By Rix Quinn
This month we recognize the birthday of Charles Perrault, who preserved
folk tales like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty” and many more.
We’d bake him a cake, but since he was born in 1628 he’s 397 now, and
few folks that age can blow out the candles.
Before Perrault committed them to paper, folk tales passed orally from one
generation to the next. As you know, the mouth is filled with bacteria, so
many stories were mangled through repetition.
There’s also the possibility that characters got “co-mingled.” Without
Perrault, Cinderella might have wandered into Grandma’s house, and been
devoured by the wolf. Then the glass shoe really would be on another foot!
The legend about Riding Hood is a favorite. Where else can you find fresh
baked goods, a lovely heroine, a wolf and a lumberjack all in one place?
In the fable, Red’s mom summons her to deliver food to ailing Grandma.
Red takes a shortcut through the woods, and meets a talking wolf (pretty
suspicious). Not content to simply steal the food, Wolf finds out where
Red’s going, and beats her there.
He devours Granny, put on her gown, and crawls into bed. Red – for the
same reason Lois Lane can’t identify Clark Kent as Superman – can’t tell
Wolf from Grandma.
Wolf jumps at Red, but her screams summon a lumberjack. He races in,
confronts the Wolf…and out pops a live Granny.

From this tale we discover that wolves have problems digesting sick
people. And we also learn that if you don’t write down great stories, you’ll
omit details…and end up with a near-myth.