Little Red Riding Hood
There was once a sweet little girl who was loved by everyone who saw
her, but most of all by her grandmother. There was nothing that she
would not give the child. She once gave her granddaughter a little rid-
ing hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she never wanted
to wear anything else and became known only as “Little Red Riding
Hood”.
One day, her mother said to her, “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 too hot.
When you are on your way, don’t dawdle and don’t leave the path, or
you will fall and break the bottle and your grandmother will get noth-
ing. And when you go into her room, don’t forget to say “good morning”,
without looking around into all the corners first.”
“I will be good,” Little Red Riding Hood promised her mother.
Her grandmother lived out in the woods, half an hour away from
the village. As soon as Little Red Riding Hood arrived in the forest,
she came across a wolf. Little Red Riding Hood did not know what a
wicked animal he was and was not afraid of him.
“Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,” he said.
“Thank you, wolf.”
“Where are you going so early in the morning, Little Red Riding
Hood?”
“To my grandmother’s house.”
“What are you carrying under your apron?”
“Cake and wine: we were baking yesterday, and now my grand-
mother, who is sick and weak, is to have a treat to give her strength.”
“Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?”
“Her house is just a quarter of an hour further into the woods,
under three large oak trees. There are hazel bushes beneath it.You must
know it,” said Little Red Riding Hood.
The wolf thought to himself, “What a young, tender thing. She will
make a juicy mouthful and taste better than the old woman: I must be
cunning, so that I can get them both.” He walked alongside Little Red
Riding Hood for a while. Then he said, “Little Red Riding Hood, can
you see the pretty flowers which are all around the path? Why aren’t
you looking around? I believe that you can’t even hear how sweetly the
birds are singing? You are just walking ahead as if you were on your
way to school, yet there is so much to enjoy out in the woods.”
When Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes and saw how the
rays of sunlight danced through the trees and how the ground was
covered with beautiful flowers, she thought, “If I bring Grandmother
a fresh bouquet of flowers, it will make her happy; it is so early in the
day that I will still get there in time.” And she ran off the path into the
woods to look for flowers. Whenever she picked one, she thought that
there was a prettier one further out and ran after it, going deeper and
deeper into the woods. The wolf, on the other hand, went straight to the
grandmother’s house and knocked on the door.
“Who is there?”
“Little Red Riding Hood, bringing cake and wine. Open the door.”
“Just push the handle down,” called the grandmother, “I am too
weak to get up.”
The wolf pressed the handle down, the door sprang open and he
went straight to the grandmother’s bed, without saying a word, and
swallowed her up. Then he put her clothes on, put her bonnet on his
head, lay down in her bed and closed the curtains.
Little Red Riding Hood had been running after flowers and when
she had gathered so many that she couldn’t carry any more, she re-
membered her grandmother and set off towards her house. She was
surprised that the door was open and everything seemed so strange
when she entered the room that she thought “Oh my God, how afraid I
am today – I normally like being at Grandmother’s house.” She called
out “Good morning”, but didn’t received an answer. Then she went to the
bed and drew back the curtains: there lay her grandmother with her
bonnet over her face and looking very strange.
“Oh Grandmother, what big ears you have!”
“All the better to hear you with.”
“Oh Grandmother, what big eyes you have!”
“All the better to see you with.”
“Oh Grandmother, what big hands you have!”
“All the better to grab you with.”
“But Grandmother, what a horribly big mouth you have!”
“All the better to eat you with.”
The wolf had hardly uttered the words before he leapt out of the
bed and gobbled up poor Little Red Riding Hood. When the wolf had
satisfied his appetite, he lay down in the bed again, went to sleep and
started to snore loudly.
A huntsman was just going past the house and thought, “How the
old woman is snoring. I must see if she needs anything.” He entered the
room and when he reached the bed, he saw the wolf lying in it.
“Here you are, you old sinner,” he said “I have been looking for you
for a long time.” He was going to load his gun when it occurred to him
that the wolf may have eaten the grandmother and that it may still be
possible to save her. So he didn’t shoot, but instead took a pair of scis-
sors and started to cut open the belly of the sleeping wolf.
When he had cut a few times, he saw the red riding hood shining
through. And after a few more cuts, the girl jumped out and cried, “Oh,
I was so afraid. It was so dark inside the wolf!”
And then the old grandmother also came out alive and could
hardly breathe. But Little Red Riding Hood quickly gathered some
large stones and filled the wolf’s body with them. When he woke up, he
wanted to jump away, but the stones were so heavy that sank straight
down again and fell down dead.
All three of them were happy. The huntsman took the skin off the
wolf and went home with it. The grandmother ate the cake and drank
the wine which Little Red Riding Hood and brought and got better. And
Little Red Riding Hood thought to herself “As long as I live, I will never
again run off the path into the woods when my mother has forbidden
it.”
There is a tale that on another occasion, when Little Red Riding Hood
was once again taking cakes to her grandmother, another wolf spoke to
her and tried to divert her from her path. But Little Red Riding Hood
took care and continued on her way. She told her grandmother that she
had met a wolf who had wished her a good day, but had looked at her
in a wicked manner: “If we hadn’t been on a public road, he would have
eaten me up.”
“Come,” said the grandmother,“Let’s lock the door so that he can’t
get in.”
Soon afterwards, the wolf knocked on the door and called “Open
the door, Grandmother, it’s Little Red Riding Hood, bringing you cake.”
But they kept quiet and didn’t open the door. The wolf crept sev-
eral times around the house and finally jumped onto the roof. He was
going to wait until Little Red Riding Hood went home in the evening.
Then he was going to creep after her and eat her in the darkness. But
the grandmother realised what he had in mind. In front of the door,
there was a large stone trough, and she said to the child, “Take the
bucket, Little Red Riding Hood. I cooked sausages yesterday. Take the
water which I used for boiling them and pour it into the trough.”
Little Red Riding Hood carried water until the big, big trough was
completely full. Then the smell of sausages reached the wolf’s nose. He
sniffed and looked down, and finally stretched out his neck so far that
he was no longer able to hold on and started to slide: so he slid down
from the roof, straight into the large trough and drowned. But Little
Red Riding Hood went home happily and without any harm coming to
her.
What would you like to do next?
