XV.—LITTLE RED HOOD.
Once upon a time, there was a little darling damsel, whom
everybody loved that looked upon her, but her old granny
loved her best of all, and didn't know what to give the dear
child for love. Once she made her a hood of red samite,
and since that became her so well, and she, too, would wear
nothing else on her head, people gave her the name of `Red
Hood.' Once her mother said to Red Hood, `Go; here is
a slice of cake and a bottle of wine; carry them to old
granny. She is ill and weak, and they will refresh her.
But be pretty behaved, and don't peep about in all corners
when you come into her room, and don't forget to say
"Good-day." Walk, too, prettily, and don't go out of the
road, otherwise you will fall and break the bottle, and then
poor granny will have nothing.' Red Hood said, `I will
observe everything well that you have told me,' and gave
her mother her hand upon it.
But granny lived out in a forest, half an hour's walk from
the village. When Red Hood went into the forest, she met
a wolf. But she did not know what a wicked beast he was,
and was not afraid of him. `God help you, Red Hood!'
said he. `God bless you, wolf!' replied she. `Whither so
early, Red Hood?' `To granny.' `What have you there
under your mantle?' `Cake and wine. We baked yesterday;
old granny must have a good meal for once, and
strengthen herself therewith.' `Where does your granny
live, Red Hood?' `A good quarter of an hour's walk
further in the forest, under yon three large oaks. There
stands her house; further beneath are the nut-trees, which
you will see there,' said Red Hood. The wolf thought
within himself, `This nice young damsel is a rich morsel.
She will taste better than the old woman; but you must
trick her cleverly, that you may catch both.' For a time he
went by Red Hood's side. Then said he, `Red Hood!
just look! there are such pretty flowers here! Why don't
you look round at them all? Methinks you don't even hear
how delightfully the birds are singing! You are as dull as
if you were going to school, and yet it is so cheerful in the
forest!' Little Red Hood lifted up her eyes, and when she
saw how the sun's rays glistened through the tops of the
trees, and every place was full of flowers, she bethought
herself, `If I bring with me a sweet smelling nosegay to
granny, it will cheer her. It is still so early, that I shall
come to her in plenty of time,' and therewith she skipped
into the forest and looked for flowers. And when she had
plucked one, she fancied that another further off was nicer,
and ran there, and went always deeper and deeper into the
forest. But the wolf went by the straight road to old
granny's, and knocked at the door. `Who's there?' `Little
Red Hood, who has brought cake and wine. Open!' `Only
press the latch,' cried granny; `I am so weak that I cannot
stand.' The wolf pressed the latch, walked in, and went
without saying a word straight to granny's bed and ate her up.
Then he took her clothes, dressed himself in them, put her
cap on his head, lay down in her bed and drew the curtains.
Meanwhile little Red Hood was running after flowers,
and when she had so many that she could not carry any
more, she bethought her of her granny, and started on the
way to her. It seemed strange to her that the door was
wide open, and when she entered the room everything
seemed to her so peculiar, that she thought, `Ah! my God!
how strange I feel to-day, and yet at other times I am so
glad to be with granny!' She said, `Good-day!' but received
no answer. Thereupon she went to the bed and undrew
the curtains. There lay granny, with her cap drawn down
to her eyes, and looking so queer! `Ah, granny! why have
you such long ears?' `The better to hear you.' `Ah,
granny! why have you such large eyes?' `The better to
see you.' `Ah, granny! why have you such large hands?'
`The better to take hold of you.' `But, granny! why have
you such a terribly large mouth?' `The better to eat you
up!' And therewith the wolf sprang out of bed at once on
poor little Red Hood, and ate her up.
When the wolf had satisfied his appetite, he lay down
again in the bed, and began to snore tremendously. A
huntsman came past, and bethought himself, `How can an
old woman snore like that? I'll just have a look to see
what it is.' He went into the room, and looked into the
bed; there lay the wolf. `Have I found you now, old
rascal?' said he. `I've long been looking for you.' He
was just going to take aim with his gun, when he bethought
himself, `Perhaps the wolf has only swallowed granny, and
she may yet be released;' therefore he did not shoot, but
took a knife and began to cut open the sleeping wolf's maw.
When he had made several cuts, he saw a red hood gleam,
and after one or two more cuts out skipped Red Hood, and
cried, `Oh, how frightened I have been; it was so dark in
the wolf's maw!' Afterwards out came old granny, still
alive, but scarcely able to breathe. But Red Hood made
haste and fetched large stones, with which they filled the
wolf's maw, and when he woke he wanted to jump up and
run away, but the stones were so heavy that he fell on
the ground and beat himself to death. Now, they were all
three merry. The huntsman took off the wolf's skin; granny
ate the cake and drank the wine which little Red Hood had
brought, and became strong and well again; and little Red
Hood thought to herself, `As long as I live, I won't go out
of the road into the forest, when mother has forbidden me.'
[Little Red Hood, like many folklore tales, is a singular
mixture of myth and morality. In Cox's `Comparative
Mythology,' vol. ii., p. 831, note, Little Redcap, or Little
Red Riding Hood, is interpreted as `the evening with her
scarlet robe of twilight,' who is swallowed up by the wolf of
darkness, the Fenris of the Edda. It appears to me that
this explanation may suit the colour of her cap or hood, but
is at variance with the other incidents of the story. I am
inclined to look upon the tale as a lunar legend, although
the moon is only actually red during one portion of the
year, at the harvest moon in the autumn. Red Hood is
represented as wandering, like Io, who is undoubtedly the
moon, through trees, the clouds, and flowers, the stars,
before she reaches the place where she is intercepted by the
wolf. An eclipse to untutored minds would naturally
suggest the notion that some evil beast was endeavouring
to devour the moon, who is afterwards rescued by the
sun, the archer of the heavens, whose bow and arrow are by
a common anachronism represented in the story by a gun.
Though the moon is masculine in Slavonic, as in German,
yet she is a lady, `my lady Luna,' in the Croatian legend
No. 53, below. In the Norse mythology, when Loki is
let loose at the end of the world, he is to `hurry in the
form of a wolf to swallow the moon' (Cox ii., p. 200). The
present masculine Slavonic word for moon, which is also that
for month, `mesic,' or `mesec,' is a secondary formation,
the original word having perished. In Greek and Latin
the moon is always feminine.]
