Most of the stories left by brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault were collected from local legends and traditions that traveled to peoples across Europe in the Middle Ages, many of them reflect the psychology of the time, their beliefs, their myths?All of this is rooted in opportunities and testimonies to which, inevitably, a certain “magical realism” has been attributed. One of the oldest and perhaps most striking stories is that of Little Red Riding Hood.
This story is, according to the experts, the one that has undergone the most changes since its inception, always with the idea of “sugar”, images so that children can receive them with peace of mind. But the truth is that with every change, we have lost the original intention. Each story ended with a lesson, a teaching we should all follow. And what the Little Red Riding Hood taught us deserves to be said?
- Charles Perrault was the first to gather the story of The Little Red Riding Hood in 1697 and included it in his collection of folk tales.
- Aware that such a story was one of the most unknown of the European population.
- In the Northern Alps and contained very cruel images.
- Altered by the need to be able to reach children harmlessly.
- It was the first time this young woman’s history of the red cap had arrived in Europe.
In 1812, the Grimm brothers decided to include it in their collection as well, based on the work by the German Ludwig Tieck entitled? The life and death of the little red companion? (Leben und Tod by kleinen Rotkoppchen), in which it was included, unlike Perrault’s tale, the character of the hunter, they removed all traces of erotic and bloody elements and gave the story a happy ending. Would it be a children’s story without its usual happy ending? As you can imagine, the original story is very different from the one children read in their books, so let’s get to know it.
As we have already shown, this story originates in a remote region of the Alps, the purpose of the report is to warn us, to show us that there are things forbidden to our community as a human race, as a community and as a group. In the legend, we have as the protagonist a teenage girl who has just entered the world of adults, hence her red cape; was a symbol of menstruation.
This young woman receives an order from her family: she has to go through a forest to bring bread and milk to her grandmother, as you can see, so far the differences with the original story are not very great, but you have to interpret each gesture. and every image. The forest is a danger, an area of risk for young people that appears as an ordeal, as a ritual of passage to a community, which aims to show that their children have already passed into the adult world.
The main danger of this forest is the figure of the wolf, an animal that symbolizes savagery and the irrational. Something our Little Riding Hood already knows she’s facing, the young lady manages to get through the woods and enters the house cheerfully of her grandmother, who receives her in bed because of illness, everything is very similar to our classic tale, no doubt, but is that where the changes begin?
Grandma asks the young woman to keep the milk and bread and eat the meat in the kitchen, prepared for her, the red chaperita accepts and eats it hungry, satisfies herself and then obeys the old lady’s order: everything must be removed. Her clothes, she asks for the piece, burns her in the fire and then sleeps with her in bed. The young solicitous woman accepts, without questioning her at any time, without thinking about the strangeness of the situation. At bedtime, he discovers that it is the wolf who receives it, a few laughs, showing him that the flesh he ate was his grandmother, who had committed a great sin: cannibalism. Later, the wolf devours the young Little Riding Hood.
Symbolism is implicit in each character, and the wolf is the sexual and violent world; the old lady devoured by a young woman, thus renewing the old by the new; the new, in turn, presents himself as the unwary and naive to commit one. of humanity’s greatest sacrilegiousness: cannibalism. As you can see, one of the most classic and beloved tales of our childhood has, in fact, a very dark side.