoons by the spring, for a little birch-bark boat, for the warmth of a remembered voice. It's a bedtime telling: unhurried, close, and made for the hour when the world shrinks to the small gold reach of the firelight.
Settle in. There's no rush to what comes next.
Thanks for making space for stories like this one. Sweet dreams.
— Ian & Alex
💤 This story is for you if
You fall asleep better with a voice than with silence
You love fairy tales told slowly, with room to breathe
You want something gentle enough to actually let go
Cottages at the forest's edge and firelit evenings are your kind of bedtime
🌙 Best experienced
Headphones on. Lights off. Somewhere warm.
Let the going-down tune do the rest.
