Selected Tales of the Brothers Grimm(65)

But the wolf went straight to Grandmother’s house and knocked at her door.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s Little Red Riding Hood, come to bring you cake and wine. Open the door.”

“Just lift the latch, it isn’t locked,” cried Grandmother. “I’m too weak to get up.”

The wolf lifted the latch, the door opened, and he entered without a word, went straight to Grandmother’s bed, and gobbled her up. Then he put on her clothes, donned her bonnet, lay himself in her bed, and pulled the bed curtains.

But Little Red Riding Hood had run around fetching flowers, and once she’d picked so many she couldn’t carry any more, she remembered her grandmother and set out again to her place. She was a bit surprised when she got there to find the door open, and when she went in, she had such a strange feeling that she thought, My goodness, I’m usually glad to visit, but today there’s something wrong!

She called out, “Good morning, Grandma!,” but there was no reply. Then she went over to the bed and pulled back the curtains – Grandmother lay there with her bonnet pulled down low over her eyes and looked so 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 hold you with.”

“But, Grandmother, what an awfully big mouth you have!”

“The better to eat you.”

No sooner did the wolf utter these words than he leapt up and devoured poor Little Red Riding Hood.

Once the wolf had satisfied his desire, he lay himself back down in bed, fell asleep, and started snoring loudly. A hunter just happened to be passing the house at that moment and thought, The old lady’s snoring up a storm. Better go see if she’s all right. So he stepped inside and as soon as he went over to the bed he saw the wolf lying in it. “Here you are, you old sinner,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you a long time.” He was about to empty his musket, but then he thought, the wolf might have eaten up the grandmother and maybe she can still be saved – so he did not shoot but rather took a pair of scissors and started cutting open the sleeping wolf’s stomach. After a few snips he saw the red hood, and a few snips later the girl leapt out and cried, “Oh, how scared I was! It was so dark in the wolf’s belly!” And then the old grandmother came out, still alive but hardly breathing. Little Red Riding Hood rushed to fetch a few big stones to stuff into the wolf’s belly, and when he woke up he wanted to make a run for it, but the stones were so heavy that he keeled over and promptly dropped dead.

Whereupon all three were happy. The hunter skinned off the wolf’s fur and went home with it, and the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine that Little Red Riding Hood brought her and got better. Little Red Riding Hood thought, I’ll never ever wander off the straight and narrow path again, if my mother forbids it.

It has also been told that another time, when Little Red Riding Hood again went to bring her old grandmother a piece of cake, another wolf spoke to her and tried to lure her off the path. But Little Red Riding Hood was on her guard and kept to the path and when she got to her grandmother’s house, she told her that she’d met the wolf, that he’d wished her a good day, but he had such an evil look in his eyes: “If I hadn’t been on the open road, he’d have devoured me for sure.”

“Come,” said the grandmother, “we want to lock the door, so that he can’t get in.”

Shortly thereafter the wolf knocked and cried, “Open up, Grandmother, I’m Little Red Riding Hood, and I brought you cake.”

But they kept silent and did not open the door, so the sly gray creature crept several times around the house and finally jumped on the roof, where he planned to wait until sundown for Little Red Riding Hood to go home again. He intended to creep after her and devour her in the dark. But Grandmother realized what he had in mind. Just outside the house there was a big stone trough. So she said to the child, “Take this bucket, Little Red Riding Hood. Yesterday I cooked sausages in it, here – carry the water I cooked them in and dump it into the trough.” Red Riding Hood kept carrying water until the big trough was full to the edge. The sausage smell rose up to the wolf’s nose. He sniffed and peered down, and finally he stretched his neck so far out that he lost his balance and starting to slip. Then he fell from the roof directly into the great trough and drowned. Then Little Red Riding Hood went happily home again and nobody did her any harm.