But Snow White is lovelier by far!”
At this the Queen turned white with rage. She sent for a huntsman and told him to take Snow White deep into the forest and there to kill her. But when the huntsman drew his knife to plunge it into her heart, and Snow White began to cry and beg for her life, he remembered his own children at home, and slowly let the knife fall.
“Run as far off as you can,” he told her. “If ever you return, we shall both lose our lives.”
Then he turned and left her, and on his way back to the palace he killed a fawn and cut out its heart to take back to the Queen, pretending it was Snow White’s.
Now Snow White was alone in the dim green forest and as she ran the brambles clutched at her dress like live hands and the sharp stones cut into her feet. Then, in the dusk, she came upon a little house, the first she had seen all day, and because she was so tired, went inside to rest.
Inside, everything was very small and yet neat and clean as could be. There was a small table set out with a white cloth and seven little plates and seven little loaves and seven little glasses with wine in them. By the wall were seven little beds, neatly made.
Snow White was so hungry that she went right round the table taking a little nibble from each plate and a sip of wine from each glass.
Then, because she was so tired after her day in the forest, she went to the row of beds and tried first one and then another till she found the most comfortable. She lay down and went straight to sleep.
Soon afterwards, the owners of the house came home. They were seven dwarfs, who worked all day deep in the mountainside with pick and shovel, digging for gold and precious stones. Once inside, they lit the lamps and saw at once that things were not as they had left them.
“Who has been sitting in my chair?” said the first.
“Who has been using my fork?” said the second.
“Who has been nibbling my bread?” said the third.
“Who has been picking at my vegetables?” said the fourth.
“Who has been drinking out of my glass?” said the fifth.
“Who has been cutting with my knife?” said the sixth.
“And who has been eating off my plate?” said the seventh.
Then one of them went over to his bed and saw a dent in the covers and he cried, “Someone has been sitting on my bed!”
Then all the rest ran up to their beds crying, “And mine! And mine!” until the seventh dwarf went to his bed and found Snow White herself, fast asleep.
“Sssssh!” he hissed loudly to the others. “Sssh! Come and look!”
All seven dwarfs crowded round the bed whispering and nudging one another and all fixing their eyes on Snow White’s beautiful face.
“What a lovely child!” they whispered. “We mustn’t wake her!”
So all through the night the seven dwarfs took turns to watch by Snow White’s bedside, an hour each until morning came. When she awoke and saw the seven dwarfs, Snow White was frightened and covered her eyes. But they spoke gently to her and asked her name and how she had come there alone through the thick forest. Snow White told them her story, and when she had finished the first dwarf asked, “Can you cook and sew and spin? Can you dust and sweep and kindle fires? Can you knit and bake and can you trim a lamp?”
Snow White could do all these things, because her stepmother had kept her hard at work at home. And so the dwarfs said that she could stay with them and look after the house while they went off each day to dig for gold and silver in the mountains.
Each day, before they set off in the grey dawn the dwarfs would warn Snow White.
“Take care to let no one in. One day the Queen will find out where you are and try to harm you.”
All this time the Queen had thought Snow White was dead, and was so sure that she was now the most beautiful in the land that she had not troubled to use her magic glass. But one day, when she had nothing else to do, she went and sat before it, smiled at her reflection and asked,
“Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?”
And the glass answered,
“Queen, thou art the fairest here, I hold,
But in the forest and over fell
Snow White with the seven dwarfs doth dwell
And she is fairer, a thousandfold!”
At this the Queen was mad with hate and envy, and lifted her arm to shatter the mirror into a thousand pieces. But her arm fell, and she thought, “No. It is not the mirror I must destroy, but Snow White!”
Next day she stained her face brown and dressed in rags like a pedlar woman and set off into the forest to the cottage of the seven dwarfs. There she stood beneath the window with her big hat shading her face and called out, “Wares to sell! Wares to sell!”
Snow White put her head out of the window.
“Good day,” she said. “What have you to sell?”
“Pretty trinkets,” replied the wicked Queen. “And coloured laces for your waist!”
She held up one of plaited scarlet silk, dangling it under Snow White’s eyes so that she thought, “Surely I may let this pedlar in? She seems kind and honest, and has such pretty things!”
She opened the door and the Queen went in.
“Gracious, child!” she cried. “How badly your dress is laced! Here let me do it, with this pretty scarlet lace, and you shall have it for a penny!”
Snow White stood quite still while the pedlar threaded the new red lace with nimble fingers. But the wicked Queen pulled the laces tighter and tighter and tighter till at last all the breath was squeezed out of Snow White’s body and she fell to the floor as if she were dead.
“That’s the end of you and your beauty!” cried the spiteful Queen, and hastened back towards the palace.
When the dwarfs came back and found Snow White lying lifeless on the floor they guessed at once what had happened. One of them seized a knife and cut the scarlet lace and at once Snow White drew in a great sigh and began to breathe again. The dwarfs gave a shout of joy, and next day when they set off in the mists for the mountains they begged her to take care, and be on the watch for the wicked Queen.
That very morning the Queen herself rose early and went to the magic mirror.
“Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?”
When the mirror gave the same answer as before the Queen could not speak for anger. In terrible silence she dressed in a disguise, a different one, and took up a tray of pretty combs and painted one of them with deadly poison. She set off to the dwarfs’ house and there she knocked on the door and cried, “Fine wares to sell! Fine wares to sell!”
Again Snow White looked through the window, and said, “I cannot open the door – I dare not. I have promised to let no one in!”
“There is no need to open the door,” replied the Queen. “Just look at my beautiful combs.”
She picked out a carved comb of finest ivory. Snow White put it into her hair and no sooner had she done so than she fell to the floor in a deadly swoon.
“There you may lie!” cried the wicked Queen, and went her way.
Luckily, that day the dwarfs came home from the mountains early and found Snow White before she was quite dead. They gently took the poisoned comb from her hair and after a time she opened her eyes and sat up. When she told them what had happened they warned her yet again to beware, and again Snow White promised that she would.
That very night the Queen went to her magic mirror again. When she received the same reply as before and knew that Snow White must still be living she shivered and shook from head to foot with rage. She pointed her long white finger into the mirror and it pointed back at her.
“Snow White shall die!” she cried. “Even if it costs my life!”
All night long she secretly worked at a poisoned apple. One side of it was rosy and shining, the other clear and green. Whoever took a bite from the red side was sure to die.
At dawn the Queen went gliding out t
o the woods dressed as a peasant’s wife. When she came to the dwarfs’ house she knocked and Snow White put her head out of the window.
“I cannot open the door,” she said. “The dwarfs have made me promise not to.”
“Very well,” said the old woman. “It doesn’t matter to me whether you do or not. But perhaps you’d like this apple as a present before I go?”
Snow White shook her head.
“What is the matter?” asked the peasant woman. “Do you think that it is poisoned? Silly girl – see, watch me!”
She turned the green side of the apple to her lips and bit into it.
“There!” said she. “If it were poisoned, do you think I should have eaten it? Here, take the rest and eat it!”
Snow White longed for the shining red apple with its juicy flesh. She took it from the old woman, bit into the rosy skin and fell to the ground.
“This time nothing shall save her!” cried the Queen, and hastened back to the castle. There she went and stood before the magic mirror and at last it gave her the answer she wanted,
“Thou art the fairest, Queen, by far!”
When the dwarfs came home, they found Snow White lying there and did everything they could think of to bring her back to life. It was in vain. Snow White’s eyelids never flickered, not the faintest breath floated from her lips. For seven days and seven nights they watched by her side, but there was not the least stir of life. For all that, Snow White was still so beautiful that they could hardly bring themselves to believe that she was really dead.
“We can’t bury her in the cold ground!” they cried. And they made a coffin of glass and placed her in it and wrote her name on it in gold letters. They carried the coffin to the hillside and one of the dwarfs always sat by it and watched, day and night.
Snow White lay many years on the bare mountain side and still she seemed only to sleep. Her lips were red as blood, her skin was white as snow and her hair black as a raven’s wing just as they had been in life.
It happened one day that a prince came riding by and saw Snow White within her glass walls. He read the gold lettering and learned her name, and that she was the daughter of a king.
“Give her to me!” he begged the dwarfs. But they all shook their heads and refused to let her go.
“I will give you gold and treasure,” pleaded the Prince.
Again they refused.
“We will not give her up for all the treasure in the world!”
“Then I shall stay here on the mountain all my days looking on Snow White,” said the Prince. “I cannot live without her.”
At this, the dwarfs pitied him and could not deny him what he asked. They themselves helped to lift the coffin, and as they did so, the piece of poisoned apple fell from Snow White’s lips. She opened her eyes, lifted her head, and cried in astonishment, “What’s happening?”
The Prince, overjoyed, lifted her from the coffin and told her the story of how she had been poisoned by the wicked Queen and had lain like one dead for more than seven years.
“But now you have come to life again,” he said. “And I love you better than all the world. Come with me to my father’s kingdom and marry me!”
And so Snow White said farewell to the seven dwarfs and went with the Prince to his father’s castle where a great feast was prepared for their wedding. Among the guests invited was Snow White’s wicked stepmother. She dressed herself in her finest clothes and when she was ready, stood before the magic glass and smiled proudly.
“Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?”
And the glass replied,
“Fair as the day, O Queen, you are,
But the new bride is lovelier, by far!”
At this the Queen’s fury was so great that she lifted her jewelled hand and struck the glass and it broke into a thousand pieces. Then she went out and rode to the wedding, so that she could see with her own eyes this bride who was even more beautiful than herself.
And when she went into the hall and saw that the bride was none other than Snow White, she flew into such a passion of hate and envy that her heart burst and she fell down dead.
But Snow White and the Prince were married that day and lived and reigned happily ever after.
Snow-white and Rose-red
There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In the garden were two rose trees, and one of them bore white and the other red flowers. She had two daughters and one was called Snow-white and the other Rose-red.
The children were so fond of each other that they went everywhere together. When Snow-white said, “We will not leave each other,” Rose-red would answer, “Never so long as we live,” and their mother would add, “What one has she must share with the other.”
And that was how it was. In summer they ran about the forest alone and no harm ever came to them. On winter evenings when the snow fell the mother would read aloud and the two girls listened as they sat and spun. By them lay a white lamb and above them perched a white dove.
One evening there came a knock at the door. The mother said, “Quick, Rose-red, open the door. It must be a traveller seeking shelter.”
But when Rose-red opened the door she saw not a man but a great black bear.
Rose-red screamed, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered and Snow-white hid under the bed, but the bear said, “Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm. I am half frozen and only want to warm myself a little.”
“Poor bear,” said the mother. “Lie down by the fire, but take care you do not burn your coat.”
So out the girls came and fetched a broom and knocked the snow out of the bear’s thick coat, and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly. The lamb and dove came near him and were not afraid.
Soon the children began to play games with their clumsy guest. They climbed all over him and rolled him about and beat him with a stick till he cried,
“Snowy-white, Rosey-red,
Will you beat your lover dead?”
The bear stayed all night by the fire and then at dawn he shambled over the snow into the forest. After that, he came every evening at the same time and the door was never locked until he came. When it was spring and everywhere was green the bear said one morning, “Now I must go away into the forest, to guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs. In winter when the ground is frozen they are forced to stay down below. But when the sun has warmed the earth up they come to pry and steal!”
The girls were sorry to see him go and often wandered in the forest hoping that they might meet him. Then one day they did find someone, but it was not the bear. It was a dwarf with withered face and red eyes and snow white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was trapped in the crevice of a fallen tree and he was jumping up and down trying to free it. When he saw the children he called, “Why do you stand there? Do something! Help me!”
The girls tried very hard, and all the while he scolded them and called them names. In the end Snow-white took out her scissors and cut off the end of the beard.
The minute he was free the dwarf snatched up a bag of gold that lay nearby and instead of thanking them said, “Stupid goose! Cutting off my fine beard! Bad luck to you!” Off he went, still grumbling.
Soon after that Snow-white and Rose-red were by the stream when they saw something like a large grasshopper jumping by the water. They ran to it and found it was the dwarf. A big fish had bit and the dwarf’s beard was caught in the line. The fish was twice as big as the dwarf and would soon have pulled him into the water. Out came the scissors and again – snip! Off came part of the beard.
The dwarf said not a word of thanks for his rescue.
“Dolt! Toadstool! Now you have spoilt my beard!”
He snatched up a sack of pearls that lay among the rushes and made off.
A third time Rose-red and Snow-white met that dwarf. This time he had been caught up in the claws of an eagle, and was screaming in terror. The girls ran and took tight hold of him and
pulled and at last the eagle let him go.
“Clumsy things!” yelled the dwarf. “You have dragged at my brown coat and torn it!”
He grabbed a sack of precious stones and scuttled off behind a stone.
The two girls went on, but in the evening they passed the same place again. There was the dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones to count and gloat over them. They glittered and shone in the evening sun. The dwarf saw the girls and his ashen face glowed red with rage.
“Why do you stand gaping there?” he cried.
Just then there came a loud growling and out of the forest lumbered a great black bear. The dwarf sprang back in fright and begged the bear to spare him.
“Take these two wicked girls instead! They’re plump and tender morsels! Eat them!”
The bear gave the wicked creature a single blow with his paw. The dwarf did not move again. The girls were terrified and were going to run off when the bear said, “Snow-white and Rose-red, do not be afraid!”
As he spoke, the bearskin fell off, and there stood a handsome man, clothed all in gold.
“I am a king’s son,” he said. “I was bewitched by that wicked dwarf who has stolen all my treasures. I had to run about the forest as a bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has his well-deserved punishment.”
Snow-white was married to him and Rose-red to his brother, and they divided between them the treasure the dwarf had heaped in his dark cave. The old mother lived happily with her children for many years. She took the two rose trees with her, and they stood before her window and every year bore beautiful roses, white and red.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Long ago there was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. They slept in two great beds in one room, and each night the door of this room was shut and locked. But every morning when the Princesses were woken, their shoes were found to be quite worn out. It was as if the Princesses had been out walking – or dancing? – all night long, and yet how could this possibly be? Nobody could think of an answer to the mystery, and as for the Princesses themselves, they simply smiled and said not a single word.
A Treasury of Fairy Tales Page 5