Snow White

This article is about the traditional fairy tale. For the Disney character, see Snow White (Disney). For other uses, see Snow White (disambiguation).

Snow White
Snow White in her coffin, Theodor Hosemann, 1852
Folk tale
Name	Snow White
Aarne–Thompson grouping	709
Country	Germany
Related	"Bella Venezia" "Myrsina" "Nourie Hadig" "The Young Slave" "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree" and "The Jealous Sisters"

"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 (Template:Lang-de, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves"). The German version features elements such as the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, the glass coffin, and the seven dwarves, who were first given individual names in the 1912 Broadway play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and then given different names in Disney's 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The Grimm story, which is commonly referred to as "Snow White", should not be confused with the story of "Snow White and Rose Red", another fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm (in German "Schneeweißchen", rather than "Schneewittchen").

In the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification, tales of this kind are grouped together as type 709, Snow White. Others of this kind include "Bella Venezia", "Myrsina", "Nourie Hadig" and "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree".

Story outline

Snow White (illustrations of Franz Jüttner, 1905-1910)

The seven dwarves find Snow White sleeping

The queen asks the magic mirror

The dwarves warn Snow White

The queen and the poisoned apple

The prince and Snow White's awakening

The queen arrives to the wedding

The English translation of the definitive edition of the Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Berlin 1857), tale number 53, is the basis for the English translation by D. L. Ashliman.

Once upon a time as a queen sits sewing at her window, she pricks her finger on her needle and three drops of blood fall on the snow that had fallen on her ebony window frame. As she looks at the blood on the snow, she says 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 gives birth to a baby girl who has skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They name her Princess Snow White. As soon as the child is born, the queen dies.

Soon after, the king takes a new wife, who is beautiful but also very vain. The new queen possesses a magical mirror, an animate object that answers any question, to whom she often asks: "Magic mirror on the wall / Who is the fairest of them all?" (in German "Spieglein, Spieglein, an der Wand / Wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land?"; in Italian "Specchio specchio delle mie brame, chi è la più bella di tutto il reame?" ) to which the mirror always replies "You, my queen, are fairest of all." But when Snow White reaches the age of seven, she becomes as beautiful as the day, and when the queen asks her mirror, it responds: "Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true, but Snow White is fairer than you." Though in another version, the mirror simply replies: "Snow White is the fairest of them all."

The queen becomes jealous, and orders a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demands that the huntsman, as proof of killing Snow White, return with her lungs and her liver. The huntsman takes Snow White into the forest, but after raising his knife to stab her, he finds himself unable to kill her as he has fallen deeply in love with her. Instead, he lets her go, telling her to flee and hide from the Queen. He then brings the queen the lungs and the liver of a boar, which is prepared by the cook and eaten by the queen.

In the forest, Snow White discovers a tiny cottage belonging to a group of seven dwarves, where she rests. There, the dwarves take pity on her, saying "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." They warn her to take care and let no one in when they are away delving in the mountains. Meanwhile, the Queen asks her mirror once again "Who's the fairest of them all?", and is horrified to learn that Snow White is not only alive and well and living with the dwarves, but is still the fairest of them all.

Three times the Queen disguises herself and visits the dwarves' cottage while they are away during the day, trying to kill Snow White. First, disguised as a peddler, the Queen offers colorful stay-laces and laces Snow White up so tight that she faints, causing the Queen to leave her dead on the floor. However, Snow White is revived by the dwarves when they loosen the laces. Next, the Queen dresses as a different old woman and brushes Snow White's hair with a poisoned comb. Snow White again collapses, but again is saved by the dwarves. Finally, the Queen makes a poisoned apple, and in the disguise of a farmer's wife, offers it to Snow White. When she is hesitant to accept it, the Queen cuts the apple in half, eats the white part and gives the poisoned red part to Snow White. She eats the apple eagerly and immediately falls into a deep stupor. When the dwarves find her, they cannot revive her, and they place her in a glass coffin, assuming that she is dead.

Time passes, and a prince traveling through the land sees Snow White. He strides to her coffin. The prince is enchanted by her beauty and instantly falls in love with her. He begs the dwarves to let him have the coffin. The prince's servants carry the coffin away. While doing so, they stumble on some roots and the movement causes the piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her (in later adaptions of the tale, the prince kisses Snow White, which brings her back to life). The prince then declares his love for her and soon a wedding is planned.

The vain Queen, still believing that Snow White is dead, once again asks her mirror who is the fairest in the land, and yet again the mirror disappoints 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 arrives at the wedding, and her heart fills with the deepest of dread when she realizes the truth. 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 iron shoes and dance until she drops dead.

Comments

In their first edition, the Brothers Grimm published the version they had first collected, in which the villain of the piece is Snow White's jealous mother. In a version sent to another folklorist prior to the first edition, additionally, she does not order a servant to take her to the woods, but takes her there herself to gather flowers and abandons her; in the first edition, this task was transferred to a servant. It is believed that the change to a stepmother in later editions was to tone down the story for children.

Snow White's triple seeming-death and resurrection, beyond an amusement or wish-fulfilling temporary escape, fulfills the initiatory process of life, as Mircea Eliade described it: "What is called 'initiation' coexists with the human condition, reaffirms the ultimate religious significance of life and the real possibility of a 'happy ending.'"

Other versions

Variations from other European traditions

In the many non-German versions, the dwarves are generally robbers, while the magic mirror is a dialog with the sun or moon.

In a version from Albania, collected by Johann Georg von Hahn, the main character lives with 40 dragons. Her sleep is caused by a ring. The beginning of the story has a twist, in that a teacher urges the heroine to kill her evil stepmother so that she would take her place. The origin of this tale is debated; it is likely no older than the Middle Ages. In fact there are possibly two Albanian versions of Snow White: one where her stepmother tries to kill her, and another where her two jealous sisters try to kill her. "The Jealous Sisters" is another Albanian fairy tale. In both fairy tales the death is caused by a ring.

Modern narratives

• Paralleling the stepmother's question of her magic mirror, the 1540 epic poem Padmavat includes the line: "Who is more beautiful, I or Padmavati?, Queen Nagamati asks to her new parrot, and it gives a displeasing reply...";

• 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 dwarves.

• One of the many retellings of the Snow White tale appears in A Book of Dwarfs by Ruth Manning-Sanders. Other versions include Tanith Lee's short story "Red as Blood" (published in her story collection of the same title), and Neil Gaiman's short story "Snow, Glass, Apples". Other writers who have made use of the theme include Donald Barthelme (in his novel Snow White), Gregory Maguire (in his novel Mirror Mirror), Jane Yolen (in her story "Snow in Summer," published in Black Swan, White Raven), Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald (in their story "The Queen's Mirror," published in A Wizard's Dozen), Anne Sexton (in her poem "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," published in Transformations), Gail Carson Levine (in Fairest), and A. S. Byatt (in her essay "Ice, Snow, Glass," published in Mirror, Mirror on the Wall).

• White as Snow, another retelling by Tanith Lee, combines elements of the Snow White story with the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone.

• Angela Carter has also written a postmodern version of the tale entitled 'The Snow Child' in her collection 'The Bloody Chamber'. Her story recreates a version of the tale collected but unpublished by the Grimm Brothers in which Snow White is a child of the father's desire rather than the mother's.

• Snow White is also a significant character in Bill Willingham's Fables comic book series. This version uses aspects of the seven dwarves' Snow White, but has a sister named Rose Red.

• Mirror, Mirror, a novel by Gregory Maguire is based on the tale of Snow White. Bianca De Nevada is the child of Don Vincente De Nevada, who finds a mirror in a lake, a relic placed there by the mysterious stone dwarves. Don Vincente is sent on a holy quest for a branch from the Tree of Knowledge by Lucrezia Borgia and her brother Cesare, so that leaves Bianca under the watchful eye of the jealous Lucrezia.

• Jim C. Hines's Princess series of books include Snow White as one of the main protagonists. She is an accomplished sorceress of mirror magic, who works alongside Danielle (Cinderella) and Talia (Sleeping Beauty).

Film and television

• A 1902 Snow White film was released.

• A 1916 silent film titled 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 Braham 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.

• The famous 1937 Disney animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The dwarves are Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey. In the Disney version, Snow White wakes from her enchanted sleep as soon as the Prince kisses her. 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, an unusual variation in the Snow White tales. This version of Snow White appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character, and is part of the Disney Princesses franchise. She is voiced by Adriana Caselotti.

• The Disney version is distinctly parodied in the 1943 Merrie Melodies short cartoon Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.

• An "all new, all live" version was done as a West German film in 1955 as Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge, and released in 1965.

• 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. In the film, the dwarves had gone on vacation and lent Moe, Larry and Curly Joe the use of their cottage.

• Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge a 1962 East German film

• The comedy-horror-erotic adaptation of Grimms' Fairy Tales, Grimms Märchen von Lüsternen Pärchen (1969), presented Snow White among other characters of Grimm Tales.

• A pornographic version of Snow White was released in 1976 in the X-rated animated film Once Upon a Girl.

• A 1979 Pornochanchada adaptation Histórias Que Nossas Babás Não Contavam ("Stories Our Nannies Don't Tell") featured an Afro-Brazilian actress, Adele Fátima, as Snow White. However, Snow White was not named "White" (branca) but clara (a Brazilian racial term similar to fair skin).

• 1982 film Biancaneve & Co. is an adaptation of the fumetto Biancaneve by Leone Frollo. The film features the starlet Michela Miti as "Snow White".

• In 1984, Shelley Duvall's television series Faerie Tale Theatre did their own version of the tale with Vanessa Redgrave as the Evil Queen, Elizabeth McGovern as Snow White, Rex Smith as the prince and Vincent Price as the Magic Mirror. Duvall made an appearance in that episode as Snow White's Mother.

• In 1987, ABC debuted a sitcom based on the home life of Snow White and Prince Charming called The Charmings. The characters found themselves transported from their Enchanted Forest home to the Los Angeles suburbs, where they tried to adapt to life in the modern world.

• The 1987 fantasy film Snow White (starring Diana Rigg as the Wicked Queen and Sarah Patterson as Snow White) was released direct to video using the Cannon Movie Tale logo. Other fantasy films were released in the series. It is currently available on Region 1 DVD from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

• Nippon Animation told the story of Snow White in four episodes of its 1987 TV series Grimm Meisaku Gekijo (released in English as Grimms' Fairy Tale Classics).

• Filmation Studios produced a film (Happily Ever After) in 1988, starring Irene Cara, as if a sequel to the 1937 Disney film, meeting with the Seven Dwarfelles, the dwarves' cousins. Released theatrically in 1993, the film was commercially a failure; the company had planned to create more unauthorized sequels to Disney films.

• Daddy's Little Bit of Dresden China, a 1988 short film by British animator Karen Watson, uses the Snow White story as part of a story of child sexual abuse.

• The story is also adapted in the Japanese OVA, Super Mario's Snow White which King Koopa playing the role as the Evil Queen, Princess Peach as Snow White, Mario as her rescuer, and seven toads instead of seven dwarves.

• Snow White has a role in the videogame Kingdom Hearts where she is one of the Princesses of Heart kidnapped by Maleficent along with Kairi, Alice, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora.

• 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.

• Also in 1994, an animated version entitled Snow White by Enchanted Tales was released by Sony as part of their Enchanted Tales Collection.

• Snow White: A Tale of Terror is a 1997 horror film based on the Snow White story. It stars Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill. The original music score is composed by John Ottman. The film received mixed reviews.

• An adult film adapting the story is Biancaneve e i sette nani (1995) by Luca Damiano and starring Ludmilla Antonova.

• In 2001, Hallmark made their own retelling of the story with Snow White: The Fairest of Them All starring Kristin Kreuk. This version changed the storyline to include several more magical elements such as demons.

• 7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood, a 2004 German comedy version of the fairy tale.

• A segment of the 2005 Turkish anthology film Istanbul Tales made up of five stories based on popular fairy tales is based on this tale where the daughter of a mobster meets the eighth dwarf in underground tunnels.

• HBO's Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child cast Snow White as White Snow, daughter of a native American chieftain.

• Another unofficial sequel of sorts was released in theaters in Belgium and France in January 2007: Blanche Neige, la suite (Snow White: The Sequel), an animated film for mature audiences. It was directed by Picha, who is known for his animated films of a sexually explicit nature.

• The 2007 film Sydney White is a modern retelling of the classic fairy tale. It stars Amanda Bynes as Sydney White (Snow White), Sara Paxton as Rachel Witchburn (the Wicked Queen), and Matt Long as Tyler Prince (Prince Charming).

• A present-day take on the story provide the setting for the 2011 ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time, in which the daughter and grandson of Snow White and Prince Charming hold the key to breaking the curse on a small Maine town. In the fairy tale world, Snow's father (Richard Schiff) was killed by a genie from a lamp (who later became the Magic Mirror) because her stepmother the Evil Queen wanted her freedom.

• Grimm's Snow White (2012), produced by The Asylum, starring Jane March as The Queen, Eliza Bennett as Snow White and Jamie Thomas King as Prince Alexander, is set to release direct-to-video on February 28, 2012.

• Relativity Media released a Snow White project, titled Mirror Mirror, directed by Tarsem Singh, on March 30, 2012. It stars Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen, Lily Collins as Snow White, Armie Hammer as Prince Andrew Alcott, and Nathan Lane as Brighton, the Queen's major domo.

• A new film Snow White and the Huntsman, directed by Rupert Sanders, starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Charlize Theron as the Wicked Queen, Chris Hemsworth as Eric the Huntsman and Sam Claflin as Prince William is set for release on June 1, 2012.

Music

• A sadistic version of the Disney Snow White appears in German metal band Rammstein's video for the song Sonne. White is portrayed as a dominatrix and drug addict (who shoots up gold dust as a drug).
• Snow White is described with stalking and obsession overtones in the song "Snow White Queen" on Evanescence's album The Open Door. The title is only an indirect reference to Snow White, as it's referring to Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee's username (SnowWhite) on the official Evanescence fan forum.
• Snow White was also a song by Canadian Pop-Rock band Streetheart which alluded to a mischievous young woman who disguised her self as a pure, Snow White like figure.
• Mirrors by Envy on the Coast is a darker song dedicated to the tale of Snow White.
• Japanese visual kei rock band D released a single titled "Snow White" on January 21, 2009.
• The Cure's 2008 album "4:13 Dream" includes a song entitled "The Real Snow White."
• Xandria, a German band, also has a song named after Snow White.
• Japanese Band Sound Horizon released a song titled "The Princess Sleeping in Glass Coffin", retelling Snow White in their 7th Album "Marchen"
• Swedish band Ace of Base has Snow White as an allegory in their song Waiting for Magic.
• Romanian singer Inna included the plot-line and some elements from the original story into her music video for the song "WOW" off her second album "I Am the Club Rocker".

Theatre

The story of Snow White is a popular theme for British pantomime.

• In 2009 Snow White was performed on Åbo Unga Teater in Finland.
• In some productions of the musical Into the Woods Snow White appears as the illicit love interest of one of the princes.
• Snow White is the central character in the long running musical Beach Blanket Babylon, which has been performed since 1974 in San Francisco.
• A modern adaptation of Snow White called Snow was first performed in 2010 by a high school in British Colombia then moved to Toronto in 2012 and performed by Monarch Park Collegiate, taking on a new cast, for the Sears Drama Festival. The play, written by Kris Vopnfjord features all the characters from Walt Disney's adaptation but with a modern twist.

Related video games

• Snow White: Happily Ever After (Super NES, 1994)
• Snow White: The Veil of My Heart (PC, 1999)
• Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Game Boy Color, 2001)
• Kagami no Naka no Orgel: Futatsume no Monogatari - Snow White (PC, 2003)
• Snow White and the 7 Clever Boys (PlayStation 2, 2006)
• Alabaster (PC, Mac, 2008)
• Snow White (iPhone, 2009)
• Crazy Face: Snow White (iPhone, 2010)
• Snow White StoryChimes Match Game (iPhone, 2010)

Snow White is also featured as a playable character in Fairytale Fights. She is shown in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and makes a cameo appearance in the first Kingdom Hearts. Kurumi Kobato does her voice in Japanese, and Carolyn Gardner in English.

Possible real-life influence

File:Schloss-Foto Barbara Grimm.JPG

The birthplace of Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina von Erthal: the Castle in Lohr a. Main in the county of Main-Spessart, Germany, nowadays location of the Spessart Museum

File:Der Sprechende Spiegel.jpg

The “Talking Mirror” in the Spessart Museum in Lohr am Main

In 1986 a German scholar reported that he believed the folktale of Snow White was based upon Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina von Erthal, who was born in Lohr am Main in 1729. . Like Snow White, Maria Sophia was as a noble girl. After the death of Maria Sophia’s birth mother in 1741, Maria Sophia’s father remarried in 1743. The stepmother was domineering and employed her new position to the advantage of her children from her first marriage. .

A mirror referred to as “The Talking Mirror” can still be viewed today in the Spessart Museum in the Lohr Castle, where Maria Sophia was born. It was a product of the famous Lohr Mirror Manufacture (Kurmainzische Spiegelmanufaktur).

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 and Schneeweißchen. 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, demonstrating a class difference between the two Snow Whites.

Trademark

The Walt Disney Company currently has a trademark application pending with the US Patent and Trademark Office, filed November 19, 2008, for the name "Snow White" that would cover all live and recorded movie, television, radio, stage, computer, Internet, news, and photographic entertainment uses, except literature works of fiction and nonfiction.

See also

• Mirror, Mirror (novel)
• Operation Snow White
• Rose Red
• Snow, Glass, Apples a short story written by Neil Gaiman
• A Snow White Christmas
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (ballet)
• Snow-White and Rose-Red
• Snow-white (Fanuilos in Sindarin) is also an epithet of Elbereth in Tolkien's legendarium
• Snow-White-Fire-Red is an Italian fairy tale.
• List of Seven Dwarfs Names
• The Hairy Man
• The Water of Life
• Udea and her Seven Brothers
• Water and Salt
• Fairest
• Snežana, a Slavic female name meaning "snow woman" with a similar connotation to "Snow White".
• S. Clay Wilson's illustrations in Wilson's Grimm introduce modern folk elements.

Further reading

• Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, edited and translated by Stanley Appelbaum, Selected Folktales/Ausgewählte Märchen: A Dual-Language Book Dover Publications Inc. Mineola, New York. ISBN 0-486-42474-X
• Jones, Steven Swann. The New Comparative Method: Structural and Symbolic Analysis of the allomotifs of "Snow White". Helsinki, 1990. FFC., N 247.

External links

• SHORT STORY - SNOW WHITE
• The Annotated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, including variants from other countries
• 36 versions compared
• Text of "Little Snow-white" from "Household Tales by Brothers Grimm" on Project Gutenberg