Little Red Cap

There was once a sweet little girl whom everyone loved, but no one loved her more than her grandmother, who would have given her anything. Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she never wanted to wear anything else, and so everyone called her Little Red Cap.

One day her mother said, “Here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother; she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, walk nicely and don’t stray from the path, or you might fall and break the bottle, and then Grandmother will get nothing.” Little Red Cap promised to be good.

Grandmother lived out in the woods, half an hour’s walk from the village. As soon as Little Red Cap entered the forest she met a wolf. She did not know what a wicked animal he was, and so she was not afraid. He asked politely where she was going so early, and she told him everything: Grandmother’s house stood under the three big oak trees, just below the nut hedges. The wolf thought to himself, What a tender young thing, a plump mouthful that will taste even better than the old woman. If I’m clever, I can get them both.

He walked beside her for a while and said, “Little Red Cap, look at the pretty flowers all around. Why don’t you look about you? I don’t think you even hear how sweetly the birds are singing. You walk along as solemnly as if you were going to school, while everything out here in the woods is so merry.” Little Red Cap looked up, saw the sunbeams dancing between the trees and the beautiful flowers everywhere, and thought, Grandmother would be pleased with a fresh bunch of flowers. So she ran off the path into the woods, and every time she picked one flower she saw a prettier one a little farther on, and so she went deeper and deeper among the trees.

Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to Grandmother’s house and knocked. “Who’s there?” “Little Red Cap, bringing cake and wine. Open the door.” “Just press the latch,” called Grandmother. “I’m too weak to get up.” The wolf pressed the latch, went straight to the bed and swallowed the old woman whole. Then he put on her clothes and her nightcap, lay down in her bed and drew the curtains.

When Little Red Cap had gathered so many flowers she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother and hurried on. She was surprised to find the door standing open, and when she stepped inside she had such a strange feeling that she thought, Oh dear, how uneasy I feel today, and usually I love being at Grandmother’s. She drew back the curtains. There lay Grandmother with her cap pulled far down over her face, looking very strange.

“Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have!” “The better to hear you with.” “Oh, Grandmother, what big eyes you have!” “The better to see you with.” “Oh, Grandmother, what big hands you have!” “The better to grab you with.” “But Grandmother, what a terribly big mouth you have!” “The better to eat you with!” And with that the wolf leapt out of bed and swallowed poor Little Red Cap.

His hunger satisfied, the wolf lay back down, fell asleep and began to snore very loudly. A huntsman passing by thought, How the old woman is snoring! I had better see if something is wrong. He went in and found the wolf in the bed. “So here you are, you old sinner! I’ve been hunting you a long time.” He was about to shoot when it occurred to him that the wolf might have swallowed the grandmother and that she could still be saved. So instead he took a pair of scissors and began to cut open the sleeping wolf’s belly. After a few snips he saw the red cap shining, and out sprang the girl, crying, “Oh, how frightened I was! It was so dark inside the wolf!” Then out came Grandmother, still alive, though she could hardly breathe.

Little Red Cap quickly fetched big stones and filled the wolf’s belly with them. When he woke and tried to run away, the stones were so heavy that he collapsed and fell down dead. All three were delighted. The huntsman took the wolf’s pelt home, Grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine and felt much better, and Little Red Cap thought, As long as I live, I will never leave the path and run into the woods when my mother has told me not to.

The Grimms add a second ending. Another time, another wolf tried to lure Little Red Cap from the path, but she walked straight on and warned her grandmother, and they bolted the door. The wolf climbed onto the roof to wait for her. But Grandmother had Little Red Cap pour the water in which she had boiled sausages into the big stone trough by the house. The smell drifted up, the wolf sniffed and leaned down so far that he slipped off the roof, fell into the trough and drowned. Little Red Cap walked home happily, and no one ever harmed her again.