Little Red Riding Hood - a folk tale - Society for Interdisciplinary Studies

At http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/science-on-trail-of… …. the folk tale of Little Red Riding Hood has a near global dispersal and may reflect ancient human migrations – or cultural exchanges along trade routes.

This folk tale is dark, possibly reflecting some pagan ritual involving a wolf god. However, the origin of the tale might not be so dark as it appears to be related to another folk tale from western Asia, the Wolf and the Kids. The kids in this instance are young goats. A wolf impersonates the nanny goat and eats the kids. In the Little Red Riding Hood tale a wolf dresses up as a grandmother and eats a child. Variants of the tale are found in Africa and Asia – the Tiger Grandmother of the Chinese (and Korea and Japan). The European tale was recorded by the Brothers Grimm a couple of centuries ago but they got it from a written version by a Frenchman in the 17th century and he got it from oral tradition.