Once upon a time there was a dear little girl, and everyone who set eyes on her loved her, but her grandmother loved her most of all, and never tired of giving her presents. Once she gave her granddaughter a little red velvet cap, and because it suited the girl so well, and she wore it all the time, she was known as Little Red Cap.
One day her mother said to her, “Now, Little Red Cap, here’s a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother. She’s sick and weak and the cake and wine will do her good. You had better set out before the day is too hot, and when you are away from here follow the path like a good girl, or you might fall and break the glass bottle, and there would be none of the wine left for your grandmother. And when you reach her house, don’t forget to say good morning, and don’t go poking about in every corner!”
“I’ll do everything just as you say,” Little Red Cap told her mother, giving her hand to show she meant it. Her grandmother, however, lived out in the forest, half an hour’s walk from the village, and when Little Red Cap entered the forest the wolf came to meet her. However, she didn’t know what a wicked animal he was, so she was not afraid of him.
“Good day, Little Red Cap!” said the wolf.
“Thank you, wolf, and good day to you!” she replied.
“Where are you going so early in the morning, Little Red Cap?”
“To see my grandmother.”
“And what’s that you are carrying under your apron?”
“Cake and wine. It was baking day yesterday, and I’m taking my poor sick grandmother something to do her good and give her new strength.”
“So where does your grandmother live, Little Red Cap?”
“Another quarter of an hour’s walk into the forest from here. Her house stands under the three big oak trees with hazel-nut hedges outside it, I’m sure you know the place,” said Little Red Cap.
The wolf thought to himself: this tender young thing will make me a good meal; she’ll taste even better than the old lady. I must go about this cunningly if I’m to snap them both up. So he went along beside the little girl for a while, and then he said, “Look at those pretty flowers growing all around, Little Red Cap. Why don’t you look over there? I don’t think you even hear the little birds singing so sweetly. You just walk straight ahead as if you were on your way to school, yet it’s such fun out in the forest.”
Little Red Cap opened her eyes wide, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing back and forth as they shone through the trees, and all the lovely flowers growing in the forest, she thought: if I take Grandmother a bunch of fresh flowers she’d like that, too. And it’s so early in the day that I shall still arrive in good time. So she left the path through the forest and went looking for flowers. Whenever she picked one, she thought she saw an even prettier one further away, and she went to pick it and so strayed further and further into the forest. But as for the wolf, he went straight to Grandmother’s house and knocked on the door.
“Who’s that outside?” called the old lady.
“It’s me, Little Red Cap, bringing you some cake and wine. Open the door!”
“Just push the latch down,” Grandmother replied. “I’m too weak to get up.” The wolf pushed the latch down, the door opened, and without a word he went straight to Grandmother’s bed and swallowed her all up. Then he put on her clothes, set her cap on his head, lay down in her bed and drew the curtains round it.
Meanwhile Little Red Cap had been running about picking flowers, and when she had so many that she could hardly carry them she remembered her grandmother, and set off for her house. She was surprised to find the door open, and when she went into Grandmother’s room it felt so strange that she said to herself: oh, my goodness, how frightened I feel today, and yet I usually love going to see Grandmother!
“Good morning,” she called, but there was no answer. So she went up to the bed and pulled back the curtains. There lay Grandmother with her cap far down over her face, looking so 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 grab you with!”
“But oh, Grandmother, what a terribly big muzzle you have!”
“All the better to eat you with!” And as soon as the wolf had said those words he jumped out of bed and swallowed poor Little Red Cap all up.
When the wolf had satisfied his appetite, he lay down in bed again, fell asleep and began snoring loudly. The huntsman happened to be passing the house, and he thought: how the old lady is snoring! I’d better go and see if there’s anything wrong with her. So he went into the room, and when he was standing beside the bed he saw the wolf in it. “Oho, you old sinner, is this where I find you?” said he. “I’ve been after you for a long time.”
And he was about to aim his gun when it occurred to him that the wolf might have swallowed Grandmother whole, and she could still be saved. So he didn’t fire a shot, but took a pair of scissors and began slitting the sleeping wolf’s belly open. After he had made a few cuts he saw the little bright red cap, and after a few more the little girl jumped out, crying, “Oh, how scared I was! It was so dark inside the wolf.” Then out came her old grandmother as well, still alive but very breathless. Little Red Cap hurried off to fetch some large stones, and they filled the wolf’s body with the stones. When he woke up he tried to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he sank under their weight and fell down dead.
They were all three very happy. The huntsman skinned the wolf and took the wolf skin home with him; Grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine that Little Red Cap had brought and soon felt better; and as for Little Red Cap, she thought to herself: I’ll never in my life stray off the path and go into the forest when my mother has told me not to.
And there is another story about Little Red Cap. It says that once, when she was taking some cakes to her old grandmother again, another wolf spoke to her and tried to tempt her to leave the path. But Little Red Cap was careful to do no such thing. She went on her way, and told her grandmother how she had met a wolf who wished her good day, but gave her such a nasty look that, she said, “If it hadn’t happened in the middle of the road I’m sure he’d have eaten me up.”
“Come along,” said Grandmother. “We’ll close the door so that he can’t get in.”
Soon the wolf came along, knocked on the door and called, “Open the door, Grandmother. Here I am, Little Red Cap, bringing you some cakes.”
But they kept quiet and didn’t open the door. The grey wolf prowled round the house several times, and at last he jumped up on the roof, planning to wait until Little Red Cap went home in the evening. Then he was going to follow her and eat her under cover of darkness.
However, Grandmother guessed what he had in mind. There was a big stone trough outside the house, and she said to the little girl, “Take the bucket, Little Red Cap. I boiled some sausages yesterday, so pour the water they were cooked in out into the trough!” Little Red Cap carried out sausage water until the big, big trough was full. The smell of sausages rose to the wolf’s nose. He sniffed, he peered down, and at last he craned his neck so far that he lost his footing and began sliding. So he slid right off the roof, straight into the big trough, and he drowned there. But Little Red Cap went happily home, and after that no one did anything to hurt her.
