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The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood
It was difficult to choose one tale out of so many fascinating stories, and the many versions of Little Red Riding Hood -
from Little Red Cap, an early Grimm version, to Little Golden Hood and The False Grandmother, a French version. Some versions
were quite gory – including scenes with Little Red eating parts of her grandmother - while others had been toned down
practically to the point of dullness.
As the story opens, our heroine is described in the Grimm (1972), Montresor (1991), Hyman (1983) and Perreault (1969) versions
as a sweet and/or pretty little girl, loved by all - most especially by her old grandmother, who makes a present of a red
velvet cap (or hooded cloak). The little girl wears this constantly: hence the name. In Lang’s version, he prefaces
the tale of ‘Little Golden Hood’ with a summary of the original, and the statement that the true story follows:
his heroine, named Blanchette, wears a hood of gold- and fire-color. Roald Dahl, in Revolting Rhymes (1982), starts his spoof
of the tale with the wolf eating the grandmother, then declaring, “That’s not enough…I’ve got to have
a second helping!”
The mother in all versions is the most minor of characters. She is not described in any of the stories, but does have at least
a few lines: in the original, she exhorts her daughter to stay on the path, and to mind her manners when she gets there. Hyman’s
version (1983) most closely mirrors these instructions, though the items she takes differ slightly, from a piece of cake and
a bottle of wine to a loaf of fresh bread, some sweet butter and a bottle of wine. According to Perreault (1969), the mother
offers a cake and a little pot of butter, and no instructions. Little Golden Hood (Lang, 1891) is given only a little cake,
and instructions “not to chatter on the way with people you don’t know”. Mom doesn’t even get a mention
in Dahl’s version.
When we get to the woods, the Grimms’ ‘Little Red-Cap’ carries on quite a conversation with the wolf, including
detailed directions to Grandmother’s house. The wolf considers how best to catch both grandmother and the little girl;
he urges Little Red-Cap to look at the flowers, and listen to the birds sweetly singing. In this way he gains time to get
to granny’s house and set his trap. Again, the Hyman and Montresor versions of the story most nearly match the Grimms’,
with a few minor flourishes and some dark illustrations. Perrault’s wolf doesn’t waste time in polite conversation,
but the girl dawdles anyway, as children often do. The wolf in Lang’s version is given the excuse of woodcutter’s
nearby to explain why he doesn’t simply gobble the girl up then and there; Little Golden Hood gives directions as freely
as Little Red-Cap.
The wolf then makes haste to get to Grandmother’s house, where in all but Lang’s story the wolf tricks the sick
grandmother and devours her immediately. Lang departs from the original story line here; the old woman has gone to town to
sell herbs, but has left her bed unmade and her nightcap on the pillow. The wolf then dresses in the grandmother’s clothing,
and lies in her bed, awaiting the little girl – except in Dahl’s rhyme, in which the wolf, dressed in Grandma’s
clothes, sits in her chair.
Now, when Little Red-Cap arrives at the house, she is surprised and a little frightened to find the door open, but ignores
her uneasiness and goes to check on her sick ‘grandmother’ in her bed. Now the plot thickens. Grimm, Montresor
and Hyman go straight to the “What big ears you have” sequence, but Perrault and Lang both have the girl taking
her clothes off and getting into bed with a hirsute Grandmother before observing her odd physical characteristics. The ‘better
to eat you up with’ line leads immediately to the wolf devouring the little girl in all the stories except for Dahl’s,
which ends badly for the wolf sooner rather than later.
The endings vary widely; the Grimm tale ends with the snoring, sated wolf being cut open by a huntsman just passing by, and
then Red-Cap fills his belly with stones so that when he tries to run away, he falls down dead. The story then goes on to
relate another encounter with a wolf, but Little Red-Cap and her grandmother are on guard, and outwit the wolf. Perreault
ends his tale with the wolf eating the girl up, then pounding the moral home: attractive, well-bred ladies should never talk
to strangers – especially charming, polite, gentle ‘wolves’. Montresor ends the tale similarly (without
the moral), but with an ambiguous illustration of Red floating in the wolf’s belly – ready to be released or reborn?
Hyman’s huntsman – who actually says “by jiminy” – kills the sleeping wolf, frees the girl and
her grandmother, and takes the pelt home, while grandma drinks the wine (who can blame her) and Red Riding Hood has a cup
of blackberry tea. But Little Golden Hood (Lang, 1891) does not get eaten. Her magic golden hood burns the wolf’s tongue
and throat, and Grandmother returns from town in time to catch the howling wolf in a sack, and drown him in the well. Little
Golden Hood receives a scolding from her mother, and she promises she will never stop to listen to a wolf again.
Roald Dahl, in my favorite ending, writes:
He sat there watching her and smiled. He thought, I'm going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma, She's going to taste like caviar.
Then Little Red Riding Hood said, "
But Grandma, what a lovely great big furry coat you have on."
"That's wrong!" cried Wolf.
"Have you forgot To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?
Ah well, no matter what you say, I'm going to eat you anyway."
The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head, And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
A few weeks later, in the wood, I came across Miss Riding Hood.
But what a change! No cloak of red, No silly hood upon her head.
She said, "Hello, and do please note: My lovely furry wolfskin coat."
That’s my girl!
The overall tone of each story was slightly different. The Brothers Grimm’s version, like Perreault’s, was overtly
moralistic, and seemed to be written not so much for very small children as for older, perhaps slightly rebellious ones. Montresor’s
story followed Perreault’s version closely but with more modern language, and handsome, rather dark illustrations. The
Hyman version was definitely gentler; though she followed the details of the original Grimm more closely than most the story
was softened by soothing text and unthreatening illustrations. Lang’s Little Golden Hood departed quite significantly
from the Grimms’ version, and though the girl wasn’t eaten up, his tale was scary, and was more overt in sexual
overtones than most. Roald Dahl’s tongue-in-cheek parody was the least frightening, written in his clever and humorous
style.
There are many versions of the “Red Riding Hood” tale. Some, such as Lon Po Po (Young, 1996) tell of youngsters
left at home while the mother leaves them to visit the grandmother; they must deal with the wolf on their own turf, and find
ways to outwit the villain. Whatever the plot or literary device, these stories have many basic themes in common: trust, obedience
and the consequences of disobedience, sexual innocence, heroism, greed, darkness and rebirth.
References
Dahl, R. (1982). Roald Dahl's Revolting rhymes. New York : Knopf.
Grimm, J. (1972).The complete Grimm's fairy tales. New York : Pantheon Books.
Hyman, T.S. (1983). Little Red Riding Hood. New York : Holiday House.
Lang, A. (1891) The true history of Little Golden Hood. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. Retrieved October 15, 2005 from:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/
Montresor, B. (1991). Little Red Riding Hood. New York : Doubleday.
Perrault, C. (1969). Perrault's fairy tales. New York: Dover Publications
Young, E. (1996). Lon Po Po: a Red-Riding Hood story from China. New York : PaperStar.
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