The original little red riding hood story
Better to teach you with: The Terrifying real story of Little Red Riding hood
Flickr | Photo CourtesyFairy tales are extremely old, some experts estimate the tradition is 6000 years old.
This children’s story is far more “metal” then the one we tell today.
It is no question that several of the original Grimm’s fairy tales have aged quite terribly, with some being referred to by many under the tongue-in-cheek title of “Grim Fairy Tales”. However, one of the most beloved children’s fairy-tales to come from such a dark and bizarre origin is that of “Little Red Riding Hood”.
The story of Little Red Riding Hood is pretty much common knowledge at this point, however it should be repeated in its more well-known version before diving into its original telling.
Red Riding Hood is a little girl nicknamed such for the red jacket she always wears. On her way to bring food to her sick Grandmother’s house, she meets a cunning wolf who inquires about her business, learning from the innocent little girl where her grandmother lives.
He then distracts the girl by encouraging her to pick flowers while he rushes to the Grandmother’s house and devours her, taking her place in bed.
Red Riding Hood arrives and discovers the ruse too late, before she is either swallowed whole as well or is chased through the forest by the wolf. In the end, she and her grandmother are both rescued by a woodcutter in the area and live happily ever after.
Here is the original tale published in the book “Mother Goose Tales” by Charles Perrault. Upon learning of Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, the wolf rushes to the house, kills the grandmother and then slices the corpse into meat cuts as well as gathering her blood in a bottle.
Red Riding Hood arrives soon after with bread and milk. The wolf, disguised as the grandmother, urges the girl to eat the “meat and wine” in the cellar.
Though it is only implied, a cat notices and calls out Red Riding Hood for eating her grandmother naming her an insensitive epithet. The wolf then encourages Red Riding Hood to enter the bed with him after throwing her red jacket into the fireplace, insisting she won’t need it anymore.
Red Riding Hood complies and is devoured. Where is the woodcutter? He’s not in this story. That is how it ends. Rather horrifying in today’s standards wouldn’t you say?
French Author Charles Perrault, responsible for compiling other fairytales, most notably “Cinderella”, spoke out in defense to the backlash this story received.
In an article on the blog “Once upon a time” by Genevieve Carlton, Perrault stated the story was about the danger of trusting strangers which he personified as a wolf, those appearing “gentle” to be “most dangerous.”
Upon further examination, his symbolism becomes less and less subtle. For instance, the “gentle” wolf encouraging the girl to leave behind her jacket (symbol of the innocent person she was before) and join him in bed.
Folktales at the time were not meant to entertain, but educate. With a life expectancy significantly shorter than our current ones, children were raised to be moral and careful as they matured faster.
A story with a terrifying conclusion is far more effective and real than one with a happy ending.
There are still wolves who mask their intent by appearing “gentle” that is the true horror- how correct the original story is in today’s standards.
The True (and Gruesome) Story of Little Red Riding Hood
Posted by Thrillvania in Haunted House Stories on September 27th, 2018
Like most of our modern fairy tales, Little Red Riding Hood has been recreated to be an appropriate bedtime story for our youth. But the original story is far more grim than you would have imagined, which is no surprise when you look at the other original stories in Charles Perrault’s Mother Goose Tales. Some sources say that Perrault was not the author, but rather the first to write the oral legend down. Others say the story could be a result of the “werewolf trials” taking place at the time of its origin. Of course, the story has been altered a number of times to fit the manuscript of the ages. Each culture has its own tale of the Little Red Riding Hood, and the most optimistic versions involve a young naive girl who can’t tell the difference in her own grandmother and a wolf in a night bonnet.
In these versions, the little girl always escapes in the end, but this isn’t quite how the story goes.
In the original, much more gruesome versions of the story, the wolf is quite horrid. He arrives early at the scene, slaughters grandma, and prepares her body to wait for the little girl in the red hood. He dices her flesh and sets it upon a silver platter. He drains her blood into a wine bottle, placing both the “wine” and the meat into the cupboard. Once the young girl arrives, he orders her to strip, throw her clothes (apron, stockings, petticoat and all) into the fire, and climb into bed with him. At this point, she notices something isn’t quite right with Grandma, but she is apparently none the wiser because she carries on conversation with the wolf while he enjoys Grandma’s bread and milk.
Eventually Little Red Riding Hood is hungry, to which the wolf commands that she feed herself the meat and wine from the cupboard. Little does she know that she is dining on the own flesh and blood of her unfortunate grandmother.
The girl doesn’t complain, though, and in some versions even remarks that it is a marvelous feast.
In most versions of the story, Little Red Riding Hood never discovers the wolf’s true identity, and eventually is gobbled up alongside her grandmothers remains. However, one version does end in the little girl outsmarting the wolf. She tells the wolf she must go poop, and needs to relieve herself in the woods. The wolf ties a string to her so she cannot escape, but she slips it over a branch and carries on her way.
As you can see, there are many reasons that the story has been changed so many times. What a fright it must have been for 17th century kids to hear the tales cannibalism and an imposter wolf that gobbles up children!
The new age story may be designed for the fainthearted, but if you are looking for a real thrill this Halloween, grab your haunted house tickets for one of the scariest haunted houses in Dallas area. We might not have a wolf in grandma’s clothing, but at Thrillvania Haunted House Park, we have a few sights that will scare your stockings off, too!
✨ The original version of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood"
The fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" is familiar to everyone, but most of them are known in a retelling adapted for children.
Only a few have read a translation of Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault or the Brothers Grimm that is close to the original text. But this fairy tale also had folk versions that the language does not dare to call a fairy tale for children.
The plot that formed the basis of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" was already known in the 14th century. Most likely, it originated in Italy and from there migrated to France. The most severe version of this story said that the wolf, having met a girl in the forest and found out where she was going, overtook her, killed her grandmother, prepared food from her body, and a drink from her blood, which he treated the granddaughter to, dressed as a grandmother .
Grandmother's cat tried to warn the girl that she was eating her grandmother's remains, but the wolf killed the cat by throwing wooden shoes at her. Then the wolf invites the girl to undress and lie down next to him, and throw the clothes into the fire.
The girl does so, wondering why her grandmother has so much hair, such long nails and such big teeth. To the last question, the wolf replies: "This is to quickly eat you, my child!" and eat the girl.
However, there was a more optimistic version: the girl, realizing that this was not her grandmother at all, outwitted the wolf and ran away.
The wolf in folk versions did not accidentally speak in a human voice and tried to disguise himself as a grandmother. It was not just a wolf, but a werewolf.
Lisa Evans. Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
In 1697, the French writer Charles Perrault published the book "Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Old Times with Instructions", which included the legend about the girl and the wolf processed by him. In the version of Charles Perrault, the girl got a red headdress, but not a cap at all, as in Russian translations, but a chaperon - a kind of hood. Perrault left the ending with the death of the girl, and also retained the sexual subtext of the folk tale (in the folk tale, the wolf forces the girl to undress and lie down with him), emphasizing it with a moralizing poem.
At the same time, the French writer removed naturalistic scenes from the plot.
Next you can read the original version of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" by Charles Perrault (the translation is quoted from the book by Eric Berne "Games that people play. People who play games").
Charles Perrault. Little Red Riding Hood
Once upon a time there lived in a distant village a lovely little girl. Her mother and grandmother loved her without memory. Grandmother sewed her a red cap, which suited her so well that everyone began to call the girl Little Red Riding Hood.
Harriet Backer. Little Red Riding Hood
Felix Schlesinger. Little Red Riding Hood
Once a mother baked a whole pan of pies and said to her daughter:
— Little Red Riding Hood, the grandmother is sick. Will you take her some cakes and a pot of freshly churned butter?
Walter Crane. Little Red Riding Hood
Charles Sillem Lidderdale.
Little Red Riding Hood
Maud Humphrey. Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood immediately got up and went to her grandmother. And her grandmother lived in another village, behind a dense, wild forest.
Passing through the forest, she met a wolf. The wolf wanted to eat it, but was afraid, because woodcutters worked nearby. So he came up with a plan.
—Where are you going, my baby? asked the wolf.
"To see my grandmother," said Little Red Riding Hood. “I have a pot of freshly churned butter and pies for her.
—And how far will you go? asked the wolf.
"Far away," said Little Red Riding Hood. “Her house is quite far from here, the first one on the other side of the forest.
"I also want to visit my grandmother," said the cunning wolf. “I will go this path, and you another. Let's see which one of us gets there first.
Emilio Freixas. Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
Gabriel Ferrier. Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
Jose Cruz Herrera.
Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
Walter Crane. Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
Gustave Dore. Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
The wolf rushed to run with all his might along the shortest path, and Little Red Riding Hood went along the longest path. She picked flowers, sang funny songs, played with beautiful butterflies.
Francis John Deffett. Little Red Riding Hood
Meanwhile the wolf ran to the grandmother's house. He knocked twice on the door.
—Who's there? Grandma asked.
"It's me, Little Red Riding Hood," said the wolf in a girl's voice. “I brought you cakes and a pot of freshly churned butter.
Grandma was in bed because she was sick.
"Open the door and come in," she called.
Walter Crane. Wolf and grandma
The wolf burst into the room. He had not eaten for three whole days and was therefore very hungry. He immediately swallowed Grandma.
Then he pulled on his grandmother's dressing gown, climbed onto the bed and began to wait for Little Red Riding Hood, who after a while came and knocked on the door.
Carol Lawson. Little Red Riding Hood
Isabel Oakley Naftel. Little Red Riding Hood
Who is there? asked the Wolf in his grandmother's voice. His voice was hoarse, but Little Red Riding Hood thought Grandmother had a sore throat.
"It's me, Little Red Riding Hood," she said. “I brought you cakes and a pot of freshly churned butter.
"Open the door and come in," said the wolf in as gentle a voice as he could.
He pulled the blanket up to his eyes.
"Put your basket on the table and come to me," said the wolf.
Walter Crane. Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf
Little Red Riding Hood came closer. She said:
— Grandmother, what long arms you have!
"It's to hug you better, my dear," said the wolf.
—Grandma, what long ears you have!
—To hear you better, my dear.
—Grandma, what big eyes you have!
—To see you better, my dear.
—Grandma, what big teeth you have!
—This is to eat you! - said the wolf and swallowed Little Red Riding Hood.
Arthur Rackham. Little Red Riding Hood / Little Red Riding Hood
Morale
For little kids, not without reason
(And especially for girls,
beauties and spoiled girls),
Encountering all sorts of men on the way,
You can’t listen to insidious speeches -
Otherwise, the wolf can eat.
I said: wolf! Wolves are countless,
But there are others among them
Rogues, so ventilated,
That, exuding sweet flattery,
Honor is guarded by the maiden,
Accompanies their walks home,
They take them bye-bye through dark back streets...
But the wolf, alas, is more modest than it seems,
That's why he is always crafty and scarier!
In 1812, the Brothers Grimm published a collection of fairy tales, which included the updated Little Red Riding Hood.
There were many differences from the version of Charles Perrault: the motive of the ban, which the girl violates; the girl is not carrying cakes and a pot of butter, but a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; grandmother does not live in another village, but right in the forest; at the end, the grandmother and the girl are saved by the lumberjack, and the wolf dies.
Next, you can read the translation of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" by the Brothers Grimm, made by P. N. Polev.
Brothers Grimm. Little Red Riding Hood
Wow, what a nice little girl she was! She was sweet to everyone who only saw her; well, and she was the sweetest and dearest of all to her grandmother, who didn’t even know what to give her, her beloved granddaughter.
One day she gave her a red velvet cap, and since this cap suited her very well and she did not want to wear anything else, they began to call her Little Red Riding Hood. One day her mother said to her: “Well, Little Red Riding Hood, here, take this piece of cake and a bottle of wine, take it to your grandmother; she is both sick and weak, and it will do her good.
Get out of the house before the heat sets in, and when you get out, go smart and don’t run to the side of the road, otherwise, you’ll probably fall and break the bottle, and then grandma won’t get anything. And when you come to your grandmother, then do not forget to say hello to her, and not just to look into all the corners first, and then go up to your grandmother. “I’ll do everything right,” said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother and assured her of that with her word.
Sarah Ellen Sanf. Little Red Riding Hood
And my grandmother lived in the forest itself, half an hour's walk from the village. And as soon as Little Red Riding Hood entered the forest, she met a wolf. The girl, however, did not know what kind of fierce beast it was, and was not at all afraid of him. "Hello Little Red Riding Hood," he said. "Thank you for your kind words, wolf." “Where did you get out so early, Little Red Riding Hood?” - "To Grandma". “What are you carrying under your apron?” “A piece of cake and wine.
Yesterday our mother baked pies, and so she sends a sick and weak grandmother to please her and strengthen her strength. “Little Red Riding Hood, where does your grandmother live?” - “And here is another good quarter of an hour further in the forest, under three old oaks; there stands her house, surrounded by a hedge of hazel. Will you know now?” said Little Red Riding Hood.
And the wolf was thinking to himself: “This little, tender girl will be a nice piece for me, cleaner than an old woman; it is necessary to do this so cunningly business, so that both of them hit me on the tooth.
So he went for some time with Little Red Riding Hood next to her and began to say to her: “Look at these glorious flowers that grow around - look around! You, perhaps, don’t even hear the birds, how they sing? You go, as if to school, without turning around; and in the forest, go, how fun!
Little Red Riding Hood looked up, and as she saw the rays of the sun cutting through the quivering foliage of trees, as she looked at the many wonderful flowers, she thought: “What if I brought a fresh bunch of flowers to my grandmother, because that would also please her; now it’s still so early that I’ll always have time to get to her on time!” Yes, and ran off the road to the side, into the forest, and began to pick flowers.
She picks one flower a little, and another beckons her, even better, and she will run after it, and so farther and farther she went into the depths of the forest.
Carl Offterdinger. Little Red Riding Hood
Gari Melchers. Little Red Riding Hood
And the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door. "Who's there?" - "Red Riding Hood; I bring you a pie and wine, open it!” - "Press on the latch," Grandma shouted, "I'm too weak and I can't get out of bed."
The wolf pressed the latch, the door swung open, and he entered the grandmother's hut; he rushed straight to his grandmother's bed and swallowed it all at once.
Then he put on his grandmother's dress and her bonnet on her head, lay down in bed and drew the curtains all around.
Little Red Riding Hood, meanwhile, ran and ran for flowers, and when she collected as many as she could carry, then she again remembered her grandmother and went to her house.
She was very surprised that the door was wide open, and when she entered the room everything seemed so strange to her that she always with such pleasure nursed to the grandmother!” So she said: "Good morning!"
No answer.
She went up to the bed, pulled back the curtains, and saw: Grandmother was lying, and she had pulled her bonnet down to her very nose, and it seemed so strange.
“Grandma, what about grandma? Why do you have such big ears?” “So that I can hear you better.” - “Ah, grandmother, but what big eyes you have!” "That's so I can see you better." - “Grandma, what big hands you have!” "That's so I can hug you more easily." “But, grandmother, why do you have such a nasty big mouth?” “And then so that I can eat you!” And as soon as the wolf said this, he jumped out from under the blanket and swallowed poor Little Red Riding Hood.
Eugene Feyen. Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf / Little Red Riding Hood
Gustave Dore. Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf / Little Red Riding Hood
Having satiated in this way, the wolf again lay down in bed, fell asleep, and began to snore to the fullest.
The hunter was just at that time passing by his grandmother's house and thought: "Why is this old woman snoring like that, has something happened to her?"
He entered the house, went to the bed and saw that the wolf had climbed into it.
“That's where I got you, you old sinner! the hunter said. "I've been getting to you for a long time."
And he wanted to kill him with a gun, but it occurred to him that the wolf, perhaps, had swallowed his grandmother and that she could still be saved; therefore he did not shoot, but took scissors and began to rip open the belly of the sleeping wolf.
As soon as I cut it, I saw that a little red riding hood flashed there; and then he began to cut, and a girl jumped out of there and exclaimed: “Oh, how scared I was, how I got caught by a wolf in his dark womb!”
And after Little Red Riding Hood, the old grandmother somehow got out and could hardly catch her breath.
Little Red Riding Hood hastily dragged large stones, which they piled into the wolf's belly and sewed up the incision; and when he woke up, he wanted to sneak away; but could not endure the burden of stones, fell to the ground and died.
This pleased all three: the hunter immediately skinned the wolf and went home with her, the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine that Little Red Riding Hood brought her, and this finally strengthened her, and Little Red Riding Hood thought: “Well, now I’ll never I won’t run away from the main road in the forest, I won’t disobey my mother’s order anymore.
“Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl. And whoever looked at her, everyone liked her, but her grandmother loved her more than anyone and was ready to give her everything. So she once gave her a cap of red velvet, and because this cap suited her very well and she didn’t want to wear any other, they called her Little Red Riding Hood ... ”Who in childhood was not fascinated by this seemingly naive, artless text? Nevertheless, the story of Little Red Riding Hood is not so simple: it is tortuous and intricate, just as human consciousness is tortuous and intricate.
The first literary version of this old folk tale was published by Charles Perrault in 1697 in Paris, in the book “Tales of My Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Old Times with Instructions”, dedicated to the princess of the French royal house. In those days, the story of a girl who went to visit her grandmother and met a wolf on the road was told all over Europe - both in the homes of commoners and in the castles of the nobility.
The tale was especially popular in the Tyrol and the foothills of the Alps, where it had been known at least since the 14th century. Actually, it was a lot of stories: in the north of Italy, the granddaughter brought fresh fish to her grandmother, in Switzerland - a head of young cheese, in the south of France - a pie and a pot of butter; in some cases, the wolf was the winner, in others, the girl ... Perrault took one of the options as a basis, dressed up the nameless girl in a “companion” cap of scarlet velvet and bestowed the name - Little Red Riding Hood. I must say that in France at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, when social differences in clothing were strictly regulated, only aristocrats and middle-class women wore such headdresses. A simple village girl, who easily walked in a velvet cap of a defiant color, and even - contrary to her mother's orders - entered into a conversation with a stranger, obviously understood a lot about herself, which the harsh era of the Enlightenment did not encourage.
In the finale, the wolf taught a cruel lesson to all the windy young ladies: he "attacked Little Red Riding Hood and swallowed her."
The gallant author crowned the “cute trifle” (as he called his fairy tale) with a moral:
Little children, not without reason
(And especially girls, beauties and spoiled girls),
Encountering all sorts of men on the way,
No speeches
Otherwise, the wolf might eat them...
The popularity of Perrault's book was amazing, although the 69-year-old author himself, a prominent royal official and member of the French Academy, fearing ridicule, at first did not dare to put his own name on the collection, therefore for the first time, "Tales of Mother Goose" was published signed by the 11-year-old son of the writer - D'Armancourt.
But the “canonization” of the text did not end there. From the pages of a French book, Little Red Riding Hood returned to oral stories, and a hundred years later reappeared in a literary version - in German Kassel.
This time, the philologists brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm acted as authors, who saw in fairy tales by no means “trifles”. Grimms perceived folk tales as a necessary link in the unification of the fragmented German principalities-electors, who spoke different dialects, into a single national state. The goal of the Grimms was to collect and voice "living folk poetry", to preserve the authenticity of folk art. They believed that the “German pramith” was contained in fairy tales, and in their book “Children's and Household Tales” they selected only those stories that were popular in the territory of German settlement. Grimm's fairy tales were considered as pantries in which a single memory of the mythological ideas and beliefs of their ancestors was preserved, and they saw their task in revealing the “authenticity”, the true nationality of the plot. Based on the idea of the unity of the people, the Grimms did not distinguish between written and oral sources, as well as the belonging of authors to different social and cultural strata, believing that in any of the options there is both truth and artificiality.
They presented their own version of Little Red Riding Hood, combining oral stories, the fairy tale of Charles Perrault, as well as the verse play “The Life and Death of Little Red Riding Hood”, written in 1800 by the German romantic writer Ludwig Tiek (it was Tiek who introduced the hunter who saves the girl and grandmother from the belly of a wolf).
A feature of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm is the abundance of details, sometimes seeming nonsense, sometimes everyday life, sometimes just rudeness and cruelty. The girl's grandmother does not live in another village, but in the forest itself. Little Red Riding Hood brings her a piece of cake and a bottle of wine in her apron, and her mother sternly admonishes her: “Go modestly, as you should; don’t turn aside from the road, otherwise you’ll fall and break the bottle, then grandmother won’t get anything. And when you enter her room, do not forget to say hello to her, and not only to look back and forth in all corners first.
The wolf reproachfully tells the girl that she is going, “as if she is in a hurry to go to school”, offers to “have fun in the forest”, and Little Red Riding Hood, succumbing to persuasion, enters the forest thicket and begins to collect flowers. Having eaten the grandmother, the wolf not only lays down in her bed, but first puts on a dress and cap. At the same time, he leaves the door wide open. Having swallowed the girl, the wolf snores so loudly throughout the forest that the hunter passing by the hut thinks if he needs to help the old woman. Seeing the wolf, the hunter takes the scissors and rips open the sleeping belly: “As soon as he made the first incision, he sees that the little red cap is visible inside. He quickly made a second incision, and a girl jumped out of there and screamed:
— Oh, how scared I was! It was so dark in the wolf's belly!
Grandmother also got out after Little Red Riding Hood, barely alive - she could not catch her breath. Then the wolf is punished: his belly is stuffed with large stones.
Waking up, he wants to run away, but heavy stones are pulled down, and the wolf falls dead. Each of the winners receives his reward: the hunter takes home the skin taken from the wolf, the grandmother, after eating a cake and drinking wine, gets better, and Little Red Riding Hood learns a life lesson: “From now on, I will never turn off the highway alone without my mother’s permission” . Soon the girl meets another wolf in the forest, and this meeting turns out to be fatal for him: Little Red Riding Hood and Grandmother drown the stupid villain in the trough without anyone's help.
The first publication of "Children's and Household Tales" did not arouse much enthusiasm. The Brothers Grimm's book was seen as a cross between a scientific document and children's fun, the publication was not bought up - readers demanded fabulous romantic short stories. However, after some time, either the authors successfully finalized the material, or the public got used to a strange mixture of archaic oral folk tradition and its literary fixation - the book began to diverge with a bang.
Numerous translations were also not long in coming...
Since then, Little Red Riding Hood has become the most popular folk book tale in Europe, and then in the world - always relevant and full of hidden meaning, which many tried to comprehend, sometimes crossing all sorts of boundaries in their conclusions.
So, since the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm came out in the year of the victory over Napoleon, in 1812, and were collected at a time when the lands of the Rhine were under the French heel, some researchers saw the French “intruder” in the wolf, and the suffering German people in Little Red Riding Hood , and in the hunter - the expected disinterested liberator. And a century later, the ideologues of the Third Reich, who declared "Children's and Household Tales" by the Brothers Grimm a sacred book, wrote in all seriousness that Little Red Riding Hood embodies the German people, persecuted by the wolf of Jewry.
The Grimms themselves, deeply religious people, saw in Little Red Riding Hood a single symbol of rebirth - descent into the darkness and transformation.
A hundred years later, Christian researchers who developed this idea declared Little Red Riding Hood the personification of human passions: vanity, self-interest and hidden lust. In the wolf, these same passions are embodied clearly and definitely. Only freed from the wolf's belly, as if born again, the girl is transformed.
Neo-mythologists, supporters of the so-called “wolf-solar theory”, who also considered themselves followers of the Grimms, argued that the fairy tale reflects the change of natural phenomena: the grandmother living in the forest in a house “under three large oaks” is mother nature, Little Red Riding Hood is the sun , the wolf is winter, and the hunter is the new year. Neo-pagans (there were some) considered the wolf to be the most positive character in the fairy tale. The red color of the girl's headdress seemed to them the embodiment of danger, and the grandmother, living in a dense forest, evoked associations with Baba Yaga and the goddess of death of the ancient Germans (by the way, pies and wine were a common sacrifice for the dead and other representatives of the underworld among all Indo-Europeans).
So the wolf seemed to them to be something like an ancestor hero, who was trying to free the world from death and fell victim in an unequal struggle.
Initially, in the oral tradition of the fairy tale about Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf was not just an animal, but a werewolf (this is where his ability to speak in a human voice and successful attempts to disguise himself as a grandmother come from). The Grimms, like Perrault, did not advertise it, but implied it. At the end of the 20th century, interest in mysticism provoked a number of relevant interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood, among which the most famous interpretation of the British "Oscar" Neil Jordan - he turned this story into a love thriller about werewolves "In the company of wolves".
People of the 19th century saw a pure image in Little Red Riding Hood. A fan of "Children's and Household Tales" Charles Dickens in his "Christmas Stories" shared naive childhood reflections: "I felt that if I could marry Little Red Riding Hood, I would know true happiness.
" And the Grimms themselves, who dreamed of returning to their national roots, generally believed that before the world was asexual, and “people produced children with just one look (as God acts only with a thought)” - only “then they needed kisses for this and, finally, hugs and carnal intercourse." “Teutonic religious neurotics” (so the brothers were dubbed by little-believing psychoanalysts of the 20th century) when preparing fairy tales for publication, they expelled from them all to any extent erotic scenes and expressions, because they believed that “old poetry” was “innocent”.
The 20th century made Little Red Riding Hood a brand and a diagnosis. So, in the 30s, supporters of Freud's student Erich Fromm declared that Little Red Riding Hood is a fully matured girl, and her headdress is a symbol of physiological maturity. The mother's warnings to stay on the road and beware of breaking the bottle are warnings against casual relationships and loss of virginity. The main characters of the tale are three generations of women.
The wolf, embodying the masculine principle, is a “ruthless and treacherous animal”, and the hunter is a conventional image of Little Red Riding Hood's father (which is why he is not among the despised men). In general, the story tells about the triumph of the female half of humanity over the male and returns the reader to the world of matriarchy.
In the 1960s, the era of the sexual revolution and the rise of feminism, researchers began to talk about swallowing as rape, a symbolic description of uncontrollable sexual appetite. At the same time, the girl herself provokes the wolf to active actions: she wears a bright hat, talks to a stranger, has fun in the forest ... At the same time, the wolf turns out to be a transvestite and secretly envies the woman's ability to become pregnant. That is why he swallows his grandmother and granddaughter whole, making an attempt to put living beings in his stomach. At the end of the wolf, stones are killed - symbols of sterility, which is a mockery of the desire to play childbirth .
