Welcome to the enchanting tale of Little Red Riding Hood! This classic story transports us to a magical forest filled with friendly creatures, hidden dangers, and one big, bad wolf. Follow Little Red as she ventures through the woods to visit her dear grandmother, encountering unexpected twists and a clever wolf along the way.
Little Red Riding Hood
This is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. So called because she always wore a hooded cloak of the most beautiful red, hand-made especially for her by her beloved grandmother. But this isn’t actually the beginning of our story, and we’re getting ahead of ourselves…
Once upon a time, quite close to here actually, there was a wild and wonderful forest. The forest was full of friendly folk, but there were also some scary parts of the forest, with ferocious and sneaky beasts.
One of these creatures was a wolf. He was big, and he was bad, and he was always trying to gobble up the friendly folk. The friendly folk knew this, and they told stories to their children about the Big Bad Wolf, about how he would try to trick them, how he was clever and ruthless and he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
Over the years, the friendly folk became wise to the wolf’s sneaky tricks, and they weren’t so easy for the wolf to trick anymore, and so the wolf went away, to try to find a village full of people who weren’t so clever.
This made the friendly folk very happy, as the danger that prowled just beyond the tree line was no longer there. Slowly, the grownups started to let the children play deeper into the woods, or skip along the banks of the stream, or walk to the older cottages in the centre of the forest, to deliver bread or letters.
Anyway, back to Little Red Riding Hood (remember her…?). One day, she was called into the kitchen by her mother. “Your grandmother isn’t feeling well,” she said. “I’ve baked a pie for her, will you take it to Granny’s Cottage to cheer her up?”
Red loved her granny, and she was so excited to go and see her that she did a little dance before rushing out of the door so fast she almost forgot the basket!
Her mother called after her, “Watch out for the Big Bad Wolf!” and they both laughed, as this wasn’t really a real warning anymore, not like it used to be. It was just something people said.
As Little Red Riding Hood skipped along the path, she admired the blossoms and whistled back to the songbirds singing in the trees. She loved the forest in spring – the smell of the wild garlic, the tap-tap-tapping of the woodpeckers. She felt the woods come alive around her, and she felt more at home than she did by the fire in her own little cottage.
Quite suddenly, Red noticed that the birds had stopped singing. The air had a chill in it, and the blossoms even seemed to curl in on themselves, away from whatever threat was in the air. Red stopped, and looked around, holding on more tightly to her basket.
Suddenly, a deep voice spoke. “Good morning, Little Red Riding Hood.”
Startled, she turned around and saw him. He was huge, and grey, and he was standing up on his hind legs so he was much taller than a man. He had sharp teeth and a cunning smile.
“Good morning,” she replied politely, though she could feel her heart hammering against her chest.
“And where are you going on this fine day?” asked the wolf, leaning forward and showing her his toothy grin.
“I’m going to Granny’s Cottage,” Little Red Riding Hood said. “My grandmother isn’t feeling well, and I’m bringing her a pie.”
The wolf’s eyes gleamed, and his mouth watered. “How kind of you,” he said. “Do you know, there’s a lovely patch of bluebells just over that ridge, I’m sure it would cheer her to have a bunch by her bed.”
What a kindly wolf! Red thought. Perhaps those silly children’s tales are just a load of old rubbish! Red smiled and waved at the wolf as she set off to find the bluebells.
The wolf chuckled to himself, as he slunk on down the path towards Granny’s Cottage.
Before long, Red was at the door of Granny’s cottage, with the basket in one hand and a generous bouquet of bluebells in the other. She tapped gently at the door, and a strangely quiet voice said “Come in, dear.”
Red let herself in and looked around. It was dark and dingy and there was a peculiar chill inside the cottage. She could see her Grandmother in bed in the corner. She had the covers pulled right up to her chin, and there was something strange about her face. “Come closer, dear. Come and sit by me,” she called.
Red thought to herself “Oh dear, Grandmother must be worse than I thought! She never has all of the curtains closed, and she always has a fire crackling away in the hearth!”
Little Red Riding Hood had always been a practical sort of girl, so she rolled up her sleeves and got to work.
“Don’t worry about me Granny!” she called into the dark, “I’ll get this place shipshape in no time!”
Red poured some water into a jug for the bluebells, and set to sweeping the floor and starting the fire.
She started to open the curtains when she heard a funny, muffled sort of sound coming from a broom cupboard.
Red stopped and looked around, but Granny started coughing and said “Come closer dear, I’d like to look at you, it’s been so long since you’ve visited!”
Well, that was definitely strange. Red and the other children came to Granny’s Cottage to bake cookies and hear Granny’s stories twice a week! Had the old woman bumped her head?
Red brought the jug of bluebells over to the bed, thinking they would brighten her Granny’s mood. As she got closer, she couldn’t believe what strange effects this illness had had on the woman in the bed.
“Oh, Grandmother,” Red said, “what big ears you have!”
“All the better to hear you with, my dear,” the figure in the bed replied.
“And Grandmother, what big eyes you have!” said Red.
“All the better to see you with, my dear” the strange creature said.
“And Grandmother, what big teeth you have!” cried Red.
“All the better to eat you with!” roared the wolf, throwing off the covers and going to leap from the bed.
Little Red Riding Hood was so shocked she didn’t have a second to make a plan, she just used what she had in her hands. Quick as a flash she lifted the bluebell jug in the air and smashed it down on the wolf’s head, sending a spray of water, sharp shards of pottery, and a hundred bluebells showering all over the place.
The wolf was out cold on the floor.
Just then, Red’s real granny came bursting from the broom cupboard in her nighty. Red and Granny hugged and then got to work tidying up the mess.
They tied up the wolf, and carried him down to the river, where they put him in Granny’s old rowing boat and floated him away. The wolf was never seen again.
Later, while Red and Granny finished the pie, they decided that seeing as the wolf problem was solved, there was no good reason to worry the other grownups in the forest. After all, they would never allow the children to play amongst the trees, skip along the stream, or walk to cottages deep in the forest anymore if they found out. It would stay their secret.
And so the children kept coming to Granny’s Cottage to hear her stories. Even when Red grew old and moved into the cottage herself. The children still come, and I always kept the secret. Well, until now of course.
Also read: Cinderella
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