Once upon a time, long, long ago a
king and queen ruled over a distant land. The queen was kind and lovely
and all the people of the realm adored her. The only sadness in the
queen's life was that she wished for a child but did not have one.
One winter day, the queen was doing
needle work while gazing out her ebony window at the new fallen snow. A
bird flew by the window startling the queen and she pricked her finger. A
single drop of blood fell on the snow outside her window. As she looked
at the blood on the snow she said to herself, "Oh, how I wish that I had a
daughter that had skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as
black as ebony."
Soon after that, the kind queen got
her wish when she gave birth to a baby girl who had skin white as snow, lips
red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They named the baby princess Snow
White, but sadly, the queen died after giving birth to Snow White.
Soon after, the king married a new
woman who was beautiful, but as well proud and cruel. She had studied
dark magic and owned a magic mirror, of which she would daily ask,
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's
the fairest of them all?
Each time this question was asked,
the mirror would give the same answer, "Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of
all." This pleased the queen greatly as she knew that her magical
mirror could speak nothing but the truth.
One morning when the queen asked,
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" she was
shocked when it answered:
You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But Snow White is even fairer than you.
The Queen flew into a jealous rage
and ordered her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed.
She demanded that the huntsman return with Snow White's heart as proof.
The poor huntsman took Snow White
into the forest, but found himself unable to kill the girl. Instead, he
let her go, and brought the queen the heart of a wild boar.
Snow White was now all alone in the
great forest, and she did not know what to do. The trees seemed to
whisper to each other, scaring Snow White who began to run. She ran over
sharp stones and through thorns. She ran as far as her feet could carry
her, and just as evening was about to fall she saw a little house and went
inside in order to rest.
Inside the house everything was
small but tidy. There was a little table with a tidy, white tablecloth
and seven little plates. Against the wall there were seven little beds,
all in a row and covered with quilts.
Because she was so hungry Snow White
ate a few vegetables and a little bread from each little plate and from each
cup she drank a bit of milk. Afterward, because she was so tired, she lay down
on one of the little beds and fell fast asleep.
After dark, the owners of the house
returned home. They were the seven dwarves who mined for gold in the
mountains. As soon as they arrived home, they saw that someone had been
there -- for not everything was in the same order as they had left it.
The first one said, "Who has
been sitting in my chair?"
The second one, "Who has been
eating from my plate?"
The third one, "Who has been
eating my bread?"
The fourth one, "Who has been
eating my vegetables?"
The fifth one, "Who has been
eating with my fork?"
The sixth one, "Who has been
drinking from my cup?"
But the seventh one, looking at his
bed, found Snow White lying there asleep. The seven dwarves all came
running up, and they cried out with amazement. They fetched their seven
candles and shone the light on Snow White.
"Oh good heaven! " they
cried. "This child is beautiful!"
They were so happy that they did not
wake her up, but let her continue to sleep in the bed. The next morning
Snow White woke up, and when she saw the seven dwarves she was
frightened. But they were friendly and asked, "What is your
name?"
"My name is Snow White,"
she answered.
"How did you find your way to
our house?" the dwarves asked further.
Then she told them that her
stepmother had tried to kill her, that the huntsman had spared her life, and
that she had run the entire day through the forest, finally stumbling upon
their house.
The dwarves spoke with each other
for awhile and then said, "If you will keep house for us, and cook, make
beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can
stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want."
"Yes," said Snow White,
"with all my heart." For Snow White greatly enjoyed keeping a
tidy home.
So Snow White lived happily with the
dwarves. Every morning they went into the mountains looking for gold, and
in the evening when they came back home Snow White had their meal ready and
their house tidy. During the day the girl was alone, except for the small
animals of the forest that she often played with.
Now the queen, believing that she
had eaten Snow White's heart, could only think that she was again the first and
the most beautiful woman of all. She stepped before her mirror and said:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?
It answered:
You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But Snow White, beyond the mountains
With the seven dwarves,
Is still a thousand times fairer than you.
This startled the queen, for she
knew that the mirror did not lie, and she realized that the huntsman had
deceived her and that Snow White was still alive. Then she thought, and
thought again, how she could rid herself of Snow White -- for as long as she was
not the most beautiful woman in the entire land her jealousy would give her no
rest.
At last she thought of
something. She went into her most secret room -- no one else was allowed
inside -- and she made a poisoned apple. From the outside it was
beautiful, and anyone who saw it would want it. But anyone who might eat
a little piece of it would die. Coloring her face, she disguised herself
as an old peddler woman, so that no one would recognize her, traveled to the
dwarves house and knocked on the door.
Snow White put her head out of the
window, and said, "I must not let anyone in; the seven dwarves have
forbidden me to do so."
"That is all right with
me," answered the peddler woman. "I'll easily get rid of my
apples. Here, I'll give you one of them."
"No," said Snow White,
"I cannot accept anything from strangers."
"Are you afraid of
poison?" asked the old woman. "Look, I'll cut the apple in two.
You eat half and I shall eat half."
Now the apple had been so artfully
made that only the one half was poisoned. Snow White longed for the
beautiful apple, and when she saw that the peddler woman was eating part of it
she could no longer resist, and she stuck her hand out and took the poisoned
half. She barely had a bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground
dead.
The queen looked at her with an evil
stare, laughed loudly, and said, "White as snow, red as blood, black as
ebony wood! The dwarves shall never awaken you."
Back at home she asked her mirror:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?
It finally answered:
You, my queen, are fairest of all.
Then her cruel and jealous heart was
at rest, as well as a cruel and jealous heart can be at rest.
When the dwarves came home that
evening they found Snow White lying on the ground. She was not breathing
at all. She was dead. They lifted her up and looked at her
longingly. They talked to her, shook her and wept over her. But
nothing helped. The dear child was dead, and she remained dead.
They laid her on a bed of straw, and all seven sat next to her and mourned for
her and cried for three days. They were going to bury her, but she still
looked as fresh as a living person, and still had her beautiful red cheeks.
They said, "We cannot bury her
in the black earth," and they had a transparent glass coffin made, so she
could be seen from all sides. They laid her inside, and with golden
letters wrote on it her name, and that she was a princess. Then they put
the coffin outside on a mountain, and one of them always stayed with it and
watched over her. The animals too came and mourned for Snow White, first
an owl, then a raven, and finally a dove.
Now it came to pass that a prince
entered these woods and happened onto the dwarves' house, where he sought
shelter for the night . He saw the coffin on the mountain with beautiful
Snow White in it, and he read what was written on it with golden letters.
Then he said to the dwarves,
"Let me have the coffin. I will give you anything you want for
it."
But the dwarves answered, "We
will not sell it for all the gold in the world."
Then he said, "Then give it to
me, for I cannot live without being able to see Snow White. I will honor
her and respect her as my most cherished one."
As he thus spoke, the good dwarves
felt pity for him and gave him the coffin. The prince had his servants
carry it away on their shoulders. But then it happened that one of them
stumbled on some brush, and this dislodged from Snow White's throat the piece
of poisoned apple that she had bitten off. Not long afterward she opened
her eyes, lifted the lid from her coffin, sat up, and was alive again.
"Good heavens, where am
I?" she cried out.
The prince said joyfully, "You
are with me." He told her what had happened, and then said, "I
love you more than anything else in the world. Come with me to my
father's castle. You shall become my wife." Snow White loved
him, and she went with him. Their wedding was planned with great splendor
and majesty.
Snow White's wicked step-mother was
invited to the feast, and when she had arrayed herself in her most beautiful
garments, she stood before her mirror, and said:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?
The mirror answered:
You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But the young queen is a thousand times fairer than you.
Not knowing that this new queen was
indeed her stepdaughter, she arrived at the wedding, and her heart filled with
the deepest of dread when she realized the truth - the evil queen was banished
from the land forever and the prince and Snow White lived happily ever after.
