Jump to content

Snow White

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 62.217.135.90 (talk) at 09:48, 11 August 2011 (Funny it was but I removed the line "Simplified version: Snow White has misadventures, but it all works out." This is not 4chan friends.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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
NameSnow White
Aarne–Thompson grouping709
CountryGermany
RelatedBella 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 (German: Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge, "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 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, The Young Slave and Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.[1]

Story outline

Snow White (illustrations of Franz Jüttner, 1905-1910).
The Seven Dwarfs find Snow White sleeping.
The Queen asks the magic mirror.
The Dwarfs warn Snow White.
The Queen and the poisoned apple.
The Prince and Snow White's awakening.
The Queen arrivals to the wedding.

The English translation of the definitive edition of the Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Berlin 1857), tale number 53, is the basis for the English translation by D. L. Ashliman.[2]

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 Queen possesses a magical mirror, an animate object that answers any question, to whom she often asks: "Mirror, mirror on the wall / Who in the land is fairest of all?" (in German "Spieglein, Spieglein, an der Wand / Wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land?") 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. 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 bushes and the movement causes the piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her. 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. (Other versions imply that she dies of a heart attack.)[3]

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.[4] It is believed that the change to a stepmother in later editions was to tone down the story for children.[5]

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.'"[6]

Maria Tatar interprets the tale[7] as a polarization of women into the evil and active versus the innocent, passive and domestic.

Margarete von Waldeck (1533–1554)

The story of Snow White may have been intertwined with those of some historical figures. Scholars have uncovered parallels between the legendary Snow White and Margarete von Waldeck (1533–1554).[8][9] Like Snow White, Margarete was a strikingly attractive young woman. Like Snow White she had a problematic relationship with her stepmother. She grew up in the mining town of Waldeck, where small children known as "dwarves" worked in the mines. At 17, Margarete moved to Brussels. There, she attracted the romantic interest of several nobles, including Philip II of Spain. Philip hoped to marry her because she was beautiful, but she became ill as a result of poisoning. Ruthless politics were a part of medieval court, where marriage to powerful personage was often viewed as a way for a clan to gain allies to the detriment of rivals. Margarete died at the age of 21. The handwriting of her will, written shortly before her death, shows evidence of tremor. The perpetrator was never exposed, but it could not have been her stepmother, who was already dead at the time. The poignant tale of a beautiful young woman whose life was cut short may have captured the popular imagination and provided inspiration for the folktale.[10]

Also the city of Lohr is said to be the birthplace of Snow White. This theory refers to the historical person of Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina von Erthal[11], daughter of Philipp Christoph von Erthal and hence sister of Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal.

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.[citation needed]

In a version from Albania, collected by Johann Georg von Hahn,[12] 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...";
  • 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.
  • In 1982, Roald Dahl's book Revolting Rhymes rewrote the story in a more modern way. In this version, Snow White was a savvy young woman who stole the magic mirror to help the dwarves gamble on winning horses.
  • In Ludwig Revolution, a gothic shojo manga by Kaori Yuki, uses aspects of Snow White story.
  • 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.
  • Snow White or the House in the Wood, a 1900 novel by Laura E. Richards, is about a little girl who pretends to be Snow White. She is lost in the woods and finds a house that she hopes has seven dwarves. But there is only one dwarf who takes her in and cares for her a while. The dwarf is a person of importance who had lost faith in humanity but finds it again in the little girl.
  • The Blood Confession a novel by Alisa M. Libby about a young countess who bathes in the blood of virgins in her desperation to be eternally young and beautiful. The novel is told in the point of view of the countess and draws on the evil stepmother character in Snow White. When a young girl named Snow appears, the countess endeavors to corrupt her perfect innocence. The Countess is also based on the legend of Countess Bathory.
  • Emma Donoghue presents her version of the story in her short story collection "Kissing The Witch," which does away with the prince. Instead it tells a much more complicated story of emotional tangle between Snow White and her young stepmother who is nearly the same age as she, with strong hints of romantic interest between the two.
  • 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.
  • The comedy-horror-erotic adaptation of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Grimms Märchen von Lüsternen Pärchen (1969), presented Snow White among other characters of Grimm Tales.
  • The Goodies produced their version of the fairytale, called Snow White 2.
  • A 1973 episode of The Brady Bunch portrayed the Bradys (and Alice's boyfriend Sam) putting on a performance of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in their backyard.
  • 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 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 MGM.
  • 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 dwarfs' cousins. Released theatrically in 1993, the film was commercially a failure; the company had planned to create more unauthorized sequels to Disney films.
  • In 1988, the Filmation company produced a Snow White tale, Snow White and the Realm of Doom. Disney filed a lawsuit, which led the latter to change the film's title to Happily Ever After. Other drastic changes were made to the film, which was released on video in 1993. The story involves Snow White and her prince on their way to meet the seven dwarves, but the wicked queen's brother, Lord Malice, wants revenge for his sister's death.
  • 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. She also has a world based upon her known as Dwarf Woodlands.
  • 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 is marketed with the tagline "The fairy tale is over." The film received mixed reviews but is praised for staying with the dark formulas that were once present in fairy tales. It features seven miners instead of dwarves.
  • In one of the episodes of Sailor Moon R, the main characters perform a stage version of Snow White and Ann (one of the villains from that season) plays Snow White after using a trick to get the role in order to get a kiss from Darien/Mamoru (Sailor Moon's love interest).
  • In 2001 another live action version was made for TV, called Snow White. This version changed the storyline to include several more magical elements such as demons.
  • 10th Kingdom, a made for TV movie series, was loosely based on Snow White, as well as many other fairy tales. Snow White herself (who acts as a fairy godmother) finds a bond with the heroine, as her mother tried to drown her, and Snow White's own mother tried to kill her. In 2000 the 10th Kingdom featured Camryn Manheim as Snow White. She appears to Virginia when they go to visit the dwarves of Dragon Mountain. Snow White's mother was the swamp witch who brought Virginia mother Christine to the 9 Kingdoms and used her to carry out her revenge. In this version Snow White relates the tale of the Grimm Books but says that her stepmother after dancing instead of dying dragged herself to a swamp and became known as the swamp witch. Her Grandson Prince Wendell White is the current ruler of the fourth Kingdom.
  • Branca de Neve (2000) is a Portuguese movie of João César Monteiro. Is a very polemic movie, where the image treatment is not classical nor orthodox. It is a reinterpretation of the Schneewitchen of the Belgian author, Robert Walser.
  • 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.
  • A woman in the 2005 film "The 9th Company" (a film about a company of Soviet soldiers' experience in Afghanistan) is referred to as "Snow White" because of her very light blond hair. The reference is deliberately ironic, and highlights the contradiction between her promiscuity and the virtue of her namesake, the fairy tale Snow White.
  • Fairy Tales Exposed: The Facts Behind the Fiction (2005) is a 3-part documentary produced by ZDF Enterprises that explores the real-life events and people on which popular fairy tales including Snow White are based. It suggests that Margarethe von Waldeck alleged mistress of King Philip ll of Spain was the real Snow White.
  • Using ideas from Stanislav Grof, Joseph Campbell, and Carl G. Jung, Roberts[17] claims that the Disney version of Snow White appeals to unconscious parts of the human mind including Grof's descriptions of birth experiences, Campbell's Hero's Journey, and Jung's archetypes.
  • 2007 also saw Snow White as part of the Disney movie Enchanted.
  • 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 where Snow White is a teacher and the Prince is a John Doe and have no memory of their past because the Queen put a spell on the fairytale world and erased everything.

Music

  • A sadistic version of the Disney Snow White appears in German metal band Rammstein's video for the song Sonne.[21] 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 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.
  • There is a song entitled "Shiroi Yuki no Purinsesu Wa..." , meaning "The Snow White Princess is..." sung by VOCALOID virtual diva Hatsune Miku.
  • The Cure's 2008 album "4:13 Dream" includes a song entitled "The Real Snow White."
  • Kanon Wakeshima's song "Kagami" talks of the story of Snow White.
  • Xandria, a German band, also has a song named after Snow White.
  • Florence + The Machine recently released a song, Blinding, loosely based on the relationship between Snow White and the prince.

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 Swedish Snow White is called Snövit 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

Video games

Snow White is 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.

In other languages

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.[citation needed]

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.[22]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Snow White.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

References

  1. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner. "Tales Similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  2. ^ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Revise November 15, 2005). "Little Snow-White". University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved 23 September 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) On-line English text
  3. ^ Comminfo.rutgers.edu
  4. ^ Kay Stone, "Three Transformations of Snow White" pp 57-58 James M. McGlathery, ed. The Brothers Grimm and Folktale, ISBN 0-252-01549-5
  5. ^ Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, p 36, ISBN 0-691-06722-8
  6. ^ Eliade, Myth and Reality (New York) 1968:202, is expanded in N. J. Girardot, "Initiation and Meaning in the Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", The Journal of American Folklore 90 No. 357 (July-September 1977:274-300).
  7. ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 242. W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004. ISBN 0-393-05848-4
  8. ^ Anton The Lord of Hartforth. "Snow White". Retrieved 23 September 2010.[unreliable source?]
  9. ^ Eckhard Sander. Schneewittchen, Märchen oder Wahrheit, ein lokaler Bezug zum Kellerwald. Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 1994, ISBN 3-86134-163-8. (in German)
  10. ^ "Märchen und Sagen". Journal-DW. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |episodelink= and |serieslink= (help)
  11. ^ Allan Hall (Thursday February 14 2002). "Once upon a time, Snow White lived in Bavaria". Irish Independent. THE real Snow White has been unmasked at last. After 17 years of research by fabulist study group, Lohr in Bavaria says that the fairytale heroine of the Brothers Grimm lived there. Karlheinz Bartels, a pharmacist and chairman of the fabulists, believes they have constructed a compelling case showing that Snow White was Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina von Erthal. Little wonder that the fairytale brothers decided on a more user-friendly name. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ J. G. v. Hahn (1864). Griechische und albanesische Märchen, Volume 2, "Schneewittchen", pp. 134–143. W. Engelmann, Leipzig.
  13. ^ Pushkin, Alexander: "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights", Raduga Publishers, 1974
  14. ^ Terri Windling. "Snow, Glass, Apples: the story of Snow White".
  15. ^ "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  16. ^ "Snow White: The Fairest of Them All". IMDb.com. 2001. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  17. ^ Roberts, Thomas B. (2006) Psychedelic Horizons: Snow White, Immune System, Multistate Mind, Enlarging Education Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic
  18. ^ http://twitter.com/#!/UniversalPics/status/70279005827383298
  19. ^ "Update: Relativity Confirms Julia Roberts In Snow White Pic". Deadline.com.
  20. ^ Breznican, Anthony (2011-03-26). "Armie Hammer cast as prince in 'Snow White'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2011-03-28. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by RIAA". YouTube. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  22. ^ "US Patent and Trademark Office – Snow White trademark status". Retrieved March 25, 2010.

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
  • Theodor Ruf: Die Schöne aus dem Glassarg. Schneewittchens märchenhaftes und wirkliches Leben. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 1994 (absolutely reliable academic work)
  • Jones, Steven Swann. The New Comparative Method: Structural and Symbolic Analysis of the allomotifs of "Snow White". Helsinki, 1990. FFC., N 247.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Snow_White&oldid=444235678"