Evil Queen

The Queen with her magic mirror in an American illustration from 1913

The Queen is a fictional character and the main antagonist in "Snow White", a fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm in the German countryside, although this and similar stories are also known to have existed in other countries.

The Queen is a vindictive stepmother that is obsessed with being most beautiful in the land. The young princess Snow White makes her envious, and so she concocts several plans to kill the young girl through the use of witchcraft. A driving force behind this is the Queen's Magic Mirror. Ultimately, in the traditional resolution of the story, the Queen is grotesquely executed in the end. The original tale is a lesson for young children against narcissism and pride.

Various other versions of the characters appear in many subsequent adaptations and continuations of the fairy tale. In these, she is sometimes portrayed more sympathetically, or even becomes a positive character. A particularly notable version is Disney's version, sometimes known as Queen Grimhilde. The Queen has also inspired several characters in the works that are not featuring Snow White.

Fairy tale

The Queen in disguise with Snow White (a late 19th-century German illustration)

Brothers Grimm version

After deciding to rid of Snow White, the Queen orders her huntsman to take the princess into the forest and kill her. She asks him to bring back the girl's lungs and liver as proof that she is dead. However, the huntsman takes pity on Snow White and instead, brings the Queen the lungs and liver of a boar. The Queen then eats what she believes is Snow White's organs. While questioning her magic mirror, the Queen discovers that Snow White has survived. She uses witchcraft to take the disguise of an old peddler woman, because she intends to kill the girl herself. She visits the dwarfs' house and sells Snow White laces for a corset. The Queen intentionally laces the corset too tight in an attempt to asphyxiate the girl. When that fails, she returns as a different old woman and tricks Snow White into using a poisoned comb. When the comb fails to kill her, she visits again as a farmer's wife and gives Snow White a poisoned apple. Snow White and the Prince reveal the Queen's true nature and invite her to their wedding; where, as punishment, she is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes and "dance" until she is dead.

Evolution and regional differences

The Queen's origins can be traced to the character of Silver-Tree, a jealous queen who threatens her daughter in the Celtic oral tale Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree. In some Scottish versions of Snow White, a talking trout takes place of the Queen's mirror, who herself is again again Snow White’s biological mother rather than stepmother, the huntsman figure is Snow White’s own father who is love with the Queen, and her fate is unresolved. The tale varies widely from country to country, with the Queen using various tricks against Snow White (for example, in Italy it would be a toxic comb, a contaminated cake, or a suffocating braid, depending on a version) demanding various forms of proof from the huntsman (like a bottle of blood stoopered with Snow White's toe in Spain, or Snow White's intestines and blood-soaked shirt in Italy). The Brothers Grimm collected the German fairy tale in their 1812 Kinder- und Hausmärchen ("Children's and Household Tales"). In the first edition of the Brothers Grimm story, the Queen is Snow White's biological mother, not stepmother. This detail is not included in subsequent versions, since 1819.

Possible real-life influence

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

German scholar Karlheinz Bartels suggests that the folk tale "Snow White" is based upon Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina von Erthal, who was born in Lohr am Main in 1725. After the death of Maria Sophia's birth mother in 1741, her father Philipp Christoph remarried. Claudia Elisabeth von Reichenstein, the stepmother, was domineering and greatly favored the children from her first marriage. The Queen's iconic mirror, referred to as “The Talking Mirror,” can still be viewed today at Spessart Museum in the Lohr Castle, where Maria Sophia was born. The mirror was likely a gift from Philipp Christoph to Claudia Elisabeth. It was a product of the famous Lohr Mirror Manufacture (Kurmainzische Spiegelmanufaktur). The mirror “talked” predominantly in aphorisms. The upper right corner of “The Talking Mirror” even contains a clear reference to self-love (“Amour Propre”). Moreover, mirrors from Lohr were so elaborately worked that they were accorded the reputation of “always speaking the truth” and so they became a favorite gift at European crown and aristocratic courts.

Interpretations

According to Roger Sale, "what is stressed is the anger and fear that attend the queen's realization that as she and Snow White both get older, she must lose. That is why the major feeling invoked is not jealousy but envy: to make beauty that important is to reduce the world to one in which only two people count." Terri Windling wrote that the Queen is "a woman whose power is derived from her beauty; it is this, the tale implies, that provides her place in the castle's hierarchy. If the king’s attention turns from his wife to another, what power is left to an aging woman? Witchcraft, the tale answers. Potions, poisons, and self-protection." According to Jack Zipes, "the queen's actions are determined by the mirror's representations of her as exemplifying beauty and evil, or associating evil and vanity with beauty, and these mirror representations are taken as the truth by the queen. Had she perhaps doubted and cracked the mirror, cracked the meaning of the mirror, she might still be alive today."

Sara Gilbert and Susan Gubar regard Snow White and her mother/stepmother as two female stereotypes, the angel and the monster. Rosemary Ellen Guiley suggests that the Queen uses an apple because it is synonymous with the temptation of Eve. This creation story from the Bible led the Church to view apples as a symbol of sin. Many people feared that apples could carry evil spirits and that witches used them for poisoning. A connection with the story of Adam and Eve was also made by Robert G Brown of Duke University, who included that the Queen is a representation of Lilith archetype. According to Harold Bloom, the three "temptations" all "testify to a mutual sexual attraction between Snow White and her stepmother."

Whereas Snow White achieves inner harmony, her stepmother fails to do so. Unable to integrate the social and the antisocial aspects of human nature, she remains enslaved to her desires and gets caught up in an Oedipal competition with her daughter from which she cannot extricate herself. This imbalance between her contradictory drives proves to be her undoing.

Bruno Bettelheim

According to Bruno Bettelheim, the story's main motif is "the clash of sexual innocence and sexual desire" and "only the death of the jealous queen (the elimination of all outer and inner turbulence) can make for a happy world." This struggle is so dominating the psychological landscape of the tale that Gilber and Gubar even proposed renaming the story "Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother". Sheldon Cashdan, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, wrote that the Queen's "incessant query, 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?' literally reflects her fear that the king will find Snow White more appealing than her. It thus is the implicit sexual struggle between the young girl and the queen" and "the active involvement of heroine in the witch's demise communicates to readers that they must take an active role in overcoming their own errant tendencies." The evil queen "embodies narcissism, and the young princess, with whom readers identify, embodies parts of the child struggling to overcome this tendency. Vanquishing the queen represents a triumph of positive forces in the self over vain impulses." According to Cashdan, "her death constitutes the emotional core of the tale" as the story could easily end with the resurrection of Snow White, "but there is one detail that needs to be resolved: the wicked queen is still alive. Her continued existence means not only that Snow White's life remains in jeopardy, but that the princess is apt to be plagued by vain temptations for the rest of her days. Unless the evil woman is eliminated once and for all, Snow White will never be free." Similarly, the psychologist Betsy Cohen wrote that "in order to avoid becoming a wicked queen herself, Snow White needs to separate from and kill off this destructive force inside of her. The death of the wicked queen allows Snow White to truly celebrate her marriage, the bringing together of herself." Cohen further wrote that "the queen was forced to face her own mortality, the inevitability of death. As Snow White rids herself of her envious stepmother, she is, at the same time, next in line to become a mother herself — more able, we hope, to deal with envy than her stepmother had been."

Sheldon Donald Haase, Professor of German and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University states, "a measure of justice is achieved" with "the sadistic punishment to some extent fitting the crime. The glowing shoes, an appropriate symbol for her own unbridled envy, bring about her final demise." Mary Ayers of Stanford University School of Medicine wrote that the shoes symbolise that the Queen was "subjected to the effects of her own inflamed, searing hot envy and hatred." Diane Purkiss associated the Queen's fiery end to "the folkbelief that burning a witch's body ended her power, a belief which subtended (but did not cause) the practice of burning witches in Germany," while the American Folklore Society noted that the use of iron shoes "recalls folk practices of destroying a witch through the magic agency of iron."

Alternate fates

The Queen arriving at the wedding of Snow White in a 1905 German illustration

In the classic ending of "Snow White," the Queen meets a gruesome end when she is put to death at Snow White's wedding; this is often considered to be too dark and potentially horrifying for children in modern society. Sara Maitland wrote that "we do not tell this part of the story any more; we say it is too cruel and will break children's soft hearts." Therefore, modern revisions of the fairy tale often change the ending in order to make it seem less violent. For instance, other forms of "Snow White" have the Queen instantly drop dead, banished, sucked into her mirror, or flee into the forest/swamp, never to be seen again, and instead she is merely prevented from committing further wrongdoings.

Should we cheer on Snow White's wicked stepmother as she dances to her death in red-hot iron shoes? Parents may believe in promoting high spirits, but they will not be keen about giving their approval to stories in which 'happily ever after' means witnessing the bodily torture of villains.

Maria Tatar

However, John Hanson Saunders of the Pennsylvania State University wrote that while the Queen's death is "rather barbaric", her "torture and death gives closure to the reader and the death seems more fitting...Her death can provide justice and allows the audience to see good triumph over evil." Cashdan argued that, from a psychological viewpoint, the Queen could not be simply locked up in a dungeon or exiled, as the story has portrayed her "as a thoroughly despicable creature who deserves the worst conceivable punishment." Furthermore, "such a horrible death" is necessary because "she must die in a way that makes her return highly unlikely," and so "the reader needs to know that the death of the witch is thorough and complete, even if it means exposing young readers to acts of violence that are extreme by contemporary standards." According to Sharna Olfman, Professor of Psychology at the Point Park University, "when reading or listening to stories, children aren't assaulted with precreated graphic visual imagery. They don't have to see close-ups of...the agony of pain in the queen's eyes as she dances to her death." Nevertheless, Olfman's personal preference is to "skip the torture scenes when I read these stories to kids." Anthony Burgess commented: "Reading that, how seriously can we take it? It is fairy-tale violence, which is not like real mugging, terrorism and Argentinean torture." On the other hand, Oliver Madox Hueffer wrote that "it is impossible not to feel a certain sympathy with this unfortunate royal lady in her subsequent fate."

Modern stories

Adaptations of "Snow White"

Black as Night

In this adoscelent novel by Regina Doman, set in the modern world, Elaine is an egocentric stepmother to Blanche (Snow White).

Black Swan, White Raven

"The True Story" is a revisionist short story by Pat Murphy, published in the 1998 collection Black Swan, White Raven. It tells a story of a queen who sent her daughter away to avoid the incestal advances of her pedophiliac and abusive husband, the king. The princess is cared for by seven witches in the forest, and when the king dies, she is brought back to rule the kingdom in her own right, instead of at the side of a prince.

"Blancanieves"

The 1992 short story "Blancanieves" by Carmen Boullosa explores the concept of female sexuality, focusing on a relationship between the Queen and the forester (the hunter), and the 'love' triangle between the two and Blancanieves (Snow White). In it, the sexually aggressive Queen dominates the forester, who, within his narrative, blames his sexual weakness on the magic potion that he was forced to drink.

Don't Bet on the Prince

In the "Snow White" chapter of Merseyside Fairy Story Collective's (edited by Jack Zipes) Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England, the evil queen is ousted by popular revolution.

Fairest

In the 2006 novel Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, Queen Ivi is an insecure 19-year-old new queen of Ayortha, who is assisted by Skulni, the mysterious, evil creature living in Ivi's magic mirror. The cold-hearted and power-hungry Ivi blackmails the 15-year-old protagonist Aza into becoming her singing voice in order to preserve her own reputation. She later plots Aza's death. However, it turns out that Ivi's actions were manipulated by Skulni so that he can take a vacation when Ivi is killed. In the end, Ivi turns from her evil ways, loses her magically created beauty, and is sent to a remote castle.

Faerie Tale Theatre

In the Snow White episode of the 1984 TV series Faerie Tale Theatre, the Queen is played by Vanessa Redgrave. In the end, she is punished by a spell that prevents her from ever seeing her reflection again, which drives the Queen to insanity.

Feminist Fairy Tales

In the short story "Snow Night," published in Barbara G. Walker's 1996 Feminist Fairy Tales, the King's master of the hunt tries to incite jealously in the Queen towards her stepdaughter after having been rejected by Snow Night. However, the Queen laughs off her magic mirror's answer, claiming that people go through cycles and that it is impossible to challenge the will of nature. The story suggests that the traditional version of the tale is actually invented by the exiled and crazed huntsman, now imprisoned in a distant country.

The Grimm Brothers' Snow White

In this 1916 silent film also known as just Snow White (not to be confused with the other film of the same title from the same year), the evil Princess Alice, played by Ruth Richie, has poisoned the good Queen Mary so that she can assume the throne and become Queen Alice.

Grimm's Snow White

In the 2012 film Grimm's Snow White, Queen Gwendolyn is played by Jane March.

Happily N'Ever After 2

In the 2009 animated film Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White Another Bite @ the Apple, the (would be) Queen is Lady Vain, voiced by Cindy Robinson. She seduces King Cole in order to rule the kingdom herself and is aided by Rumpelstiltskin. Snow White is a thorn in Lady Vain's side, who wants Snow White to be gone from the kingdom. She does not poison Snow White; instead, she uses magic to compel Snow White to spread vicious gossip so that her friends and everyone in the kingdom will turn against her. Snow White foils Lady Vain's marriage ceremony by exposing her as a witch. Lady Vain attempts to kill her but a magic ray is deflected back to the magic mirror, breaking its magic and disfiguring her. Snow White tells her "you don't need to be a queen to be beautiful" and the Seven Dwarfs come to take her away.

Kissing the Witch

In Emma Donoghue's 1997 collection Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins, "The Tale of the Apple" is a modern adaptation in which it is the Queen who awakens Snow White from her slumber because she yields to her desire for the princess.

Knowledge and a Girl

In Howard Barker's 2002 play Knowledge and a Girl (The Snow White Case), the Queen is the protagonist, attempting to resist the patriarchal and misogynistic structure of the kingdom's court through her lewd sexuality. The Queen is infertile and, at first, the impotent and abusive King actually accepts his wife's promiscuity. Snow White envies the Queen's sexual experience and tries to outdo her stepmother's debauchery. Eventually, however, the King decides to get rid of his Queen. In the final scene, the Queen appears at the marriage of Snow White and is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes; she is determined to defy them by suffering in silence and motionless.

The Legend of Snow White

In the 1994 anime series The Legend of Snow White, Lady Chrystal, famed for her beauty and ruling over a small neighbouring kingdom, comes to the Emerald Valley in order to marry King Conrad and raise his daughter, Snow White. The new Queen turns out to be not only an evil, selfish, ambitious woman, she also indulges in the black art of sorcery. After the king's departure, the evil Queen, aided by her bat familiar, makes an attempt to kill Snow White. Snow White ends up in a house owned by seven dwarves, who protect her from all harm inflicted by her stepmother. Queen Chrystal tries to take the life of Snow White several times. During the Queen's last attempt, she puts Snow White in an enchanted sleep - by means of a poisoned apple - in order to take over her body. At the end of the series, the Queen is forcibly absorbed by a powerful demon dwelling in her mirror, which the Prince then destroys.

Like A Queen: Lesbian Erotic Fairy Tales

This 2009 compilation of short stories by different authors includes "Mirror" by Clarice Clique, a witch embarks to eliminate Snow White, marrying the King for the purpose, but they both fall in love with each other. It is the witch's kiss that revives her after the Prince's had no effect, and she takes Snow White to her castle.

The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf

This 2013 novel belongs to Tia Nevitt's romance series Accidental Enchantments. The evil Queen enslaves Prince Richard to her magic mirror so that whenever she uses it he must abide to her every wish and only answer her truthfully. One day, he meets a runaway Princess and is compelled to tell the Queen that she is no longer the fairest of them all. The Princess is then forced to team up with a female human dwarf Gretchen and a man called Lars to break the mirror’s spell before the Queen kills them all.

"Mirror on the Wall"

In this 1993 short story written Connie Hirsh and published in Science Fiction Age in 1993, the fairy-tale is re-told from the point of view of the magic mirror. Queen Adorée (originally Adorée Du Mont) received the mirror as a present from her parents. The mirror builded Adorée's self-worth but also made her very vain. In the end, the mirror's reluctant testimony is essential to her conviction, as it replayed key events for the court, leading to the Queen's execution.

Mirror, Mirror (2003)

The 2003 novel Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire casts the hystorical figure Lucrezia Borgia as the wicked stepmother's role. Bianca de Nevada (Snow White) is born as a child of a minor noble Vicente de Nevada in the 15th century Renaissance Italy. After her father is forced to embark on a quest for a magical apple tree by Cesare Borgia, Bianca is left in the care the beautiful and madly vain Lucrezia who becomes jealous of her lecherous brother Cesare Borgia's interest in the growing child. The seven dwarves are the creators of the quicksilver mirror, which makes Lucrezia increasingly paranoid and insane.

Mirror, Mirror (2004)

In this book by Jacey Bedford, the Queen's motivation is to sacrifice her stepdaughter in order to make a lasting peace in the country.

Mirror, Mirror (2012)

Julia Roberts plays the Queen in this 2012 comedy adaptation of Snow White titled Mirror, Mirror. In this retelling of the original story, the Queen's name is Queen Clementianna.

My Fair Godmother

In this 2009 romantic comedy novel by Janette Rallison, the evil queen is Queen Neferia.

Pictures of the Night

In this retelling written by Adèle Geras in 1992, Bella is plagued by a series of mysterious accidents that she believes are being caused by her jealous, malevolent stepmother Marjorie.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

James Finn Garner included a satirical take on "Snow White" in his 1994 collection Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life and Times. The Queen pretends to be an old woman selling apples, which in truth are poisoned. However, during conversation she accidentally bonds with Snow White. Forgetting that the apple in question was poisoned, she shares it with Snow White and both fall comatose to the floor. Meanwhile the dwarfs appear with the Prince. They decide to sell Snow White to the Prince so he can have sex with her. However, when they try to move the two women's bodies, the poisoned apple pieces become dislodged from their throats; the women awaken, angry and disgusted at what they overheard while comatose. The Queen then declares that the dwarfs are trespassers, and throws them out of her forest. She and Snow White later open a spa for women on the same spot.

The Princess School

In this children's book series (volumes Who's the Fairest? and Apple-y Ever After) by Jane B. Mason and Sarah Hines Stephens, Snow White's stepmother Queen Malodora is a powerful headmistress of the rival Grimm School for witches.

Red as Blood

In Tanith Lee's titular story "Red as Blood" in the collection Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer (1983), the Witch Queen is trying to stop the real villain, her stepdaughter Bianca, who is actually a bloodthirsty vampire.

Snow (2003)

In this young adult novel by Tracy Lynn, Lady Anne of Mandagor is a duchess and magician/scientist in 19th century Wales, who needs the heart of her stepdaughter for an experiment.

Snow (2010)

In this novella by Deborah M. Brown, the Queen's name is Queen Anais and is being manipulated by her huntsman lover Alvarez to hate her stepdaughter.

Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All

In Jane Yolen's 2011 Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All, the Queen is a dark magic-using stepmother simply called Stepmama.

Snow White (1877)

In this play by Henriette Kühne-Harkort, published in The Queen's Mirror: Fairy Tales by German Women, 1780-1900 in 2001, the Queen figure is Richilde, countess of Brabant, jealous for Prince Kunimund.

Snow White (1916) & Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1912)

Queen Brangomar and Witch Hex in the original play from 1912

In the 1912 play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, written by Jessie Graham White (Winthrop Ames), Queen Brangomar is jealous of Prince Florimond's love of Snow White. Brangomar summons Witch Hex (Hexy), a powerful godmother. In the end, Snow White forgives the Queen and, despite objections from the hunter (Berthold) who wants Brangomar dead, lets her go away unharmed.

In the 1916 silent film Snow White, based on the 1912 play, Queen Brangomar and the Witch are also two separate characters, and it is the latter who demands to have the heart of Snow White. This 1916 version of "Snow White" inspired Disney's film adaptation.

Snow White (1933)

In the Betty Boop series cartoon short Snow White, the Queen resembles Olive Oyl. At one point, her mirror explodes in a puff of magic smoke that changes her into a hideous monster that chases the protagonists until the Queen's own former guard grabs the monster's tongue and turns it inside out.

Snow White (1987)

1987's Snow White is one of the nine Cannon Movie Tales fairy tale musicals produced in the 1980s. Diana Rigg starred as the Queen. The plot follows the story of the original fairytale including the three attempts by the Queen to kill Snow White (a tight bodice, a poison comb, then a poison apple). When she is invited to Snow White's wedding, the Queen damages the mirror in rage, causing her to age rapidly. After arriving at the wedding, she shatters into glassy pieces and disintegrates.

Snow White (1995)

In the GoodTimes Entertainment adaption of Snow White, the Queen uses magic to disguise herself then tries to strangle Snow White with laces, give her a poisoned comb, and sell her poisoned apples. The Queen believes that Snow White is finally dead, until the day she leaves for a wedding held in the city. Before she leaves, the Queen asks her mirror who is the loveliest woman in the kingdom; she is horrified to learn that the answer is Snow White, still alive, whose marriage is the very one she is about to attend. In a fit of rage, the Queen begins to smash all the mirrors in her throne room. The mirror begins to suck the horrified Queen in, taunting her for her attempts to murder Snow White. The Queen is last seen banging on the other side of the glass before disappearing.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Main article: Queen Grimhilde

File:QueenSnowWhite.jpg

Disney's Queen Grimhilde

The Queen, usually known as the Evil Queen or the Wicked Queen, is the villain in the 1937 Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This version of the character is often referred to as Queen Grimhilde in Disney publications of the 1930s, and is voiced by Lucille La Verne. The Queen, in the form of an old witch, falls to her death after poisoning Snow White. The Queen's design is inspired by the character of Queen Hash-a-Motep from the 1935 film She, played by Helen Gahagan, and was also modeled in part on Princess Kriemhild in Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen. The Queen ranks #10 in the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time, the highest-ranked animated villain.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1995)

In the comedic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Musical Based Upon the Story by the Brothers Grimm by Carol Weiss, the Queen (Lucretia), Witch Wicked, and Snow White's mother Letitia are all sisters. In this version, the Queen is trapped by an ugliness spell and forced to remain this way.

Snow White and the Seven Samurai

In this 1992 comedy novel by Tom Holt, the wicked queen's magic mirror is run by the DOS operating system, which, when hacked, crashes so disastrously that all of the stories get tangled.

Snow White and the Three Stooges

The Queen appears in the 1961 film Snow White and the Three Stooges, played by Patricia Medina. She transforms into an old witch and the Stooges inadvertently shoot her down from her broom, killing the Queen. She has a companion in the film, the evil wizard Count Oga, who is killed with a cauldron of poison.

Snow White in New York

In this 1986 picture book by Fiona French, set in New York City in the 1920s, Snow White's stepmother is the Queen of the Underworld, "the classiest dame in New York", with the magic mirror's role replaced by the New York Mirror.

Snow White Blood Red

This 2012 short book by Cameron Jace is a narrated by the Queen (Snow White's birth mother) as a letter to Wilhelm Grimm, telling the true story of the beautiful but monstrous Snow White and how she fooled the Huntsman, and herself. The book serves as a prequel to Jayce's 2013 Snow White Sorrow.

Snow White & the Huntsman

Charlize Theron in 2008

Charlize Theron played the Queen in the 2012 adaptation of Snow White titled Snow White & the Huntsman. In this retelling of the original story, her name is Queen Ravenna. Ravenna is depicted as scheming and power-hungry as well as vain. She kills the King on their wedding night, so her animosity toward Snow White is not rooted in competition for the King's favor. Rather, the Queen fears that Snow White will challenge her rule over the kingdom. Ravenna's obsession with power and beauty is explained by a reference to childhood trauma, in which her mother tells her that beauty is a weapon to be used for protection.

Snow White: The Fairest of Them All

In the 2001 TV film Snow White: The Fairest of Them All, the Queen, played by Miranda Richardson, is a self-loathing and spectrophobic hag named Elspeth, part of a race of strange humanoid creatures. She is transformed into a beautiful queen by her brother, the Green-Eyed Granter of Wishes. In this adaptation, she is driven more by insecurities than vanity. As in all versions of the story, she grows to envy her stepdaughter, Snow White. However, rather than disguising herself as an old crone, she takes the form of a young woman resembling Snow White's mother and succeeds in poisoning the young princess with an enchanted apple. At the climax of the film, she becomes a withered old crone once again and is later throttled to death (off-screen) by the numerous dwarves whom she had once turn to stone.

Snow White: A Tale of Terror

In the 1997 film Snow White: A Tale of Terror, the character is not a Queen, but rather a noblewoman named Lady Claudia Hoffman played by Sigourney Weaver. She marries widower nobleman Fredric Hoffman and tries to befriend his daughter Lily, but Lily rejects her. The nanny has a heart attack after looking into a mirror she and Lily find in the Lady's room. By the time Lily is a teenager, she and her stepmother despise each other. By the ninth year of her marriage to Lord Hoffman, the Lady is pregnant with a son. The night of the celebratory dance the Lady Claudia is enraged by Lily and suffers such a severe rush of stress that she collapses and goes into childbirth and the baby is stillborn. Driven mad by grief, she turns to her magic mirror for reassurance, but sees her reflection distorted and deformed. The mirror blames Lily for the baby's death. Claudia plots her stepdaughter's assassination. Lily goes to play in the forest, and Claudia sends her mute, inbred brother to kill her. When she escapes, the brother kills a pig and gives the Lady the organs as proof of Lily's death. Claudia serves part of the organs as a stew which she eats with cannibalistic relish. When her mirror tells her that her stepdaugher is alive, she uses black magic to murder her brother. The Lady learns Lily's whereabouts from her ravens and attempts to kill her and the seven miners with whom Lily hides. She first buries a bird in the falling sand of an hourglass to cause a cave-in at the mine, killing a miner, Father Gilbert. Later she pushes over her husband's statues of the Saints to make the trees in the miner's forest home fall over, killing another miner, Lawrence. Finally, she takes her mirror's advice to kill Lily with the Serpent's fruit: the apple. Using magic to disguise herself as an old woman, Claudia poisons Lily, placing her in a coma. When Lily at last is healed, she, Gutenberg, and Will, the chief miner, confront Claudia. A fight ensues during which a fire breaks out. Lily ultimately kills her stepmother by stabbing her image in the mirror, causing Claudia to rapidly age. As Claudia screams in horror, the mirror explodes and the shards of glass strike her; she screams in horror and blunders into the flames, catching fire. She flails around in agony until she is finally crushed by falling debris.

"Snow, Glass, Apples"

The Queen is a tragic hero protagonist of Neil Gaiman's 1994 short story "Snow, Glass, Apples." She is depicted as struggling desperately to save the kingdom from her unnatural and monstrous stepdaughter. At the end of the story, it all turns out to be a recollection by the Queen as she is roasted alive in a kiln.

"So What and the Seven Giraffes"

In this short story in Gregory Maguires 2004 parody collection Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales, Gorilla Queen tries kill the baby chimpanzee, So What, by getting a hunter to tear out his heart.

Truly Grim Tales

This 1999 collection of short stories by Priscilla Galloway includes a version of "Snow White" told from the wicked stepmother's point of view.

White As Snow

In Tanith Lee's and Terri Windling's White As Snow, the authors mix "Snow White" with the tragic myth of Demeter and Persephone. The Queen's name is Arpazia.

Willa: An American Snow White

This 1998 television film places "Snow White" in the United States during 1910. Regina Worthington is an aging stage star jealous of her stepdaughter, Willa. A traveling medicine show sells her "Chief Tonka's Elixir of Life", a highly alcoholic potion that is supposed to reverse aging. Regina orders her servant to kill Willa, and murders him after she discovers that he betrayed her. Consumed by madness, Regina then almost kills Willa, who is playing Snow White in a theater, but the girl is ironically saved by the false medicine when Regina burns herself to death.

Sequels to "Snow White"

The 10th Kingdom

In the 2000 miniseries The 10th Kingdom the main villain is Christine White, usually referred to as the Evil Queen and portrayed by Dianne Wiest. 200 years after the events in the story of Snow White, the original Evil Queen, who is left to die, flees to Earth where she meets Christine Lewis, a jealous madwoman. After almost killing her daughter in a psychopathic rage, Christine accompanies the Queen to the realm of the Nine Kingdoms to be groomed as an apprentice of the original evil queen (now an undead hag known as the Swamp Witch) to be her successor as well as her instrument of revenge. Christine insinuates herself into the House of White, first as the nanny of Snow White's grandson, Prince Wendell White, and later as Wendell's stepmother, after poisoning his mother. Prior to the events of the miniseries, Christine is finally imprisoned for the subsequent murder via poison of Wendell's father. As The 10th Kingdom begins, she escapes to cause further destruction, and at the climax of the series she is killed by the main protagonist, her daughter, Virginia.

The Charmings

Portrayed by Judy Parfitt, Queen Lillian "Lily" White has been thrown into a botomless pit but returns after several years, cursing Snow White and her family. This curse banishes them (including the Queen herself and her Magic Mirror played by Paul Winfield) into the modern world, where they live as the titular the Charmings. The name coming from the fact that the prince who rescued Snow White is often called 'Prince Charming.' The Queen is forced to live with her family, while trying to find a way to return herself back to their own world.

DC Universe

Main article: Queen of Fables

The Queen of Fables is a witch from the DC Comics universe (DC Universe). She was a scheming villainess who in her youth wrought hell on earth until she was trapped in a book by her own stepdaughter, Snow White. Centuries later, she was freed accidentally by Snow White's descendants and has since faced many Justice League superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman who she thought was Snow White due to her great beauty.

"The Dead Queen"

Robert Coover's satirical erotic story "The Dead Queen" (1973) re-tells the fairy tale from the persepective of the Prince, deeply disappointed with Snow White and her creepy relationship with the dwarves. At the Queen's funeral after her fiery execution, as she is buried in Snow White's former glass coffin, he suddenly realized that the Queen had loved him and had died for him. In desperation, he attempts bring her back to life by kissing her mutilated corpse, but in vain.

Devoured

In the 2009 novel Devoured by Amanda Marrone, the Queen's name was Helena.

Happily Ever After

The villain of 1993's Happily Ever After, another animated sequel by Filmation (unrelated to A Snow White Christmas, their other Snow White sequel film) is the Queen's brother, the evil wizard Lord Maliss (voiced by Malcolm McDowell), who arrives in the kingdom to avenge his sister's death. The Queen herself does not appear in person.

Mira, Mirror

In Mette Ivie Harrison's 2004 novel Mira, Mirror, the titular Mirra was a young apprentice witch who was enchanted by her older sister and a fellow apprentice Amanda into a magic mirror so Amanda could transform herself into the most beautiful woman in the world. Amanda becomes a Queen, but later mysteriously disappears, while the story of Mirra continues.

The Mirror's Tale

P.W. Catanese's 2010 novel The Mirror's Tale (Further Tales Adventures) is a sequel to the fairy tale, taking place in the former castle of Rohesia. Before she went mad became known as Witch-Queen, Rohesia was using her magic for healing. Her fate is unclear and mysterious, but ghost actually appears to heal a poisoned character.

Once Upon a Time

Lana Parrilla in 2012

In the 2011 ABC TV series Once Upon a Time, Queen Regina (played by Lana Parrilla) is the main antagonist of the series. The series takes place after her defeat, when she casts a curse on the Enchanted Forest that trapped away all the fairy tale characters to the real world, where they now reside in Storybrooke, Maine, living early 21st century lives without any memory of their world. The Queen takes on the identity of the town's unpopular Mayor Regina Mills. Her backstory is gradually revealed throughout the series: she is the best friend of Maleficent, the former apprentice of Rumplestiltskin, is responsible for separating Hansel and Gretel from their father, and drove the Mad Hatter mad when rescuing her father from her mother Cora (the current Queen of Hearts). Also it is revealed that she hates Snow White because she is responsible for death of her true love, a stable boy named Daniel, which led to her becoming the evil queen.

The Princesses series

In Jim C. Hines's Princesses series is chronicling the adventures of Snow White, Princess Danielle Whiteshore (Cinderella) and former Princess Talia Malak-el-Dahshat (Sleeping Beauty). Snow White's mother, Queen Rose Curtana, was a powerful witch who trained her daughter in magic to try and eventually transfer her soul into her daughter's body, only to be finally defeated when Snow White proved to be more capable than she had revealed (although Snow was banished from her kingdom for the 'crime' of killing her mother). Rose is returned to life when she is summoned by Danielle's stepsisters (believing her to be their now-deceased mother), possessing the elder sister to acquire a new body, but she is finally defeated when the three princesses confront her with the aid of the seven dwarves (here elemental spirits that Snow can summon for aid at the cost of losing seven years of her life as 'payment' for their services). The fourth novel, The Snow Queen's Revenge, reveals that her magic mirror was created by her imprisoning a demon and binding it to her service, suggesting that the mirror's role in the original story was motivated by the demon attempting to create a set of circumstances that would allow it to escape, with the protagonists returning to Rose's former castle to rediscover the secrets she used to bind the demon in hopes of exorcising it after it possesses Snow White.

Schneewittchen & Branca de Neve

In Robert Walser's 1904 opera Schneewittchen (and João César Monteiro's 2000 film Branca de Neve), the adoscelent, weak Prince has revived Snow White, but instead of marrying her he fell in love with the beautiful Queen. The Prince thinks the villain is the huntsman, who is the Queen's lover, while the King is oblivious of everything. The story centers on the conflict between the Queen and Snow White, and ends when the latter decides to forgive the former and make a peace at last.

A Snow White Christmas

In Filmation's 1980 animated television film A Snow White Christmas, the Wicked Queen (voiced by Melendy Britt) is revived when the block of ice in which she was trapped melts. In an attempt to rid of Snow White and King Charming, as well as their daughter who is also named Snow White, the Queeen conjures an ice storm and freezes the entire kingdom, but the young Snow White escapes and enlists the help of the seven friendly giants to stop the Queen again. The Queen later turns herself into a giant rat to attack Snow White and then melts all the ice on the mountains to form a deluge, but each time she is foiled by the seven giants protecting the princess. The Queen then disguises herself as an old giant woman to trick Snow White into smelling the scent of a poisoned flower, just as she tricked Snow White's mother with the poisoned apple. Seeing Snow White dead, the giants attack the Queen's castle. The Queen tries to fend them off with lightnings and summons seven demons to fight them. One of the giants, Hicker, begins hiccuping and causes an earthquake and the magic mirror that is the source of the Queen's life and power is shattered and she is destroyed. With the Queen's final defeat, her spells are broken and all her victims are returned to life.

Snow White: The Graphic Novel

In 2009's Snow White: The Graphic Novel by Martin Powell, Queen Mara has the prince imprisoned inside the magic mirror and Snow White is unrelated and unknown to her until the mirror reveals the news about her beauty.

Miscellaneous

Other appearances

• In a 1973 episode of The Brady Bunch, housekeeper Alice Nelson portrays the Queen when the Bradys and Sam the Butcher help Cindy stage a re-enactment of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

• In the Berenstain Bears 1989 book Trick or Treat, Queenie dresses as the Wicked Queen for Halloween.

• Ellen Reid's 2001 debut album Cinderellen features the song "In Defense of the Wicked Queen", which tells the story from the Queen's perspective.

• In the season five of Charmed (2002), Piper reads the story of Snow White, where the Queen asks her mirror "who is the most powerful witch of all?"

• One of the Famous Wizard cards in the 2004 video game Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is Malodora Grymm, a medieval hag who used a beautification potion to transform herself and married a king. She he used a charmed mirror to compliment her looks and became jealous of the most beautiful girl in the kingdom, plotting to get rid of her by using a poisoned apple.

• In the erotic short story "Gold, on Snow", published by Alison Tyler in Alison's Wonderland in 2010, the jealous Queen is spying on her stepdaughter in the house of the dwarves.

The Disney version of the characters also appears in variety of other Disney media, also making some cameo appearances in other works such as the 1977 film Annie Hall.

Inspired characters

The Brothers Grimm

Monica Bellucci in 2009

In Terry Gilliam's 2005 fantasy film The Brothers Grimm, Monica Bellucci plays a villainous character similar to the Queen. Known as the Thuringian Queen (or Mirror Queen) she is extremely vain, obsessed with preserving her youth and beauty and being the fairest in the land, an ideology which backfires when she acquires a spell for eternal life that does not grant her eternal youth.

Enchanted

The villain of the Disney film Enchanted (2007), named Queen Narissa and played by Susan Sarandon, while not actually being the queen from the Snow White story, is also heavily influenced by the character.

Fantaghirò

Brigitte Nielsen said she has based her role as the Black Witch ("more than a witch, a queen") in the 1992 film Fantaghirò 2 on Disney's Grimhilde.

Legends: The Enchanted

The main antagonist in the 2007 cyberpunk fantasy graphic novel Legends: The Enchanted is an old hag witch trying to free her beautiful sister from being imprisoned in a mirror. The story also features various other classic fairytale characters such as Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, but no Snow White.

Sailor Moon

One of the main antagonists in the 1990s Sailor Moon manga and anime series, Queen Nehellenia is based on many evil sorceresses from fairy tales, with a particular emphasis on the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Snow Queen. Like the Snow Queen and the evil Queen she has a large magic mirror and like the latter she is very vain and arrogant.

Stardust

Talking about his 1999 novel Stardust, Neil Gaiman said that "Snow White" has left him "with a fondness for wicked and magnificent witch-queens" and that is probably why he put one (Lamia) in this book.

The Serpent's Shadow

The character was an inspiration for the late mother of Maya Witherspoon, the main character in 2001's The Serpent's Shadow, fourth part of the Elemental Masters reimagined fairy tales by Mercedes Lackey. This story takes place in the London of 1909 and Maya's mother was an Indian sorceress (but not evil), whose seven pet servants/friends take the place of Snow White's dwarf protectors in the story.

Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood

In the 1962 film Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood, the Queen Witch (Reina Bruja) is the mistress of all evil and the queen of all monsters in the world. She looks similar to the Disney version of the Queen but has a green face like Maleficent and dies when the Little Red Riding Hood tricks her to fall into a furnace-like shrine of the Devil at her castle.

Vivien and Time

Vivien in W. B. Yeats's 1884 (albeit published only after his death) verse play Vivien and Time, based on his own poem "Time and the Witch Vivien", was by the queen of Snow White and even asks the mirror who is the fairest of them all.

See also

• Wicked fairy godmother
• Sea witch