Little Red Riding Hood

The heroine from a nursery story. The first printed version is by Charles Perrault, published in Paris in 1697 as Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, and is part of his Histoires du Temps Passé: Avec des Moralitez ("Stories of Times Past: With Morals").

The story tells of a little girl, wearing a red riding hood, who brings milk and bread to her grandmother who lives alone in the woods. Along the way she encounters a wolf who asks her which path she is taking: the path of needles or the path of pins. The girl replies that she is taking the path of needles, and the wolf says he will take the path of pins. Because the girl stops the collect needles, the wolf has ample time to make it to grandmother's house.

The wolf immediately kills the grandmother and awaits Little Red Riding Hood's arrival. When she arrives, she suspects nothing, and begins asking the familiar questions, such as "Oh Granny, what big eyes you have!" To which the disguised wolf replies, "All the better to see you, my child." Eventually, she comments on his mouth, and the wolf says "All the better to eat you, my child." Depending on the version of the story, the girl is at this point either manages to escape or is eaten by the wolf.

A later German addition is that a huntsman arrives and slits open the wolf, thus restoring Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother to life.

In Dutch she is called Roodkapje and in German Rotkäppchen.

❧