--- title: "Little Red Riding Hood" story_id: "a2bd4ce0-238c-4a1c-959a-d4a14d9e3223" text_id: "7fd75050-405c-42cc-a23e-84bfa791c079" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/little-red-riding-hood" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/little-red-riding-hood" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # Little Red Riding Hood > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/little-red-riding-hood) Version: Modernized In this German tale from the Brothers Grimm, a girl is known as Little Red Riding Hood because she always wears the red velvet cap her grandmother gave her. One day, her mother sends her to visit her sick grandmother with cake and wine. She tells her to stay on the path. But in the forest, a wolf comes up to the girl… **Content warning:** This tale contains a child and her grandmother being eaten by a wolf, and the wolf’s killing. 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. There was nothing her grandmother would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little cap 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. Walk nicely and quietly, and do not run off the path. You might fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing. When you enter her room, remember to say, ‘Good morning.’ Do not begin by peeping into every corner.” “I will take great care,” said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and shook her hand as a promise. The grandmother lived out in the wood, about a mile and a half from the village. Just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/9a4842d5-f9b8-4e57-a43c-e0ff79cfed0e) Little 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.” “Where are you going 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 little over three-quarters of a mile farther into the wood. Her house stands under the three large oak trees, with the nut trees 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 be cunning to catch them both.” So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red Riding Hood, and then he said, “Look, Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are around here! Why do you not look around? I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing. You walk so seriously 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. She saw the sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees and pretty flowers growing everywhere. She thought, “Suppose I take grandmother a fresh bunch of flowers. 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. Whenever she picked one, she thought she saw a still prettier one farther on. She ran after it and went 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 and the door flew open. Without saying a word, he went straight to the grandmother’s bed and devoured her. Then he put on her clothes and cap, lay down in bed and drew the curtains. Little Red Riding Hood had meanwhile been running about picking flowers. When she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother and set off towards her house. She was surprised to find the cottage door standing open. When she went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself, “Oh dear! How uneasy I feel today, when I usually love being with grandmother.” She called out, “Good morning,” but received no answer. So she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. Her grandmother lay there with her cap pulled far over her face, looking very strange. “Oh! grandmother,” she said, “what big ears you have!” ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/fa63178b-4e98-4bf3-82fe-dcbc23d01dd5) “The better to hear you with, my child,” was the reply. “But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!” she said. “The better to see you with, my dear.” “But, grandmother, what large hands you have!” “The better to hug you with.” “Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!” “The better to eat you with!” The wolf had barely said this when he leapt out of bed and swallowed Little Red Riding Hood. When the wolf had satisfied his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loudly. 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. “So here you are, you old sinner!” he said. “I have been looking for you for a long time!” Just as he was about to shoot, he thought that the wolf might have swallowed the grandmother and that she could still be saved. So he did not fire. He took scissors and began cutting open the sleeping wolf’s stomach. After two snips, he saw the little red cap shining. He made two more snips, and the girl sprang out, crying, “Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was inside the wolf!” After that, the aged grandmother also came out alive, but scarcely able to breathe. Little Red Riding Hood quickly fetched big stones, and they filled the wolf’s body with them. When he woke, he tried to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he immediately fell down dead. Then all three were delighted. The huntsman took off the wolf’s skin and went home with it. The grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine Little Red Riding Hood had brought, and regained her strength. But Little 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 told that once, when Little Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to her old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her and tried to lure her off the path. Little Red Riding Hood was on her guard and went straight on her way. She told her grandmother that the wolf had wished her good morning, but with such a wicked look that she was sure he would have eaten her if they had not been on the public road. “Well,” said the grandmother, “we will shut the door so he cannot come in.” Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried, “Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red Riding Hood, and am fetching you some cakes.” But they did not speak, or open the door. So the old wolf crept around the house two or three times. At last he jumped onto the roof. He intended to wait until Little Red Riding Hood went home that evening, then creep 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, a long open basin, so she said to the child, “Take the pail, Little Red Riding Hood; I made some sausages yesterday. Carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough.” Little Red Riding Hood carried the water until the great trough was quite full. The smell of the sausages reached the wolf. He sniffed and peeped down, stretching his neck so far that he lost his footing. He slipped from the roof straight into the great trough and drowned. But Little Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one did her any harm. ## Modernization notes - never did anything to harm any one → no one did her any harm: The German ending says that no one harmed Little Red Riding Hood. The wording of the original English translation is kept in Original mode; the modern version restores that meaning. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1914, Cupples & Leon Company, New York - author: Jacob Grimm - author: Wilhelm Grimm - translator: Margaret Hunt ## Illustration [Arthur Rackham](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/9a4842d5-f9b8-4e57-a43c-e0ff79cfed0e) — The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, 1909, Constable & Co., London [Arthur Rackham](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/fa63178b-4e98-4bf3-82fe-dcbc23d01dd5) — The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, 1909, Constable & Co., London ## Reading music Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15 — Curious Story Robert Schumann Chiara Bertoglio (piano) [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) ## Quiz ### What is a group of wolves called? - A swarm - A pack (Correct answer) - A school - A brood A wolf pack is often a family group. [Smithsonian — Gray wolf](https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/gray-wolf) ### Which family does the wolf belong to? - Cats - Birds - Canids (Correct answer) - Fish Wolves and dogs belong to the canid family. [Smithsonian — Gray wolf](https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/gray-wolf) ### What is one purpose of a wolf’s howl? - Communicating (Correct answer) - Lighting the forest - Changing colour - Digging a den Howls can help separated wolves find their pack. [Smithsonian — Gray wolf](https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/gray-wolf) ### Which fruit grows on an oak? - Apple - Hazelnut - Chestnut - Acorn (Correct answer) An acorn contains the oak’s seed. [Woodland Trust — English oak](https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/english-oak/) ### What does an English oak usually do in autumn? - Turns blue - Sheds its leaves (Correct answer) - Dies - Grows apples This deciduous tree sheds its leaves each year. [Woodland Trust — English oak](https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/english-oak/) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/little-red-riding-hood?format=markdown) - [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/little-red-riding-hood?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)