Last updated: June 7, 2017 at 1:05 am
As Retold by Patrick Carpen
There was once a beautiful princess who lived with her father the King and mother the queen in a beautiful kingdom. Her hair was as black as ebony, her lips as red as crimson and her skin as white as snow. For this she was called “Snow White”.
Sadly, when the girl was about five years old, her mother died. Her father, feeling very sad and lonely, remarried to a beautiful queen from another country.
This new queen was very beautiful, but unfortunately, very evil. She looked at Snow White daily and admired her beauty, but at the same time she was jealous of Snow White’s beauty, and this jealously breed fear and anger in her.
She had a magic mirror which could speak and every day, she would go to the mirror and say “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of us all?”
As usual, the magic mirror would respond, “You my queen, are the most beautiful of all women in every land”.
This answer always pleased the queen; but it happened one day, when Snow White was around the age of 12, that the mirror gave a different answer: “My queen, Snow White is the fairest of all, in all the kingdoms across the world”.
The queen knew that the magic mirror, which was a gift to her from a witch, could not lie, and she was very very angry. She stormed up and down the castle wondering what to do. Then an idea struck her. The only solution, she thought, was to kill Snow White.
She called for one of her favorite hunters and gave him a great sum of money to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. “As proof that you have really killed her” said the Queen “I ask you to bring back her heart to me”.
The hunter met Snow White playing in the castle gardens the next morning and offered to take her for a ride in the forest.
Snow White was excited. She always loved riding in the forest.
When they arrived in the middle of the forest, the hunter took Snow White down the horse and told her to walk around. Snow White was amazed by all the beautiful birds and flowers of the forest. Her face lit up with a beautiful smile.
The hunter found that he could not bring himself to kill the young princess so he told her the whole story. “Run away princess” he said. “And never return”.
Her heart beating violently with fear, Snow White ran deeper and deeper into the forest until she was completed lost. The hunter killed a deer and took the heart back to the queen, telling her that he had killed Snow White.
At around nightfall, just as Snow White was about despair, she found herself in front of a small house. She went inside and saw seven rooms with seven beds. The little princess was so tired that she fell down on one of the beds and started sleeping.
The house belonged to seven dwarfs who were out working.
When the dwarfs returned home, they were amazed to find the beautiful Snow White in their beds. After hearing her story, they agreed that she could live there. Snow White kept the house clean and beautiful and in the evening, the dwarfs, more joyful than ever for the presence of snow white, played music for her.
But the next day, when the queen called on her magic mirror “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of us all”? She was shocked at the answer. “My queen, Snow White the princess is the most beautiful of princesses in all the lands.”
The wicked queen burst with rage when she realized that Snow White was still alive. Dressed up as a old lady, she set out into the forest to find Snow White. When she arrived at the house of the dwarfs, she called out to snow white “Little girl, I am so thirsty, please give me a cup of water”.
The kind-hearted Snow White gave the queen a cup of water and she drank it. Then the queen said “my beautiful princess, you are so kind. Here take this apple.” And she handed snow white a delicious red apple which she had injected with poison.
Snow White, not suspecting anything, ate the apple and fell to the ground immediately after the first bite. The queen, laughing in contentment, sprinted off with great speed. But as she ran, her feet landed over a deep abyss covered by grass and branches. The wicked queen fell all the way to the bottom of the abyss and was never heard of again.
Alerted by the animals of the forest, the seven dwarfs made their way hastily back home. There they found Snow White lying motionless on the ground. Grieving deeply the dwarfs prepared a glass coffin for Cinderella and placed her inside.
Just then a prince was passing by and saw the glass coffin with the princess lying inside. He was so entranced by Cinderella’s beauty that he asked permission to take the coffin with the princess to his castle. The dwarfs, knowing the prince for a long time and knowing that the was a good prince, agreed. As the dwarfs were lifting the coffin up, it fell from their grasp and broke on the ground.
As if by magic, Snow White’s eyes opened and caught sight of the prince’s handsome face. She immediately fell in love. The prince was overjoyed, and so were the dwarfs. Very soon, Snow White and the prince were married with a very big celebration through all the land and forests. They lived a long and happy life together, often walking hand-in-hand to visit the home of the seven dwarfs.
Adapted from the classic book “Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tales” by the German authors “The Grimm Brothers”; and rewritten for a younger and more modern audience.