Tatian Adapation of "Little Red Riding Hood"

Once upon a time, there was a dear little Tatian girl who was adored by everyone who ever saw her, but most of all by her grandmother, Gretchen. There was nothing that Gretchen would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little green velvet cap, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called "Little Green-Cap."

One day her mother said to her: "Come, Little Green-Cap, 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 Green-Cap 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 Green-Cap entered the wood, a wolf met her. Green-Cap did not know what a wicked creature he was, and so she was not at all afraid of him.

"Good day, Little Green-Cap," he said to her.

"Thank you kindly, wolf."

"Whither away so early, Little Green-Cap?"

"To my grandmother’s house."

"What have you got in your apron?"

"Cake and juice; yesterday was baking day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger."

"Where does your grandmother live, Little Green-Cap?"

"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 Green-Cap.

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, to catch both." So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Green-Cap, and then he said: "See, Little Green-Cap, how pretty the flowers are about here–why do you not look around? I believe 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 Green-Cap 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"; and 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 Green-Cap," replied the wolf, "I am 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, laid himself in bed, and closed the curtains.

Little Green-Cap, however, had been running about picking poppies, and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother and set out on her way.

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 pulled back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, looking very strange.

"Oh! grandmother," she said, "what big ears you have!"

"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!"

And rarely had the wolf said this-- then with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Green-Cap.

When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep, and began to snore very loud. Kuhleeb was just passing the house, and thought to himself: "How the old woman is snoring! I must check to 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!" he said. "I have long sought you!" Then 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 Green-Cap 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 grandmother came out alive also.

Kuhleeb quickly fetched stones with which they then 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.

Then all three were delighted. Kuhleeb removed the wolf’s skin and went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the juice which Green-Cap had brought, and revived. Green-Cap 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."

It also related that once when Green-Cap was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Green-Cap, 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 may not come in." Soon afterward the wolf knocked, and cried: "Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Green-Cap, and am bringing you some cakes." But they did not speak, or open the door, so the wolf ran twice or thrice around the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Green-Cap 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, Green-Cap; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough." Green-Cap 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 Green-Cap went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again.

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.