Prothalamion: wedding song. In this version of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl does not resist the wolf. Instead, she is the aggressor in the sense that she removes her own clothing and his. It is at this point in the story that the surrounding wolves howl a wedding song because very shortly there will be a marriage ritual and then the loss of innocence.

Kiss: another part of their marriage ceremony.

Savage marriage ceremony: the ceremony in a figurative sense. It is savage because he is a werewolf, and she is eating the lice from his head.

The fall: symbolic of the girl's loss of innocence.

**Notice that the story forms a sequence from the wedding song, to the kiss, to the ceremony and lastly the consummation of the marriage.**

 

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