Snow White

Snow White, (in German, Schneewittchen) is the title character of a well known fairy tale known from many places in Europe, the most known version being the one collected by the Brothers Grimm. The German version features elements such as the mirror and the seven dwarfs. 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, übersetzt 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 likely no older than the Middle Ages. Many scholars think it originated somewhere in Asia.

In the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification, they are grouped together as type 709, Snow White.

Story

Once upon a time, a queen was doing needle work while staring outside her window at the beautiful snow. It was because of her distracted state that she pricked her finger on her needle and a drop of blood fell on some snow that had fallen on her windowsill. 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 white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony". Soon after that, the queen gave birth to a baby girl who had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They named her Princess Snow White, but sadly, the queen died after giving birth to Snow White. Soon after, the king took a new wife who was beautiful but very proud, and possessefd evil powers. She also possessed 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 after Snow White became seven (which is the official age that a girl becomes a maiden) when she asked her mirror, it responded, "Queen, you're the fairest where you are, but Snow White is more beautiful by far".

The Queen was jealous, and ordered a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demanded that the huntsman return with Snow White's lungs and liver as proof. The 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 lungs and liver of a wild boar. (In the Disney movie, the lungs and liver are replaced by a heart.)

Snow White discovered a tiny cottage in the forest, belonging to seven dwarfs, where she rests. Meanwhile, the Queen asked her mirror once again, "Who's the fairest of them all?", and was horrified when the mirror told her that Snow White, who was alive and well and living with the dwarfs, was still the fairest of them all.

Three times the Queen disguised herself and visited the dwarfs' cottage where Snow White was staying to try to kill her. First, disguised as a peddler, the Queen offered colorful stay-laces and laced Snow White up so tight that she fainted, and the Queen took her for dead. Snow White was revived by the dwarfs when they loosened the laces. Next, the Queen dressed as a different old woman and combed Snow White's hair with a poisoned comb. Snow White again collapsed, and again the dwarfs saved her. Lastly the Queen made a poison apple, and in the disguise of a countrywoman offered it to Snow White. She was hesitant, so the Queen cut the apple in half, ate the white part — which had no poison — and gave the poisoned red part to Snow White. She ate the apple eagerly and immediately fell into a deep, magical sleep. When the dwarfs found her, they could not revive her, so they placed her in a glass coffin, thinking that she had died. (The Disney version only adopts the poison apple plot, and the queen meets her demise as she is chased by the dwarfs.)

Time passed, and a prince travelling through the land saw Snow White in her coffin. The prince was enchanted by her beauty and instantly fell in love with her. He begged the dwarfs to let him have the coffin. The prince and his men carried the coffin away, but as they went they stumbled. The coffin jerked and the piece of poison apple flew out of Snow White's mouth, awakening her. The prince then declared his love and soon a wedding was planned. (In the Disney version, the cure for this deep sleep was love's first kiss. The Prince takes a revived Snow White away, and the film ends.)

The vain Queen, still believing that Snow White was dead, again asked her mirror who was fairest in the land and yet again the mirror disappointed her by responding that "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.

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

Other versions

In their first edition, the Brothers Grimm published the version they had first collected, in which the villain of the pieces is Snow White's jealous mother. It is believed that the change to a stepmother in later editions was to tone down the story for children.

The story in Russian writer Alexander Pushkin's 1833 poem The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights is similar to that of Snow White, with knights replacing dwarfs.

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.

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; furthermore, the prince and Snow White have met prior to her enchanted sleep, so that he has fallen in love with the awake rather than the sleeping princess. The Disney version is distinctly parodied in the 1943 Merrie Melodies short cartoon Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs''.

Snow White is a major character in the Fables comic book serie s published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. As presented there, she is an amalgam of the two characters that share this name — she is very touchy about her adventures 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. Because of 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.

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 dwarfs are transformed into animal avatars of various benign Hindu deities.

In 1961, the story was parodied in the film Snow White and the Three Stooges, starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe "Curly-Joe" DeRita. This film is widely regarded by fans of the Three Stooges as their worst feature film. In the film, the dwarfs had gone on vacation and lent Moe, Larry and Curly Joe the use of their cottage. The three are traveling entertainers, along with a young man who was born a prince, but lost his memory in an assassination attempt that was thwarted by the Stooges. The prince suffers amnesia and the Stooges "adopt" him and raise him to manhood; but he is only shown as a boy in a flashback segment. The prince ends up marrying Snow White, played by real life Olympic figure skating champion, Carol Heiss. The film is also a musical and features many ice skating scenes. There are few other things that differ from the original story, such as Count Oga (villainous henchman of the Wicked Queen), a magic sword that transports the Stooges to various places and a carriage chase scene.

There have also been a few anime adaptations of the story. Nippon Animation told the story of Snow White in three episodes of its 1987 TV series Grimm Meisaku Gekijo (released in English as Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics). In 1994, the Tatsunoko animation studio adapted the story into a 52-episode TV series, Shirayuki-hime no Densetsu ("The Legend of Princess Snow White"), aired in Japan on NHK. Tatsunoko's production incorporated several "prelude" episodes emphasizing the romance between Snow White and her prince before launching into the story proper.

In 2001, German rock band Rammstein's music video Sonne borrows elements from the Disney version of Snow White with the band members being potrayed as the Seven Dwarfs while Snow White is potrayed as a gold addict.

Snow-White And Rose-Red

There is another Brothers Grimm tale called Snow-White and Rose-Red which also includes a character called Snow-White. However this Snow-White is a completely separate character from the one found in this tale. The original German names are also different: Schneewittchen (the Princess) and Schneeweißchen (together with Rosenrot). There is actually no difference in the meaning (both mean "snow white"), but the first name is more influenced by the dialects of Low Saxon while the second one is the standard German version.

For more information about the other Snow-White, see the Snow-White and Rose-Red article.

The Twelve Wild Ducks

A Norwegian fairy tale The Twelve Wild Ducks has as its heroine the character "Snow-white and Rosy-red" who was born, like Snow-White, after her mother had wished for such a child.

However, the form of the wish was that she did not care what happened to her sons if she had such a daughter, and the tale is a variant of The Six Swans.

External links

Story

Other versions

Snow-White And Rose-Red

The Twelve Wild Ducks

See also

Further reading

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Snow White

Story

Other versions

Snow-White And Rose-Red

The Twelve Wild Ducks

See also

Further reading

External links