Little Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl. Everyone who saw her loved her, but no one loved her more than her grandmother. One day her grandmother sewed her a little hood of red velvet. It suited the girl so well that she never wanted to take it off. So everyone began to call her Little Red Riding Hood.

One day her mother called her: "Come, my dear, take this basket. There's a piece of cake and a bottle of grape juice inside. Your grandmother is ill and weak. Take these to her; they will do her good. Set off before it gets hot. Walk nicely on the way and don't leave the path, or you might fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will have nothing. And when you go into her room, don't forget to say good morning, and don't go peeping into every corner first."

"Don't worry, Mother, I'll do everything just as you say," promised Little Red Riding Hood. Her grandmother lived in the forest, half an hour from the village. As soon as the girl entered the forest, she met a wolf. Little Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked animal the wolf was, so she was not afraid of him at all.

"Good morning, Little Red Riding Hood," said the wolf. "Good morning, Mister Wolf." "Where are you going so early this morning?" "To my grandmother's." "What's that under your apron?" "Cake and grape juice. We baked yesterday, so that my sick grandmother can get a little stronger." "Where does your grandmother live?" "In the forest, a quarter of an hour from here, under the three big oak trees. There are hazel hedges around her house. You must know it," said Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf thought to himself: "What a tender young thing this little girl is. But first I must deal with the old woman, and then I'll catch them both." He walked beside the girl for a while, and then he said: "Little Red Riding Hood, look at these beautiful flowers. Why don't you look around? Don't you hear how sweetly the birds are singing? You walk straight ahead as if you were going to school, and yet the forest is so merry."

Little Red Riding Hood looked up. The sunbeams were dancing between the trees, and everywhere was full of colourful flowers. "If I take my grandmother a fresh bunch of flowers, she'll be so pleased. And it's still early, I'll get there in time," she thought. She left the path and ran into the forest. She picked one flower, saw a prettier one further on and ran to it. And so she went deeper and deeper into the forest.

The wolf, meanwhile, ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door. "Who's there?" "It's me, Little Red Riding Hood. I've brought you cake and grape juice. Open the door." "Lift the latch. I'm too weak to get up," called the grandmother. The wolf lifted the latch and the door swung open. Without saying a word he went straight to the bed and swallowed the grandmother in one gulp. Then he put on her clothes and her nightcap, lay down in her bed and drew the curtains.

Little Red Riding Hood, meanwhile, kept on picking flowers. When her arms were full, she remembered her grandmother and set off again. When she reached the house, she was surprised to find the door open. When she went inside, everything felt strange. "Oh dear, how uneasy I feel today, and I always love being at Grandmother's," she thought. "Good morning!" she called, but there was no answer.

She went to the bed and drew back the curtain. There lay the grandmother, with her cap pulled down over her face, looking very strange. "Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have!" "All the better to hear you with." "Oh, Grandmother, what big eyes you have!" "All the better to see you with." "Oh, Grandmother, what big hands you have!" "All the better to hold you with." "But Grandmother, what a terribly big mouth you have!" "All the better to eat you with!"

No sooner had the wolf said this than he leapt out of bed and swallowed poor Little Red Riding Hood too. When his stomach was full, he lay down in the bed again, fell asleep and began to snore so loudly that the windows rattled.

Just then a huntsman was passing the house. "How loudly the old woman is snoring. I'd better see if she needs anything," he thought. He went into the room, and when he looked at the bed he saw the wolf. "So I've found you at last, you old sinner! I've been looking for you for a long time," he said. He was about to aim his gun when it occurred to him that the wolf might have swallowed the grandmother, and that she might still be saved. He did not shoot; instead he took a pair of scissors and carefully began to cut open the sleeping wolf's belly.

After a few snips he saw the red hood shining. A few more snips, and out jumped Little Red Riding Hood: "Oh, how frightened I was! How dark it was inside the wolf!" And then the old grandmother came out too, alive, hardly able to breathe, but safe and sound.

Little Red Riding Hood ran and fetched big stones, and they filled the wolf's belly with them. When the wolf woke up and tried to run away, the stones were so heavy that he collapsed and never got up again.

All three of them were very happy. The huntsman took the wolf's skin and went home. The grandmother ate the cake and drank the grape juice that Little Red Riding Hood had brought, and she felt much better. And Little Red Riding Hood promised herself: "As long as my mother forbids it, I will never again leave the path and run into the forest on my own."

They say that another time, when Little Red Riding Hood was again taking cake to her grandmother, another wolf came up to her and tried to lead her off the path. But this time Little Red Riding Hood was on her guard; she kept straight on her way and told her grandmother about the wolf. Together they locked the door. The wolf prowled around the house for a while, and in the end, unable to do anything, he went away. And Little Red Riding Hood went home safely, and no one ever harmed her again.