Little Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time, there lived a sweet little girl who was loved by everyone who knew her. But it was her grandmother who loved her most of all and gave her presents whenever she could. Once she gave the little girl a red velvet cap, and because it suited her so well and she wore it all the time, people took to calling her Little Red Riding Hood.

One day, her mother said to her, “Come here, Little Red Riding Hood. Take this cake and bottle of wine to your grandmother. She is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and walk properly and nicely. Don’t stray from the path, or you might fall and break the bottle, and then grandmother would get nothing. And when you enter her parlor, don’t forget to say ‘Good morning,’ and don’t peek in all the corners first.”

“I’ll be very careful,” Little Red Riding Hood promised her mother. She tied on her red cap, tucked the basket over her arm, and set off down the path.

Her grandmother lived in a cottage deep in the woods, half an hour’s walk from the village. As Little Red Riding Hood entered the forest, she met a wolf. Not knowing what a wicked creature he was, she wasn’t afraid of him.

“Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,” said the wolf, trying to sound friendly.

“Good day to you, wolf,” she replied politely.

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

“To my grandmother’s house,” she answered. “She’s been ill, and I’m taking her some cake and wine to make her feel better.”

“Where does your grandmother live?” inquired the wolf.

“Her cottage is a good quarter hour further into the forest, under the three large oak trees. You’ll recognize it by the hazel bushes,” Little Red Riding Hood explained innocently.

The wolf thought to himself, “What a tender young thing she is. What a nice plump mouthful she’ll be. If I’m clever, I can get both her and her grandmother.” So he walked alongside Little Red Riding Hood for a while and then said, “Little Red Riding Hood, have you noticed the beautiful flowers in the forest? Why don’t you look around? I believe you haven’t even heard how sweetly the little birds are singing. You’re walking straight ahead as if you were going to school, while everything in the forest is so delightful!”

Little Red Riding Hood glanced around and saw the sunbeams dancing through the trees and the beautiful flowers growing everywhere. She thought, “If I bring grandmother a fresh bouquet, that would please her. It’s still early, and I’ll arrive in plenty of time.”

So she left the path and wandered into the woods to pick flowers. Each time she picked one, she thought she saw an even more beautiful one further on, and she kept going deeper and deeper into the forest.

Meanwhile, the wolf ran straight to the grandmother’s house and knocked on the door.

“Who’s there?” called the grandmother’s weak voice from inside.

“It’s Little Red Riding Hood,” the wolf answered, disguising his gruff voice. “I’ve brought cake and wine. Open the door.”

“Just lift the latch,” called the grandmother. “I’m too weak to get up.”

The wolf lifted the latch, entered, and without saying a word, he went straight to the grandmother’s bed and swallowed her whole. Then he put on her clothes, placed her nightcap on his head, and lay down in her bed, pulling the curtains closed.

Little Red Riding Hood had been gathering flowers, and when she had so many that she couldn’t carry any more, she remembered her grandmother and set out on the path to her house once more.

She was surprised to find the door open, and when she entered the parlor, she had a strange feeling. “Good morning, Grandmother,” she called, but received no answer.

She went to the bed and pulled back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her nightcap pulled down over her face, looking very strange.

“Oh, Grandmother,” she said, “what big ears you have!”

“The better to hear you with, my child,” was the reply.

“But, Grandmother, what big eyes you have!” she said.

“The better to see you with, my dear.”

“And, Grandmother, what large hands you have!”

“The better to embrace you with.”

“But, Grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!”

“The better to eat you with!” And scarcely had the wolf said this when he sprang out of the bed and swallowed Little Red Riding Hood whole.

When the wolf had satisfied his appetite, he climbed back into bed, fell asleep, and began to snore very loudly.

A huntsman was passing by the cottage and thought, “How the old woman is snoring! I’d better check on her.” So he entered the parlor, and when he approached the bed, he saw the wolf lying there.

“So I’ve found you at last, you old sinner,” said the huntsman. “I’ve been searching for you for a long time.”

He was about to shoot the wolf when he realized that the grandmother might have been eaten by the wolf and might still be saved. So instead of firing, he took a pair of scissors and began to cut open the sleeping wolf’s belly.

After a few snips, he saw the red cap, and after a few more, the little girl sprang out, crying, “Oh, how frightened I was! How dark it was inside the wolf!”

And then the grandmother came out too, alive but scarcely able to breathe. Little Red Riding Hood quickly gathered large stones, which they put in the wolf’s belly. When he awoke and tried to run away, the stones were so heavy that he fell down dead.

All three were delighted. The huntsman took the wolf’s pelt, the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine that Little Red Riding Hood had brought, and Little Red Riding Hood thought to herself, “As long as I live, I will never leave the path and run off into the forest when my mother has forbidden it.”

And it is also told that once when Little Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to her grandmother, another wolf spoke to her and tried to entice her to leave the path. But Little Red Riding Hood was on her guard. She went straight to her grandmother’s house and told her that she had met a wolf who had greeted her, but he had looked so wicked that if they hadn’t been on the public road, he would have eaten her up.

“Come,” said the grandmother, “we’ll lock the door so he can’t get in.”

Soon afterward, the wolf knocked and called out, “Open the door, Grandmother. It’s Little Red Riding Hood, and I’m bringing you some cakes.”

But they kept quiet and didn’t open the door. The wolf circled the house several times and finally jumped onto the roof, intending to wait until Little Red Riding Hood went home that evening, then follow her and eat her in the darkness. But the grandmother saw what he had in mind. In front of the house was a large stone trough, and she said to the child, “Take this bucket, Little Red Riding Hood. I cooked sausages yesterday. Carry the water that I boiled them in to the trough.”

Little Red Riding Hood carried water until the large trough was completely full. The smell of the sausages reached the wolf’s nose. He sniffed and looked down, stretching his neck so far that he could no longer keep his balance. He began to slip and fell from the roof, right into the trough, and drowned.

Little Red Riding Hood returned home happily, and no one ever bothered her again.