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File-Little Red Riding Hood - Project Gutenberg etext 19993

Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a famous fairy tale about a young boy and a Big Bad Wolf, most famously told by the Brothers Grimm. The story has been retold through several versions during its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings. The tales serves as inspiration for its many film adaptions including the 2011 film, Red Riding Hood.

Fairy Tale[]

The story revolves around a girl called Little Red Riding Hood, named after the red hooded cape or cloak she wears. The girl walks through the woods to deliver food to her sick grandmother.

A wolf wants to eat the girl but is afraid to do so in public. He approaches Little Red Riding Hood and she naïvely tells him where she is going. He suggests the girl pick some flowers, which she does. In the meantime, he goes to the grandmother's house and gains entry by pretending to be the girl. He swallows the grandmother whole, and waits for the girl, disguised as the grandmother.

When the girl arrives, she notices he looks very strange to be her grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood then says, "What big hands you have!" In most retellings, this eventually culminates with Little Red Riding Hood saying, "My, what big teeth you have!", to which the wolf replies, "The better to eat you with," and swallows her whole, too.

A hunter, however, comes to the rescue and cuts the wolf open. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother emerge unharmed. They fill the wolf's body with heavy stones. The wolf awakens thirsty from his large meal and goes to the well to seek water, where he falls in and drowns. (Sanitized) versions of the story have had the grandmother shut in the closet instead of eaten, and some have Little Red Riding Hood saved by the hunter as the wolf advances on her, rather than after she is eaten.)

The tale makes the clearest contrast between the safe world of the village and the dangers of the forest, conventional antitheses that are essentially medieval, though no written versions are as old as that.

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