
I have finally returned with a Six Sentence Story. Or two. This one here really makes more sense after this other first one THERE, posted a couple days ago. This one here is a retell that considers the traditional tale of Little Red Cape as a day/night myth and even a solstice myth. Thank you Denise for the prompt, “season”.
Turn, Turn, Turn
“Come in, come in, Red, I’ve been expecting you; that mother of yours, she always worries, doesn’t she, sends you way out here with her basket of food, but we know what to do, don’t we?”
Red did know; she was to take the basket of food into the woods and leave it there for the wolf’s family, for the wolf had given himself to the huntsman so that Red and her grandmother could line their red capes with his sable fur.
Her grandmother turned her cape this way and that and it was clear that the red outer side was becoming thin and frayed, the inside soft and downy as the night, “Like your cape, my dear, but yours will be like new in the morning, mine not until spring.”
When Red returned from leaving the food in the woods it had been a very long day for her and she turned her cape so that the black wolf fur showed, then her grandmother tucked her in, crooning ‘Goodnight Little Light, sleep tight until the morn’.
Red’s grandmother didn’t mind that her own outer cape would continue to lose its luster until in six moons she too would reverse it to its shiny black inside, for as she often said, to everything there is a season.
Hi, D. Is it just me or has something gone awry in the second sentence? I like where the story goes but I’m a little lost.
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I changed it just now so maybe it works a little better.
I don’t love this one but wanted to play more with the ideas started in my D’Verse post.
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Wow! And yet another SSS to follow the earlier introduction to the history of this tale. You are on a writing spree. Well done.
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I wasn’t going to but then wanted to try a telling where the wolf is treated better than in the traditional tellings.
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Good to see you back at the Six, Mz Avery. I like this expansion on the other Six. Interesting that Red’s mom (Granny’s daughter we assume) is sending food parcels which unknown to her are being given to the wolf’s family when he sacrificed himself and his fur. I wonder if mom is aware Red’s cape is lined like this, or it’s a secret. I even wondered if the two are becoming wolflike, and it made me think of the excellent Neil Jordan fantasy ‘The Company of Wolves’ which visits the tale of LRRH but in the universe of werewolves.
Ford
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At yet another site, Carrot Ranch, there was some more discussion on the RRH tale and the roles of the characters, like the woodsman. I wrote this rather hastily and even as I did I knew that there was the question of what the mother represents, and why is she out of the Lupus loop. Maybe she can’t handle the truth, represents fears. She did in another RRH retell I did as a Six, “Over the River”. In this one I just wanted to explore the solstice interpretation more and to treat the wolf differently.
Thank you. I may check out the Neil Jordan story even though I don’t often read that genre.
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Yes, you’re right, exploring the character of the woodsman would be interesting. The Company of Wolves is a fantasy film by Jordan adapted from a short story, so need for any long read.
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I think this is beautifully written, especially in the light of what we now know about the LRRH tale. 🙂
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Thank you. I did want to give the solstice interpretation a try.
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Love this.
Very clever, very well written, it tells us just enough.
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Thank you.
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An interesting development. I think I’m left floundering at the surface. It’s a bit deep for me late at night.
Beautifully told though. It lacks nothing in that.
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I can not read or much of anything late at night. Thank you for trying.
I was just trying to present another telling of the Red Riding Hood tale that has the red capes representing day and summer and in which the wolf as night/winter is more an ally than an enemy.
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I enjoyed Red’s caring for the wolf’s family. A sweet turn on that thread bared tale!
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Thanks!
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You’re really on a roll today! Another gem.
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Thank you.
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Great minds…like inspiration. Good zix
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Thanks!
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Wow, you should write a book re-telling of Red!
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I think the old tales infuse most all our writing, whether we know it or not.
Thanks for the encouragement.
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More dimensions to the story…invites further musings. (K)
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Well done!
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Thank you!
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Love the Six Sentence Story: Double Tap (had to “steal” that, lol)
I enjoyed this version too, as it invites us to ruminate further on the origin story as well as the symbolism.
Don’t be a stranger. We’ve missed you at SSS 🙂
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Thank you. Yep, I got a little distracted by the RRH tale.
I’ve missed me at the SSS! May has been a very hectic month. What? It’s the end of June?! Yikes!
Hopefully settling down.
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