On Snow White

Snow White ate an apple and went into a coma. Sleeping Beauty was just cursed. Snow White was presumed dead, Sleeping Beauty was known to be sleeping and cursed. The step mother witch wanted Snow White dead, the other evil lady (…dunno who she was) wanted Sleeping Beauty just asleep forever so there would be no heir to the throne (foil the death to the heir passes it on to the other) so she could rule the land. Snow White’s antagonist was just jealous of her beauty and wanted her dead (she didn’t like the competition, some beauty pagent!). I THINK a prince saved Sleeping Beauty, but a common dude saved Snow White. The only difference was that Snow White had royal blood, so did sleeping beauty, but the royal connections back to the throne were different (the prince, I THINK… not sure.) So in the end the story of Snow White was more interesting, cause she had to live with dwarves and run away and be hunted by bounty hunters and escape a royal slaughter. Sleeping Beauty was much more political, less slaughter, and more about the prince than the beauty. Thus a less remembered story, and often confused with Snow White.

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are two accounts of the same general story, except told from the perspective of the princess and the prince, respectively.


The story of Sleeping Beauty tells of a prince who was passing through his kingdom and inquried the townspeople in one village about a large, ivy- and thorn-covered Dark-Age fortress located on the outskirts of their town. They explained to him that it was the castle of a wicked queen, who was possessed with jealousy for her step-daughter's beauty.








A poor, poor couple had many, many children and only with great efforts could they be fed and clothed. One day some of these children went into the woods, to gather twigs for the hearth. One of the girls, named Snow White, wandered a bit from the others and found, to her surprise, a nasty dwarf, barely 30 cm/a foot high. He had wanted to split a tree that had fallen and he had managed to hack a deep crack in the wood in which he had driven a wedge. This wedge had come out, however, and the crack had closed rapidly, grabbing and trapping a big part of his incredibly long beard, keeping the dwarf imprisoned.

He called on the child for help and Snow White was glad to help him; but she could try all she wanted, the beard would not be freed. Snowwhite offered to ran to her house and get her dad; this the dwarf forbade. He ordered her to get scissors to cut the beard. She obeyed and ran away.

Soon she returned and freed him by cutting away the trapped part of the beard. Then the dwarf took a big bag of money from under the tree and though it would have been kind if he had thanked his saviour and had richely shared his many coins he did neither the latter nor the former. He just walked off, without a greeting or a thanking, just muttering about his bad luck. Snow White watched him dissapear, then she skipped away.

Not long afterwards, Snow White and her sister, Rose Red, went to the river to do some fishing and crabbing. The dwarf was there again and this time the line of his angle was entwined in his beard. A fish had swallowed the hook at the end and pulled the line and the quacking little dwarf into the water. The girls grabbed the little man to keep hold but it was impossible to unravel line and beard and the big fish, bigger than the fisherman, pulled and pulled. Snow White said to her sister to keep stand and hold the dwarf while she would run home and get scissors. Like the lighting, she ran to and fro and cut the fishingline and with it a chunk of beard was lost. The dwarf was very annoyed about that. He grabbed his bag, which held the most beautiful pearls and walked away, just like the first time, ungrateful and ungracious. The children happily went to fishing and crabbing and didn't give a second thought to that little man.

Then it happened that the children were send away, to get something from the town. As the girls crossed the fields they saw an eagle that caught the well known dwarf and wanted to take him away. The both of them, Rosered and Snowwhite, trew rocks at the bird and when nothing helped they grabbed the little man and struggled with the eagle but neither of the parties was willing to let go of the loot. Then the angry dwarf shrieked so hard that the eagle frightened and let go. This time he had a bag of gemstones with him and he walked away just like before, without song or dance.

A little while later both the children found the dwarf in presence of a bear that was of mind to eat him. They yelled loudly out of horror and the bear stopped and looked at them. Then the dwarf pleaded: "Oh dear honorable mister Bear, do not eat me! I will give you my sacks of gold, pearls and gems. Look! Those children, they are young and fat and full, they will prove a better bite than me; take and eat them."

The girls were frozen with horror over this ungratefully wicked man, but the bear did not listen and ate him with hair and hide, underwhile softly growling. Then he went his way. The girls found the bags with pearls, gold and gemstones and, with effort, because they were very heavy, they dragged them to their parents. Now they were so rich! Rich like the richest kings and they bought beautiful castles and counties and Snow White and Rose Red and all their sisters were able to learn much now and they got beautiful clothes and things. The awful dwarf was not mourned at all; he had earned his fate too well.

Snow White grew up to be beautiful, moreso than all of her sisters: skin white as snow; lips red as blood; hair black as ebony. However, she never married. Rose Red and the others were all married to rich princes, and left Snow White all alone with her parents. Unfortunately, her mother died and her father remarried. This step-mother was wicked, and was hungry for power, so she poisoned her own husband, and he died. Then, this new queen moved on to deal with Snow White. She was jealous of her step-daugher's beauty, and knew that, if not for Snow White, she would be the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.

To rid of Snow White, the queen