The grimm brothers little red riding hood

The girl slips the string over something else and runs off. In these stories, she escapes with no help from any male or older female figure, instead using her own cunning, or in some versions the help of a younger boy who she happens to run into. In other tellings of the story, the wolf chases after Little Red Riding Hood. She escapes with the help of some laundresses, who spread a sheet taut over a river so she may escape.

When the wolf follows Red over the bridge of cloth, the sheet is released and the wolf drowns in the river. The earliest known printed version [ 1 ] was known as Le Petit Chaperon Rouge and may have had its origins in 17th-century French folklore. It was included in the collection Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals. As the title implies, this version [ 31 ] is both more sinister and more overtly moralized than the later ones.

The redness of the hood, which has been given symbolic significance in many interpretations of the tale, was a detail introduced by Perrault. The story had as its subject an "attractive, well-bred young lady", a village girl of the country being deceived into giving a wolf she encountered the information he needed to find her grandmother's house successfully and eat the old woman while at the same time avoiding being noticed by woodcutters working in the nearby forest.

Then he proceeded to lay a trap for Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood ends up being asked to climb into the bed before being eaten by the wolf, where the story ends. The wolf emerges the victor of the encounter and there is no happy ending. Charles Perrault explained the 'moral' at the end of the tale [ 33 ] so that no doubt is left to his intended meaning:.

From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition — neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes.

Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous! This, the presumed original version of the tale was written for the late seventeenth-century French court of King Louis XIV. This audience, whom the King entertained with extravagant parties, presumably would take from the story's intended meaning. In the 19th century two separate German versions were retold to Jacob Grimm and his younger brother Wilhelm Grimm , known as the Brothers Grimm , the first by Jeanette Hassenpflug — and the second by Marie Hassenpflug — The brothers turned the first version to the main body of the story and the second into a sequel of it.

The earlier parts of the tale agree so closely with Perrault's variant that it is almost certainly the source of the tale. The girl did not leave the path when the wolf spoke to her, her grandmother locked the door to keep it out, and when the wolf lurked, the grandmother had Little Red Riding Hood put a trough under the chimney and fill it with water that sausages had been cooked in; the smell lured the wolf down, and it drowned.

The Brothers further revised the story in later editions and it reached the above-mentioned final and better-known version in the edition of their work. Charles Marelle in his version of the fairy tale called "The True History of Little Goldenhood" gives the girl a real name — Blanchette. This version explicitly states that the story had been mistold earlier.

The girl is saved, but not by the huntsman; when the wolf tries to eat her, its mouth is burned by the golden hood she wears, which is enchanted. James N. Barker wrote a variation of Little Red Riding Hood in as an approximately word story. It was later reprinted in in a book of collected stories edited by William E Burton, called the Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor.

The reprint also features a wood engraving of a clothed wolf on a bended knee holding Little Red Riding Hood's hand. Jack Zipes anthologized several 19th century variants. Northcote Whitridge Thomas included a variant with a male protagonist in his report of the Ibo people. An Iranian variant, featuring a little boy and the disrobing motif, appears in a 20th-century French anthology.

In this version, a little boy is protected from the wolf by his grandmother and father.

The grimm brothers little red riding hood

Apart from the overt warning about talking to strangers, there are many interpretations of the classic fairy tale, many of them sexual. Folklorists and cultural anthropologists , such as P. Her red hood could represent the bright sun which is ultimately swallowed by the terrible night the wolf , and the variations in which she is cut out of the wolf's belly represent the dawn.

The tale has been interpreted as a puberty rite, stemming from a prehistoric origin sometimes an origin stemming from a previous matriarchal era. Bruno Bettelheim , in The Uses of Enchantment : The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales , recast the Little Red Riding Hood motif in terms of classic Freudian analysis, that shows how fairy tales educate, support, and liberate children's emotions.

The motif of the huntsman cutting open the wolf he interpreted as a "rebirth"; the girl who foolishly listened to the wolf has been reborn as a new person. Loki 's explanations for the strange behavior of " Freyja " actually Thor disguised as Freyja mirror the wolf's explanations for his strange appearance. The red hood has often been given great importance in many interpretations, with a significance from the dawn to blood.

A sexual analysis of the tale may also include negative connotations in terms of rape or abduction. Such tellings bear some similarity to the "animal bridegroom" tales, such as Beauty and the Beast or The Frog Prince , but where the heroines of those tales revert the hero to a prince, these tellings of Little Red Riding Hood reveal to the heroine that she has a wild nature like the hero's.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Wikidata item. European fairy tale. She thought: "If a take a bouquet to grandmother, she will be very pleased. Anyway, it is still early, and I'll be home on time. Each time she picked one she thought that she could see an even more beautiful one a little way off, and she ran after it, going further and further into the woods.

But the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked on the door. I'm bringing you some cake and wine. Open the door for me. He stepped inside, went straight to the grandmother's bed, and ate her up. Then he took her clothes, put them on, and put her cap on his head. He got into her bed and pulled the curtains shut. Little Red Riding Hood had run after flowers, and did not continue on her way to grandmother's until she had gathered all that she could carry.

When she arrived, she found, to her surprise, that the door was open. She walked into the parlor, and everything looked so strange that she thought: "Oh, my God, why am I so afraid? I usually like it at grandmother's. Grandmother was lying there with her cap pulled down over her face and looking very strange. As soon as the wolf had finished this tasty bite, he climbed back into bed, fell asleep, and began to snore very loudly.

A huntsman was just passing by. He thought it strange that the old woman was snoring so loudly, so he decided to take a look. He stepped inside, and in the bed there lay the wolf that he had been hunting for such a long time. When she arrived, she found, to her surprise, that the door was open. Grandmother was lying there with her cap pulled down over her face and looking very strange.

As soon as the wolf had finished this tasty bite, he climbed back into bed, fell asleep, and began to snore very loudly. A huntsman was just passing by. He thought it strange that the old woman was snoring so loudly, so he decided to take a look. He stepped inside, and in the bed there lay the wolf that he had been hunting for such a long time.

So he took a pair of scissors and cut open his belly. He had cut only a few strokes when he saw the red cap shining through. Then Little Red Riding Hood fetched some large heavy stones. The three of them were happy. The grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine that Little Red Riding Hood had brought. They also tell how Little Red Riding Hood was taking some baked things to her grandmother another time, when another wolf spoke to her and wanted her to leave the path.

She told her that she had seen the wolf, and that he had wished her a good day, but had stared at her in a wicked manner. The wicked one walked around the house several times, and finally jumped onto the roof. He wanted to wait until Little Red Riding Hood went home that evening, then follow her and eat her up in the darkness. But the grandmother saw what he was up to.

There was a large stone trough in front of the house. Carry the water that I boiled them with to the trough. He sniffed and looked down, stretching his neck so long that he could no longer hold himself, and he began to slide. He slid off the roof, fell into the trough, and drowned. And Little Red Riding Hood returned home happily and safely.

Double-Tap on one word. Learn languages in context with Childstories. The story has its roots in older European folktales, and various versions of the tale have been recorded across Europe, with each version differing in details and endings. The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, were German academics, linguists, and cultural researchers who collected and published numerous folk and fairy tales during the 19th century.

Their goal was to preserve the cultural heritage and oral storytelling traditions of German-speaking regions. The tales they collected were often based on stories passed down through generations and have roots in older myths and legends. On her way through the woods, she encounters a cunning wolf, who tricks her into revealing her destination. Once she gave her a little red velvet cloak.

It was so becoming, and she liked it so much, that she would never wear anything else; and so she got the name of Red Riding Hood. Her Grandmother lived away in the woods, a good half-hour from the village. When she got to the wood, she met a Wolf; but Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked animal he was, so she was not a bit afraid of him.

I must be cunning, and snap them both up. It is still quite early, I shall have plenty of time to pick them. So she left the path, and wandered off among the trees to pick the flowers. So she went deeper and deeper into the forest.