Children can make this fearsome wolf mask for role play (the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood spring to mind!) or as part of a wild animal theme. Little Red Riding-Hood," sings out the wolf, making his voice as shrill as he could. "I've come to bring dear Grannie a pot of butter and a cake from mother, and to ask how you are." Not so very far if you go by the straight road," replied little Red Riding-Hood. "You only have to pass the mill and the first cottage on the right is Grannie's; but I am going by the wood path because there are such a lot of nuts and flowers and butterflies."

Yet what is the meaning of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’? Before we venture an answer to this – via an analysis of the story’s key features – it’s worth recapping the plot in a brief summary. house," her mother cautioned."Don't dawdle along the way and please don't talk to strangers! The woods are dangerous." Little Red Riding-Hood pulls the latch and enters the house, and is surprised by her grandmother’s big arms (‘all the better for embracing you, my child!’ her ‘grandmother’ replies), her deep voice (‘all the better for greeting you’), her big ears (‘all the better for hearing you’), her big eyes (‘all the better for seeing you’), and her big teeth (‘all the better to eat you with!’).

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Oh,’ said the Giants to Thrym’s mother, ‘we are not so sorry that we failed to win a bride from Asgard.’ No wonder she eats, poor thing,’ said Loki to Thrym. ‘It is eight days since we left Asgard. And Freya never ate upon the way, so anxious was she to see Thrym and to come to his house.’ The bride is really Thor in disguise (the similarities between this tale and Little Red Riding-Hood are already becoming apparent), so the mischievous Loki has to do some serious sales patter here: These days the more gruesome versions of the traditional story are frowned upon, so we've re-written the fairy tale so that Granny hides in a cupboard and the wolf runs away!

Once upon a time there was a little girl who was called little Red Riding-Hood, because she was quite small and because she always wore a red cloak with a big red hood to it, which her grandmother had made for her. Poor thing, poor thing,’ said Loki, ‘no wonder her eyes are glaring and staring. She has not slept for eight nights, so anxious was she to come to you and to your house, Thrym.’ Now little Red Riding-Hood heard the voice was very gruff, but she thought her grandmother had a cold; so she said: So the wolf pulled the bobbin, the latch went up, and— oh my!—it wasn't a minute before he had gobbled up old Grannie, for he had had nothing to eat for a week. Or rather, that is how many versions of the tale of Little Red Riding-Hood end. But Little Red Riding-Hood doesn’t always die. Should the wolf be allowed his dessert (he has, after all, already devoured the grandma), or should he get his just deserts? Should ‘Little Red Riding-Hood’ have a happy ending, or should Little Red Riding-Hood meet a grisly end?Little Red Riding Hood(Little Red Cap) is a European folktale. Read about the adventures of a little girl who went to deliver a cake and a pot of butter to her granny, and defeated a big bad wolf in the process! But it is that final conversation between the wolf and Little Red Riding-Hood which remains iconic. It turns out that this, too, is older than the 1690s version of the fairy tale published by Perrault. The Opies draw a link between this exchange and one found in the Elder Edda (thirteenth century), which sees the Norse night-god Loki explaining the somewhat unfeminine attributes of the ‘woman’ who is being offered to the giant Thrym as his bride. I am going to see Grannie, take her this cake and this pot of butter, and ask how she is," says little Red Riding-Hood. And sure enough the wolf, though but for the wood- cutters he would surely have eaten little Red Riding-Hood, only stopped and asked her politely where she was going. Now little Red Riding-Hood was very fond of her grandmother, who made her so many nice things, so she put on her cloak joyfully and started on her errand. But her grandmother lived some way off, and to reach the cottage little Red Riding-Hood had to pass through a vast lonely forest. However, some wood-cutters were at work in it, so little Red Riding-Hood was not so very much alarmed when she saw a great big wolf coming towards her, because she knew that wolves were cowardly things.