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2023.10.31
カテゴリ：tales
Little Red Riding Hood explained Fairy tales can be interpreted in many ways. I'll look at the well-known fairy tale about Little Red Riding Hood to show how much power is hidden in a seemingly simple story about the girl who goes into the woods. I'll use only one of the hundreds of known versions: the classic one, written by the brothers Grimm, and only one of the dozens of possible interpretations, the one which is most popular among mythologists. Let's present the case of Red Riding Hood as simplified as possible and hopefully ignite some interest among parents who (in my opinion) don't invest enough time and critical thought when they expose children to literature. Why? Only kids with parents who understand the difference between a good story and a cheap commercial product can make this world better. A really short summary of Red Riding Hood (We'll use Grimm's version) Brothers Grimm actually wrote two versions of Red Riding Hood but we'll take only the more popular one. For non-Europeans this can still be a bit shocking, so be prepared...
The mythology behind The Little Red Riding Hood We'll tell the same story with different words. Then we'll explain some details to make our case stronger. Red Riding Hood is actually a representation of the Sun Is this an eclipse or is the Wolf eating Little Red Riding Hood?  Every morning sun rises. And every night it vanishes. It doesn't take much to realize how important the is sun to provide food and life. More about Sun: Without the sun everything dies. What if the sun won't come back tomorrow? But it returns! What if the sun becomes weaker, holder? If the summer ends and winter begins? What if summer never comes back again? But it returns again! In short, this is exactly what the Story of Little Red Riding Hood is talking about. Mythological explanation of elements in the story Night and day can't do one without the other  We have a grandmother symbolically passing her life force to her granddaughter: by giving her a red riding hood. The old day is going away to make room for a new day, a new beginning. The color red is special for several reasons. To learn more, visit: We have the red color of the hood which is red only from Perrault's version, written in the 17th century. Before that the color was gold, but in both cases, it can be understood as the color of the sun. And in many older versions color is not known. The point of the hood is in its function. It covers hair which can also represent sun rays.  We have a wolf as a predator who wants to eat the girl AND the granny. This is very important. He is gluttony. He wants to eat everything just like night (or winter). Gluttony is of course deadly sin and religious interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood use it to its full advantage. But we'll stay at mythology. Or maybe not. After (over)eating we have a hunter which can be understood as a supreme being, The Rescuer. Then we have a miraculous saving of the girl and the lady. This can be also explained as rebirth. So we can take one step more. We can say Red Riding Hood can help us understand how mythology fuses with religion. If we can understand the Red Riding Hood as the Sun, we can probably interpret the Sun as Jesus Christ. In all cases, we have a simple story about a natural phenomenon (the sun is gone) connected with primal fear (death). In all cases we have strong consolation messages: the sun will rise again, the girl will survive the danger, and there will be life after death. The Beast will be beaten, life will go on! Of course, the Little Red Riding Hood story offers many different interpretations for every known version and it is pretty clear there is probably at least one new version of this classic fairy tale published every day somewhere in the world. Just like every one of us sees the sunrise with his own eyes we will never find the ultimate truth behind this particular story. And this is one simple yet powerful reason why the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood is one of the greatest stories ever. Image credits: お気に入りの記事を「いいね！」で応援しよう
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2023.10.31 08:21:07
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