Once upon a time, there was a little darling damsel, whom everybody
loved that looked upon her, but her old granny loved her best of
all, and didn't know what to give the dear child for love. Once she
made her a hood of red samite, and since that became her so well,
and she, too, would wear nothing else on her head, people gave her
the name of 'Red Hood.' Once her mother said to Red Hood, 'Go; here
is a slice of cake and a bottle of wine; carry them to old granny.
She is ill and weak, and they will refresh her. But be pretty
behaved, and don't peep about in all corners when you come into her
room, and don't forget to say "Good-day." Walk, too, prettily, and
don't go out of the road, otherwise you will fall and break the
bottle, and then poor granny will have nothing.' Red Hood said, 'I
will observe everything well that you have told me,' and gave her
mother her hand upon it.
But granny lived out in a forest, half an hour's walk from the
village. When Red Hood went into the forest, she met a wolf. But she
did not know what a wicked beast he was, and was not afraid of him.
'God help you, Red Hood!' said he. 'God bless you, wolf!' replied
she. 'Whither so early, Red Hood?' 'To granny.' 'What have you
there under your mantle?' 'Cake and wine. We baked yesterday; old
granny must have a good meal for once, and strengthen herself
therewith.' 'Where does your granny live, Red Hood?' 'A good quarter
of an hour's walk further in the forest, under yon three large oaks.
There stands her house; further beneath are the nut-trees, which you
will see there,' said Red Hood. The wolf thought within himself,
'This nice young damsel is a rich morsel. She will taste better than
the old woman; but you must trick her cleverly, that you may catch
both.' For a time he went by Red Hood's side. Then said he, 'Red
Hood! just look! there are such pretty flowers here! Why don't you
look round at them all? Methinks you don't even hear how
delightfully the birds are singing! You are as dull as if you were
going to school, and yet it is so cheerful in the forest!' Little
Red Hood lifted up her eyes, and when she saw how the sun's rays
glistened through the tops of the trees, and every place was full of
flowers, she bethought herself, 'If I bring with me a sweet smelling
nosegay to granny, it will cheer her. It is still so early, that I
shall come to her in plenty of time,' and therewith she skipped into
the forest and looked for flowers. And when she had plucked one, she
fancied that another further off was nicer, and ran there, and went
always deeper and deeper into the forest. But the wolf went by the
straight road to old granny's, and knocked at the door. 'Who's
there?' 'Little Red Hood, who has brought cake and wine. Open!'
'Only press the latch,' cried granny; 'I am so weak that I cannot
stand.' The wolf pressed the latch, walked in, and went without
saying a word straight to granny's bed and ate her up. Then he took
her clothes, dressed himself in them, put her cap on his head, lay
down in her bed and drew the curtains.
Meanwhile little Red Hood was running after flowers, and when she
had so many that she could not carry any more, she bethought her of
her granny, and started on the way to her. It seemed strange to her
that the door was wide open, and when she entered the room
everything seemed to her so peculiar, that she thought, 'Ah! my God!
how strange I feel to-day, and yet at other times I am so glad to be
with granny!' She said, 'Good-day!' but received no answer.
Thereupon she went to the bed and undrew the curtains. There lay
granny, with her cap drawn down to her eyes, and looking so queer!
'Ah, granny! why have you such long ears?' 'The better to hear you.'
'Ah, granny! why have you such large eyes?' 'The better to see you.'
'Ah, granny! why have you such large hands?' 'The better to take
hold of you.' 'But, granny! why have you such a terribly large
mouth?' 'The better to eat you up!' And therewith the wolf sprang
out of bed at once on poor little Red Hood, and ate her up.
When the wolf had satisfied his appetite, he lay down again in the
bed, and began to snore tremendously. A huntsman came past, and
bethought himself, 'How can an old woman snore like that? I'll just
have a look to see what it is.' He went into the room, and looked
into the bed; there lay the wolf. 'Have I found you now, old
rascal?' said he. 'I've long been looking for you.' He was just
going to take aim with his gun, when he bethought himself, 'Perhaps
the wolf has only swallowed granny, and she may yet be released;'
therefore he did not shoot, but took a knife and began to cut open
the sleeping wolf's maw. When he had made several cuts, he saw a red
hood gleam, and after one or two more cuts out skipped Red Hood, and
cried, 'Oh, how frightened I have been; it was so dark in the wolf's
maw!' Afterwards out came old granny, still alive, but scarcely able
to breathe. But Red Hood made haste and fetched large stones, with
which they filled the wolf's maw, and when he woke he wanted to jump
up and run away, but the stones were so heavy that he fell on the
ground and beat himself to death. Now, they were all three merry.
The huntsman took off the wolf's skin; granny ate the cake and drank
the wine which little Red Hood had brought, and became strong and
well again; and little Red Hood thought to herself, 'As long as I
live, I won't go out of the road into the forest, when mother has
forbidden me.'
* * * * *
[Little Red Hood, like many folklore tales, is a singular mixture of
myth and morality. In Cox's 'Comparative Mythology,' vol. ii., p.
831, note, Little Redcap, or Little Red Riding Hood, is interpreted
as 'the evening with her scarlet robe of twilight,' who is swallowed
up by the wolf of darkness, the Fenris of the Edda. It appears to me
that this explanation may suit the colour of her cap or hood, but is
at variance with the other incidents of the story. I am inclined to
look upon the tale as a lunar legend, although the moon is only
actually red during one portion of the year, at the harvest moon in
the autumn. Red Hood is represented as wandering, like Io, who is
undoubtedly the moon, through trees, the clouds, and flowers, the
stars, before she reaches the place where she is intercepted by the
wolf. An eclipse to untutored minds would naturally suggest the
notion that some evil beast was endeavouring to devour the moon, who
is afterwards rescued by the sun, the archer of the heavens, whose
bow and arrow are by a common anachronism represented in the story
by a gun. Though the moon is masculine in Slavonic, as in German,
yet she is a lady, 'my lady Luna,' in the Croatian legend No. 53,
below. In the Norse mythology, when Loki is let loose at the end of
the world, he is to 'hurry in the form of a wolf to swallow the
moon' (Cox ii., p. 200). The present masculine Slavonic word for
moon, which is also that for month, 'mesic,' or 'mesec,' is a
secondary formation, the original word having perished. In Greek and
Latin the moon is always feminine.]
_KASHUBIAN STORY._
The Kashubians inhabit a small district in the North-east of
Pomerania, 'the province upon the sea,' from _po_, upon, and _more_,
the sea. The limits of the district may be roughly marked by the
towns of Leba, Lauenburg and Bütow or Bytom.
The story contains many of the circumstances of the German story of
'The Table, the Ass and the Stick' in Grimm's collection. The
Kashubian tales again would naturally be pressed into the service of
the surrounding Germans. Bitter complaints have been made by
Slavonic literati, that their Folklore tales have been appropriated
by the Germans. Of course there is a vast amount of common ground in
Folklore, and incidents belonging to one tale will sometimes start
up at a distance in another apparently entirely unconnected with it.
But I believe that there is considerable ground for the complaint.