Snow White
Snow White is one of the most popular fairy tales in the world. Brothers Grimm included it in their first edition in 1812, and it's still in. It addresses some of the primal human (not just children's) fears, and it has a comforting message, although the end is brutal and by today's standards far from being appropriate for kids.
Nevertheless, we'll soon find that the first version was actually even more gruesome than later variations of the story. But first, let's summarize it with illustrations by Carl Offterdinger.
Once upon a time, in the winter, there was a queen who was sewing by the open window. She pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell in the snow. She wished for a child with skin white as snow, cheeks red as blood, and hair black as the mahogany frame of her sewing. Her wish came true. She becomes the mother of a beautiful girl.
Her hair was black, her cheeks red, and her skin white. They named her Snow White.
But the queen died, and the king remarried. His new wife was beautiful. She was also a witch. She had a magic mirror. This is where things start to complicate.
The new queen, Snow White's stepmother, is not just beautiful. She wants to be the most beautiful woman in the land. She occasionally checks that fact with her magic mirror, who tells her she is the one.
Yet one day, the mirror informs her about a change. The queen is still very beautiful, but her stepdaughter is even more beautiful than her. The queen is furious.
She calls for a huntsman and orders him to take Snow White into the woods. There he has to kill her and bring her proof - her heart.
Huntsman takes the girl into the woods. She convinces him to spare her life, so he just leaves her there. On his way back, he kills a boar and brings the animal's heart to the evil queen, who eats it.
Snow White wanders around the woods until she finds a strange little house. It's empty, but somebody obviously lives in it.
She eats some food from the table and falls asleep in one of seven beds. There, the dwellers of the house find her.
The house belongs to seven dwarfs who work in the mine in the mountain. They are very surprised to find a beautiful girl in their bedroom. She tells them her story, and they decide to give her a new home.
They continue going to the mountain every morning, but now they have a housekeeper. Snow White takes care of the house.
Every time they leave her, they warn her not to open the doors to anybody unfamiliar.
Things turn good for Snow White. Her luck doesn't last long.
Her stepmother one day checks on her beauty again, and the mirror tells her that she is still beautiful but not as nearly as Snow White, who lives at the seven dwarfs.
This time, the queen decides to take care of the girl without outside assistance.
She disguises herself as an old peddler woman and goes to the house of the seven dwarfs.
The witch tricks Snow White into trying one of her corsets and ties her up so tightly that the poor girls stop breathing.
She falls to the ground and the evil queen leaves.
She is the most beautiful in the land, finally!
Not for long, though. The dwarfs return home, find Snow White lying on the ground, cut the lace, and the girl starts breathing again.
She tells them what happened, and again, they warn her not to open up to anybody.
In the meantime, the queen has another session with her mirror. Of course, she finds that the girl is still prettier than her.
She needs another disguise. What can be so original as to convince Snow White to trust her?
Oh, yes, she can change into a peddler woman!
Indeed, the girl falls on the same trick for the second time. The witch uses a poisonous comb, Snow White falls, the dwarfs return, take the comb out of the girl's hair, and here we go again.
Third time a charm?
The queen decided to dress herself as - a peddler woman.
This time, the witch offers an apple to Snow White. To overcome her doubts, she cuts it in half. She eats the white half herself and gives the red one to the girl.
Of course, the red one is poisonous. Snow White falls to the ground, and this time even the dwarfs can't help her.
The dwarfs can't just bury her. They make a glass coffin and put Snow White's body in. The coffin is outside, and they are constantly guarding it.
One day, a prince comes by. He immediately falls in love with Snow White, who is still beautiful and looks like she is just sleeping.
He convinces the dwarfs to give him the coffin. When they lift a coffin, a piece of apple stuck in Snow White's throat falls out. She wakes up.
She sees the prince and immediately falls in love with him.
A great wedding follows, and Snow White's stepmother comes as well. They give her iron shoes warmed until red. She has to dance in those shoes until she dies.
A few interesting points in different versions:
- the oldest version has Snow White's mother, not stepmother, in the role of jealous competitor (similarly, the mother, not stepmother, wants to get rid of the children in Hansel and Gretel in the oldest version by the Grimm Brothers),
- the time when Snow White becomes her mother's (stepmother's) competitor varies greatly, from seven years up to being of legal age,
- the reasons why the huntsman spares Snow White's life and what animal is killed or organ brought to fool the evil stepmother vary a lot,
- seven dwarfs earned their mention in the title only at the end of the 19th century, and they got names only at the beginning of the 20th century,
- the interaction of the prince with the Snow White in the coffin varies as well.
To explore the story even further, visit the article about Snow White's symbols or explore the possibilities of a real Snow White.
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