Snow White

One winter, when the snow was falling in big fluffy flakes, a queen sat sewing by a window with an ebony frame. The needle pricked her finger, and three red drops fell on the white snow on the windowsill.

“If only I had a little daughter,” the queen whispered, “as white as snow, as rosy as these drops, and with hair as dark as this frame.”

Soon a baby girl was born: her face was white, her cheeks were red, and her hair was dark. They named her Snow White. But her mother had little time to enjoy her daughter. She quietly faded away just after the baby came into the world.

A year passed, and the king took a new wife. She was beautiful, but proud and jealous: she could not bear for anyone to be lovelier than she was. The queen had a magic mirror, and every morning she asked it:

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me truly: who in all the land is fairest of all?”

“You are, my queen,” the mirror answered, because it did not know how to lie.

And Snow White grew up, prettier with every day. And not only in her face: she knew how to listen, she shared her last crumb, and she never laughed at anyone’s trouble. Then one morning the mirror answered differently:

“You are fair, my queen, but Snow White is a thousand times fairer.”

The queen turned green with envy. From then on she had no peace, day or night. At last she called the huntsman:

“Take the girl far into the forest. And I never want to see her again!”

The huntsman led Snow White into the deepest thicket. But when he stopped and looked at her, his heart ached.

“Run, child,” he said softly. “Run far, far away, and do not go back to the palace. The queen wishes you harm.”

“And what about you?” Snow White sobbed.

“I will say you are no longer in the kingdom. Run!”

And she ran. Thorns caught at her embroidered dress, owls hooted, and animals dashed past, but not one of them touched her. At last, toward evening, when her legs could carry her no further, a little window flickered between the trees.

It was a tiny cottage. Inside, everything was small and neat: a table under a white cloth, seven little plates, seven little spoons, seven little mugs. And along the wall stood seven little beds in a row.

Snow White was very hungry. But so as not to wrong anyone, she took a little porridge and bread from each plate and a sip from every mug. Then she tried the beds: one was too long, another too short, a third creaked… But the seventh was just right. She lay down and fell asleep.

At night the owners came home: seven dwarfs who had spent the whole day digging for ore in the mountains. They lit seven little candles and stopped dead.

“Who sat on my little stool?”

“Who ate from my little plate?”

“Who nibbled my bread?”

“Who drank from my mug?” they all cried at once.

Then the seventh dwarf looked at his bed and gasped! They all came running with their candles and froze.

“Well, I never!” whispered the eldest. “How lovely she is. Let her sleep, we won’t wake her.”

And the seventh dwarf spent that night in his friends' beds, an hour in each.

In the morning Snow White woke up, saw seven bearded faces, and was frightened. But the dwarfs smiled so kindly that she told them everything.

“Stay with us,” said the dwarfs. “You will keep house, and we will not let anyone hurt you. But be careful: your stepmother is cunning, and she will find out where you are. Do not let anyone in!”

And so it was. By day the dwarfs went off to the mountains, while Snow White cooked, washed and sewed, and the cottage grew brighter than ever.

Meanwhile the queen asked her mirror, sure she would hear her own name. But the mirror answered:

“You are fair, my queen, but beyond seven mountains, at the seven dwarfs' house, lives Snow White, and she is a thousand times fairer.”

The queen shook with rage. The huntsman had tricked her! She dressed as an old peddler woman, crossed seven mountains, and knocked at the cottage.

“Fine wares for sale! Laces of every color!”

“Surely it can’t hurt to let in such a nice old granny,” thought Snow White, and she opened the door. She chose a lace for her dress.

“Come, my dear, let me lace you up properly,” croaked the old woman.

And she pulled so tight that Snow White could not breathe and fell down in a faint. In the evening the dwarfs found her on the floor, quickly cut the lace, and the girl began to breathe again.

“That was the queen!” said the dwarfs. “Do not let anyone in, do you hear, anyone!”

But the mirror gave Snow White away again. Then the queen enchanted a comb, dressed up as a different old woman, and came back.

“I am not allowed to let anyone in,” said Snow White through the window.

“But surely I may show you?” and the old woman held up a comb so pretty that the girl could not resist and opened the door. The moment the comb touched her hair, thump! Snow White fell. Luckily the dwarfs came home early: they pulled out the comb, and she opened her eyes.

The third time the queen made an apple. One half was white and the other rosy, and the spell of a heavy sleep was hidden in the rosy half. The queen dressed as a peasant woman and knocked at the window.

“I cannot let anyone in,” said Snow White, shaking her head. “The dwarfs won’t allow it.”

“And you needn’t,” laughed the peasant. “Here, take this apple as a gift.”

“No, I dare not.”

“Afraid it’s poisoned? Look: I’ll cut it in two. You take the rosy half and I’ll eat the white one myself.”

She bit into the white half. Snow White gazed at the rosy half, and she wanted it so much… She reached out, took a bite, and dropped as if she had been cut down.

“Now no one will ever wake you!” laughed the queen, and hurried home. This time the mirror said that she was the fairest. And her jealous heart finally calmed down, as far as a jealous heart ever can.

In the evening the dwarfs looked for the lace and the comb, tried to wake her, called to her, all in vain. Snow White lay quiet and warm, her cheeks were pink, and she breathed very, very faintly. But she could not wake up.

“We will not lay her in the dark,” said the eldest. “Let us see her, and let her see the sky.”

They made a glass coffin, wrote on it in golden letters: “Snow White, the king’s daughter,” and set it on a hill among the flowers. One of the dwarfs always kept watch beside her. Birds came too: first an owl, then a raven, and then a dove. For a long, long time Snow White lay as if asleep: white as snow, rosy as drops on the snow, with hair as dark as ebony.

One day a prince was riding through the forest. He saw the glass coffin, read the golden letters, and could not look away for a long while.

“Give her to me,” he asked the dwarfs. “I will give you anything you wish for her.”

“We would not give her up for all the gold in the world,” the dwarfs replied.

“Then give her as a gift,” the prince said quietly. “I cannot live without seeing her. I will cherish her as the dearest thing I have.”

The dwarfs looked at one another and felt sorry for the young man. They agreed.

The prince’s servants lifted the coffin onto their shoulders and carried it away. But on the path one of them stumbled over a root, bump! The coffin shook, and the piece of apple jumped out of Snow White’s throat. She opened her eyes, lifted the glass lid, and sat up.

“Oh, where am I?”

“You are with me,” said the prince, and his voice trembled with joy.

He told her everything he knew, and the dwarfs told her the rest. Then the prince asked:

“Will you come with me to my father’s castle? Be my wife.”

Snow White looked at the dwarfs. They nodded, wiped their eyes on their beards, and smiled. And she said:

“I will. But all seven of them must come to the wedding.”

The stepmother was invited to the wedding too. She put on her grandest gown and asked the mirror:

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me truly: who in all the land is fairest of all?”

“You are fair, my queen, but the young prince’s bride is a thousand times fairer.”

The queen cried out and hurled the mirror to the floor, crash! and it shattered into pieces. Did she go to the wedding? No. She snatched up a cloak, ran out of the palace, and fled to the ends of the earth. No one ever saw her again, and in the kingdom she had nothing left: no crown, no palace, no mirror.

And Snow White lived happily with the prince. Every summer she came over the seven mountains to the little cottage, and once again there were eight little plates on the table. Envy was left without a home, and kindness found itself a home even in the dark forest.