little red riding hood

A little girl everyone calls Little Red Riding Hood—because she always wears a bright red hooded cloak—lives with her mother near a deep forest. One morning, her mother gives her a basket of food and says:

“Take this to your grandmother. She’s feeling ill. Stay on the path, and don’t talk to strangers.”

Red promises she will.

As she walks through the forest, sunlight flickering through the tall trees, she meets a wolf. Not knowing he is dangerous, she tells him she’s going to her grandmother’s cottage on the far side of the woods.

The wolf smiles slyly and suggests she pick some flowers to cheer up her grandmother. While she gathers a bouquet, he runs ahead to the cottage, knocks on the door, tricks the grandmother, and swallows her whole. Then he puts on her nightcap and glasses and climbs into her bed.

When Little Red Riding Hood arrives, she notices something strange about “Grandmother.”

“Grandmother, what big eyes you have.”
“The better to see you with.”
“Grandmother, what big ears you have.”
“The better to hear you with.”
“Grandmother, what big teeth you have.”
“The better to eat you with!”

The wolf leaps from the bed and swallows her too.

In the Grimm version, a woodcutter passing by hears the commotion, bursts in, and cuts open the sleeping wolf. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother climb out unharmed. They fill the wolf’s belly with stones; when he wakes and tries to flee, he collapses and dies.

Little Red Riding Hood hugs her grandmother and promises never again to stray from the path or speak to strangers.