Friday, March 4, 2011

Fairy Tale Fridays- Little Red Riding Hood

This week I decided to read the well known tale of Red Riding Hood. Partially because of the movie and the other reason is from a Treasury I did on Etsy with a red riding hood theme (check out my treasury here). I'm just in a red kind of mood LOL

We all know the traditional tale of the little girl in the red hood bringing goodies to her grandmother. The big bad wolf comes along and convinces her to stray from the path while he runs ahead and eats her grandmother and disguises himself as the grandmother. So while most tellings of it tell us how he eats both red and the grandmother and the woodsman saves them often they leave out the part where they fill the wolf full of stones so he can't run away and he slowly dies a painful death. In the version I read at the end Red encounters yet another wolf but this time is too smart for it and runs ahead to her grandmother's house. The wolf follows and waits for her on the roof and plans to devour her when she leaves. The grandmother figures out what the wolf is up to and has Red fill a trough full of water that sausages and been boiled in. The wolf smells it and falls from the roof into the trough and drowns. Pleasant, eh?

I've always enjoyed this tale. Listen to your mother and follow path lest you be led astray. When I was reading this  the Robert Frost poem The Road not Taken popped in my head. If I wasn't so tired perhaps I could philosophize on how the tale and poem connect. But I'll have to save that for another day. I loved reading the new to me ending with a second wolf drowning. It really just amps up the carnage that fairy tales seem to encompass. I give Red 5 out of 5 stars....Oh is anyone going to see the movie? Part of me wants to but is afraid of just how badly hollywood can screw up things like that.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's much nicer than the Perrault version from 1697 I read last year. At the end of it, Red Riding Hood and grandma get eaten, period. No woodcutter saves the day.

BookGeek said...

I am not sure about the new movie either. Actually, I am pretty sure I don't want to see it unless it comes out on netflix. I just think it looks very predictable. Maybe I'll be proven wrong?

Anyways, this fairy tale always creeped me out with its overt symbolism. But maybe that's why I always remember it best! LOL

Tif Sweeney said...

I actually want to see the movie, but not until it comes out on dvd. I hope it doesn't get ruined though. Hollywood does tend to make great books and stories horrible when it hits the big screen!