This Is Not the Little Red Riding Hood You Know

[00:00:00]Do you think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood? A little girl sets off to visit her grandmother >> [music] >> and meets an evil wolf along the way.

[00:00:08]And of course, as in any proper fairy tale, good defeats evil in the end.

[00:00:12]But what if I told you that the real story was much darker, dirtier, and far more disturbing?

[00:00:18]>> [music] >> Get the children away from the screens because it is time for some terrifying fairy tales for adults.

[00:00:26]Leave a like and let's begin.

[00:00:29]I do not think anyone would argue that alongside Cinderella and Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood is one of the most popular children's fairy tales in the world.

[00:00:38]And if you have children, there is probably a copy of this story somewhere on a bookshelf in your home.

[00:00:44]But which version is it?

[00:00:46]Go to your bookshelf right now and check because there are around 400 [music] different versions of this fairy tale around the world.

[00:00:54]And depending on the country you live in, the ending may be completely different as well as the heroine's headwear and even the contents of her basket.

[00:01:02]Someone from France and someone from Germany, for example, may have two very different versions of this story in their heads.

[00:01:09]But one thing is certain, whatever [music] is printed in your book is most likely a more refined version already adapted for the delicate minds of modern children.

[00:01:20]In fact, the roots of the story about a girl and a wolf can be found in tales that have survived from ancient [music] Rome and ancient Greece. And even those earliest versions were already quite brutal.

[00:01:31]For example, an ancient story recorded by the Greek writer Pausanias tells of a virgin who was sacrificed >> [music] >> every year to an evil spirit dressed in a wolf's skin, which then raped [music] the girl.

[00:01:44]You have to admit that is not something you would print in a book marked for ages three and up.

[00:01:50]But the story that more [music] closely resembles the version we know today with the girl, the wolf, and the grandmother appeared in Europe around the 12th century, most likely in either France or Italy.

[00:02:04]And I would even say that it was more bloodthirsty than its Greek [music] predecessor in the most literal sense of the word.

[00:02:11]The darkest version of the story goes like this.

[00:02:14]A wolf meets a girl in the forest while she is on her way to visit her grandmother.

[00:02:19]By the way, depending on the country where people retold the tale, the girl brought her grandmother different gifts.

[00:02:26]In some versions, she carried a bottle of wine, while in others, she brought bread.

[00:02:31]This usually depended on which product [music] had greater symbolic importance in that particular country or region.

[00:02:37]And >> [music] >> at that time, she did not always wear any kind of red head covering.

[00:02:43]The wolf starts a conversation with the girl and asks where she is going.

[00:02:47]He then points her toward a longer path while taking the shortest route to the grandmother's house himself.

[00:02:54]Once there, he kills the old woman, prepares several dishes from her remains, makes a drink from her blood, and then lies down in her bed pretending to be her.

[00:03:06]When the little girl finally reaches her grandmother's house, the wolf serves her all of these dishes. [music] In some versions, she even tries to eat what she believes are beans, but they are actually the old woman's teeth.

[00:03:19]Disgusting.

[00:03:21]But there is another character in this [music] version, the grandmother's cat.

[00:03:26]The cat tries to warn the girl that she is [music] eating her grandmother's remains, but the wolf kills it by throwing a pair of wooden shoes at it.

[00:03:35]The wolf then tells the girl to take off her [music] clothes, throw them into the fire, and climb into bed beside him.

[00:03:41]Let us just say that at this point the fairy tale begins to take on [music] a certain erotic tone.

[00:03:47]The girl does as she is told, and looking at her supposed grandmother, asks why she has so much hair, such long nails, and such large teeth.

[00:03:57]To the final question, the wolf replies, "All the better to eat you with, my child." And then devours her.

[00:04:05]And that is where the story ends. There is [music] no happy ending and no chance of rescue.

[00:04:11]I imagine medieval children cried quite a lot after hearing a bedtime story like that.

[00:04:16]Naturally, historians and literary [music] scholars have tried to understand why people in the past would tell children such horrifying [music] stories.

[00:04:25]Some came to the conclusion that the spread of this fairy tale roughly coincided with the beginning of the witch hunt era.

[00:04:33]And that the two may somehow have been connected.

[00:04:36]According to this interpretation, the wolf was not really a wolf at all, >> [music] >> but a werewolf sent by Satan himself.

[00:04:45]Through this bloody ritual, he supposedly initiated the girl into witchcraft, which means the story was intended to discourage its listeners from practicing magic. But honestly, that explanation feels a little far-fetched to me.

[00:05:00]People in every period of history have enjoyed horror stories and nightmares.

[00:05:04][music] This tale was probably just their version of the true crime shows we watch today when we want to frighten ourselves and get our nerves [music] going.

[00:05:14]A version of the fairy tale that is much closer to the way we understand it today, although far more provocative and sexual, was created in 1697 by the French writer, Charles Perrault.

[00:05:26]He published a book called Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Times Past with [music] Morals, which included his own reimagined version of Little Red Riding Hood.

[00:05:37]However, the book was not written for children at all, but for the French court of King Louis the XIV. Perrault wrote these stories to entertain the young ladies of the royal court because at the time reading all kinds of fairy tales in literary salons had become quite fashionable.

[00:05:54]In his version, the character standing before us is not a little girl on her way to visit her grandmother, but an attractive, well-bred young lady.

[00:06:02]And it was in Perrault's version that the red head covering officially appeared for the first time.

[00:06:09]But it was not actually a little cap. It was a chaperon, something closer to a hooded cloak.

[00:06:14]But why red, you may ask? Why not blue, [music] white, or green?

[00:06:18]Many historians believe that the color of Little Red Riding Hood's clothing clearly suggests that the girl has had her first [music] period and is therefore entering the forest of female sexuality.

[00:06:30]It is also worth noting that in Perrault's time, red was not considered a particularly modest or innocent color.

[00:06:38]And in the forest, the girl walks straight into the path of a wolf who wants only one thing.

[00:06:44]The wolf symbolizes a man searching for easy prey. The French expression "Elle a vu le loup", meaning she has seen the wolf, was a saying used in Perrault's time to describe a girl who had lost her virginity. [music] As I told you, this fairy tale has a very strong erotic context.

[00:07:03]In Perrault's story, the young woman [music] is also eaten by the wolf at the end after their long conversations in bed.

[00:07:11]Once again, she is given no chance of being rescued.

[00:07:14]Instead, the author is the story with an entire moral lecture for the reader.

[00:07:20]From this story, one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous, and well-bred, do very wrong to listen [music] to strangers and it is not an unheard thing if the wolf is thereby provided with his dinner.

[00:07:33]I say wolf for all wolves are not of the same sort.

[00:07:38]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?

[00:07:57]The meaning was perfectly clear. Some men who appear harmless are actually wolves in disguise, interested [music] only in stealing the virtue of young women.

[00:08:06]In Perrault's time, a woman's reputation could easily be ruined by what society considered improper sexual behavior.

[00:08:15]That is why his version of Little Red Riding Hood had both an educational and a moral purpose.

[00:08:21]The version that has survived as the most popular one to this day, >> [music] >> and the one that you and your children probably know, with the characters being miraculously rescued at the end, was written by the German Brothers Grimm in the 19th century.

[00:08:36]It became known as Rotkäppchen.

[00:08:39]Interestingly, the brothers may not have come up with this version themselves.

[00:08:43]They most likely heard it from Marie Magdalene Hassenpflug, the sister of the man who married their own sister.

[00:08:49]She was also the one who told them the versions of Snow White [music] and Sleeping Beauty that she knew. The reason was that Marie had French roots.

[00:08:57]Her family descended [music] from Huguenots who had fled persecution in France, bringing this part of their folklore with them.

[00:09:03]So, as always, [music] cherchez la femme.

[00:09:06]Look for the woman, even behind the greatest works created by men.

[00:09:11]Unlike the bloodthirsty [music] versions came before it, here the girl immediately receives a [music] warning from her mother not to speak to strangers on the road.

[00:09:20]This gives the story an educational message that, generally speaking, is still relevant when raising children today.

[00:09:27]And in this version, the girl no longer wears a hooded cloak.

[00:09:30]She has an actual little red cap given to her by her grandmother.

[00:09:35]But, the greatest difference is that the girl finally gets a second chance.

[00:09:40]Something Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood was never given.

[00:09:44]In the Brothers Grimm version, a kind hunter hears the wolf snoring after it has finished its two-course meal.

[00:09:50]Realizing that the wolf has swallowed the grandmother, the hunter wastes no time, cuts open its stomach, and rescues both women.

[00:09:59]Interestingly, >> [music] >> the authors spent a long time debating the ending, and published the story differently in several editions.

[00:10:07]>> [music] >> They also had an alternative ending in which the girl encounters another wolf while visiting her grandmother for a second time.

[00:10:15]But now, having learned [music] from their pre- previous experience, the girl and her grandmother work together to kill it. In the end, however, the brothers decided to keep the more positive [music] version in which good triumphs over evil.

[00:10:28]Once again, many literary scholars >> [music] >> connect this more merciful ending to the fact that the Brothers Grimm were Protestants, and may have wanted to include a religious message in the tale.

[00:10:39][music] According to this interpretation, Little Red Riding Hood, being freed from the wolf's stomach, represents a kind of resurrection of Christ, a second [music] life.

[00:10:50]In general, trying to read between the lines and invent a [music] second meaning for this fairy tale seems to be a favorite activity among literary scholars.

[00:10:59]I even came across the theory >> [music] >> that Little Red Riding Hood is practically a feminist work about women's freedom and their struggle for equal rights.

[00:11:08]But, perhaps sometimes a fairy tale is just [music] a fairy tale.

[00:11:12]What do you think?

[00:11:14]Well, after everything you have just heard, do you think you will ever be able to see Little Red Riding Hood in the same [music] innocent way again?

[00:11:24]Or will your next bedtime reading be accompanied [music] by thoughts of the grandmother's teeth, a wolf with cannibalistic culinary skills, and the unexpected symbolism of the girl's red clothing. Write in the comments which [music] version of the story you know and which one is commonly told in your country. And if you enjoyed this new format, do not forget [music] to leave a like. I will see you in the next video.

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