Snow White

Snow White
& the Seven Dwarfs

Edited by Cookie Nassef

Once upon a time there lived a lovely little princess named Snow White. Her vain and wicked stepmother the Queen feared that some day Snow White's beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little Princess in rags and forced her to work as a Scullery Maid. Each day the vain Queen consulted her Magic Mirror, 'Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?' and as long as the Mirror answered, 'You are the fairest one of all,' Snow White was safe from the Queen's cruel jealousy.

One day, however, the Magic Mirror informs the queen that Snow White, despite her rags, is now the fairest in the land. In addition, the queen observes the arrival of a prince, who serenades the young girl as she gathers water from a well to scrub the grounds. These events fuel the queen's jealousy, and she orders her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her. As proof, the queen requires the huntsman to bring back the dead girl's heart in a jeweled box. The kind-hearted huntsman cannot go through with the act, and urges Snow White to flee into the woods and never come back.

The frightened princess finds herself lost in the woods, and terrified by luminous glowing eyes peering from within the trees and the brush. These turn out to be the eyes of friendly woodland creatures, who befriend Snow White and lead her to a cottage deep in the forest. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the home of seven children—"Seven untidy children," she notes as she finds the cottage in disarray. The princess and the animals band together and clean the cottage, hoping that the good deed will convince the children to let Snow White stay with them.

The woodland cottage belongs not to seven children but to seven adult dwarfs who spend their days working in a nearby diamond mine. Upon returning home at the end of the working day, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean, and surmise that a monstrous intruder has invaded their home. The dwarfs discover Snow White upstairs, asleep in their beds. The princess introduces herself, and the dwarfs, save for one aptly named Grumpy, are pleased to welcome her as a house guest, particularly when they learn she can cook and has prepared dinner. They are less pleased, however, at Snow White's insistence that they wash up before eating, something they've never done and only do after much apprehension.

Meanwhile, the huntsman has returned to the castle and delivered the Queen what she assumes to be Snow White's heart. However, the magic mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is in the care of the seven dwarfs, and that the huntsman has actually given the Queen a pig's heart. The enraged Queen descends to a secret laboratory, where she practices witchcraft. Using her potions and spells, the Queen disguises herself as an ugly old hag and prepares a poisoned apple to place Snow White in an eternal state of repose called, The Sleeping Death.

The next morning, the dwarfs head out for the diamond mine, warning Snow White to beware of the evil Queen. However, the Queen's disguise is so convincing that Snow White is neither alarmed nor alert when the she arrives at the dwarfs' cottage, pretending to be an apple peddler. The Queen offers Snow White the poisoned apple, claiming it to be a magic wishing apple. Snow White's animal friends are not as easily convinced, and rush off to warn the dwarfs. While they are gone, however, Snow White takes a bite out of the apple, and falls to the floor, seemingly dead. A storm starts up outside, as the ugly old hag cackles, "Now I'll be fairest in the land!"

The dwarfs arrive, riding deer, just in time to catch the Queen fleeing from the cottage. The dwarfs chase the hag through the raging storm, following her up the side of a mountain and trapping her at the edge of a jagged cliff. Desperate to rid herself of the dwarfs, the Queen attempts to push a boulder down the mountainside and onto them. However, a bolt of lightning strikes the edge of the cliff where she stands, causing her to fall into the chasm below as the boulder she had tried to push onto the dwarfs rolls backwards to crush her.

Despite having done away with the Queen, the dwarfs return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead. They cannot bear to bury her, and instead build for her a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. The dwarfs and the woodland creatures keep watch over Snow White through the autumn, winter, and spring. One day, the prince, who had been searching all over for the princess, learns of her plight and comes to visit the coffin. Captivated by her beauty, he approaches the coffin and kisses Snow White, restoring her to life with, "Love's first kiss"—the only cure for the sleeping death. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice, and tearfully say good-bye to Snow White as she and the prince ride off into the sunset to his castle, where they live happily ever after.

- The End -

:)