adminOnce upon a time there was a sweet little girl. Everyone loved her. Most of all her grandmother. So one day she gave her a red velvet hat. The girl always wore the hat and since then she has been called Little Red Riding Hood.
One day her grandmother was ill. So Little Red Riding Hood went to bring her wine and biscuits. That would surely make her feel better. Her mother told her not to go off the path and to be careful. She also had to be polite and say goodbye to grandmother.
Little Red Riding Hood promised to do so and went on her way. Grandmother lived deep in the forest, more than half an hour’s walk from the village. In the forest Little Red Riding Hood encountered the wolf. She did not know he was dangerous. So she was not afraid at all.
“Good morning Little Red Riding Hood,” the wolf said. “I’m going to bring Grandma wine and biscuits because she is sick,” said Little Red Riding Hood. “Where does your grandmother live?” the wolf then asked. “Less than half an hour further into the forest, in the cottage under the three big oaks,” said Little Red Riding Hood.
The wolf, meanwhile, was thinking of something else entirely: that Little Red Riding Hood was a nice tender morsel and would probably taste even better than the tough grandmother. If he was smart, he could eat them both. So the wolf came along and said, “Look at these beautiful flowers. Don’t you want to look around for a bit?”
Little Red Riding Hood wanted to pick a beautiful bouquet for grandmother. It was still early, so she had plenty of time. And so she left the path and wandered deeper and deeper into the forest.
Meanwhile, the wolf walked straight to grandmother’s house and knocked on the door. “Who is there?” “Little Red Riding Hood with wine and biscuits, open up!” “Come in. I can’t get up,” said grandmother.
When the wolf was inside, he jumped onto the bed and….ate grandmother in one go. Then he put on her nightgown, put on her nightcap and got into bed with the curtains closed.
When Little Red Riding Hood arrived at the cottage with her arms full of flowers, she was surprised to find the door open. Inside, everything seemed so strange. She became afraid but did not know why. “Good morning,” Little Red Riding Hood said, but no one answered. Then she opened the curtains. In the bed lay Grandmother but she looked so strange with her sleeping cap over her face.
“Oh, grandmother,” she said, “what big ears you have.”
“The better to hear you with, my child,” was the reply.
“But, grandmother, what big eyes you have,” she said.
“The better to see you with, my dear.”
“But, grandmother, what large hands you have.”
“The better to hug you with.”
“Oh, but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have.”
“The better to eat you with.”
The wolf jumped out of bed and swallowed up Little Red Riding Hood. With his belly so full, he slept soundly and snored like a king.
A hunter came by. He thought: “That old woman is snoring very loudly. I’ll go and have a look”. He saw the wolf and said, “So here you are, you old sinner. I’ve been looking for you for so long.”
He wanted to shoot the wolf with his rifle but suddenly realized that the wolf might have eaten grandmother. Who knows, he might be able to save her. He cut open the belly of the sleeping wolf with a pair of scissors and immediately saw a red cap. The girl jumped out and cried: “I was soooo afraid in the wolf’s belly. It was soooo dark there.” And after that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe.
Then the hunter filled the wolf’s belly with stones. When the wolf woke up, he wanted to run away. But the stones stopped him. He fell to the ground and never woke up again.
The hunter, grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood were happy. The hunter took the wolf’s fur home. Grandmother drank the wine, ate all the biscuits and soon felt a lot better. And Little Red Riding Hood said to herself, “I will never leave the forest path again for as long as I live and I will always listen to my mother.”
