Tales of the Brothers Grimm

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 shaggy-cloth, which she like so much 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 bit of cake and a flask 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 hushed and meekly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the flask, 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 woods, half a mile from the townlet, and right as Little Red Riding Hood went into the woods, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked wight he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

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

'Thank you kindly, wolf.'

'Where are you going 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 fourth of a mile farther on in the woods; her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are right below; you surely must know it,' answered Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young shapeling! what a nice plump mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must do 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 deathly along, as if you were going to lorehouse, while everything else out here in the woods is merry.'

Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams tumming here and there through the trees, and pretty blooms growing everywhere, she thought: “What if I take grandmother a fresh nosefrith; 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 blooms. And whenever she had picked one, she saw that there was a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the woods.

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

'Who is there?'

'Little Red Riding Hood,' answered 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 gobbled her up. Then he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the window-cloth.

Little Red Riding Hood, however, had been running about picking blooms, and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she thought of her grandmother, and set out on the way to her.

She was startled to find the hut-door standing open, and when she went into the room, she had such a weird feeling that she said to herself: 'Oh dear! how off I feel today, and at other times I like being with grandmother so much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but got no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the window-cloth. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very weird.

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

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

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

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

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

'All the better to hug you with.'

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

'All the better to eat you with!'

And barely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red Riding Hood.

When the wolf had fed his hunger, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loudly.

The huntsman was just faring by 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 right as he was going to fire at him, it came to him that the wolf might have gobbled the grandmother up, and that she might still be spared, so he did not fire, but took a pair of snithers, and began to cut open the tummy 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 old grandmother came out alive also, but barely 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 caved in at once, and fell dead.

Then all three were gleed. 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 perked up. 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 told that once, when Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to mislead 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 open road she was certain he would have eaten her up.

'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, so that he cannot 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 ran twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, wanting to wait until Red Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to run after her and gobble her up 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 bangers yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough.'

Red Riding Hood carried until the great trough was much full. Then the smell of the bangers 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 merrily home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again. Gr8asb8 02:04, January 22, 2011 (UTC)