Kris (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
reviewthat) wrote2011-02-20 04:13 pm
reviewthat) wrote2011-02-20 04:13 pm
Entry tags:
Little Red Riding Hood.
Folklore: Little Red Riding Hood/Little Red Cap
Location: French by way of Germany
Classification: Story number 333 in the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales.
"Little Red Riding Hood" is the story of a little girl who wears a red cape and hood (where she gets her name). In this story, she is sent to her sick grandmother's house with a care basket, and is warned to stay on the path. Along the way, she meets a wolf who asks her where she is going. After telling him her business, the wolf beats Red to her grandmother's house, where he proceeds to eat Granny. When Red reaches the house, the now cross-dressing wolf is pretending to be Granny, and he proceeds to eat her as well. And it is only after the sudden and timely arrival of a male figure (depending on which version you're looking at, it will either be Red's father or a woodsman) who saves both Red and Granny from the wolf's stomach (amazingly unharmed).
Charles Dickens once said "Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss", and I feel much the same way about her that he does. The story of Red has always appealed to me on a very deep level, and I have a sense that she and I would have been great friends if she were real.
I think that my fascination with her comes down to the fact that she seems to live in a very strange and amazing in-between place. On the one side, she seems to have the ability to be lumped in with fairytale princesses like Cinderella (just look at how she is treated in "The 10th Kingdom"), but on the other, she is very different than the more traditional princesses (and has far more spunk in her earliest and later versions). On top of that, I've also always been fascinated with Norse mythology, and there are also some similarities between Red and a certain story concerning Thor. In this particular story, Thor pretended to be Frejya (so, he was dressed in drag, like the wolf at one point in the story), but is caught after it is noticed that "Frejya's" eyes seem rather strange (since Thor's eyes are actually red). But the morphability of her tale also adds another level to her story that is not there in the stories of other heroines of folklore and fairy tales.
In her beginnings in the 14th century, Red's story was a bit different than what we think of now. In some cases, she didn't always meet an anthropomorphized wolf; sometimes she actually met up with an ogre, and other times she actually met a werewolf. She also sometimes eats her part of her grandmother’s body, and drinks some of her grandmother's blood through trickery by the wolf. And while some versions of the story stops with her getting into the bed with the wolf, others have her taking matters into her own hands (in that she plans and executes her own escape, with no help from anyone else).
By the 17th century, the story had turned into a warning for young girls. As Charles Perrault put it, it was a warning to young, well-bred girls of the advances of men:
And by the time of the 19th century, the Grimms Brothers had changed it a bit more in that they added a huntsman to the end of the story. In his search for the wolf (because he wanted to create a wolf skin coat), he saved both Red and her grandmother.
Today, however, with movies like Hoodwinked it is clear that Red has gone back to her origins (where she is a crafty and intelligent girl, and is able to take care of the wolf herself).
Over the years, her story has interpreted as being a warning of the dangers of wolves, an example of sexual awakening, the cycles of nature and rebirth. And who knows, in a few years, it could be interpreted as something completely different.
Location: French by way of Germany
Classification: Story number 333 in the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales.
"Little Red Riding Hood" is the story of a little girl who wears a red cape and hood (where she gets her name). In this story, she is sent to her sick grandmother's house with a care basket, and is warned to stay on the path. Along the way, she meets a wolf who asks her where she is going. After telling him her business, the wolf beats Red to her grandmother's house, where he proceeds to eat Granny. When Red reaches the house, the now cross-dressing wolf is pretending to be Granny, and he proceeds to eat her as well. And it is only after the sudden and timely arrival of a male figure (depending on which version you're looking at, it will either be Red's father or a woodsman) who saves both Red and Granny from the wolf's stomach (amazingly unharmed).
Charles Dickens once said "Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss", and I feel much the same way about her that he does. The story of Red has always appealed to me on a very deep level, and I have a sense that she and I would have been great friends if she were real.
I think that my fascination with her comes down to the fact that she seems to live in a very strange and amazing in-between place. On the one side, she seems to have the ability to be lumped in with fairytale princesses like Cinderella (just look at how she is treated in "The 10th Kingdom"), but on the other, she is very different than the more traditional princesses (and has far more spunk in her earliest and later versions). On top of that, I've also always been fascinated with Norse mythology, and there are also some similarities between Red and a certain story concerning Thor. In this particular story, Thor pretended to be Frejya (so, he was dressed in drag, like the wolf at one point in the story), but is caught after it is noticed that "Frejya's" eyes seem rather strange (since Thor's eyes are actually red). But the morphability of her tale also adds another level to her story that is not there in the stories of other heroines of folklore and fairy tales.
In her beginnings in the 14th century, Red's story was a bit different than what we think of now. In some cases, she didn't always meet an anthropomorphized wolf; sometimes she actually met up with an ogre, and other times she actually met a werewolf. She also sometimes eats her part of her grandmother’s body, and drinks some of her grandmother's blood through trickery by the wolf. And while some versions of the story stops with her getting into the bed with the wolf, others have her taking matters into her own hands (in that she plans and executes her own escape, with no help from anyone else).
By the 17th century, the story had turned into a warning for young girls. As Charles Perrault put it, it was a warning to young, well-bred girls of the advances of men:
From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition — neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!
And by the time of the 19th century, the Grimms Brothers had changed it a bit more in that they added a huntsman to the end of the story. In his search for the wolf (because he wanted to create a wolf skin coat), he saved both Red and her grandmother.
Today, however, with movies like Hoodwinked it is clear that Red has gone back to her origins (where she is a crafty and intelligent girl, and is able to take care of the wolf herself).
Over the years, her story has interpreted as being a warning of the dangers of wolves, an example of sexual awakening, the cycles of nature and rebirth. And who knows, in a few years, it could be interpreted as something completely different.