❄️ 1. A Queen’s Wish & Snow‑White’s Birth
“It was in the middle of winter, when the snow‑flakes were falling like feathers from the sky…”
A beautiful but sickly Queen, sewing at a window of ebony-black wood, pricks her finger; three drops of blood fall on the snow. She wishes for a child “as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the ebony window‑frame.” Soon after, she gives birth to a daughter with exactly those features and dies. The child is named Snow‑White.
👑 2. Envy & the Huntsman’s Mercy
A year later, the King remarries a proud woman who owns a magic mirror. Every day she asks:
“Looking‑glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?”
The mirror always answers: “Thou, Queen, art fairest in the land.”
Snow‑White grows more beautiful; at age seven, the mirror finally declares:
“Snow‑White is lovelier far than thee.”
Consumed with jealousy, the Queen orders her huntsman to kill Snow‑White and bring back her heart. He reluctantly leads her into the forest, but moved by her pleas, kills a wild boar instead. He presents its heart to the Queen; she eats it, convinced Snow‑White is dead.
🏡 3. Life With the Dwarfs
Snow‑White, alone and frightened, stumbles upon a tiny cottage in the woods. Inside, the table is set with seven plates, seven cups, and seven beds. She tastes a little from each plate and bed until she finds a bed that fits—and falls asleep.
Seven dwarfs—gold‑miners—return home. Alarmed by signs of intrusion, they discover Snow‑White asleep on the seventh bed. Awestruck by her beauty, they do not wake her. When she awakes the next morning and tells her story, they allow her to stay as long as she will keep house for them—and she does so cheerfully.
They warn her: “Let no one in while we are away.”
🧙♀️ 4. Three Deadly Visits by the Queen
🔘 First Attempt: Laced Bodice
The Queen consults her mirror again. When it again names Snow‑White the fairest, she disguises herself as an old peddler and offers Snow‑White a beautiful lace bodice. She laces it so tightly that Snow‑White faints and nearly dies. The dwarfs return in time, cut the lace, and revive her.
🌀 Second Attempt: Poisoned Comb
Undeterred, the Queen returns disguised again—this time with a poisoned comb. When Snow‑White lets her comb her hair, she collapses. Again, the dwarfs arrive, remove the comb, and she awakes.
🍎 Third Attempt: Poisoned Apple
Finally, the Queen fashions a poisoned apple, cunningly sliced so only the red side is toxic. Posing as a peasant woman, she offers it to Snow‑White, who refuses—until the Queen eats half to prove it’s safe. Tempted, Snow‑White takes the red half and immediately falls into a death‑like sleep.
💔 5. Death‑Like Sleep & the Glass Coffin
The dwarfs find Snow‑White unresponsive. Despite washing her with wine and water and unlacing her clothes, she remains lifeless. She looks too beautiful to bury, so they place her in a glass coffin, inscribed with her name and her status as a princess. They set it on a mountain and keep watch; birds—including an owl, raven, and dove—come to mourn by it.
🤴 6. The Prince & Snow‑White’s Awakening
After a long time, a young Prince riding by spots the coffin. Reading the inscription, he offers the dwarfs riches in exchange; they refuse—but when he sincerely expresses his love, they relent. As he carries the coffin away, the piece of poisoned apple dislodges from Snow‑White’s throat, and she awakens with a gasp: “Where am I?”
Overjoyed, Snow‑White accepts his proposal, and they return to the prince’s parents’ castle for a grand wedding. w
🎩 7. The Queen’s Final Reckoning
The Queen, invited to the wedding, looks into her mirror one last time:
“Looking‑glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?”
The mirror replies: “O Queen, although you are of beauty rare, the young bride is a thousand times more fair.”
Realizing that the bride is Snow‑White—whom she believed dead—she is consumed by rage. She is brought before the court and forced to dance in red‑hot iron shoes until she collapses and dies. Snow‑White and her prince go on to reign in peace and happiness “many, many years.
More Stories
The Drummer Boy
THE INCREDIBLES
Hello world!