Which fairy tale was written first - about Snow White or the dead princess? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Illustration (1852) for the Icelandic version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the most famous fairy tales in the world, first published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in their book of old European folk tales. However, this tale was passed on from mouth to mouth even earlier, for centuries. Walt Disney's 1937 animated film made the story popular throughout the world, and it has been treated as a work of fiction ever since. However, recent research shows that the famous fairy tale is not so fictional. /website/

Summary

The fairy tale tells of a beautiful princess who was born with very white skin, so her mother named her Snow White. After the queen's death, the girl's father married a woman who was narcissistic and evil. She had a magic mirror, she often asked him: “Who in the world is the cutest, the most ruddy and the whitest?” The mirror always answered: “My queen, you are the fairest of all.” But one day the mirror said that Snow White is now the most beautiful woman in all the land. The stepmother was very angry.

Snow White's stepmother speaks to the magic mirror. Photo: Wikipedia

Snow White's evil stepmother called the hunter and told him to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. But the hunter took pity on the girl and let her go. Snow White came across a small house in the forest; she could barely stand on her feet from fatigue, so she lay down on one of the beds and fell fast asleep. When she woke up, she saw seven dwarves looking at her in surprise. They told Snow White that if she kept things clean and cooked for them, she could stay with them.

Snow White and the dwarfs lived in contentment and harmony until the magic mirror told the queen that Snow White was alive and still the most beautiful of all. The queen disguised herself as an old woman and came to Snow White with a poisoned apple. After taking a small bite from the apple, the girl fell unconscious. The dwarves decided that she had died, so they built a glass coffin and placed her inside.

One day a handsome prince passed by and saw Snow White in a coffin. He immediately fell in love with her and convinced the dwarves to let him take the coffin to bury the girl with dignity. While he and his friends were carrying the coffin, they tripped over tree roots, causing the coffin to nearly fall to the ground. A piece of the poisoned apple fell from Snow White's throat and she woke up. The prince confessed his love to her, they soon got married, and, as they say in all fairy tales, they lived happily ever after.

The prince awakens Snow White. Photo: Wikipedia

Snow White - Margaret von Waldeck?

In 1994, German historian Eckhard Sander published the article Schneewittchen: Marchen Oder Wahrheit? ("Is Snow White a Fairytale?"), revealing that he had discovered a historical account that may have inspired the Brothers Grimm to write the tale of Snow White.

According to Sander, the tale of Snow White was based on the life of Margarethe von Waldeck, a German countess, daughter of Philip IV, born in 1533. At the age of 16, Margaret was forced to leave for Brussels, her stepmother Katharina forced her to do this. There Margaret fell in love with Prince Philip, who later became King of Spain.

Margaret's father and stepmother disapproved of the relationship as it was "politically inconvenient". Margaret died mysteriously at the age of 21, apparently by poisoning. Historians speculate that the King of Spain, who was also against their affair, may have sent Spanish agents to kill Margaret.

What about the seven dwarves? Margaret's father owned several copper mines that used child labor. Due to harsh conditions and slave labor, many died at an early age, but those who survived had severely deformed limbs and stunted growth due to malnutrition and hard physical labor. That's why they were called poor gnomes.

As for the poison apple, Sanders believes it stems from a historical event in Germany where an old man was arrested for giving poisoned apples to children he believed were stealing fruit from his orchard.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Photo: Wikipedia

Alternate version - Maria Sophia von Erthal

According to historian Karlheinz Bartels, Snow White was based on Maria Sophia Margaretha Katharina von Erthal, born on June 15, 1729 in Lohr am Main, Bavaria. She was the daughter of Prince Philipp Christoph von Erthal and his wife, Baroness von Betendorff.

After the death of the Baroness, Philip married Claudia Elisabeth Maria von Fenningen, Countess of Reichenstein, who was said to have disliked her stepdaughter. In the castle where they lived there was a “talking mirror” (currently located in the Spessart Museum), made at the mirror manufactory in Laura in 1720.

The dwarves in Mary's story are associated with the mining town of Biber, located west of Lor, among the seven mountains. The low and narrow tunnels were accessible only to very short miners who wore colorful hoods like gnomes.

The historian argues that the glass coffin may be linked to the famous glassworks in Laura, while the poisoned apple may be linked to the deadly poisonous nightshade, which grows in abundance around the town.

In the Disney film, the Seven Dwarfs are depicted with colorful hoods, like those worn by miners near the town of Lore. Photo: (Joe Penniston/Flickr)

No one will ever know how the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came about, as the Brothers Grimm often combined events that actually happened with fantasy and imagination. However, there must have been some historical basis to the famous tale.

As children, we all read a wonderful fairy tale about a beauty with snow-white skin and jet-black hair, who tells how she was sheltered in the forest by little magical people. We worried about the fate of the princess and were angry at the machinations of the terrible stepmother when we saw the embodiment of the plot of the aforementioned fairy tale in numerous film adaptations (the Disney cartoon is especially magnificent). But how many people know who the author of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is? Let's try to clarify this issue. In this case there are definitely more than one authors. These are the brothers and Wilhelm. And also - albeit indirectly - the entire people of the German state of Westphalia.

Life and work of Grimm

Brothers of the same age were born in the town of Hanau. Jacob - in January 1785, and Wilhelm - in February 1786. In addition to them, the family had an even younger brother and three little sisters. His father, Philipp-Wilhelm, worked first as a lawyer, and from 1792 as a judge in Steinau. It was he who instilled in his sons a love of reading and drawing. But in 1796, his father died, and Jacob, at the age of 11, became the head of the family. Soon the eldest sons went to Kassel to graduate from the lyceum, enter the university and become lawyers. There this creative tandem appeared - the author of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Because at the university the brothers met new people, from whom they learned about folk songs and tales of the people of Westphalia.

Fairy-tale nav and political reality

To understand the fate and work of the Brothers Grimm, it is necessary, at least briefly, to describe the political situation that developed at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries in Germany. Then the country was split into many principalities - each with its own language, ruler, minted coins, and so on. Little Westphalia was easily captured by Napoleon's army in 1806. The kingdom was led by Bonaparte's brother Jerome. He invited Jacob to become a librarian, to which he agreed. The author of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” actively collects legends, songs and tales of the region.

After the French were expelled from Westphalia, the brothers served as librarians in Kassel and then, in 1840, accepted the invitation of Frederick William of Prussia to move to Berlin. Even then, Grimm became known to the general public as the author of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as 82 other fairy tales. In Berlin they continued to create: collecting examples of folk poetry like valuable pearls, processing folklore and exploring Germanic linguistics. They died - Wilhelm in 1859, and Jacob in 1863 - while working on the first dictionary of the German language.

Oh, these storytellers...

Now about the period when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs appeared. The author, or rather the creative tandem, published their first collection when they were still green youths, in 1812.

It was released in a modest paperback and included only eighty-three tales. Later, the authors repeatedly renewed the circulation, constantly adding new stories to the book. Now the collection of “Children's and family fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm” consists of 200 works.

Why is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs significant?

This fantastic story weaves together many motifs that are present in other stories of the Brothers Grimm. This is an evil stepmother who wants to get rid of her stepdaughter (compare with “Hans and Gretel”). The motif is also present in the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty”. The idea of ​​the stepmother’s insidious “gifts” looks very interesting - a belt, a comb and an apple, in which a reader familiar with Greek myths can easily recognize the attributes of Venus. The multifaceted work of the authors hides a much deeper meaning than it might seem at first glance. In the lands of the former Roman Empire, ancient myth has been defeated by Germanic tales of gnomes.

snow white and the huntsman 2, snow white
"Snow White"(German Schneewittchen from the original Low German Sneewittchen: Snee - “snow”, witt - “white”) - a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, published in 1812 and expanded in 1854, about the beautiful daughter of a king, who is sheltered in the forest by gnomes, saving her from the wrath of an evil stepmother who owns a magic mirror. It tells about the enchanted dream of the main character and her awakening thanks to the intervention of the prince. The Aarne-Thompson classification system for fairy tales is numbered 709.

• 1 Plot
• 2 Interpretation and analysis of the plot
  • 2.1 Number "three"
  • 2.2 Number "seven"
  • 2.3 Alchemical interpretation
  • 2.4 Psychological interpretations
• 3 Translations into Russian
• 4 Theater productions
• 5 Film adaptations
• 6 Interesting facts
• 7 See also
• 8 Notes

Plot

One snowy winter day, the queen sits and sews by a window with an ebony frame. By chance she pricks her finger with a needle, drops three drops of blood and thinks: “Oh, if only I had a baby, white as snow, red as blood and black as ebony.” Her wish comes true and a girl is born, who is named Snow White; the dreams of the Queen Mother are embodied in her: she had snow-white skin, black hair and a healthy blush on her cheeks. After the birth of her daughter, the queen mother dies, and the king a year later marries another, proud and arrogant beauty. When Snow White turns 7, the proud queen's magic mirror recognizes her stepdaughter as the most beautiful in the land. The queen instructs the huntsman to take the girl into the forest and kill her, and to bring her a lung and liver as proof. Taking pity on Snow White, the hound brings the queen a lung and the liver of a young deer, which she cooks and eats.

Snow White finds a hut in the forest in which a table is set for seven people and, in order to satisfy her hunger, she takes some vegetables, bread and wine from each portion, and then, crossing herself, falls asleep on one of the beds. When it gets dark, the owners come to the hut, who turn out to be seven mountain gnome miners. They see the baby and are captivated by her beauty. In the morning, after listening to Snow White's story, the dwarves invite the girl to stay with them and run the household. They also warn against communicating with strangers, fearing the machinations of her stepmother. Having learned from her mirror that Snow White is still alive beyond seven mountains, the queen comes three times, disguised as different people, in her arsenal - a strangling dress lace, a poisonous comb and a poisoned apple. Twice Snow White is saved by the dwarfs, but the third time they fail to recognize the reason for the death of their favorite. But even the lifeless Snow White was fresh and rosy, so the dwarves do not dare to bury her; they make a transparent crystal coffin with a gold inscription and place it on the top of the mountain. Even animals and birds come to mourn the king’s daughter, and the good gnomes, one by one, stand guard in shifts. The evil queen receives confirmation from her mirror that she herself is now more beautiful and sweeter than everyone else.

Snow White lies in the coffin for a very long time, seems to be sleeping and still looks beautiful. One day a prince passes by and, seeing a girl, falls in love with her. The prince asks the gnomes to exchange gifts or give him a coffin, since he can no longer live without looking at his beloved. Out of sympathy, the dwarves give his servants the coffin with the beauty, which they carry on their shoulders, but they stumble, and a piece of the poisoned apple jumps out of Snow White’s throat. Life is returning to her. The prince and Snow White are celebrating a wedding, to which the evil queen is also invited. Having learned from the mirror that the newlywed is more beautiful than her, the queen panics. However, curiosity takes over and the stepmother appears at the wedding celebration, where she recognizes her stepdaughter. Punishment for her deeds, the villainess must dance in red-hot iron shoes until she falls dead.

Plot interpretation and analysis

The fairy tale includes a variety of information blocks and associations, touching on aspects of psychology, sociology, history, Christian theology, mythology, and cosmology. The image of Snow White is one of the most recognizable and is reflected in painting, music, sculpture, cinema, literature and pop culture.

The most important symbolic motifs in the tale: poisoned apple, number 7, magic mirror, belt and comb, contrasting colors: black, red and white, blood and snow.

The motif of a dream similar to death is also found in the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty,” a version of which was also written by the Brothers Grimm. Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights,” written in the fall of 1833 in Boldino, is very similar to the Grimms’ “Snow White.”

Number three

Three drops of blood in the snow along with an ebony frame are the original picture for the appearance of the special beauty of Snow White in a fairy tale. The number "three" is also present in the three visits of the stepmother, during which she conveys the "three attributes of Venus" (belt, comb and apple) in the form of deadly gifts.

Number "seven"

The number “seven”, which is present in the number of dwarves and mountain peaks in Snow White, also connects this fairy tale with the following fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm: “The Seven Ravens”, “The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats”. The idea that the number of dwarfs has a chronological meaning, for example in naming gnomes after the names of the days of the week, is reflected both in theory and in cinema. 7 dwarfs and 7 mountains will thus be a metaphor meaning seven objects and seven time periods.

The plot of the tale is comparable to ancient astronomical ideas: Snow White and the seven dwarfs are associated with the Moon, accompanied (according to the knowledge of that time) by the Sun, the Earth and five planets on the ecliptic. Moreover, the metaphor of Snow White and the seven dwarfs may point to the ancient idea of ​​the coincidence of the seven known “celestial bodies” with the seven days of the week: Snow White and the seven dwarfs, at the same time, is probably a coded picture of the structure of the cosmos, according to which the Earth is accompanied by seven celestial bodies, correlated with time intervals: Sun (Sunday), Moon (Monday), Mars (Tuesday), Mercury (Wednesday), Jupiter (Thursday), Venus (Friday) and Saturn (Saturday).

Alchemical interpretation

Psychological interpretations

According to the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung, the stepmother in many fairy tales represents the archetype of the “shadow” or “foremother destroying and absorbing.”

According to the anthroposophy of Friedel Lenz, the house of dwarfs represents the body of a child, and the dwarfs themselves represent his elemental forces. Moreover, the number 7 symbolizes time. The tales of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood form a sequence of mental decline. By eating an apple together with her stepmother (the stepmother in disguise ate the unpoisoned half), Snow White identifies herself with the temptress. And only at the cost of her own efforts can she spew out poison, facilitating a mystical wedding (alchemy) between the soul (the princess) and the spirit (the prince).

Regarding the erotic level of the fairy tale “Snow White,” folklorist Lutz Rehrich notes that beauty is intertwined here with love, but in an extremely perverted form. The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm themselves are asexual. According to research by Heinz Relleke, this tendency intensifies in later editions.

Translations into Russian

• P. Polevoy (1839-1902) - “The Snow Maiden”
• G. Petnikov (1894-1971) - “The Snow Maiden”
• V. Waldman (1884-1962) - “Snow White”
• A. Vvedensky (1904-1941) - “The Snow Maiden”
• G. Shalaeva - “Snow White”
• V. Solovyova - “Snow White”
• G. Sergeeva - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
• E. Ivanova - “Snow White”
• A. Korotkov - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
• N. Terentyeva - “Snow White”
• A. Vasilyeva - “Snow White”
• E. Nevolina - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
• O. Vernikovich - “Snow White”
• N. Kirillova - “Snow White”
• N. Aleshina - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
• O. Trifonova - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
• A. Faykova - “Snow White”
• E. Peskovskaya - “Snow White”
• E. Peskovskaya, P. Polevoy, A. Fedorov-Davydov - “Snow White”
• S. Kuzmin - “Snow White”

The Russian reader is most familiar with the classic translation of the fairy tale from German, edited by Polevoy.

Theater productions

• 1956 - “Snow White”, ballet by Tatyana Gzovskaya to music by V.-A. Mozart, Berlin Ballet.
• 2008 - “Snow White”, ballet by Angelin Preljocaj to the music of Gustav Mahler, Ballet Preljocaj (2009 - filmed).
• 2013 - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (music - Tibor Kochak, choreography - Gyula Harangoso). Rostov State Musical Theater

Film adaptations

• 1916 - Snow White - US silent film.
• 1937 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - the first full-length cartoon by Walt Disney Studios (produced in the USA).
• 1955 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - German film.
• 1992 - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” - film directed by Ludwig Raz (production: Germany-Czechoslovakia).
• 1993 - “The New Adventures of Snow White” - a cartoon based on a fairy tale with its own plot, directed by John Hawley (production: USA).
• 1997 - “Snow White. Scary Tale" (English: Snow White: A Tale of Terror) - horror, fantasy. Directed by Michael Cohn. (manufactured in USA).
• 2001 - “Snow White” - film directed by Caroline Thompson (production: Canada, USA, Germany). Snow White is played by Kristin Kreuk (star of the TV series Smallville)
• 2011 - Once Upon a Time - American ABC television series in the fantasy genre. Snow White is played by Ginnifer Goodwin.
• 2012 - “Snow White: Revenge of the Dwarves” (English: Mirror Mirror) - comedy fantasy film directed by Tarsem Singh (production: USA). Snow White is played by Lily Collins.
• 2012 - Snow White & the Huntsman - American fantasy adventure film directed by Rupert Sanders based on the fairy tale (produced in the USA). Snow White is played by Kristen Stewart.

• The video for the song “Sonne” by the German rock band Rammstein (since 1994) is a rather loose interpretation of the fairy tale about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Rammstein play dwarves who work hard in the mines, extracting drugs for Snow White (according to another version, gold dust). One fine day, the beauty suffers an overdose and the saddened gnomes put her body in a glass coffin. The dwarfs are going to leave this coffin on the hill, but as soon as the coffin falls to the ground, an apple falls from a nearby apple tree and breaks the glass, and of course, Snow White comes to life.

see also

• The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights
• Fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm
• Magic mirror

Notes

1. Heidi Anne Heiner. Tales Similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Retrieved September 22, 2010. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013.
2. this plot is similar to the French fairy tale “The Three Bears”
3. Robert Ranke-Graves: Die weiße Göttin - Sprache des Mythos, S.474, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-499-55416-X
4. Robert Ranke-Graves: Die weiße Göttin - Sprache des Mythos, S. 306-321 und S.339, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-499-55416-X
5. Caroline Thompson: Snow White" 2001, mit Miranda Richardson und Kristin Kreuk, hier wird die Metaphorik von den sieben Zwergen und den sieben Wochentagen noch ausgeweitet auf das Motiv der sieben Farben des Regenbogens
6. Hedwig von Beit: Symbolik des Märchens. Bern 1952, S. 259
7. Patirick Burensteinas. From Matter to Light: the philosopher's stone, model of the world = De la Matière à la Lumière: Pierre philosophale, modèle du monde. - Le Mercure Dauphinois, 2009. - pp. 71-75. - 78 s. - ISBN 9782356620118.
8. Here and below are quotes from the text by Pyotr Polevoy “The Snow Maiden”.
9. Eugen Drewermann: Schneewittchen: Märchen Nr. 53 aus der Grimmschen Sammlung. In der Reihe Grimms Märchen tiefenpsychologisch gedeutet, Zürich 1998. ISBN 3-530-40021-1
10. Friedel Lenz: Bildsprache der Märchen. 2. Auflage. Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-87838-148-4, S. 30-47
11. Lutz Röhrich: … und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind …, Anthropologie, Kulturgeschichte und Deutung von Märchen. Böhlau, Köln/Weimar/Wien 2002, ISBN 3-412-11201-1
12. Tomi Ungerer: Tomi Ungerer’s Erzählungen für Erwachsene., München 192, ISBN 3-453-05598-5
13. Snow White on the website "Fiction Laboratory"
14. Shepeleva E. Ballet with a hint of Disney // City N. - 2013. - March 26.

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Snow White Information About

Who smiles and laughs for us in heaven so that we imitate him. Therefore, the Lord teaches that we need to look for reasons for joy, happiness and good mood. Unlike competitors, who teach to look for suffering, worry and look for reasons for unnecessary worries, discomfort and suffering. I can say a lot in confirmation of this, but to make it shorter, I will at least cite this page as confirmation -.

And the best way to do this is to love and do good :)

You can, of course, use other means for this... such as alcohol and maybe some drugs... But in order to receive pleasure and joy from them, you must first suffer. So that there is something wrong in life. And, perhaps, most of it was filled with heaviness in the soul, pain or suffering. In addition, you will have to suffer from this in the future because it is both beneficial and harmful, and then it may happen that without this you will no longer be able to enjoy life. And you will suffer from illnesses because of this. Therefore, it is unlikely that anyone will consciously want this option... if you understand why people drink. But some have made so many mistakes because of Jesus Christ and his gangs that for them this is the only option to be in a godly mood, to get rid of the constantly appearing pain or heaviness in their souls, which does not allow them to close their lips from laughing and smiling. Our church does not condemn them. But you just don’t need to imitate them in this. And think that it’s somehow fashionable and cool. Unhappy people with whom you can only sympathize. And you just need to understand why they use such substances and they like it. All this becomes a problem because people do it because others do it. Out of habit, out of tradition, because it is necessary or right, etc. And not because we want, as the demons teach. And the problems actually start because we do what we don't want. And not because we do what we want. Like the movie "Me and Others". In short. ( , ).

And so the competing churches seem to be fighting with this, against this. But they teach in such a way that they want to, calling it all pleasure, for example, and so that they like it (because it is suffering). And Hankoslavie is the opposite. It's possible, not bad. But he teaches in such a way that you don’t want to and don’t give pleasure.

Do you think the story about the fact that Jesus Christ sacrificed for us is just made up and is told all the time? :) No, so as not to noticeably and gradually make everyone the same victims, martyrs like him and the Christian saints (). So that they endure, humble themselves and suffer AND LIKE IT! (). So that you can do whatever you want to people with complete impunity.

The same applies to all kinds of perversions. You just need to understand the mechanism. I reveal the cause-and-effect relationship of these mental disorders on the corresponding pages (,). In fact, homosexuality is a new world religion that they are trying to impose on us in order to make us weak, to teach us to give up, so that in this way any nonsense can be imposed and turn people into biorobots.

In essence, religion is programming and with their help you can instill in society any thought and impose anything... Why do you talk about this all the time? Because this is my religion. My religion teaches this. This is sacred.

Not very good and complete yet, but I made and posted a video about it on my YouTube channel. You can look there to find out and understand what is happening and why in more detail - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrWIsxpjKdgz5M-rdWYf00_8Pg1EM_Kc6.

I could say a lot more, but I don’t want there to be a lot of text.

But it is important for everyone to know that according to Hankoslavia, those who smile little and rarely laugh in this world go to Hell. The revelation of this truth was given to me by the Lord while I was writing the article. And the best way to do this is to Love and do good.

Therefore, I ask you to tell all your friends, acquaintances and strangers about Hank. So that they too will be saved for the kingdom of heaven and go to heaven. And they also saved their brains from false gods who actually serve the Devil, even though they say they are God.

Surely everyone knows the story Snow White from stories Brothers Grimm or a Walt Disney cartoon. The evil stepmother was jealous of the beauty of her young stepdaughter and poisoned her with a poisonous apple. But true love's kiss broke the spell, and then everyone lived happily ever after. But, as you know, there is some truth in every fairy tale. Some historians claim that they can tell the story of the real Snow White.

We are talking about the young Countess Margarethe von Waldeck ( Margaretha von Waldeck), who lived in the 15th century in the city of Bad Wildungen. The girl really had a stepmother (but not an evil one), and rumors about her beauty went far beyond the county.

Zander believes she was poisoned, making the situation look like a mysterious illness. This is evidenced by the will that the Countess wrote shortly before her death. The handwriting shows that Margaret had a tremor, which is typical for poisoned people.