The White Duck
helper · duck
Comes across a wide stretch of water when there is no bridge and no boat, and takes them over one at a time.
What they are like
- Kind
- 10/10
- Brave
- 6/10
- Clever
- 6/10
- Honest
- 10/10
- Curious
- 4/10
- Patient
- 9/10
How we meet them
As the answer to a problem Gretel has just said she cannot solve. Hansel points and says one word: 'There.'
Personality
Practical. She is small and they are not, so she makes two trips, and the story treats this as entirely obvious.
What they want
Unexplained, and the story is better for not explaining it.
How they change
Appears, does the job, is not mentioned again.
How they speak
Nothing at all.
How the story treats them
Neither child questions her for a second, which is very in keeping with how children treat help when it arrives.
One surprising thing
The two-trips detail is in the Grimms' original. It would have been easy to write a bigger bird, and it is much better that they did not.
If they were real today
She would be the stranger who drives you to the station and refuses petrol money.
Key moments
One at a time
She carries Hansel across first and comes back for Gretel, because she is a duck and they are two children, and there is no other sensible way to do it.
Characters like The White Duck
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