In other tellings of the story, the wolf chases after Little Red Riding Hood. She escapes with the help of some laundresses, who spread a sheet taut over a river so she may escape. When the wolf follows Red over the bridge of cloth, the sheet is released and the wolf drowns in the river. [25] And in another version the wolf is pushed into the fire, while he is preparing the flesh of the grandmother to be eaten by the girl. [23] Charles Perrault [ edit ] Erich Fromm based his ideas only on the story the Brothers Grimm wrote. He sees the red cap of Little Red Riding Hood as a symbol for menstruation.

Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet, told the story as a short poem as part of her 1924 book, Ternura [52] Quoted from: Jane E. Goodman, Berber Culture on the World Stage: From Village to Video, Indiana University Press, 2005: 62. The tale has been interpreted as a puberty rite, stemming from a prehistoric origin (sometimes an origin stemming from a previous matriarchal era). [10] The girl, leaving home, enters a liminal state and by going through the acts of the tale, is transformed into an adult woman by the act of coming out of the wolf's stomach. [10] Rebirth [ edit ] Lana Del Rey has an unreleased song called Big Bad Wolf (leaked in 2012) that was inspired by "Little Red Riding Hood". [59]The dialogue between the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood has analogies to the Norse Þrymskviða from the Elder Edda; the giant Þrymr had stolen Mjölnir, Thor's hammer, and demanded Freyja as his bride for its return. Instead, the gods dressed Thor as a bride and sent him. When the giants note Thor's unladylike eyes, eating, and drinking, Loki explains them as Freyja's not having slept, eaten, or drunk, out of longing for the wedding. [9] A parallel to another Norse myth, the chase and eventual murder of the sun goddess by the wolf Sköll, has also been drawn. [10]

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 now a piece of the veil slipped aside and Thor’s eyes were seen for an instant. ‘Oh, how does it come that Freya has such glaring eyes?’ said Thrym.Isabel Hernández (September 24, 2019). "Brothers Grimm fairy tales were never meant for kids". National Geographic . Retrieved July 17, 2020. Jacques Barchilon and Henry Pettit (1960) The Authentic Mother Goose Fairy Tales and Mursery Rhymes. Denver: Alan Swallow, p. 13. Folktales that were passed down from generation to generation at the time didn’t tend to be overtly moralised, nor were they told specifically for children. It’s Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm (in their popular version in 1812) that carved an explicit warning for children within the tale. From an educator’s point of view, or a parent’s, it’s a great story to explore concepts of obedience and, famously, ‘stranger danger’. The second section of repeating parts of the story happens when Red Riding Hood sees the wolf in her grandmother's bed.