Little Red Riding Hood
This tale is a classic ‘stranger danger’ warning, never to stray from the path, not to disobey your elders, or by doing so you imperil yourself and other vulnerable members of your community. But in some versions, apparently, the other danger is – you guessed it – accidental cannibalism.
Who added this in?
If you guessed Italy, Austria and/or France: correct on all three counts. In these versions, Little Red is tricked by the wolf/werewolf/ogre into eating her grandmother’s flesh and drinking her blood, before being devoured herself while naked in bed with the hairy monster. Sometimes she escapes, naked, under the pretext of needing to do her business outside.
These versions are much more interesting to me – and the ‘straying from the path’ element almost completely disappears.
All of these versions are pretty old: the related folktale, ‘The Wolf and the Kids’, was circulating in Europe and the Middle East about 1000 years before the Brothers Grimm recorded their version in 1812, and there are at least 58 versions of this tale/Red Riding Hood identified around the world. The Brothers Grimm recorded a version of The Wolf and the Kids too, and by 1812 it’s hard not to see the racialised aspects of the story with the wolf using flour to whiten his black paw to trick the goats.
When wolves (and bears, and other large predators) were prevalent across Europe in the 9thC, it’s hard to tell how far this is a lunar myth* (as proposed by A. H. Wratislaw in 1889, which is… highly dubious) and how far it’s literally a story to tell your children because THERE ARE ACTUAL FUCKING WOLVES, KIDS. THEY WILL EAT YOU. DO NOT BE STUPID. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY IS? NOT HIGH. Later, much later, after all the real wolves were far less of a danger to civilised urban society, the tale can take on metaphorical dimensions and moralise about the dangers of young ladies being preyed upon by young men, rather than by actual four-legged predators.
*On it being a lunar myth – this is peak 19thC scholars making wild cross-leaps and assumptions to connect various dots, so take this with several tablespoons of salt, but A. H. Wratislaw attempts to say that as the moon is feminine in some cultures, this is related to an eclipse (red being the colour of the blood moon) and also linking it to Ragnarok. This is a bit of a mess, so here’s the note to show you the full extent of the “slam a load of stuff together and hope for the best” approach of this kind of scholarship, with thanks to the UPenn site linked here.
- Note by Wratslaw:”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 color 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 endeavoring 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 [“The Daughter of the King of the Vilas”]. 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.
Got all that? Fantastic. Norse, Greek, Slavonic, all the same thing, no dramas. Moving on.
These cautionary tales appear across a lot of different cultures – anywhere there are dangerous predators, there is a need to instill caution into the young. Dr Jaime Tehrani’s research suggests that they are all evolved versions from ‘The Wolf and the Kids’, as Red Riding Hood is, that got merged with other tales in their respective areas and so developed lives of their own. One of the earliest recorded is an 11thC poem from Belgium, in which a girl in a red baptism cloak encountered a wolf in the forest. In China/Japan/Korea, there are variants of the Tiger Grandmother (another translation of this is here). Taiwan has the story of the Aunt Tiger (and different versions exist of this too!). There are versions across the African continent too, but I’m struggling to find English translations and free to access ones! If you can find them, please let me know and I’ll edit and link.
In the Grimm Brothers’ version, Little Red Cap, there are two endings – one where the woodcutter cuts the wolf open to let the devoured girl and her grandmother escape the belly of the beast, and one where the girl and her grandmother trick the wolf into drowning himself in a trough.
Charles Perrault’s version moralises on the perils awaiting young ladies who take up with strange young men, echoed by Andrew Lang in his Fairy Book series.
But you can always trust Italy for the curveball. Do you remember the cannibalism in Sleeping Beauty? It’s back! In the Italian (and Austrian, so Northern Italy?) versions of this tale, it’s not a wolf, but an ogre, who as we all know, enjoys human flesh. So when Little Red Hat arrives at Granny’s, the ogre has replaced the latch with Granny’s intestines. After letting herself in, despite pulling on something … weirdly soft, Little Red Hat is hungry and thirsty. So the ogre (posing as her grandmother) gives her “rice” (her grandmother’s teeth) and pieces of red meat (her grandmother’s jaws) and “wine” (Granny’s blood). Then the ogre tells her to take her clothes off and get into bed with him…. and then he devours Little Red Hat.
Italy also has the tale of Cattarinetta, who is eaten by a witch, not a wolf, and who is also her own aunt, but thankfully not obliged to eat her own grandmother (the aunt’s mother??) beforehand. Granny isn’t in this story – the girl eats the cake intended for her aunt, so swaps it for a cow pat with a brown crust (lovely) which… is very unwise. She leaves the pan (and cow pat contents) outside her aunt’s house, then runs home and gets eaten anyway when her aunt follows her and gets her in her own bedroom.
The French version, ‘The Grandmother‘, collected around 1870 by folklorist Achille Millien (1838-1927), has a bzou (werewolf), who does the same thing – eats the grandmother and puts her blood in a bottle and her flesh in the pantry, and the girl is tricked into eating and drinking it. In this version a cat says, “For shame! The slut is eating her grandmother’s flesh and drinking her grandmother’s blood.” She doesn’t seem to hear the cat, though, and burns her clothes as she undresses (the bzou tells her to) and gets into bed. She discovers the deception in the usual formulaic call-and-response fashion, and then says she needs to urinate/defecate (it varies). She goes outside to do it, and runs away naked, thus escaping the bzou.
Another version of this tale has her escape with the help of the other women in the village, and the laundresses help her cross the river but trick the bzou into drowning.
This version has the the charming wolf man as its antagonist as opposed to an actual wolf or ogre, but one that is tricked by the girl (and other women) without the aid of a passing (male) hunter or woodcutter.
I find this version the most interesting, unsurprisingly.
Since the queer experience is often about straying from the path as a necessity to finding one’s self and place in the world, retellings and reimaginings have to reckon with this, and consider the tensions between different elements of this story. There are a few queer retellings that subvert the story with this in mind, as well as some feminist retellings where Red gains sexual awakening and retains her agency, and in some (e.g. Angela Carter), becomes the wolf.
But in some versions of the story, it’s not about whether Red stays on the path at all, it’s what happens to her at the end of her journey, and who and what she becomes. In these versions, what’s most interesting about this story is the consumption, and what lies under the grandmother’s disguise.
Retellings don’t have to have anything to do with gender or sexuality, in fact – this is just as much a tale about a young person discovering something monstrous about an adult they trusted, and/or finding out that the same monstrosity lurks within them; that they’ve imbibed it without realising, and now they’re consumed by the same darkness. This, to me, is even more interesting than the sexual readings of the story.
This could instead be a tale of generational trauma and the assimilation (or impending destruction) of future generations by/with their elders – Encanto (2021) dirs. Byron Howard & Jared Bush, arguably has these themes with a hopeful, optimistic end, and they also show up in German sporror Das Privileg – Die Auserwählten/The Privilege (2022) dirs. Felix Fuchssteiner & Katharina Schöde.
Revisioning the lesson of Red Riding Hood is something that Anisha Sen considers in this open access article for the IJCRT (International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts), and it’s worth a read!
Read on for recommendations of retellings and reimaginings that have caught others’ imagination. Catch up on the whole series of fairy tale posts here.
Recommendations
This article in Reactor Mag is definitely worth a read! The Goodreads list is here. You can read a few diverse retellings on Corvid Queen here. Epic Reads has a list of 10 YA retellings here.
Here are ones that I’ve got on my TBR, and that have been recommended by you! Again, thanks to everyone who chimed in with suggestions. I’ve found loads of great stories and new authors to read. This list features a whole range of things, from books for younger readers to a NSFW RPG!
Hamra and the Jungle of Memories by Hanna Alkaf – A Malaysian spin on Little Red Riding Hood from the critically acclaimed author of The Girl and the Ghost, Hanna Alkaf.
Courage is the strongest magic there is.
On Hamra’s thirteenth birthday, she receives nothing but endless nagging and yet another errand to run in the Langkawi jungle that looms behind her home.
No one has remembered her special day.
And so, stifled and angry, Hamra ignores something she shouldn’t: the rules of the jungle.
Always ask permission before you enter. Hamra walks boldly in.
Never take what isn’t yours. Hamra finds the most perfect jambu and picks it.
Of course, rules exist for a reason, and soon an enormous weretiger is stalking her dreams, demanding payment for her crimes–and Hamra embarks on a quest deep into the jungle to set things right.
For fans of Ikegna and A Tale Dark and Grimm comes a story of a brave heroine, a beguiling villain, fantastical worlds, magical adventures, and a journey that will remind you that hope, friendship, and love endures all.
Crimson by Brian Augustyn and Humberto Ramos – Recommended as the vampire hunters are kinda Red Riding Hood inspired!
The complete Crimson series, from Humberto Ramos (Amazing Spider-Man) and Brian Augustyn (Batman: Gotham By Gaslight), collected all together for the first time ever!
Alex Elder isn’t your average teenager. Or at least not anymore.
After being attacked by a gang of vampires, strange powers and abilities have taken over his life. Put in the care of Ekimus, the last of an ancient species pre-dating mankind, Alex must learn to embrace his destiny as “the Chosen One.” Tasked with bringing an end to the vampires, he will find that there are much scarier things that go bump in the night.
Collecting the complete twenty-four issue series by Humberto Ramos (Amazing Spider-Man) and Brian Augustyn (Batman: Gotham By Gaslight), with Scarlet X: Blood on the Moon and the Crimson SourceBook. In one prestigious hardcover omnibus, this is the book fans have been waiting for.
“The Red Cloak” by Vanessa Fogg in Truancy Magazine (Issue 6, October 2019). I loved this short story, it’s one of generational trauma and complex family dynamics. I really appreciated these themes and the way the story blends with other fairy tale motifs and images. Really recommend giving this one a read!
Red, The Wolf, and the Woods by Scarlett Gale – A hardworking farmer who moonlights as a dog trainer, Red longs for her brothers to step it up on the family farm so she can get a whole five minutes of uninterrupted time to herself.
When her grandma calls down with a delivery request, Red jumps at the chance to go visit the house in the woods she loves so much. No farm chores and a good hike? It’s basically the perfect day! …right until a wolf walks out of the woods and asks if he can join her.
Sound familiar? Red, the Wolf, and the Woods is a playful, modern take on the classic fairy tale, with a steamy romance at its core. Take some time away from your daily grind to join Red on a flirty, feral adventure!
Red Darkling by L. A. Guettler – Red Darkling’s ship is a weevil-infested piece of junk. Her smuggling business barely brings in enough credits to buy cheap beer. Alien creeps think a blaster can get them favors when their charm fails. Her only company is a glitchy cat and the occasional hook-up.
Her life is dirty, dangerous, and lonely: just how she likes it.
It all takes a turn for the worse when things start going well. A little too well. Partying with movie stars, weekends in paradise, troublesome people turning up dead—it’s maddening.
Who is this anonymous benefactor, and why does he think she needs protecting?
The Girl in Red by Christina Henry – A postapocalyptic take on the perennial classic “Little Red Riding Hood”, about a woman who isn’t as defenseless as she seems.
It’s not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn’t look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.
There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there’s something worse than all of the horrible people and vicious beasts combined.
Red doesn’t like to think of herself as a killer, but she isn’t about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods….
Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge – When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.
Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?
“Riding the Red” by Nalo Hopkinson in her collection Skin Folk – Nalo Hopkinson’s retelling is discussed and compared with another Red Riding Hood story of hers, “Red Rider” in this essay (free to access via Open Edition Journals).
Award-winning author Nalo Hopkinson’s first collection is Skin Folk, and its 15 stories are as strong and beautiful as her novels.
“The Glass Bottle Trick” retells the Bluebeard legend in a Caribbean setting and rhythms, for a sharp, chilling examination of love, gender, race, and class. In the myth-tinged “Money Tree,” a Canadian immigrant’s greed sends him back to Jamaica in pursuit of an accursed pirate treasure. In “Slow Cold Chick,” a woman must confront the deadly cockatrice that embodies her suppressed desires. In the postapocalyptic science fantasy “Under Glass,” events in one world affect those in another, and a child’s carelessness may doom them both. The lightest of fantastic imagery touches “Fisherman,” a tropically hot tale of sexual awakening, and one of the five original stories in Skin Folk. –Cynthia Ward
“Red Writing Hood” by Lesh Karan – a poem in Strange Horizons (November 2023)
(I keep getting a “not secure” message for the Strange Horizons site, but it seems to be the correct one. You may want to search for yourself, but the link I have is the direct link to this poem.)
“The Wolf and the Woodsman” by T. Kingfisher, episode 416 of Cast of Wonders. The audio and text is available at the link!
“Lupe” by Kathe Koja in Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold, eds. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.
Rachel Ayres writes this summary for Reactor Mag: “In this retelling, the grandmother in the woods isn’t Red’s grandma; rather she is Old Blanca, known to be a witch, and Red is Lupe, a young woman whose family is struggling to bear the loss of her little brother Teodoro. Her mother withdraws into grief, and Lupe finds solace in the forest, where she can sit for hours and watch the animals play, avoiding her older brother and her parents’ heavy silence. When her mother bids her go to Old Blanca, Lupe accepts that challenge, no longer frightened by the forest, and although she does meet a kind of wolf as part of this challenge, Old Blanca is pleased by her courage and persistence, and grants their family a healing boon. The encounter changes Lupe and although she sheds some of her childhood innocence along the way, she also grows into a smarter and kinder woman because of her experience.”
Once Ever After (NSFW) an RPG by Sierra Lee – Everyone knows how the story goes: innocent, 18-year-old Red Riding Hood goes into the woods and is corrupted by the naughty, naughty Big Bad Wolf. Ingrid is the newest Little Red Riding Hood: she doesn’t know what awaits her in the dark woods, but she knows that it seems exciting.
But Ingrid’s world is only one of an infinite number of Tales, and those stories are starting to bleed over into one another. War is coming, and Ingrid doesn’t even know what war is. Nothing will ever be the same, and the only weapon Ingrid has to face the changes is sexy fun.
Features
- A 20-30 hour RPG across multiple alternate fairy tales.
- 20+ base scenes with 150+ images total.
- 30+ chibi images illustrating cute plot moments.
- All characters have access to multiple classes and skill trees that can be mixed and matched.
- Visible enemies instead of random encounters.
- Modern quality of life features like autosave slots.
- Quest log to organize required and optional content.
- Optional post-game challenges leading to second ending.
#NotAllWolves by Kelsi Long – a free to read short story on Corvid Queen.
CONTENT NOTE: discussion of sexual harassment.
Of Snow and Scarlet by Katherine McDonald – A Little Red Riding Hood Retelling.
An outcast with a proclivity for poisons, Andesine De Winter longs for a life outside her closed-minded village. But she’s drawn to the surrounding forests of Thornwood, and the mysterious white wolf that saved her life as a child.
When the wolf reveals himself as the shape-changing Finn, an omega hiding from his former pack, Andesine finds herself in the middle of a conflict that threatens everything she holds dear—her dreams, her family, and the boy she’s given her heart to.
There is more than one way to lose yourself, and more than one kind of wolf in the woods…
NB: This book is suitable for older teens and adults, with some sexual content
“Roja” by Anna-Marie McLemore in All Out, a queer anthology ed. Saundra Mitchell.
Anna-Marie McLemore writes this about her story: ““Roja” began as a reimagining of the story of Leonarda Emilia, better known as La Carambada, the legendary Mexican outlaw who flashed her breasts at the rich men she robbed, so they would know without a doubt that they’d been bested by a woman. But along the way, my imagining of La Carambada wandered, as my stories often do, into the realm of fairy tale. My Emilia became a Mexican version of Little Red Riding Hood. The Wolf emerged as a transgender French soldier who garners his own fierce reputation. The forbidding woods became the hills of Mexico in the 1870s, a country in the aftermath of a brutal war.
Maybe the Frenchman the real Leonarda Emilia loved wasn’t a transgender soldier. Maybe most people don’t think of a Mexican girl when they imagine Little Red Riding Hood. But for the time it took me to write “Roja,” I got to imagine both Red and La Carambada as both queer and Latina. Writing “Roja” made these stories feel like they belonged to girls like me.”
What You Are and the Wolf by Jae Steinbacher – in Lightspeed magazine, Issue 161, Oct 2023.
A really good short story about personal choices, autonomy, and so much more. Really liked this one.
“Little Red” by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple, in the Cursed anthology ed. Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane.
Rachel Ayres writes this summary for Reactor Mag: “This gut-wrenching contemporary retelling takes place in a psychiatric ward, where our young protagonist, Little Red, turns inward, desperately seeking to escape the abusive horrors of the facility. Wolves and grandmothers are equal threats, and as Red journeys further into her own mind, she finds a wolf at the core of her being…and this wolf is on her side. Told in Yolen’s masterful prose, with imagery and symbolism drawn from the oldest known versions of the story, this one will haunt you.”
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