Once upon a time, a King and a Queen lived very happily. The Queen was going to have a baby. As she sat sewing near a window framed with ebony one winter day, she pricked her finger with the needle. The blood fell on the snow that lay on the window sill.
“How beautiful the colours are!” thought the Queen, “I hope my baby is as white as snow, with ebony-black hair and blood-red lips.” Sure enough when a baby-girl was born, she was as white as snow, and had black hair and red lips. The Queen named her Snow White, but the poor lady died a few days later.
The King married again. The new Queen was beautiful and cruel. She was also extremely vain, and had a magic mirror, that always spoke the truth. Unknown to the King, she was a witch who practised witchcraft to get whatever she wanted.
Every day, she looked into the mirror and asked, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who’s the fairest of them all?”
And the mirror answered, “You, my lady, are the fairest of them all!” This pleased the Queen very much.
The Queen continued to do this every single day as the years went by. Snow White, meanwhile, had grown up to be an exceedingly beautiful young lady. One day, the Queen asked her mirror the usual question and waited to hear the usual answer.
She was shocked when the mirror said,
“You, my lady, are fair, it’s true,
But Snow White is fairer far than you!”
The Queen was furious and maddened with envy and hatred. She called a huntsman and told him to take Snow White deep into the forest and kill her. The huntsman was terrified but could not disobey the Queen.
He took Snow White into the forest, but he could not kill her. He told her to run away, and he warned her about the wickedness of her step-mother. The huntsman killed a boar and took its heart to show the Queen that he had killed Snow White.
Poor Snow White wept, terrified and lonely. Then she began to walk around looking for shelter. It grew dark and the strange sounds of wild animals and birds frightened her. Finally, she saw a light glimmering through the forest and ran towards it.
She saw a little cottage. The door swung open. The exhausted and frightened girl went in, but stopped in surprise, seeing the place. It was spotlessly clean. A table was laid with seven small plates and goblets, tiny knives and forks and spoons. There were loaves of bread, cakes, jam, a jug of milk and many other things on the table, but they were all tiny.
She was so hungry that she took a bite of all the little things laid out and sipped a little milk. Then she saw seven little beds made neatly on one side of the large room. She tried them out and finding one just right, she curled up on it and fell asleep.
Late in the night, the masters of the cottage returned. They were seven dwarfs, carrying picks and shovels, bags and ropes, coming back from the mountain where they went to dig for gold. They found all their things had been disturbed. And when they looked around, they found a strange girl sleeping in one of the beds.
All of them clustered around Snow White, admiring the pretty girl. They didn’t wish to disturb her, so they ate their supper and went to sleep.
In the morning, Snow White woke up to see the dwarfs all around her! They were very kind and asked her how she came to be in their cottage. Snow White told them all about the Queen and the huntsman. The dwarfs asked her to stay there with them.
“But you must be very careful of your step-mother, my dear,” they warned her, “Especially when we go out to work. Lock the door firmly and don’t come out or wander in the forest alone till we get home!” Snow White was so happy that she began to look after the dwarfs and the cottage. And she always kept the door locked.
Meanwhile, the Queen was once again very pleased with herself now that she believed that Snow White was dead. As usual, she asked her mirror who the fairest in the world was. To her surprise, the mirror replied, “You, my lady, are fair still,
But Snow White’s fairer beyond the hill;
The forest a cottage hides,
Where she with seven dwarfs abides!”
The Queen was white with fury. She transformed herself into a gypsy selling ribbons and lace and went to the cottage in the forest. She saw Snow White through the window and offered her some pretty ribbons, offering to tie them.
Snow White came to the door, not realizing that this was her step-mother. The woman tied some ribbons tightly around her and Snow White fell down. Thinking her dead, the wicked Queen sped back to the palace.
When the dwarfs returned, they found Snow White lying on the doorstep. They carried her in and loosened all the tight ribbons and she gasped for breath, returning to consciousness. She told them all about the gypsy. They warned her sternly again never to open the door.
In the palace, the Queen was stamping around in a rage because once again her mirror told her the truth. She waited a few days. Then she changed herself into an old peddler selling apples. She poisoned an apple at one corner. She put that apple on top and walked towards the cottage.
“Apples for sale!” she cried. When she saw Snow White, she offered her an apple, but Snow White refused. “I can’t come out or let you in. Please go away,” she said.
“Come to the window, dear,” said the old woman, “See, I’ll cut an apple and you can eat half while I eat the other half. Then you’ll know that it is perfectly safe.” And she cut the apple in half, giving Snow White the poisoned part.
Quite unsuspecting, Snow White took the apple and bit into it too. Immediately, she dropped dead. The old woman cackled and went back to the palace, becoming the Queen once more. The mirror too very sadly told her that she was the fairest now in the land.
The dwarfs returned to find Snow White dead. No effort could revive her. With tears rolling down their cheeks, they made a beautiful glass coffin for her. They put it under the flowering trees. Each day, one dwarf sat near the coffin while the other six went to work. Days, weeks and months went by.
One morning, a Prince rode through the forest and stopped at the cottage to rest a while. His eyes fell on the coffin with the beautiful princess in it. He was so charmed with her beauty that he went towards her without looking at the ground at all. He stumbled over a small rock and hit into the coffin. It was shaken and, suddenly, the piece of apple that was stuck in her throat was coughed up.
Snow White awoke with a start, surprised to find herself in a glass coffin. Then she saw the smiling faces of the dwarfs who promptly opened the coffin and helped her out.
The Prince had fallen in love with Snow White and he took her with the permission of the dwarfs to his palace. Snow White and the Prince married, and the dwarfs were invited as very special guests. Later, they were crowned the King and the Queen.
The vain Queen, meanwhile, asked her mirror the usual question. The mirror happily replied, “No doubt, you’re very pretty, my Queen.
But fairer far is Snow White, the new Queen!”
The wicked woman was so hot with fury that she burnt herself to ashes in her rage!
