Last night Eden wanted me to read to her from a very old nursery rhyme and fairy tale book she has. She opened it up to Red Riding Hood and we snuggled down in her bed for one of my favorite bedtime rituals.
Let me start off by saying that I did not realize I was reading the Brother’s Grimm version. Had I known that ahead of time I would’ve at least skimmed the story before I dove in headfirst.
Well it starts out pretty dang awesome. Red Riding Hood needs to go visit her Grandmother who is ill (blah, blah, blah), and her mother says,
“Come here, Red Riding Hood! Take this cake and bottle of wine to grandmother. She is weak and ill, and they will do her good.”
Come on! This story has it goin’ on!
Eden says,
“Uh… mom? That is not going to make her better. Cake… sugar! Wine… alcohol!”
Where does she get the idea that these are bad things?
Moving a little further on when the wolf finds the grandmother in the bed,
“He went straight in and up to the bed without saying a word, and ate up the poor old woman.”
Ok, in the other versions I’ve read and been told, the grandma runs off, or the wolf puts her in the closet. Eden and I are quite silent after this line. We just look at each other and I ask her if I should keep reading. Of course, being spawned from me, she wants to go on. At this point I know that Red is going to get it too, so we’re not too shocked when she is swallowed up as well. Then along comes the huntsman. He is about to shoot the wolf when it occurs to him that the grandmother might still be alive inside of his belly.
“So he took and knife and began cutting open the sleeping wolf. At the first cut he saw the little red cloak, and after a few more slashes, the little girl sprang out and cried, ‘Oh, how frightened I was! It was so dark inside the wolf.’ Next the old grandmother came out, alive but hardly able to breathe.”
And here I’ve been praying against bad dreams.
How did it end? Well, clearly ‘slashing’ the wolf to pieces wasn’t enough to kill him, but Red filling him up with big stones so that when he woke up he couldn’t move worked like a charm.
Next in the book is Cinderella. Not really sure how I feel about that yet.
Oh, the book came from John’s previous boss. Not sure how I feel about that either.
Unbound 
I dunno…Cinderella may turn out to be a real slut.
nooooooooooooooooo!
Omygoodness! That is…interesting. Atleast you know to skim them now just in case!
And that is too funny about the wine and cake.
We were just given that version as a gift, and I had never read it before! My daughter is only 4, so needless to say it made for some interesting conversation! lol
Brothers Grimm have the seriously scary stories. Someone gave me a book of their fairy tales when I was little and I never wanted my mother to read to me from it!
How funny! You know, I have never read the Grimm versions. I just might have to check those out. 🙂
You should! I might do a review on all of them, lol! The things Disney keeps you in the dark about…
I have a book full of these kinds of stories called “Bedtime Stories for 4 Year Olds” for Hannah. I skimmed it at B&N and it listed several classics. I thought it would be great. Old Nursery Rhymes and such.
Oh My Goodness! These stories are TERRIFYING! I have started several, only to quietly bump my way through the second half, skipping big chunks of the story and leaving Hannah confused. Then I end up grabbing a Dora book or something to finish the night.
Ever read Tom Thumb? Hannah actually likes that one, but it’s the most bizarre story when you read the original version.
Tom Thumb… I bet that one is in there.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and ive never heard this version of Red Riding Hood ..must admit its kinda gross ..cake , wine ..eating grandma alive .. the old version is so much more nicer and cuter !!
Those Grim Brothers…did they coin the term “Grim”? We tried a compilation of their stories a few years ago, but mommy had a hard time “seeing the words on the page” and kept mumbling and ending the stories short.
My husband rented Coraline. We didn’t know it wasn’t a kiddie movie, silly us. I kept asking my daughter if she wanted to stop the movie, to which she would reply, “No, watch! Something bad is going to happen.” Not only that, but she wanted to watch it again the next day.
Melissa, I like to read YA books every once in awhile and I read Coraline (never saw the movie. I knew from the commericals it would be too creepy for my kids.). It was scarey! It gave me the shivers several times. I told my 7 year old that there is NO way she is going to watch it. She has enough bad dreams!
Valerie,
When my husband put the movie on, I thought to myself that it was going to be another highlight in my career of bad parenting. For the first couple months after we had our second, I just wasn’t on top of my game.
What we did learn, however, is that our daughter may grow up to be a scary movie enthusiast. Also, her “nightmares” involve candy being offered, but not being hers. 🙂 -Tales from the land of silly.