Everyone who has children, or who was once a child, has probably heard the story of Snow White or seen the famous Disney movie about the princess who eats a poisoned apple. A 2006 Zogby poll even found that 77% of adults polled knew all of the dwarves’ names but only 24% of adults could name the Supreme Court justices.
While tragic, it’s also interesting because, in the original story of Snow White, the dwarves have no names. This just proves that most of the fairytale movies made in the last eighty years, including Snow White, have darker and more interesting histories than the animated movies portray. And Snow White is no exception.
In 1806, Germany’s most famous storyteller and folklorist was a man named Clemens Brentano. He had published a popular collection of old German folk songs and was working on a compilation of folk stories. Overwhelmed, Clemens told his friends that he needed help compiling and reconciling all of the collected stories. A friend of his introduced him to two brothers who’d recently graduated with law degrees but who seemed more interested in stories than case law. These two young scholarly men, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, were happy to help Clemens Brentano with his compilation of folk tales. Jacob and Whilhem interviewed everyone they could find, from students to street-side storytellers and others from every walk of life. They met with minor aristocrats, Italian royalty, French Huguenot exiles, and wounded soldiers and wrote down everything they heard. They were especially interested in the tales told and retold by grandmothers, the kinds of stories that were passed down through the generations.
In 1810, the Grimm brothers sent 49 stories to Brentano, including the tales of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rumpelstiltskin. Unfortunately, Brentano sent the collected stories to a monastery in Alsace and left them there for some unknown reason. They were left there for over a century! Luckily for the rest of the world, the Brothers Grimm had made copies of their work. When they realized that Brentano had disappeared and had no intention of following through with his book, the Grimm brothers published their own version of the these folktales in 1812. The book was called Kinder-und Hausmärchen, which means “children’s and household tales”. They ended up publishing seven editions of their tales over the course of 45 years. By 1870, the brothers had died but their book (now referred to as fairy tales), had become part of the culture. Their tales were incorporated into school curriculums and became the second best-selling book in Germany, behind the Bible. To this day, the Fairytales by the Brothers Grimm is still a best-seller.
One of the stories within this book stood out as it was an old tale that had been pulled from older and slightly different versions discovered in England, Italy, Ireland, and Wales. It was called “Schneewittchen” or “Little Snow White.” As the brothers edited the books over the years, this story in particular took a lot of twists and turns. While the 1857 version is the closest to the Disney movie (although still very different), the 1812 version is more interesting. Here’s a quick synopsis of both versions.
1812 Little Snow White
First of all, in the original story of Snow White the villain isn’t her step-mother. It’s her REAL mother! And…. Snow White is seven years old. (that is just so wrong) In a jealous fit, Snow White’s evil, horrible mother sends the Huntsman out with Snow White and says, “Take her out into the woods to a remote spot, and stab her to death.” Then her mother eats her organs. Except they’re not really Snow White’s organs because the Huntsman let her go. Snow White runs off and finds the dwarves except they have no names and no separate identities or personalities. When Snow White’s mom realizes her daughter is still alive, she visits the dwarves three times. The first time she thinks she kills Snow White, the evil queen is dressed as a peddler woman and gives Snow White a poisoned lace that tightens her bodice until she can’t breathe. Except the dwarves cut the ties and save Snow White. Then the evil queen changes into a gypsy woman and gives Snow White a poisoned comb. When she combs her hair, she falls dead until the dwarves come home and take out the comb and revive her.
Then there is the third attempt when the evil queen dresses up like a farmer’s wife and gives Snow White the poisoned apple. Snow White dies and the dwarves can’t revive her. Brokenhearted, they make a glass coffin, engraved with her name and birth, and place Snow White inside. Many, many, many years later, a prince comes to the house seeking refuge. He sees the coffin and the dwarves tell him the story. He falls in love instantly and asks to buy the woman in the coffin. (who hasn’t decayed and has apparently aged?) The dwarves say no until he begs or pays them (it’s unclear).
His servants carry the glass coffin home and he makes his servants move the coffin around his castle so he’s always in the room with her. One of the servants gets tired of carrying it around so he opens the coffin and smacks Snow White on the face. The poisoned apple falls out of her mouth and she wakes up. (No kiss, just a smack on the face!)
When Snow White wakes up as a young woman, she falls in love with the prince and they get married. But they have a plan. They invite the evil queen to the wedding. When the evil queen sees Snow White alive, she is “so petrified with fright that she could not budge. Iron slippers had already been heated over a fire, and they were brought over to her with tongs. Finally, she had to put on the red-hot slippers and dance until she fell down dead.”
Yes, it’s a much darker story than Walt Disney’s version, and I totally get why he changed it for his movie. But the Brothers Grimm also made changes.
In 1857, they edited Little Snow White. While most of the story remained the same, the evil queen was now a step-mother (Snow White’s real mother had died in childbirth), and Snow White was older–about seventeen or so. Also, when the Huntsman returns, he doesn’t bring Snow White’s lungs and liver (which the queen requested). He brings the lungs and liver of a boar, and the evil queen boils them in salt and eats them. (again, there are so many things wrong here!)
Another change is with the prince. In this version, the prince gets the coffin from the dwarves but while his servants are carrying the glass coffin to his castle, they drop it and the poisoned apple falls out of her mouth and she wakes up. (No kiss, just a drop!) Then the queen’s magic mirror tells her there’s another beauty in the land, and the queen gets herself invited to this beautiful woman’s wedding where she discovers it is Snow White. But the rest about the evil queen dancing in hot iron slippers remains the same. So, this version is almost as dark and violent as the first, but having the evil queen be Snow White’s mom, making Snow White only 7 years old, and Snow White getting hit in the face by a servant was probably too much even for an early 19th century audience. According to historians, the Brothers Grimm changed the bit about Snow White’s mother due to public pressure and the fact that the society at the time held motherhood as sacred.
While some of Walt Disney’s films have come under scrutiny lately, in the case of Snow White I am so glad he lightened up the story. No one needs to read about an evil queen (mother or step-mother) cannibalizing her seven-year-old daughter. I like scary movies, but that’s way to dark, even for me. And I have to admit that sometimes I wish I didn’t know these earlier versions. I prefer my fairytales to give me happy dreams instead of nightmares. Happy reading!
