Little Red Riding Hood's name

The name Little Red Riding Hood is so called because of a long red cloak that the girl in the story wears. There are many versions of this story told by Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. In older tales she was called “Little Red Cap”. The fairy story used to be titled “The False Grandmother” because of the wolf in disguise. It’s never been a fairy story like Cinderella or Snow White because it doesn’t have the same magic message. The heroine is a young girl who (in older versions) got eaten by the wolf. Some stories had the wood cutter killing the wolf and then Little Red Riding Hood rescued from the belly of the beast. Or she was simply hiding in the closet with her grandmother, in Ladybird book versions from the 20th Century. The older the story the darker it is, and both grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood fell victims to the wolf. 

One could say that there is a lot of symbolism in the story, and that the wolf represents the stranger dangers aspect warning. The wolf has been called a werewolf figure because it has humanlike characteristics but at the same time looks canine. Some folklorists think this story might be rooted in mythology, with the simplified legends of a sun goddess being consumed by the destructive wolf of doom. There is a lot of myths about giant canines chasing after sun and moon deities. Check out the wolves of Norse mythology, Hati, Skoll and Fenris, the canines of Greek myth Cadmea and Lealaps. The Chinese myth of Tiangou the ferocious dog that eats the sun.

Written by Wolf Girl Night and Rayne Belladonna