Snow White

Snow White (or Snow-White, and in German, Schneewittchen) is the title character of a well known fairy tale known from many places in Europe, the most known version is the one collected by the Brothers Grimm. The story ends in the first published version which was published in Paris in 1697 with Snow White's death in the wolf?s jaws. A substantial body of stories from France have a similar plot, varying in details which include cannibalism, defecation, a striptease, and a bedroom encounter with a beast. Heroine mostly escapes by her own wits. Although Brothers Grimm claimed in the preface to their first edition of Children?s and Household Tales that they did not adapted the tale for a new children?s audience, their little girl acquired a rescuer. The German version also features elements such as the mirror, the seven dwarfs, and the kiss from a prince. In non-German versions the dwarfs are generally robbers, while the talking mirror is a dialog with the sun or moon. In a version from Albania, collected by Johann Georg von Hahn and published in Griechische und albanesische Märchen. Gesammelt, übersetz und erläutert (1864), the main character lives with 40 dragons. The sleep is caused by a ring. The start of the story also has an interesting twist in that a teacher urges the heroine to kill her own mother so that the teacher can take her place. The origin of the tale is debated; it is probably quite young, probably no older than the middle ages. Many scholars think it originated somewhere in the orient.

Other Versions

A 1916 silent film with the title Snow White was made by Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and produced by Adolph Zukor and Daniel Frohman. Directed by J. Searle Dawley, it was adapted to the screen by Jessie Graham White from his play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film starred Marguerite Clark as Snow White, Creighton Hale as Prince Florimond and Dorothy Cumming as Queen Brangomar/Mary Jane.

Related Topics:
1916 - Silent film - Snow White - Famous Players-Lasky Corporation - Adolph Zukor - Daniel Frohman - J. Searle Dawley - Jessie Graham White - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Marguerite Clark - Creighton Hale - Dorothy Cumming

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A 1933 Betty Boop cartoon, Snow-White, was adapted from this story, as was the famous 1937 Disney animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the Disney version, Snow White wakes from her enchanted sleep as soon as the Prince kisses her, similar to Sleeping Beauty.

Related Topics:
1933 - Betty Boop - Cartoon - Snow-White - 1937 - Disney animated feature - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Sleeping Beauty

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Snow White is an important character in the Fables comic book. As presented there, she is an amalgam of the two characters that share this name---she is very touchy about her adventure with the dwarfs, is the first ex-wife of Prince Charming, and has a sister named Rose Red from whom she was estranged for some time. She was assistant mayor of Fabletown for many years, succeeding to the post after Ichabod Crane was fired for sexually harassing her. Due to Prince Charming replacing Old King Cole as mayor, as well as her giving birth to the (mostly) non-human-appearing children of Bigby ( the Big Bad Wolf), she moved from the New York City Fabletown to the "Farm" upstate, where non-human-appearing Fables must live.

Related Topics:
Fables - Comic book - Dwarfs - Prince Charming - Rose Red - Fabletown - Ichabod Crane - Sexually harassing - Old King Cole - Big Bad Wolf - New York City

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The story was very loosely adapted by Mercedes Lackey into her Elemental Masters novel The Serpent's Shadow, turning the main character into the Eurasian Doctor Maya Witherspoon, who must suffer the multiple stigmas of being a medically-qualified half-caste female (in other words, most of her problems stem from being not white) in turn-of-the-century London; the seven dwarves are transformed into animal avatars of various benign Hindu deities.

Related Topics:
Mercedes Lackey - Elemental Masters - The Serpent's Shadow - Eurasian - Half-caste - Hindu

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In a 1989 "Far Side" cartoon by Gary Larson the beast is depicted on a psychiatrist?s couch in a floral nightgown saying: "It was supposed to be just a story about a little kid and a wolf, but off and on I?ve been dressing up as a grandmother ever since." In the 1990's internet "Red Riding Hood Redux" by D. W. Prosser, the heroine unloads a 9mm Beretta into the wolf and sends the hunter off to a self-help group for White Male Oppressors Anonymous.

Related Topics:
1989 - 1990

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