Wolf Tales and Little Red Riding Hood

 I like wolves. Wolves are fascinating. In a way, I think they're a good metaphor for introverts. Although there's no such thing as a lone wolf, when you see wolves (unless you haunt the nature channel), you usually see only one. Alone. 

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When wolves hunt, they aren't actually together. They're spread out. They give each other their space. But when they find what their looking for, or when there's danger, they're just a howl away.

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I don't know if that actually makes sense to anyone else but me. 

So, I thought it would be neat to look at some different fairy tales involving wolves. Yeah, that went over blazing well. HAHAhahahe. *cries*

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Talk about crushing the belief that Little Red Riding Hood is a kids' story. I knew a most fairytale had dark origins, but this? WHO IN THE WORLD THOUGHT FAIRYTALES WERE FOR KIDS!? If the original (especially The Grandmother) version of  Little Red Riding Hood was told today, parents would rebel. As a movie it would be R, as a book it would be banned.

Wolves in fairytales are practically synonymous with sinister. Understandably so, wolves were a huge threat long ago, especially to agricultural regions. Even when wolves are not depicted as pure evil, they're still greedy and brutal.

The Native Americans seem to be the only people who speak well of the wolves. You've probably heard of the Tale of Two Wolves. If not, then you've clearly not seen Tomorrowland. In which case, shame on you. Go watch Tomorrowland. (Uh, no it's not a faiytale, but that's beside the point.)

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This site talks about the different archetypes that wolves play in stories. This other one talks more about the symbolism of wolves.

I love this picture; it clearly doesn't own dark origins.

The White Wolf is an exception to the sinister wolf. As we discussed previously, this story is drawn from East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The wolf in this story isn't necessarily bad. He could be considered a wise wolf since later in the story he very tactfully makes his wedding guests understand about his first lover. 

The Wolf and the Man is somewhat interesting. The wolf seems to represent pure brutality as well as pride, while the fox represents cleverness. You can probably guess who will win. 

Little Red Riding Hood is very interesting and yet macabre. The original is in fact quite dark with a meaning that is very unsuited for young children. There are many variations of it, one of them being The Wolf and the Seven which isn't half as gloomy.

Little Red Riding Hood is thought to be derived from a story in 11th century Belgium. It is kind of interesting that Perrault's version simply ends with the wolf eating Little Red, while the Grimm brothers are actually more forgiving. They give Red Riding Hood a second chance. This site here talks about why Perrault's version was so harsh. Also, I really like the explanation at the end of this one. It says the LRRH was a story that explained the lunar eclipse. Which is more innocent than the interpretation of the the French version (this site does discuss the mature nature of the story, just to forewarn).

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The French version is actually titled The Grandmother and was probably intended for a more mature audience. Although it's probably the most gruesome, in this version Red Riding Hood saves herself. I have a small thought that this was probably the first story of Little Red Riding Hood.

When different people groups pick up a tale from a different culture, they tailor it to their own traditions and customs. The thing is not all stories are going to be passed between culture lines. One culture may be adverse to another's take on a tale. The message or morals of the story may not appeal to everyone. 

Yet nearly every culture has a Red Riding Hood look alike (Cinderella also; you could drown in a sea of Cinderella stories). Something about the story must be universal. 

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At it's core, Little Red Riding Hood is about naivety meets predator.

The story, especially The Grandmother, indirectly asks, is naivety and innocence the same thing? Can a person be one without the other and vice versa? I have always believed they are two separate ideas. Naivety is a lack of good judgement, and in some ways ignorance. Innocence on the other hand is the quality of having done no wrong; innocence is blamelessness. In the story of The Grandmother, Little Red losses her innocence because of her naivety. If she had better judgement or had been more informed (the story's purpose for its audience), she could've kept her innocence. 

There have been many modern reinterpretations of Red Riding Hood that vary widely from the original interpretation. Sometimes it's more kid friendly. Like Hoodwinked.


What do you think? Are their any other wolf stories out there?