Comparing: Little Red Riding Hood

Once there was a sweet little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother. 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, 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.' 'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother. The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village. As Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. 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.' 'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?' 'To my grandmother's.' 'What have you got in your apron?' 'Cake and wine.' '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 wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful.' 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?' So she ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. While she was picking flowers, the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked. 'Who is there?' 'Little Red Riding Hood,' replied the wolf. 'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother. 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, and laid himself in bed. 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. She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open. 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!' 'The better to hear you with, my child.' 'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' '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!' And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Little Red Riding Hood. When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed and began to snore. A huntsman was just passing the house, and thought to himself, 'How the old woman is snoring! I must just see if she wants anything.' 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!' Then just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have eaten the grandmother. He 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.' And after that the aged grandmother came out alive also. Little 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. The grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Little Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived. Little Red Riding Hood thought to herself, 'As long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.'

Il etait une fois une petite fille, la plus jolie qu'on eut pu voir. Sa mere en etait folle, et sa mere-grand plus folle encore. Cette bonne femme lui fit faire un petit chaperon rouge, qui lui seait si bien, que partout on l'appelait le Petit Chaperon Rouge. Un jour, sa mere, ayant cuit et fait des galettes, lui dit d'aller voir comment se portait sa mere-grand, car on avait dit qu'elle etait malade. En passant par un bois, la petite fille rencontra compere le Loup, qui eut bien envie de la manger. Mais il n'osa pas, parce qu'il y avait des bucherons dans la foret. Il lui demanda ou elle allait. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, qui ne savait pas qu'il est dangereux de s'arreter a ecouter un loup, lui dit qu'elle allait voir sa mere-grand et qu'elle lui portait des galettes et un pot de beurre. Le loup courut vers la maison de la mere-grand et frappa a la porte. La vieille ouvrit, et le loup se jeta sur elle et la devora en un moment. Ensuite, il ferma la porte et se mit dans le lit de la mere-grand, attendant le Petit Chaperon Rouge. Quelques instants plus tard, la petite fille frappa a la porte. Le loup lui dit d'entrer, en lui criant de mettre la galette et le pot de beurre sur la huche, et de venir se coucher avec lui. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge se deshabilla et alla se mettre dans le lit, fort etonnee de voir comment sa mere-grand etait faite en chemise. Elle lui dit : « Ma mere-grand, que vous avez de grands bras ! — C'est pour mieux t'embrasser, mon enfant. — Ma mere-grand, que vous avez de grandes jambes ! — C'est pour mieux courir, mon enfant. — Ma mere-grand, que vous avez de grandes oreilles ! — C'est pour mieux ecouter, mon enfant. — Ma mere-grand, que vous avez de grands yeux ! — C'est pour mieux voir, mon enfant. — Ma mere-grand, que vous avez de grandes dents ! — C'est pour te manger ! » Et en disant ces mots, ce mechant loup se jeta sur le Petit Chaperon Rouge et la devora. Dans la version de Perrault, l'histoire s'arrete la, et la morale est claire : les jeunes filles ne doivent pas se laisser seduire par les beaux parleurs. Le loup represente le danger qui rode, et le bois est le lieu de toutes les tentations. Cependant, dans d'autres versions transmises par la tradition orale francaise, un chasseur ou un boucher passe par la, entend le ronflement du loup repu, entre dans la maison et ouvre le ventre du loup. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge et sa mere-grand en sortent saines et sauves. Le loup est ensuite puni : on lui remplit le ventre de pierres, et quand il se leve pour fuir, les pierres l'entrainent et il meurt. L'histoire du Petit Chaperon Rouge est l'un des contes les plus anciens et les plus repandus d'Europe. En France, elle a ete fixee par ecrit par Charles Perrault en 1697 dans ses Contes de ma mere l'Oye, sans la fin heureuse. C'est cette version qui a rendu le conte celebre dans le monde entier, avant que les freres Grimm n'y ajoutent le sauvetage par le chasseur. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge reste un symbole de l'innocence confrontee au danger, un conte initiatique ou la jeune fille doit apprendre a distinguer le bien du mal, la confiance de la naivete. La cape rouge, tel un signal d'alerte, est devenue l'un des emblemes les plus reconnaissables de la litterature mondiale.