Once upon a time there
was a dear little girl who was loved by every one 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 cap 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. Little 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. And 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 to-day, 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."
"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."
"But, grandmother, what large hands you have."
"The better to hug you with."
"Oh, but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you
have."
"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 Little 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."
Then 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."
And after that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but
scarcely able to breathe. Little 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 Little Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived, but Little
Red Riding Hood thought to herself, as long as I live, I will never by
myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has
forbidden me to do so.
It is also related that once when Little Red Riding Hood was again
taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and
tried to entice her from the path. Little 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, that he may 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 gray-beard stole
twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof,
intending to wait until Little 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, Little Red Riding Hood. I made some sausages yesterday, so carry
the water in which I boiled them to the trough. Little 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 Little Red Riding Hood went
joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again.