Little Red Riding Hood

Once there was a little girl whom everyone loved, her grandmother most of all. The grandmother gave her a riding hood of red velvet, and the child would wear nothing else, so everyone called her Little Red Riding Hood.

One morning her mother said, “Take this cake and bottle of wine to your grandmother. She is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Keep to the path, or you will fall and break the bottle.”

“I promise to take great care,” said Little Red Riding Hood.

Her grandmother lived out in the wood, and just inside the trees a wolf met Little Red Riding Hood. She was not afraid, for she did not know what a wicked creature he was.

“Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,” said the wolf. “Where are you going so early?”

“To my grandmother’s. She is ill, and I am taking her cake and wine.”

“And where does your grandmother live?”

“A quarter of an hour on, under the three big oak trees.”

What a tender young thing, thought the wolf. If I am clever, I shall have them both. So he walked beside her and said, “Look at the flowers all around you. Do you not hear how sweetly the birds sing?”

Little Red Riding Hood looked up. Sunbeams danced among the trees and flowers stood everywhere, so she left the path to pick a bunch for her grandmother. Every flower showed her a prettier one further on, until she was deep in the wood.

The wolf went straight on to the house and knocked.

“Who is there?”

“Little Red Riding Hood, with cake and wine. Open the door.”

“Lift the latch,” called the grandmother. “I am too weak to get up.”

He lifted the latch, went to the bed without a word, and swallowed the grandmother whole. Then he put on her cap and clothes, lay in her bed and drew the curtains.

When she had picked so many flowers that she could carry no more, Little Red Riding Hood remembered her grandmother and hurried on. The door stood open, and the room felt so strange that she grew uneasy. She called, “Good morning,” but no one answered, and when she drew back the curtains, there lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, looking very odd.

“Oh, grandmother, what big ears you have!”

“All the better to hear you with, my child.”

“Oh, grandmother, what big eyes you have!”

“All the better to see you with, my child.”

“Oh, grandmother, what big hands you have!”

“All the better to take hold of you with, my child.”

“But, grandmother, what a great big mouth you have!”

“All the better to eat you with!”

With that the wolf sprang from the bed and swallowed her too.

He lay down again and fell asleep, snoring so loudly that a huntsman passing by came in to see what was wrong. In the bed lay the wolf.

“So I find you here, you old villain,” said the huntsman.

He raised his gun, then thought the grandmother might still be saved, so instead of shooting he took a pair of scissors and worked quietly over the sleeping wolf, until a flash of red showed and out sprang the little girl.

“How frightened I was,” she cried, “and how dark it was in there!”

The old grandmother came out too, alive though she could hardly breathe. Little Red Riding Hood fetched great stones, and they filled the wolf with them, so that when he woke he fell down and never rose again.

All three were glad. The huntsman went home with the wolf’s skin, the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine, and Little Red Riding Hood promised herself never again to leave the path when her mother had forbidden it.

It is told that another time a second wolf tried to coax her from the path, but she walked straight on and told her grandmother about his wicked look. So they locked the door, and when the wolf knocked and called that he was Little Red Riding Hood, no one opened the door.

He climbed onto the roof to wait for her in the dark, but the grandmother knew what he wanted. She had the girl fill the stone trough by the door with the water her sausages had boiled in, and the smell rose to the roof. He stretched his neck so far that he slipped and fell in, and that was the end of him. Little Red Riding Hood went home happily, and no one ever did her any harm.