Little Red Riding Hood
By: Brothers Grimm
Once upon a time there was a dear
little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by
her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the
child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her
so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called
'Little Red Riding Hood.'
One day her
mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake
and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and
they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going,
walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and
break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go
into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep
into every corner before you do it.'
'I will take
great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on
it.
The
grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just
as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood
did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.
'Good day,
Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.
'Thank you
kindly, wolf.'
'Whither
away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'
'To my
grandmother's.'
'What have
you got in your apron?'
'Cake and
wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something
good, to make her stronger.'
'Where does
your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'
'A good
quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the three
large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,'
replied Little Red Riding Hood.
The wolf
thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful
- she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to
catch both.'
So he walked
for a short time by the side of Little Red Riding Hood, and then he said:
'See, Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are about here - why do
you not look round? I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the
little birds are singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to
school, while everything else out here in the wood is merry.'
Little Red
Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing here and
there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, she thought:
'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too. It is
so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time.'
So she ran
from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she had picked
one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after
it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.
Meanwhile
the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.
'Who is
there?'
'Little Red
Riding Hood,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open the
door.'
'Lift the
latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot get up.'
The wolf
lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went
straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her
clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.
Little Red Riding
Hood, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when she had
gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her
grandmother, and set out on the way to her.
She was
surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she went into the
room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself: 'Oh dear! how
uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like being with grandmother so
much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but received no answer; so she went to
the bed and drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap
pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.
'Oh!
grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'
'All the
better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.
'But,
grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.
'All the
better to see you with, my dear.'
'But,
grandmother, what large hands you have!'
'All the
better to hug you with.'
'Oh! but,
grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'
'All the
better to eat you with!'
And scarcely
had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed
up Red Riding Hood.
When the
wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and
began to snore very loud.
The huntsman
was just passing the house, and thought to himself: 'How the old woman is
snoring! I must just see if she wants anything.' So he went into the room,
and when he came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it.
'Do I find
you here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' But just as he
was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have
devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did not
fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the
sleeping wolf.
When he had
made two snips, he saw the little red riding hood shining, and then he made
two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened I
have been! How dark it was inside the wolf.'
After that
the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red
Riding Hood, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled the
wolf's belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were
so heavy that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.
Then all
three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and went home
with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Red Riding
Hood had brought, and revived. But Red Riding Hood thought to herself: 'As
long as I live, I will never leave the path by myself to run into the wood,
when my mother has forbidden me to do so.'
It is also related that once, when
Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf
spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red Riding Hood,
however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and told her
grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said 'good morning' to
her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on
the public road she was certain he would have eaten her up.
'Well,' said
the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, so that he can not come in.'
Soon
afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: 'Open the door, grandmother, I am
Little Red Riding Hood, and am bringing you some cakes.'
But they did
not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice or thrice round
the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Red Riding
Hood went home in the evening, and then to steal after her and devour her in
the darkness. But the grandmother saw what was in his thoughts.
In front of
the house was a great stone trough, so she said to the child: 'Take the pail,
Red Riding Hood; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which
I boiled them to the trough.'
Red Riding
Hood carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell of the
sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last
stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and
began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough,
and was drowned. But Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one ever did
anything to harm her again.
|
|
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar