The story has varied considerably in different versions over the centuries, translations, and as the subject of numerous modern adaptations.

The girl walks through the woods to deliver food to her sickly grandmother (wine and cake depending on the translation).

[10] The Roman poet Horace alludes to a tale in which a male child is rescued alive from the belly of Lamia, an ogress in classical mythology.

[11] The dialogue between the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood has analogies to the Norse Þrymskviða from the Elder Edda; the giant Þrymr had stolen Mjölnir, Thor's hammer, and demanded Freyja as his bride for its return.

When the giants note Thor's unladylike eyes, eating, and drinking, Loki explains them as Freyja's not having slept, eaten, or drunk, out of longing for the wedding.

[12] A parallel to another Norse myth, the chase and eventual murder of the sun goddess by the wolf Sköll, has also been drawn.

[14] The theme of the little girl who visits her (grand)dad in his cabin and is recognized by the sound of her bracelets constitutes the refrain of a well-known song by the modern singer Idir, "A Vava Inouva": I beseech you, open the door for me, father.

The tigress comes closer to eat the fruit, whereupon the girl pours boiling hot oil down her throat, killing her.

[16] According to Paul Delarue, a similar narrative is found in East Asian stories, namely, in China, Korea[17] and Japan, with the title "The Tiger and the Children".

[19] A fifteenth-century collection of folklore described an anecdote about a woman whose husband was a werewolf[20] though it bears little resemblance to Perrault's text.

[21] In Italy, Little Red Riding Hood was told by peasants in the fourteenth century, where a number of versions exist, including La finta nonna (The False Grandmother), written among others by Italo Calvino in the Italian Folktales collection.

Tales of Mother Goose (Histoires et contes du temps passé, avec des moralités.

[32] The story had as its subject an "attractive, well-bred young lady", a village girl of the country being deceived into giving a wolf she encountered the information he needed to find her grandmother's house successfully and eat the old woman while at the same time avoiding being noticed by woodcutters working in the nearby forest.

Charles Perrault explained the 'moral' at the end of the tale[33] so that no doubt is left to his intended meaning: From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner.

I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition – neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes.

Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!This, the presumed original version of the tale was written for the late seventeenth-century French court of King Louis XIV.

The story as Rotkäppchen was included in the first edition of their collection Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales (1812) – KHM 26).

[37] The second part featured the girl and her grandmother trapping and killing another wolf, this time anticipating his moves based on their experience with the previous one.

Charles Marelle in his version of the fairy tale called "The True History of Little Goldenhood" (1888) gives the girl a real name – Blanchette.

Andrew Lang included a variant called "The True History of Little Goldenhood"[40] in The Red Fairy Book (1890).

The girl is saved, but not by the huntsman; when the wolf tries to eat her, its mouth is burned by the golden hood she wears, which is enchanted.

It was later reprinted in 1858 in a book of collected stories edited by William E Burton, called the Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor.

The reprint also features a wood engraving of a clothed wolf on a bended knee holding Little Red Riding Hood's hand.

Folklorists and cultural anthropologists, such as P. Saintyves and Edward Burnett Tylor, saw "Little Red Riding Hood" in terms of solar myths and other naturally occurring cycles.

[49] Many revisionist versions focus on empowerment and depict Little Red Riding Hood or the grandmother successfully defending herself against the wolf.