Little Red Riding Hood: the real story

Of all the folk tales that the Middle Ages has bequeathed to us, and even further back, that of Little Red Riding Hood is that it has suffered the most severe mutilations from commentators, compilers and, of course, the icy and abstruse Walt Disney.

The story, until the scene where the wolf is dressed in the clothes of the grandmother, is more or less the same as the medieval children knew. The differences are given from this point. But first let’s review a bit of history.

The first compiler to rescue the story of Little Red Riding Hood was Charles Perrault, who included it in his anthology of popular stories in 1697. Contrary to what happens with other traditional stories, such as Sleeping Beauty or Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood was not a story very widespread in Europe. Moreover, it was known in a fairly closed area, ranging from the north of the Alps to the Loire region. In 1812 the Brothers Grimm rewrote history, especially the end, and that is the version that is known today; a version, incidentally, very different from the real Red Riding Hood.

It is not surprising that the Brothers Grimm have modified the original story, the strange thing is that they have been based on a dark work by Ludwig Tieck called Life and Death of the Little Red Riding Hood (Leben und Tod des kleinen Rotkäppchen); tragedy that includes the presence of the…