Gingerbread House

The Gingerbread House (aka Witch's House) was home to the witch Dahlia. It is located somewhere in the darker part of the forest of Daventry. The house itself is constructed with ginger bread, sugar cane and other kinds of candies.

Inside the house Graham found the note and the piece of cheese. This is also the place where he killed Dahlia by pushing her in a fiery oven (or a steaming cauldron).

Background

The home of the witch Dahlia. This house has been made famous by the story of Hansel and Gretel, the children of a poor woodcutter. The man's wife had died, and he married a woman who did not like children. She told him that they could not afford to feed the children, and convinced him to abandon them in the forest. Hansel and Gretel overheard their plans, however. As they were led deep into the woods, they dropped pebbles to mark their way home. Their stepmother was not at all amused when they returned home the next day.

Some time later the wicked woman convinced the man again to abandon the children so that there would be enough food for the two adults to eat. Again the children overheard, so they dropped crumbs behind as they were led deeper into the dark depths of the forest. This time though, a bird ate the crumbs, and the Hansel and Gretel discovered they were lost. On the third day, the hungry children followed another bird and came to a small house made all of gingerbread, with windows of sugar and windowsills of cake. The house was the home of a wicked witch. She imprisoned Hansel and began to fatten the boy in order to eat him. She enslaved Gretel and made the poor girl do her bidding, intending also to eat the girl.

One day the witch asked Gretel to climb into her large oven to check how the bread was baking. Gretel was clever enough to know that the witch intended to push her in and bake her, so Gretel acted stupid and asked the witch to show her exactly how to climb in. The moment the witch did so, Gretel pushed her in and slammed the door behind. She freed her brother. They took all the gold and jewels they could find from the house, and eventually found their way home. Their happy father greeted them warmly when he saw them--his nasty wife had died while they were gone and he asked them to forgive him. They lived happily ever after.^[1]

The couple that Graham met at the Woodcutter's House in Daventry, strongly resemble the people who abandoned Hansel and Gretel in the forest. They, too, were a woodcutter and wife who didn't have enough to eat. Perhaps they were the same people.^[2] If so, it is unclear how his wife came to be alive again (if she had truly died to begin with).

The inside of the house contains the witch's kitchen, a cage for holding captured victims, and her bedroom.

Some have described the house as having walls made of white cake, roof made of red frosting, white delicious-looking chimney, and a candy path and cookie fence. The fence was said to be made of chocolate chip cookies. The door was made from graham crackers held together with chocolate drop nails. Green food coloring surrounds the door, and yellow edging around the front of the house. It had windows made of translucent, hardened sugar.^[3] The inside of the house is fairly colorful, and looks like normal cottage on the inside, rather than candy.

Some who have seen the house claim that is made out of a huge gingerbread cupcake, with rich vanilla buttercream frosting for the roof. The chimney is made of gummy bricks, the door and fence are made of big tempting candy canes, and sourball stones and gumdrops are scattered around the yard. The windows are made from hardened sugar. The path to the front door is lined with little gingerbread boys and girls. The steps look like they are made out of vanilla fudge, but after years of being stepped on, they had gotten a wee bit filthy. Another small window of sugar-pane glass near the back of the cupcake.^[4] In contrast to the outside of the house, the inside of the house is dark and ominous.

It later became a landmark for tourists to Daventry. People who visit Daventry sometimes encounter dragons, snack on the gingerbread house, and converse with gnomes.^[5]

Behind the scenes

The house is usually just described as being made of gingerbread, or as a 'gingerbread house'. Several sources including the King's Questions refer to it as the 'Gingerbread House'.

The house is also known as the Witch's House in KQ1 hintbook, and KQ Companion, 3rd Edition map.

Hoyle I would suggest that the gingerbread house is still a landmark even up to the time of KQ4.