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The argument is often made that the Holy Bible is nothing more than elevated fiction and that the resurrection of Christ should be viewed in the same light as the reanimation of Snow White. I disagree with this position as I see the Holy Bible as ‘God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’ But rather than make an argument for the reliability and validity of Biblical texts, I will make an argument for the merits of fairy tales. To frame my argument, I will be using the fairy tale classics Bluebeard and Red Riding Hood. Last week’s article looked at Bluebeard. This article will focus on the oldest version of Red Riding Hood – The Story of Grandmother.
The Story of Grandmother is an oral tale. No one knows the author nor the date it was first crafted as it is a tale that was verbally passed down through the generations. This tale is slim on description and heavy on dialogue. The only character who is given a name is the wolf. He is bzou which means he is both man and beast. When the girl, who we have come to know as Red, encounters him she probably does not know this. She probably just sees a man. Hence why she speaks with him. We often overlook the fact that the wolf had to be someone who Red was familiar with. But think about it, Red never told the wolf where her grandmother lived. She simply said, “I’m taking this hot loaf and bottle of milk to my granny.” The wolf knew who Red’s grandmother was and where she lived. And having this knowledge, he asks Red which route she is going to take to get there. Here the dialogue reveals the deceptive nature of the wolf. He is close enough to Red to know her family, but this closeness does not result in kindness. Instead the wolf murders the grandmother and disguises himself to entrap Red.
Modern readers point to the discourse between Red and the wolf in disguise as evidence of Red’s naivety. But in The Story of Grandmother it is obvious that Red’s questioning is a stalling tactic. Red knows what is about to happen to her so distracts the wolf by stroking his ego- “oh…how hairy you are”; “what big shoulders you have”; “what big nostrils you have.” And this works for a time- “the better to keep myself warm”; “the better to carry firewood”; “the better to snuff my tobacco.” But eventually the wolf realises and refocuses on his malevolent desires- “the better to eat you with.” Maybe Red was stalling because she thought someone would come to rescue her. But in The Story of Grandmother there is no huntsman. So Red saves herself. She asks to go outside to relieve herself. Once outside, she takes the rope the wolf has tied onto her, ties it to a tree and runs home. Zipes highlights that ‘the first stage for the literary fairy tale involved a kind of class and perhaps even gender appropriation.’ That is to say, although the fairy tales that we know were written by upper class men, they were originally told by lower class women. Therefore, it is plausible that The Story of Grandmother is exactly that. It is the cautionary tale that Red as an old woman told her granddaughters, who in turn told their children and grandchildren.
Red was wise. She took her bondage and tied it to a tree. Then ran to a safe place. Now what does this have to do with Christ and the Holy Bible? Well Christ died on a cross and the Bible says cursed is anyone who hangs from a tree. He also rose from the dead and was seen in the flesh by over five hundred people. His execution was public, and his resurrection was public. The New Testament was written by literate men of means but that does not mean that the accounts that they recorded are fantasy. There is sufficient secular evidence to support the accounts of the Gospels. Go do your research. I want to leave you with a quote from the novel Priceless by Joel and Luke Smallbone of for King & Country that speaks to the Reds out there. “You’ve been taught to talk and dress/ and act like you’re cheap/ but we believe there’s a God who knows exactly what you’re worth…God knows that you’re priceless.”
Jade Gibbons is an arts and business graduate with a keen interest in social issues and film-making.
