Little Red Riding Hood

Small feet tread steadily along a path covered in dry leaves, between two rows of tall trees in a forest in Germany. In the girl's hand, a wicker basket covered with a white cloth swings with every step. On her head, a deep red velvet cap stands out against the dark green of the forest leaves. Anyone in the village can recognize her from far away, without needing to see her face.

The cap was a gift from her grandmother when she was very small. She loved it so much that she wore it everywhere, and the whole village came to call her Little Red Riding Hood. In time, hardly anyone remembered her real name. People had been telling her story for a long time. Then two scholars, the Brothers Grimm, gathered it up and wrote it into a book of old tales. In the original, they named her Rotkäppchen, which means little red cap.

That morning, her mother wrapped a sweet cake, still warm, and a small bottle of wine, and packed them neatly into the basket. The grandmother was ill and weak in her house in the middle of the forest, under three great oak trees. The mother repeated her warning again and again, more sternly than usual. The girl must keep straight to the path and not wander off onto another one. Otherwise she might trip and break the bottle, and then there would be nothing left to bring her grandmother. The girl promised like a good child, lifted the basket onto her shoulder, and skipped off into the forest.

The forest was unusually quiet that morning. There was only the chirping of birds high above and the rustle of leaves underfoot. The girl had never learned to fear any animal of the forest. So when a big wolf stepped out and blocked her way, she stopped and greeted him as easily as she would greet someone she knew. The wolf pretended to be gentle. He asked where she was going and what she carried in her basket. The girl told him everything honestly. She was taking cake and wine to her sick grandmother, she said. Her grandmother's house stood under the three great oak trees, not far from there, less than 15 minutes on foot.

The wolf was silent for a moment, a plan already worked out in his head. He pointed toward the clumps of wildflowers blooming on both sides of the path. In a soft voice, he asked why she did not pick a few pretty flowers for her grandmother. Surely it would make her very happy. The girl thought he had a point. Sunlight was slipping through the leaves, too, sparkling on every petal. So she left the path and bent down to pick the flowers one by one. Each time she picked one, she saw a prettier one a little farther off. On and on she went, deeper into the forest, and forgot her mother's warning completely.

Meanwhile, the wolf ran as fast as his legs could carry him, straight to the house under the three great oak trees. He knocked and pretended to be Little Red Riding Hood, bringing cake and wine. The grandmother was too weak to get up, so she called out to him to just press the latch and come in. The wolf pressed the latch, and the door swung open at once. In a flash, the wolf swallowed the grandmother whole in one gulp. It was so quick that she could not even cry out, but she was unharmed and still alive inside him. Then he hastily put on her nightclothes, pulled her cloth cap onto his head, and climbed into the bed. He drew the curtains closed around the bed and lay still, waiting.

A while later, Little Red Riding Hood found her way to her grandmother's house, her arms full of wildflowers. The door was already open, and she found that odd, because her grandmother always shut it carefully. Inside, the room felt somehow different today. Still, she went politely up to the bed to greet her grandmother. She looked at the shape curled up under the blanket, the cloth cap pulled down almost over the face. Suddenly she grew curious. It did not look like her grandmother at all.

"Grandmother, what big ears you have today." "All the better to hear you with, my dear." "Grandmother, what big eyes you have today." "All the better to see you with, my dear."

"Grandmother, what big hands you have today." "All the better to hug you with, my dear." The girl looked down and, trembling, asked one last question, her voice now very small.

"Grandmother, what a terribly big mouth you have today." "All the better to eat you with."

The moment the wolf finished speaking, he sprang out of bed and swallowed Little Red Riding Hood whole in one gulp, just as he had done with her grandmother. She too was unharmed inside him. Full and content, he crawled back into bed and fell fast asleep. His snoring carried out through the window, so loud that a huntsman passing through the forest stopped to listen. The old woman has been sick lately, he thought to himself. It is strange for her to snore so loudly. I had better go in and check, just to be sure.

The huntsman pushed the door open and went in. There on the old woman's bed lay a huge wolf, his belly swollen round and tight. The huntsman understood at once what had happened. He did not fire his gun, for fear of harming the grandmother and the girl inside. Instead, he quietly took out a pair of scissors and made a few careful snips across the sleeping wolf's belly. Almost at once, Little Red Riding Hood peeked out, then scrambled all the way out, happy and frightened at once. Right after her, the grandmother slowly stepped out too. She was still a little shaky, but whole and unharmed.

The quick-witted girl ran out to the yard and came back with her arms full of big, heavy stones. Together with her grandmother, she packed them tightly into the wolf's belly while he was still fast asleep. When the wolf woke up, he tried to run away. But the stones weighed him down so heavily that he fell at once and never got up again.

Little Red Riding Hood stood still and watched for a long while. Then she quietly promised herself that she would never again leave the path on her own.

Some time later, another wolf heard rumors of what had happened before. He too tried to strike up a conversation with Little Red Riding Hood in the forest, sounding just as friendly as the first wolf. But this time the girl only nodded a greeting and hurried straight on to her grandmother's house. She did not stop to chat, and she did not turn onto any other path. As soon as she arrived, she told her grandmother about the strange wolf she had met on the way. The two of them shut the door tight and bolted it carefully, letting no one else in.

Soon afterward, the wolf crept up to the house. Finding the door shut tight, he climbed onto the roof. He meant to lie in wait until the girl set off for home that evening, then jump down and block her way. But the grandmother had guessed his plan. The day before, she had boiled a few sausages that smelled wonderful. Now she told the girl to carry all the water the sausages had boiled in to the big stone trough in front of the porch, until it was full. The smell rose all the way to the rooftop. The wolf caught the scent and stretched his neck out greedily, sniffing and sniffing. He slipped, fell straight into the trough, and sank, unable to come back up.

From then on, the forest around the house under the three great oak trees was as quiet as before. The grandmother's door stayed shut tight every evening. And Little Red Riding Hood always walked straight along the familiar path, her basket full in her hand. She never again turned to look at the strange flowers by the roadside.