Snow White (fairytale)

"Snow White" is a German fairy tale known across much of Europe and is today one of the most famous fairy tales worldwide. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first addition of their collection Grimms' Fairy Tales. It was titled in German: Sneewittchen (in modern orthography Schneewittchen) and numbered as Tale 53. The Grimms completed their final revision of the story in 1854.

The fairy tale features such elements as the Magic Mirror, the poisoned apple, the sleeping enchantment, the glass coffin, and the characters of the beautiful princess and titular character Snow White, the Evil Queen (Snow White's evil stepmother), the Huntsman, a handsome prince, and Seven Dwarves. The Grimm story, which is commonly referred to simply as "Snow White" in English, should not be confused with the story "Snow-White and Rose-Red" (in German "Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot"), another fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm which features a completely different character (named Snow-White in English) who also encounters a Dwarf.

In the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification, tales of this kind are grouped together as type 709, Snow White.

Story
Snow White

O nce upon a time, in a faraway Kingdom, there lived a kind King and his beautiful Queen. They lived happily together, but there was one thing they could happy, for they wished to have a child of their own. One winter's day, the Queen was watching the falling snow. When she saw a blooming rose, she picking on it, and pricked her finger on one of its thorns, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. The red blood on the white snow was so beautiful that she thought, "How I wish I had a daughter with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony!"

When the spring had came, the Queen gave birth a beautiful baby Princess with skin as white as snow, lip as red as blood and hair as black as ebony. They named her Snow White.

After the Queen died, the King remarried a woman. The new Queen was very beautiful, but she is selfish and cruel. She wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom. Everyday, she would stand in front of her magic mirror and asked,

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, "Who is the fairest of them all?"

The mirror replied, "You, my Queen, are the fairest of them all."

The Queen is very happy for she knew that the mirror would not tell a lie.

As the years went by, Snow White became more and more beautiful, and she grew to be the most beautiful woman in her Kingdom. Everybody in the Kingdom admired Snow White's beauty, and they loved her just as her mother had wished for.

One day, when the Queen asked the magic mirror who is the fairest of them all, it would reply differently,

"You, my Queen, are fair, it is true, But Snow White is fairer than you."

When the Queen heard those words, she was angry and jealous. From that day, the vain Queen's heart filled with the hatred for Snow White. She summoned her huntsman to her room, and said, "Take Snow White in the forest, kill her and take back her heart to me."

The Huntsman led Snow White deep in the forest. While Snow White picked flowers, he drew out his knife to kill her. The poor girl wept and begged him to spare her life. "Please don't kill me," she pleaded.

When the Hunstman saw the tears on her beautiful face, he took pity on her. So, after confessing to Snow White her stepmother wanted her dead, he told her run away and never return to the kingdom. Then the Huntsman captured and killed a wild pig, put its heart into a small box and presented to the Queen, making her thought that Snow White was dead.

In the meantime, alone and helpless, Snow White wandered in the forest. She did not know which way to go. She heard the roars of wild animals and she ran on and on.

Just as Snow White was ready to fall down, she found a little cottage. She knocked at the door, but there was no one at home. She put the door and it opened, so she went inside.

It was either the home of some children or that of adults of very modest size, because everything was miniature.