Yes, I
know, the story calls her Grandmother so she has to be Red’s grandmother. The
story is always right about such things. I can’t just say that’s not Red’s
grandmother for no good reason. But I have good reasons. Honest.
So,
everything about grandmother living outside of town in the wilderness is the
first part of this. A blood relative would be living inside the village, most
likely inside the same house as Red and her parents. Generational living has long
been a thing in Europe.
The next
part comes from a bit of history. During the Middle Ages, villages often had a
wise woman, someone who knew how to use herbs, tend the sick, and act as
midwife. These were solitary women who lived alone, almost always outside the
village where they could get at their herbs. They were outcasts from society,
but also highly respected.
While some
times they were called Wise Woman or Wisdom or some other title, many times
they were given the title of, wait for it, Grandmother. It was a title that
denoted the wisdom of their age, and that they should be obeyed implicitly.
These women
were targeted heavily during the witch trails of the Protestant Reformation,
which swept through Germany particularly fiercely. They made for easy targets
living outside of town and possessing knowledge no one else had. Their age also
made them susceptible to the image of the old crone that frequently stereotyped
witches.
This idea
also explains why Red is remarking on the physical features. She may have never
seen Grandmother before in her life. If related by blood, Red and Grandmother
almost certainly would have had contact with one another over the years. But
the wise women were only sought out when there was need for them.
So there it
is, Grandmother is not a blood relation to Red. This will have interesting
effects on the rest of the story, which I’ll get to later.