Nottingham is a city (and county town of Nottinghamshire) in the East Midlands of England. The centre of Nottingham lies on the River Leen and its southern boundary follows the course of the River Trent, which flows from Stoke to the River Humber estuary. According to the 2011 census, Nottingham has a city population of 305,700. Nottingham is a member of the English Core Cities Group. It has been nicknamed "Shottingham" due to the high rate of gun crime.
The first evidence of settlement dates from pre-Roman times, and it is clear that the Romans also lived in the area.
An early name for Nottingham was "Tigguo Cobauc" which means "a place of caves." Founded by Anglo-Saxon invaders after 600 AD, parts of the settlement have included man-made caves, dug into soft sandstone.
Nottingham was later captured by the Danes (Vikings) and in the 9th century became one of the five boroughs (fortified towns) of the Danelaw.
The legend of Robin Hood developed in the Middle Ages. Robin Hood is said to have lived in Sherwood Forest, which extended from the north of Nottingham to the north side of Doncaster, Yorkshire. His main opponent was the Sheriff of Nottingham. While the legends are almost certainly untrue, particularly in their details, they have had a major impact on Nottingham, with Robin Hood imagery a popular choice for local businesses and many modern tourist attractions use the legend. The Robin Hood Statue in Nottingham is outside the Nottingham Castle within walking distance from the Old Market Square.
Three pubs in Nottingham claim the title of "England's Oldest Pub". The are Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem near the castle, The Bell on the Old Market Square, and The Salutation on Maid Marian Way.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, much of Nottingham's wealth was founded on the textile industry.
Famous people born in or near Nottingham include (sorted by DOB):
Novelists and poets
Nottingham (disambiguation)
Nottingham is the name of several places in the world:
UK:
USA:
and a succession of Royal Navy destroyers:
Nottingham also refers to a housing cooperative in Madison, WI.
Little Red Riding Hood
"Little Red Riding Hood" (or "Little Red Cap") is a French fairy tale for young children about a young girl and a wolf. The story comes from a folktale which means that it was a "spoken" story for a long time before it was a written story. It was first written down in the late 1600s, by Charles Perrault. The best-known version (the way the story is told) is "" by the Brothers Grimm and dates from the 19th century (1800s).
The most famous version of the story is the one written by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century. The Brothers Grimm listened to many traditional stories from old people and wrote them into a book. They did not originally mean for their book to be read as children's stories; they were writing down German folklore for scholars to read. But their book became famous as a book of children's stories anyway. The title of the story is properly translated as "Little Red Cap" even though it is usually known in English as "Little Red Riding Hood".
A girl has been given red cap (or cloak and hood) to wear. Her mother sends her to take food to her sick grandmother. The mother tells her she must not stop on the way. A wolf sees the girl walking through the woods and makes a plan to eat her. The wolf politely asks the girl where she is going. The girl answers him, because he seems friendly. The wolf tells the girl to pick some flowers for her grandmother. While she is picking flowers, the wolf goes to grandmother's house and eats her. He puts on the grandmother's night-cap and gets into her bed. When the girl arrives at her grandmother's house, she gets into bed with the wolf.
In the Perrault version, the girl is surprised to see what her "grandmother" looks like without her clothes. "What big eyes you have!" she cries. "The better to see you with!" the wolf responds. The dialogue continues, with the child remarking upon other body parts until she notes the wolf's big teeth. "What big teeth you have!" she cries. "The better to eat you with!" the wolf responds.
The wolf leaps upon the child and eats the girl. In the Grimms' version, a woodcutter (lumberjack) comes and cuts open the wolf's body. He saves the grandmother and the girl who are still alive in the wolf's stomach. Then, stones are put in the wolf's body to kill the wolf.
The story of "Little Red Riding Hood" seems to have been told for centuries in different countries, under different names.
Anthropoligist Dr. Jamie Tehrani said some versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" are 3000 years old. One of Aesop's Fables is a version of "Little Red Riding Hood", according to Tehrani. In France, the story has probably been told for at least 700 years. In Italy, there are several versions. One is called "The False Grandmother". There is also a story from China which is like this, called "The Grandmother Tiger". There are also versions of the story from the Middle East and Africa.
In the old versions of the story the wolf is sometimes a terrible monster or a werewolf. In one version of the story, the wolf gives the girl some food to eat. It is part of the body of her grandmother. The wolf tells the girl to throw all her clothes in the fire, and get into bed. She says that she needs to use the toilet first. The wolf ties her with a long string so that she cannot run away without him knowing. But the girl puts the rope around something else, and escapes.
In these early versions of the story, Red Riding Hood escapes on her own. She uses her own intelligence and her own courage. The Brothers Grimm and other later authors added male heroes who save Red Riding Hood.
The story was first written and published in a book from 1697 by the French writer Charles Perrault. The name of the book, in English, is "Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose". The story is called "The Little Red Cap" ("Le Petit Chaperon Rouge"). Perrault's version of the tale is the original printed version, but it is likely based on an older oral tradition. It is uncertain if Perrault knew a folk tale from the south of France about a girl who cleverly escapes a werewolf occupying her grandmother's bed.
Perrault wanted to make a strong point about wise and foolish behaviour. He wanted to show that a beautiful young woman was in danger of having men with bad morals try to trick her into wrong behaviour. In Perrault's story the girl is eaten and there is no happy ending.
The story has been changed many times in the centuries following its publication. It is a little different from the way that the Brother's Grimm tell it. In their version, a huntsman slays the child-devouring wolf. He then frees the heroine from the animal's stomach.
In some modern versions of the story, especially versions for very young children, the grandmother does not die. She hides in the closet or cupboard in stead.
Little Red Riding Hood often appears as a picture book or in collections of stories for very young children.
An important part of the story is the questions and answers. In the story, the wolf knocks at the grandmother's door.
The story goes:
The second section of repeating parts of the story happens when Red Riding Hood sees the wolf in her grandmother's bed.
These questions and answers also appear in older versions, for example Perrault's.
There are many stories in which a hungry wolf threatens a young person or animal. In most of these stories, the young one escapes by cunning (cleverness). One story is the Russian folktale "Peter and the Wolf". The Brothers Grimm told the story of the "Little Kids and the Wolf". Another story like this is "The Three Little Pigs", first published by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps.