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.

Story

In the traditional Brothers Grimm version of this tale, Snow White is born to a queen, who dies shortly after giving birth. The king takes a new wife who is beautiful but very proud. She possesses a magic mirror, to whom she would often ask "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?", and to which the mirror would always reply, "You are". But one day when she asks her mirror, it responds, "Queen, you're the fairest where you are, but Snow White is more beautiful by far".

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The Queen is jealous, and orders a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demands that the huntsman return with Snow White's lungs and liver as proof. The huntsman takes Snow White into the forest, but finds himself unable to kill the girl. Instead, he lets her go, and brings the queen the lungs and liver of a wild boar.

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Snow White discovers a tiny cottage in the forest, belonging to seven dwarfs, where she rests. Meanwhile, the Queen asks her mirror once again, "Who's the fairest of them all?", and is horrified when the mirror tells her that Snow White, who is alive and well and living with the dwarfs, is still the fairest of them all. Disguised as a farmer's wife, the Queen visits the dwarfs' cottage where Snow White is staying, and gives her a poisoned apple. Snow White eats the apple eagerly and immediately falls into a deep, magical sleep. When the dwarfs find her, they mourn and place her in a glass coffin, thinking that she has died.

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Time passes, and a prince travels through the land and sees Snow White in her coffin. The prince is enchanted by her beauty and instantly falls in love with her. He begs the dwarfs to let him have the coffin. The prince and his men carry the coffin away, but as they go they stumble, the coffin jerks and the piece of poison apple flies out of Snow White's mouth, awakening her. The prince then declares his love and soon a wedding is planned.

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The vain Queen, still believing that Snow White is dead, again asks her mirror who is fairest in the land and yet again the mirror disappoints by responding that "You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But the young queen is a thousand times fairer than you."

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Not knowing that this new queen is indeed her stepdaughter, she arrives at the wedding, and her heart fills with the deepest of dread when she realizes the truth.

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As punishment for her wicked ways, a pair of heated iron shoes are brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She is then forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she falls down dead.

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