Little Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time, a little girl wearing red journeyed into the woods to visit her grandmother. She would soon have her infamous encounter with “the big bad wolf.” 

I won’t go into the details of this story. Many people know it, but not many are aware of its origins. They are highly debated, with some agreeing that the tale comes from The Wolf and the Kids (from the Middle East) and others saying that it originates from Charles Perrault’s Le Petit Chaperon Rouge. Some even believe that it comes from the ancient Greek tale known as Hero of Temesa. In many of the versions that have been discovered, the wolf’s character is not always even a wolf. For example, Grandaunt Tigress is a Chinese story about a tigress chasing and trying to eat a girl. After all, wolves were not very common in some regions. By contrast, The Wolf and the Kids was retold by the Grimm Brothers as The Wolf and the Seven Kids, and involves goats as opposed to humans. However, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge was also retold by the Grimm Brothers as Little Red Cap, and is perhaps the most similar to the story most of us know.

Nowadays, searching online yields many different Little Red Riding Hood retellings. Many of them involve werewolves and leave out the grandmother’s character altogether. Some of them take place centuries ago, and others take place in the present time. What usually stays the same is the theme of a girl and a wolf (or some other animal like a tiger). Sometimes, the girl is the wolf (like in the show Once Upon A Time)! What hasn’t changed is how enjoyable it is to read these retellings! Do you have any favorite books that are reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood? I truly hope you enjoy researching more about the history of Little Red Riding Hood, and read some of the many tales that might have contributed to the popular story we know and (hopefully) love today!

Fairy truly yours, 

Grace W. Wong