| Little Red Riding Hood | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Real Name |
Unknown |
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First Appearance |
Unknown |
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Created by |
French Folklore |
Origin[]
The story revolves around a girl called Little Red Riding Hood, after the red hooded cape/cloak she wears. The girl walks through the woods to deliver food to her sickly grandmother. In the Grimms' version at least, she had the order from her mother to stay strictly on the path.
A mean wolf wants to eat the girl, and the food in the basket. He secretly stalks her behind trees and bushes and shrubs and patches of little grass and patches of tall grass. He approaches Little Red Riding Hood and she naïvely tells him where she is going. He suggests the girl pick some flowers, which she does. In the meantime, he goes to the grandmother's house and gains entry by pretending to be the girl. He swallows the grandmother whole, and waits for the girl, disguised as the grandma.
When the girl arrives, she notices that her grandmother looks very strange. Little Red then says,
"What a deep voice you have," ("The better to greet you with"),
"Goodness, what big eyes you have," ("The better to see you with")
"And what big hands you have!" ("The better to hug you with"), and lastly,
"What a big mouth you have," ("The better to eat you with!") at which point the wolf jumps out of bed, and swallows her up too. Then, he falls fast asleep.
A lumberjack, however, comes to the rescue and, with his axe, cuts open the sleeping wolf. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother emerge unharmed. They fill the wolf's body with heavy stones. The wolf awakens and tries to flee, but the stones cause him to collapse and die.
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Four Color #60
- Coo Coo Comics #16
- Peter Cottontail #1:A rabbit's involvement in the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
- Nuttylife #2: The Big Bad Wolf battles Cosmo Cat after kidnapping Red Riding Hood.
- Speedy Rabbit #1,14: Re-prints story from Peter Cottontail #1.
Public Domain Comic Appearances Inspired by Little Red Riding Hood[]
- Fantastic Fears #2: Horror version of Little Red Riding Hood with her as a vampire.
- Fantastic Fears #8: Horror version of Little Red Riding Hood with the Big Bad Wolf as a werewolf.
Notes[]
- As with all folk tales, varying versions of the story exist from Red wearing a cap rather than a hood, to the grandmother being locked in a closet instead of eaten, to the lumberjack being a hunter, and to the wolf not dying, simply getting a beating and sent on his way.