Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in FairylandBunce, John Thackray
History
Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in Fairyland
Bunce, John Thackray
Fairy tales -- History and criticism
Now about the story of Cinderella. We saw something of her in the first
chapter: How she is Ushas, the Dawn Maiden of the Aryans, and the Aurora
of the Greeks; and how the Prince is the Sun, ever seeking to make
the Dawn his bride, and how the envious stepmother and sisters are the
Clouds and the Night, which strive to keep the Dawn and the Sun apart.
The story of Little Red Riding Hood, as we call her, or Little Red Cap,
as she is called in the German tales, also comes from the same source,
and refers to the Sun and the Night. You all know the story so well that
I need not repeat it: how Little Red Riding Hood goes with nice cakes
and a pat of butter to her poor old grandmother; how she meets on the
way with a wolf, and gets into talk with him, and tells him where she is
going; how the wolf runs off to the cottage to get there first, and eats
up the poor grandmother, and puts on her clothes, and lies down in her
bed; how Little Red Riding hood, knowing nothing of what the wicked
wolf has done, comes to the cottage, and gets ready to go to bed to her
grandmother, and how the story goes on in this way:--
"Grandmother," (says Little Red Riding Hood), "what great arms you have
got!"
"That is to hug you the better, my dear."
"Grandmother, what, great ears you have got!"
"That is to hear you the better, my dear."
"Grandmother, what great eyes you have got!"
"That is to see you the better, my dear."
"Grandmother, what a great mouth you have got!"
"That is to eat you up!" cried the wicked wolf; and then he leaped out
of bed, and fell upon poor Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her up in a
moment.
This is the English version of the story, and here it stops; but in the
German story there is another ending to it. After the wolf has eaten up
Little Red Riding Hood he lies down in bed again, and begins to
snore very loudly. A huntsman, who is going by, thinks it is the old
grandmother snoring, and he says, "How loudly the old woman snores; I
must see if she wants anything." So he stepped into the cottage, and
when he came to the bed he found the wolf lying in it. "What! do I find
you here, you old sinner?" cried the huntsman; and then, taking aim with
his gun, he shot the wolf quite dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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