Little Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked

at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not

have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which

suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always

called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece

of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak,

and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk

nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the

bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room,

don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'

'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave

her hand on it.

The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just

as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not

know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.

'Thank you kindly, wolf.'

'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'

'To my grandmother's.'

'What have you got in your apron?'

'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have

something good, to make her stronger.'

'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'

'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the

three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,'

replied Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump

mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as

to catch both.'

So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red Riding Hood, and then

he said: 'See, Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are about here - why

do you not look round? I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little

birds are singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while

everything else out here in the wood is merry.'

<>

Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing

here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, she

thought: 'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too. It

is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time.'

So she ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she

had picked one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran

after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.

Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the

door.

'Who is there?'

'Little Red Riding Hood,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine;

open the door.'

'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot get

up.'

The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he

went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her

clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.

Little Red Riding Hood, however, had been running about picking flowers, and

when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her

grandmother, and set out on the way to her.

She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she went

into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself: 'Oh dear!

how uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like being with grandmother so much.'

She called out: 'Good morning,' but received no answer; so she went to the bed and

drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her

face, and looking very strange.

'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'

'All the better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.

'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.

'All the better to see you with, my dear.'

'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'

'All the better to hug you with.'

'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'

'All the better to eat you with!'

And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and

swallowed up Red Riding Hood.


<>

When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell

asleep and began to snore very loud.

The huntsman was just passing the house, and thought to himself: 'How the old

woman is snoring! I must just see if she wants anything.' So he went into the room,

and when he came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it.

'Do I find you here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' But

just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have

devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did not fire, but

took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the sleeping wolf.

When he had made two snips, he saw the little red riding hood shining, and then

he made two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened

I have been! How dark it was inside the wolf.'

After that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to

breathe. Red Riding Hood, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they

filled the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones

were so heavy that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.

Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and went

home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Red Riding Hood

had brought, and revived. But Red Riding Hood thought to herself: 'As long as I

live, I will never leave the path by myself to run into the wood, when my mother has

forbidden me to do so.'

It is also related that once, when Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to the old

grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red

Riding Hood, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and

told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said 'good morning'

to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on the

public road she was certain he would have eaten her up.


<>

'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, so that he can not come

in.'

Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: 'Open the door, grandmother, I am

Little Red Riding Hood, and am bringing you some cakes.'

But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice or

thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Red

Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to steal after her and devour her in

the darkness. But the grandmother saw what was in his thoughts.

In front of the house was a great stone trough, so she said to the child: 'Take

the pail, Red Riding Hood; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in

which I boiled them to the trough.'

Red Riding Hood carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell

of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last

stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to

slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was

drowned. But Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to

harm her again.

Brothers Grimm