The Real Story of Little Red Riding Hood

Caption:  Text Page from old book - Image of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in Grandma Cap

Versions of Little Red Riding Hood--from Jack Zipes' class Syllabus

Charles Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood. (1697)
Grimm Brothers, Little Red Cap. (1812)
Alfred Mills, Ye True Hystorie of Little Red Riding Hood. (1872)
Harriet Childe-Pemberton, All My Doing, or Little Red-Riding Hood Over Again. (1882)
Charles Marelle, The True History of Little Golden Hood. (1888)
Guy Wetmore Carryl, How Little Red Riding Hood Came to be Eaten. (1902)
James Thurber, The Girl and The Wolf. (1939)
Patrick de Heriz, Little Red Riding Hood. (1946)
Catherine Storr, Little Polly Riding Hood. (1955)
Joel Wells, Little Red Riding Hood. (1967)
Anne Sexton, Red Riding Hood. (1971)
Merseyside Fairy Story Collective, Red Riding Hood. (1972)
Gianni Rodari, Little Green Riding Hood. (1973)
Max von der Grün, Little Red Cap. (1974)
Olga Broumas, Little Red Riding Hood. (1977)
Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves. (1979)
Roald Dahl, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. (1982)
Tanith Lee, Wolfland. (1983)
Anne Sharpe, Not So Little Red Riding Hood. (1985)
Rita Kelly, Grainne's Version of the Pursuit. (1989)
Sally Miller Gearhart, Roja and Leopold. (1991)
Wendy Wheeler, Little Red. (1993)

Now a professor of German at the University of Minnesota, Jack Zipes has also taught at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, the University of Florida, and New York University.  He has written twenty-five books, many of which are accessible to the lay reader which is in keeping with his reputation as a public scholar. Titles such as Don't Bet on the Prince and The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood mask the serious scholarship behind the books.  A PhD in comparative literature from Columbia resulted from an extended stay in Germany where he went to write a novel and discovered German which led to a reading knowledge of French, Italian, and Spanish.  Political activism in the late sixties forged a critical examination of fairy tales and their role in gender directives.  This background also led to the formation of the journal New German Critique and his acceptance of the editorship of The Lion and the Unicorn, a critical journal on children's literature.  He has been willing to speak to audiences as diverse as public school children and scholars of fantasy.  He is married to author Carol Dines, and is the father of an eight year old daughter.  Zipes has brought new life to the term interdisciplinary.  Fortunately, he chose fairy tales as a focus for his scholarship.

Caption:  Page from a verse version of Red Riding Hood

A very partial bibliography for Jack Zipes

Arabian nights : the marvels and wonders of the Thousand and one nights . adapted from Richard F. Burton' s unexpurgated translation by Jack Zipes. (New York: Signet Classic, 1991).
Beauties, beasts, and enchantment : classic French fairy tales, translated and with an introduction by Jack Zipes. (NY: New American Library, 1989).
Breaking the magic spell : radical theories of folk and fairytales (Austin : U of Texas Pr, 1979).
The Brothers Grimm : from enchanted forests to the modernworld (NY: Routledge, 1988)
The complete fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm , translated and with an introduction by Jack Zipes ; illus. by John B.
Gruelle. (NY: Bantam, 1987)
[ed.] Don't bet on the prince : contemporary feminist fairy tales inNorth America and England ( New York : Methuen,
1986)
[ed.] Fairy tales and fables from Weimar days translated by Jack Zipes. (Hanover : University Press of New England, 1989)
Fairy tales and the art of subversion : the classical genre for children and the process of civilization (London : Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)
[ed.] Stockton, Frank Richard. The fairy tales of Frank Stockton with an afterword by Jack Zipes. (N.Y., U.S.A. : Signet
Classic, 1990)
[ed.] Germans and Jews since the holocaust : the changing situationin West Germany ed. with Anson Rabinbach (N Y:
Holmes & Meier, 1986)
The great refusal. Studies of the romantic hero in German and American literature. (Bad Homburg, Athenaum-Verl.,
1970)
The operated Jew : two tales of anti-semitism translated with commentary by Jack Zipes. (N Y: Routledge, 1991)
[ed.]Political plays for children : the Grips Theater of Berlin . ed. and translated by Jack Zipes (St. Louis: Telos Press,
1976).
[ed.] Spells of enchantment : the wondrous fairy tales of Western culture (N.Y: Viking, 1991)
The trials and tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood :versions of the tale in sociocultural context/ (South Hadley, MA:
Bergin & Garvey, 1983)
[ed.] Victorian Fairy Tales: The Revolt of the Fairies and Elves, (NY: Methuen, 1987).

Ed. with Louisa Smith, many issues of The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children's Literature , featuring such
topics as "The International scene in children's literature," "The Arts in Children's Literature," "Political Correctness and Cultural
Literacy," and "Taking Political Stock: New Theoretical and Critical Approaches to Anglo-American Children's Literature in the
1980s."

Also many articles, such as:
"Spreading Myths About Fairy Tales: A Critical Commentary on Robert Bly's Iron John," in New German Critique: An
Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies , 55: 3-19, Winter 1992.
"Negating History and Male Fantasies through Psychoanalytical Criticism," Children's Literature: An International Journal,vol.
18, 1990
"The Origins of the Fairy Tale for Children: Or, How Script Was Used to Tame the Beast in Us" in Avery, Gillian (ed.); Briggs,
Julia (ed.). Children and Their Books: A Celebration of the Work of Iona and Peter Opie. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989).
"Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale," in Gannon, Susan R. (ed.); Thompson, Ruth Anne (ed.). Cross-Culturalism in
Children's Literature: Selected Papers from the Children's Literature Association, (New York: Pace Univ., 1988).
"Critical Observations on Recent Psychoanalytical Approaches to the Tales of the Brothers Grimm," Merveilles et Contes., 1
(1): 19-30, May 1987.
"The Enchanted Forest of the Brothers Grimm: New Modes of Approaching the Grimms' Fairy Tales," Germanic Review , 62
(2): 66-74, Spring 1987
"The Grimms and the German Obsession with Fairy Tales," and "Marxists and the Illumination of Folk and Fairy Tales" in
Bottigheimer, Ruth B. (ed. & pref.). Fairy Tales and Society: Illusion, Allusion, and Paradigm. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania
P, 1986

Caption:  Frontispiece from 1854 version of Red Riding Hood

a wonderful book on the history of the Grimm brothers by Jack Zipes:

Once There Were Two Brothers Named Grimm

by Jack Zipes

Little Red Cap

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl. Everyone who saw her liked her, but most of all her grandmother, who did not know what to give the child next. Once she gave her a little cap made of red velvet. Because it suited her so well, and she wanted to wear it all the time, she came to be known as Little Red Cap.

One day her mother said to her, "Come Little Red Cap. Here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother. She is sick and weak, and they will do her well. Mind your manners and give her my greetings. Behave yourself on the way, and do not leave the path, or you might fall down and break the glass, and then there will be nothing for your sick grandmother."

Little Red Cap promised to obey her mother. The grandmother lived out in the woods, a half hour from the village. When Little Red Cap entered the woods a wolf came up to her. She did not know what a wicked animal he was, and was not afraid of him.

"Good day to you, Little Red Cap."

"Thank you, wolf."

"Where are you going so early, Little Red Cap?"

"To grandmother's."

"And what are you carrying under your apron?"

"Grandmother is sick and weak, and I am taking her some cake and wine. We baked yesterday, and they should give her strength."

"Little Red Cap, just where does your grandmother live?"

"Her house is a good quarter hour from here in the woods, under the three large oak trees. There's a hedge of hazel bushes there. You must know the place," said Little Red Cap.

The wolf thought to himself, "Now there is a tasty bite for me. Just how are you going to catch her?" Then he said, "Listen, Little Red Cap, haven't you seen the beautiful flowers that are blossoming in the woods? Why don't you go and take a look? And I don't believe you can hear how beautifully the birds are singing. You are walking along as though you were on your way to school in the village. It is very beautiful in the woods."

Little Red Cap opened her eyes and saw the sunlight breaking through the trees and how the ground was covered with beautiful flowers. She thought, "If a take a bouquet to grandmother, she will be very pleased. Anyway, it is still early, and I'll be home on time." And she ran off into the woods looking for flowers. Each time she picked one she thought that she could see an even more beautiful one a little way off, and she ran after it, going further and further into the woods. But the wolf ran straight to the
grandmother's house and knocked on the door.

"Who's there?"

Caption:  Red and the Wolf

"Little Red Cap. I'm bringing you some cake and wine. Open the door for me."

"Just press the latch," called out the grandmother. "I'm too weak to get up."

The wolf pressed the latch, and the door opened. He stepped inside, went straight to the grandmother's bed, and ate her up. Then he took her clothes, put them on, and put her cap on his head. He got into her bed and pulled the curtains shut.

Little Red Cap had run after flowers, and did not continue on her way to grandmother's until she had gathered all that she could carry. When she arrived, she found, to her surprise, that the door was open. She walked into the parlor, and everything looked so strange that she thought, "Oh, my God, why am I so afraid? I usually like it at grandmother's." Then she went to the bed and
pulled back the curtains. Grandmother was lying there with her cap pulled down over her face and 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 grab you with!"

"Oh, grandmother, what a horribly big mouth you have!"

Caption:  Red Riding Hood at Grandma's Door

"All the better to eat you with!" And with that he jumped out of bed, jumped on top of poor Little Red Cap, and ate her up. As soon as the wolf had finished this tasty bite, he climbed back into bed, fell asleep, and began to snore very loudly.

A huntsman was just passing by. He thought it strange that the old woman was snoring so loudly, so he decided to take a look. He stepped inside, and in the bed there lay the wolf that he had been hunting for such a long time. "He has eaten the grandmother, but perhaps she still can be saved. I won't shoot him," thought the huntsman. So he took a pair of scissors and cut
open his belly.

He had cut only a few strokes when he saw the red cap shining through. He cut a little more, and the girl jumped out and cried, "Oh, I was so frightened! It was so dark inside the wolf's body!"

And then the grandmother came out alive as well. Then Little Red Cap fetched some large heavy stones. They filled the wolf's body with them, and when he woke up and tried to run away, the stones were so heavy that he fell down dead.

The three of them were happy. The huntsman took the wolf's pelt. The grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine that Little Red Cap had brought. And Little Red Cap thought to herself, "As long as I live, I will never leave the path and run off into the woods by myself if mother tells me not to."


They also tell how Little Red Cap was taking some baked things to her grandmother another time, when another wolf spoke to her and wanted her to leave the path. But Little Red Cap took care and went straight to grandmother's. She told her that she had seen the wolf, and that he had wished her a good day, but had stared at her in a wicked manner. "If we hadn't been on a
public road, he would have eaten me up," she said.

"Come," said the grandmother. "Let's lock the door, so he can't get in."

Soon afterward the wolf knocked on the door and called out, "Open up, grandmother. It's Little Red Cap, and I'm bringing you some baked things."

They remained silent, and did not open the door. The wicked one walked around the house several times, and finally jumped onto the roof. He wanted to wait until Little Red Cap went home that evening, then follow her and eat her up in the darkness. But the grandmother saw what he was up to. There was a large stone trough in front of the house.

"Fetch a bucket, Little Red Cap," she said. "Yesterday I cooked some sausage. Carry the water that I boiled them with to the trough." Little Red Cap carried water until the large, large trough was clear full. The smell of sausage arose into the wolf's nose. He sniffed and looked down, stretching his neck so long that he could no longer hold himself, and he began to slide. He slid off
the roof, fell into the trough, and drowned. And Little Red Cap returned home happily and safely.

Caption:  Page from old version of Red Riding Hood - the Wolf attacking Grandma

Continue with Lecture VIII.