Little Red Riding Hood Origins

Question 1

Earliest Versions

Answer 1

• The little red riding hood was an oral rite of passage story.
• The oral versions were more graphic (for example, the wolf eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the grandmother).
• These versions were also overtly sexual (the wolf was a sexual figure).
• The main difference is that the heroine in these versions escaped using her own wits.

Question 2

The Plot

Answer 2

• In the oral versions of the tale, Little red riding hood gets in bed with the wolf before realising he is dangerous.
• She then thinks of a trick to get away from him.
• He senses what she is trying to do and ties a string around her ankle, so that she is on a leash.
• In these versions although she does something dangerous she manages to get herself out of it.
• It is not a story about a girl being eaten and punished, or of a girl being disobedient and rescued by a hunter.

Question 3

La Finta Nonna

Answer 3

• An early Italian folktale version of the strong is ‘La Finta Nonna’, which translates as ‘The False Grandmother’
• It has also been called ‘The Story of the Grandmother’
• It was told pray by peasants in the fourteenth century, and was later put into writing by Italo Calvino in his collection Italian Folktales (1956)

Question 4

The Plot of La Finta Nonna

Answer 4

• In this version the antagonist is not a wolf but a bzou (werewolf)
• The bzou leaves the grandmother’s blood and meat for the girl to eat.
• The bzou also commands the girl to remove her clothing and toss it into the fire.
• The girl sees through the bzou’s disguise and tries to escape, insisting she needs the toilet.
• The wolf reluctantly lets her go to the toilet but ties a piece of string to her to prevent her from escaping. This girl, however, slips the string over a tree and runs off.
• In this story she escapes with no help from any male figure.

Question 5

Charles Perrault’s (1628 - 1703)
‘Le Petit Chaperon Rouge’

Answer 5

• This is the earliest known printed version.
• In this version, Red Riding Hood inadvertently gives the wolf the information he needs to find and kill the grandmother.
• Red Riding Hood is also eaten.
• There is no happy ending.

Question 6

The moral of ‘Le Petit Chaperon Rouge’

Answer 6

• A warning to young women about the dangers of talking to and having sex with men.
• It highlights the downfall that can be caused through the disobedience of ‘straying from the path.’

Question 7

Colour Symbolism in ‘Le Petit Chaperon Rouge’

Answer 7

• The ‘red coat’ was an invention of Charles Perrault and the tale is full of colour Symbolism.
• There are connotations of red throughout the story:
  • Menstrual Blood
  • Blood as a result of losing ones virginity.
  • Red as a symbol of age and experience
  • Red as a symbol of violence, blood, passion and desire.
  • ‘Chaperon’ translates as hood but it is also the meaning of a matron who protects a girl from men (a chaperone).