Little Red Riding Hood
Told by Charles PerraultFranceTale type ATU 333
- Age
- 4 to 9
- Reading time
- 6 minutes
- Scariness
- 3 of 5Real danger, resolved before the end
Short on time? Read the two-minute version
0% · About 6 min left
The story
There was a girl who had a red hood with a hood-string her grandmother had sewn herself, and she wore it everywhere, so that is what everybody called her.
One morning her mother packed a basket with bread and a small pot of butter.
"Grandmother is poorly," she said. "Take this along and don't dawdle. Straight up the path. Don't go into the trees."
"Straight up the path," said Red.
And she meant it, at the time.
The woods began about ten minutes from the house, and the path went right through the middle of them, and it was a good path, wide and worn and easy. Red walked along it swinging the basket and singing the only song she knew all the way through.
That was when she noticed the wolf.
He was walking beside her, on the other side of the path, at exactly her speed, and he had clearly been there for some time.
"Good morning," said the wolf.
"Good morning," said Red, because she had been brought up properly.
"That's a fine basket. Where are you off to with it?"
And here is the thing. Red knew, the way you know, that she should not answer. Something at the back of her neck told her so. But she could not have explained why, and it seemed rude, and he had asked so pleasantly.
"My grandmother's," she said. "The cottage past the mill, with the blue door."
"Ah," said the wolf. "I know it."
He walked on with her a little way, and then he stopped and looked off into the trees.
"There are flowers in there, you know," he said. "Just past those birches. Bluebells. She'd like those, a poorly grandmother."
Red looked. There were bluebells, a great blue drift of them, further in than she could see the end of.
When she looked back, the wolf had gone.
She was only in the trees a little while. She picked a proper armful, the good ones with long stems, and she found some late primroses too, and by the time she got back to the path the light had moved and she had to hurry.
The cottage past the mill had a blue door and the blue door was open.
"Grandmother?"
"In here, my love." The voice came from the bedroom, and it was thick and low and wrong.
Red stood in the doorway with the flowers in one arm and the basket in the other.
The curtains were drawn, which they never were. There was a shape in the bed in her grandmother's cap and her grandmother's shawl, and it was much too big for the bed.
She should have run. She thought about it. But she had walked a long way and she had picked all these flowers and she wanted, quite badly, to be wrong.
So she went in, and she started talking.
"Grandmother, what big ears you have."
"All the better to hear you with, my love."
"Grandmother, what big eyes you have."
"All the better to see you with."
"Grandmother." Red's voice had gone very small and very steady. "What big arms you have."
"All the better to hold you with, my love."
"Grandmother." She was already stepping backwards, and she said the last one at the top of her lungs, so that it went out of the open blue door and across the yard and into the trees. "WHAT BIG TEETH YOU HAVE!"
And the wolf came out of that bed like a wave.
Red was out of the door and round the corner of the cottage and screaming, and the woodcutter, who had been working forty steps away and had been hearing a strange conversation for some time, came round the other corner with his axe held out and his boots going.
The wolf took one look at him and went out of that yard and into the trees and did not stop.
They found Grandmother in the wardrobe, extremely cross, with a bruise on her elbow and a great deal to say about the state of her cap.
They had the bread and the butter for lunch. The bluebells went in a jug on the windowsill, and Grandmother said they were the best thing anyone had brought her in years, which was kind, because they were rather crushed by then.
And on the way home Red walked straight up the path and did not go into the trees, and when she was most of the way back she stopped and said, out loud, to nobody:
"I knew."
And she had. That was the useful part.
What is the moral of Little Red Riding Hood?
When something feels wrong, say so out loud, even if you cannot explain why.
Perrault wrote this as a warning about talking to strangers, and it works perfectly well that way. But the more interesting thing is what Red actually does in the cottage. She notices that everything is wrong, one detail at a time, and instead of going quiet about it she says every single observation out loud. What arms are those. What ears are those. She talks her way through her own fear until the truth is standing in the open. That is a genuinely useful skill, and it is more teachable than never speaking to anybody.
Talk about it
- The wolf asked Red where she was going, and she told him. What could she have said instead?
- Red noticed something was wrong straight away. Why do you think she kept going?
- Why do you think the wolf did not simply grab her on the path?
- Have you ever known something felt wrong but found it hard to say so?
- Is the wolf wicked, or just hungry and clever? Does it matter?
Who is in the story
Red
protagonist · human
A girl named after a hood her grandmother made her, sent up a path with a basket, who meets somebody on the way and answers his questions.
- Kind
- 9 out of 10
- Brave
- 8 out of 10
- Clever
- 8 out of 10
- Honest
- 9 out of 10
- Curious
- 9 out of 10
- Patient
- 5 out of 10
The Wolf
antagonist · wolf
Walks beside her at exactly her speed, asks two questions, points at some flowers, and is gone.
- Kind
- 2 out of 10
- Brave
- 5 out of 10
- Clever
- 10 out of 10
- Honest
- 1 out of 10
- Curious
- 7 out of 10
- Patient
- 9 out of 10
Grandmother
helper · human
Poorly, sewed the famous hood herself, and spends most of this story in a wardrobe being furious.
- Kind
- 9 out of 10
- Brave
- 8 out of 10
- Clever
- 7 out of 10
- Honest
- 10 out of 10
- Curious
- 5 out of 10
- Patient
- 3 out of 10
Red's Mother
supporting · human
Packs the basket, gives the instruction, and is not in the rest of the story.
- Kind
- 8 out of 10
- Brave
- 6 out of 10
- Clever
- 7 out of 10
- Honest
- 9 out of 10
- Curious
- 4 out of 10
- Patient
- 6 out of 10
The Woodcutter
helper · human
Working forty steps away, and had been listening to a strange conversation for some time before anybody screamed.
- Kind
- 8 out of 10
- Brave
- 9 out of 10
- Clever
- 6 out of 10
- Honest
- 9 out of 10
- Curious
- 6 out of 10
- Patient
- 7 out of 10
In a nutshell
A girl in a red hood takes a basket to her grandmother's cottage and meets a wolf on the path who asks exactly the right questions. He gets there first. What follows is the most famous conversation in any fairy tale, and it does not end the way she expects.
Scene by scene
20 moments from the tale.
- Scene 1The Cottage Kitchenwarm
The hood with the hood-string
Before any of it, there is a hood. Her grandmother sewed it herself, hood-string and all, and the girl wears it everywhere, so it stops being a hood and becomes what everybody calls her.
A hood, and then a name
- Scene 2The Cottage Kitchenordinary
Straight up the path
Red's mother packs bread and butter and gives her one clear rule. Red repeats it back and means it.
She meant it, at the time
- Scene 3The Patheasy
The only song she knew
The woods begin about ten minutes from the house and the path runs straight through the middle of them, wide and worn and easy. Red swings the basket as she walks and sings the only song she knows all the way through.
All the way through, twice
- Scene 4The Pathunsettling
Somebody walking beside her
Red notices a wolf walking beside her at exactly her speed. He says good morning, asks about her basket, and she answers because not answering seemed rude.
He had been there for some time
- Scene 5The Pathuneasy
The back of her neck
The wolf admires the basket and asks, very pleasantly, where she is taking it. Red knows she should not answer. She could not have said why, and it seemed rude, so she gives him the mill and the blue door.
She knew she should not answer
- Scene 6The Bluebell Woodsly
There are flowers in there
The wolf mentions there are bluebells just past the birches, and that a poorly grandmother would like them. Then he is gone.
He never told her to leave the path
- Scene 7The Pathhollow
When she looked back
Red looks where he is pointing. There are bluebells, a great blue drift of them, further in than she can see the end of. When she turns round to say so, the path is empty in both directions.
There was nobody on the path
- Scene 8The Bluebell Woodabsorbed
A proper armful
She is only in there a little while. She picks the good ones with the long stems, finds some late primroses as well, and by the time she gets back out to the path the light has moved and she has to hurry.
The light had moved
- Scene 9Grandmother's Cottagewrong
The blue door was open
Red reaches the cottage with an armful of flowers. The blue door is open and every curtain is drawn, which they never are.
The curtains were drawn, which they never were
- Scene 10Grandmother's Cottageunnerving
In here, my love
Red steps out of the bright yard into a dim room with the flowers in one arm and the basket in the other, and calls. Something answers from the bedroom using her grandmother's exact words in a voice that is not her grandmother's.
Thick and low and wrong
- Scene 11Grandmother's Cottagestill
Much too big for the bed
There is a shape in the bed in her grandmother's cap and her grandmother's shawl, and it is much too big for the bed. Red stands in the doorway and thinks about running, and then goes in, because she has walked a long way and picked all these flowers.
She wanted, quite badly, to be wrong
- Scene 12Grandmother's Cottagecareful
What big ears you have
Red comes into the dim bedroom and begins saying out loud exactly what she can see. She starts with the ears, and the answer comes back soothing and immediate, as though it had been waiting a while to be used.
So she went in, and she started talking
- Scene 13Grandmother's Cottagesteady
All the better to see you with
The eyes next. The answer is the same shape as the last one and comes back just as fast, except that this time he does not bother with the endearment at the end of it.
That time he left off the my love
- Scene 14Grandmother's Cottageprecise
Very small and very steady
The arms. Red's voice has gone very small and very steady, which is what it does when she is frightened, and she is already moving backwards towards the light in the front door while she says it.
She was already stepping backwards
- Scene 15Grandmother's Cottagetaut
What big teeth you have
Red narrates every wrong detail out loud until the truth is standing in the open, and shouts the last one loud enough to carry into the yard.
She said every single thing out loud
- Scene 16Grandmother's Cottagesudden relief
Forty steps away
Red comes round one corner of the cottage screaming and the woodcutter comes round the other with his axe out. The wolf goes into the trees and does not stop.
He'd been listening for a while
- Scene 17Grandmother's Cottagefinished
Out of that yard
The wolf comes out into the yard, sees a broad man standing by the woodpile with an axe, loses the nightcap on the wall on his way past, and goes into the trees without stopping.
He did not stop
- Scene 18Grandmother's Cottagecomic relief
Extremely cross
They find Grandmother in the wardrobe with a bruised elbow and a great deal to say about the state of her cap.
She had a lot to say about her cap
- Scene 19Grandmother's Cottagewarm
Bluebells in a jug
Bread and butter for lunch, curtains open, and the bluebells in a jug on the windowsill. Grandmother says they are the best thing anyone has brought her in years, which is kind of her, because by that point they are rather crushed.
They were rather crushed by then
- Scene 20The Pathquietly resolved
I knew
Red walks straight home up the path without going into the trees, stops most of the way back, and says two words out loud to nobody.
She said it out loud, to nobody
Where it happens
Grandmother's Cottage
cottage
Past the mill, with a blue door that is standing open when it should not be.
The Bluebell Wood
forest
Just past the birches, further in than you can see the end of.
The Cottage Kitchen
room
Where the basket is packed and the rule is given.
The Path
woodland path
Wide, worn and easy, running straight through the middle of the woods.
How they are connected
He asks pleasant questions. She answers them because not answering seemed rude.
RedGrandmotherfamily
One of them made the hood. The other is named after it.
RedThe Woodcutterrescuer
He had been half-listening to a conversation that did not sound right, forty steps away.
Red's MotherRedfamily
A clear rule, given without a reason, agreed to sincerely and broken within the hour.
Things you might not know
The oldest known version, an oral French tale called The Story of Grandmother, has no red hood and nobody rescues her. The girl escapes entirely by her own cleverness.
Perrault's 1697 ending is bleak: the wolf wins and the story stops. The woodcutter was added by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, and almost every version since has kept him.
Perrault added a rhyming moral at the end warning young women about charming strangers. He was quite explicit that the wolf was not really a wolf.
The story explains why the wolf does not simply attack her on the path: there were woodcutters nearby and he did not dare. The rescue is set up in the first act.
Folklorists classify it as ATU 333, and versions have been recorded across Europe, Asia and Africa, many of them with no contact between the cultures that tell them.
In Italian versions the villain is an ogress; in Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions a tiger; in some African versions a leopard. The wolf is a local detail, not the point.
The red hood does not appear in any version before Perrault. He seems to have invented the single most famous detail in the story.
The Grimms wrote a second ending in which another wolf turns up and Red and her grandmother deal with it themselves, without any huntsman. Almost nobody tells that one.
What things stand for
- The red hood
- The one bright thing in a dark wood. It makes her easy to love and easy to find, which cuts both ways.
- The path
- The rule she has been given. Every version of this story is really about what happens when you step off it.
- The basket
- Care for somebody else. She is not out in the woods for herself, which is why she keeps going when she should turn back.
- The grandmother's cap
- A disguise that only works because Red wants it to. She sees the wolf almost immediately and keeps hoping she is wrong.
The same story elsewhere
Folk tales are not owned by whoever wrote them down first.
The Story of Grandmother
France, oral, pre-1697
The oldest recorded version has no red hood and no rescue. The girl escapes entirely by her own cleverness, by saying she needs to go outside.
Rotkappchen
Germany, 1812
The Brothers Grimm added the huntsman who cuts open the wolf, and a second ending in which Red and her grandmother deal with a second wolf themselves.
The Tiger Grandmother
China, Japan, Korea, traditional
A tiger or a fox takes the wolf's place and the children escape by climbing a tree. The same tale type, entirely independently.
The False Grandmother
Italy, traditional
An ogress rather than a wolf, and the girl escapes by trickery rather than being saved.
Where you might already know it from
Most children meet a screen version first. Here is what those changed.
Countless cartoon versions
animation, Various
Almost all screen versions keep the woodcutter rescue, which Perrault never wrote. It was added by the Grimms over a century later.
Le Petit Chaperon Rouge
opera, Francois-Adrien Boieldieu, 1818
A comic opera version, hugely popular in its day, which gave Red a happy ending long before that became standard.
The Company of Wolves
book, Angela Carter, 1979
A retelling for adults in which Red is neither foolish nor rescued. Worth knowing about, and not for children.
Adult content. Mentioned for context only.
Questions parents ask
- What is the moral of Little Red Riding Hood?
- When something feels wrong, say so out loud, even if you cannot explain why.
- What is Little Red Riding Hood about?
- A girl in a red hood takes a basket to her grandmother's cottage and meets a wolf on the path who asks exactly the right questions. He gets there first. What follows is the most famous conversation in any fairy tale, and it does not end the way she expects.
- What age is Little Red Riding Hood for?
- Little Red Riding Hood suits ages 4-9.
- How long does Little Red Riding Hood take to read?
- About 6 minutes read aloud.
- Where does Little Red Riding Hood come from?
- Little Red Riding Hood is a traditional tale from France.
Sing it
Every story here has its own song. This one is bright turning watchful, about 118 beats a minute.
Straight Up the Path
acoustic folk
There is no recording yet. The words are here so you can sing it yourself.
Personalised stories are coming soon
A brand new story with your child as the main character, illustrated on every page. We are not taking orders yet. Join the waitlist and we will email you when it opens.