Snow White: Grimm vs Grimm

(I typed this up before I realized I was going to see Snow White and the Huntsman opening day and hadn't posted it yet because I had to hunt down links and I was being lazy. I haven't actually gone back and altered anything after watching SWATH. And by "lazy" I mean "I meant to post this around a week ago, as you will see in the opening comment.")

"Snow White and the Huntsman" is out this weekend, and I am using that as incentive to do something that I've been meaning to for several months, which is quote passages from both the 1812 version of "Snow White" first recorded by the Grimms, and the more "child/family friendly" rewrites they did beginning in 1819, and how much the story was altered when they did so. (Not, for me, in good ways.)

A few things of note before I get to that (I know there's some "preaching to the choir" going on here, but bear with me here):

1. I am using "original" (when I use it, which ended up not being often) to refer specifically to the later version popularized by the Grimms, not the oral versions that predate it or the version the Grimms first released in 1812.

2. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" is not the name of any version of the story that I know of save for the Disney movie, and the "Snow White" episode of Sheeley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. For the original Grimm story, I've only seen it as "Little Snow-White" and "Snowdrop."

3. Two things often assumed to be part of the story are the whole "true love's kiss" bit and Snow White being grown up throughout the story. Snow White is actually seven when she is abandoned in the forest, and actually grows into adulthood while in the glass coffin. In addition, the prince does not kiss Snow White, but convinces the dwarves to give him the glass coffin with the pretty girl in it. (Apparently, he thinks a pretty girl in a glass coffin will make an interesting topic of conversation when he has guests or something.) Depending on which Grimm version you read, the bit of apple stuck in her throat either falls out when he picks her up from the coffin, or one of his servants gets annoyed and his creepy obsession with having the dead girl in a glass coffin carted around with him all the time and gives her a shake one day and it falls out.

3.b. Disney also started the modern trend of Snow White actually knowing the prince (or her non-prince love interest in a few) before the kissing trend they intrduced, and every subsequent version (that I've encountered) has decided that was a good idea.

3.c. I believe "The Frog Prince" is the only fairytale that has a reputation for cursebreaking kisses where the kiss actually predates the Disney trope. (ETA:  I have been reminded that "Sleeping Beauty"/"Briar Rose" got the "curse breaking kiss" treatment from Perrault before Disney came along.)

4. There are many versions of the Snow White story from several countries. To my knowledge, the dwarves (as opposed to woodsmen/robbers/miners) are a creation of the Grimms.

5. "Snow White" and "Snow White and Rose Red" are completely different stories and the only thing they have in common is the names of the heroines in English. In German, the names are actually different. However, some modern versions of "Snow White" incorporate elements of "Snow White and Rose Red." Specifically, DC's Fables comic book series, Jim Hines's "Princess" quartet, and the movie Snow White: Fairest of them All. The latter two also incorporate elements of "The Snow Queen."

6. The Grimms were not storytellers (If you compare their stories to those of Hans Christian Andersen, the difference between writing fairy tales and recording/updating them becomes very obvious, both in terms of the narrative voice's investment and the oral quality) and originally were recording oral folktales (largely from their circle of female acquaintances, who in turn had heard them from female relatives, nannies, etc) in order to have a written record of them, more for academic means than for entertaining ones. When they learned that their books were being consumed as popular fiction, particularly by children, they rewrote them to be more "suitable" for their unintended but largest audience. Many of the stories became much shorter and gained more easily recognizable moral messages as a result of this, and also lost much of their oral quality.

7. I've been through many versions and translations of both the Grimm and Andersen fairy tales over the years, and the translations of both version of the Grimm's recounting of Snow White that I have here are a bit different from ones I've read before.

8. Less pertinent here, but while I agree some adaptations interpret Snow White as being passive, either in their own canon or in "she's passive, we should fix that!" I've never interpretted her as being passive myself.

On to the quotes (even though the Grimms made alterations after 1819, I'm using 1819 for the rewritten version to make my life easier). Some word usage differences will be because of different translators, but the actual story content is also altered. For the 1812 version, I've used the one available here, for 1819, I've used the version available at Project Gutenberg. I've bolded the most significant bits.

1812: Once upon a time in mid winter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a beautiful queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed, she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with her needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful, that she thought, "If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as this frame." Soon afterward she had a little daughter that was as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood, and therefore they called her Little Snow-White.
Now the queen was the most beautiful woman in all the land, and very proud of her beauty. She had a mirror, which she stood in front of every morning, and asked:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?

1819: It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working at her window. The frame of the window was made of fine black ebony, and as she sat looking out upon the snow, she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell upon it. Then she gazed thoughtfully upon the red drops that sprinkled the white snow, and said, 'Would that my little daughter may be as white as that snow, as red as that blood, and as black as this ebony windowframe!' And so the little girl really did grow up; her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as the blood, and her hair as black as ebony; and she was called Snowdrop.
But this queen died; and the king soon married another wife, who became queen, and was very beautiful, but so vain that she could not bear to think that anyone could be handsomer than she was. She had a fairy looking-glass, to which she used to go, and then she would gaze upon herself in it, and say:
'Tell me, glass, tell me true!
Of all the ladies in the land,
Who is fairest, tell me, who?'

(The change from mother to step-mother is, plotwise, likely the biggest thing.)

1812: When the queen heard the mirror say this, she became pale with envy, and from that hour on, she hated Snow-White. Whenever she looked at her, she thought that Snow-White was to blame that she was no longer the most beautiful woman in the world. This turned her heart around. Her jealousy gave her no peace. Finally she summoned a huntsman and said to him, "Take Snow-White out into the woods to a remote spot, and stab her to death. As proof that she is dead bring her lungs and her liver back to me. I shall cook them with salt and eat them."
The huntsman took Snow-White into the woods. When he took out his hunting knife to stab her, she began to cry, and begged fervently that he might spare her life, promising to run away into the woods and never return. The huntsman took pity on her because she was so beautiful, and he thought, "The wild animals will soon devour her anyway. I'm glad that I don't have to kill her." Just then a young boar came running by. He killed it, cut out its lungs and liver, and took them back to the queen as proof of Snow-White's death. She cooked them with salt and ate them, supposing that she had eaten Snow-White's lungs and liver.
Snow-White was now all alone in the great forest. She was terribly afraid, and began to run. She ran over sharp stones and through thorns the entire day. Finally, just as the sun was about to set, she came to a little house. The house belonged to seven dwarfs. They were working in a mine, and not at home. Snow-White went inside and found everything to be small, but neat and orderly. There was a little table with seven little plates, seven little spoons, seven little knives and forks, seven little mugs, and against the wall there were seven little beds, all freshly made.

(I've read other versions where they say her feet were bleeding as she ran by the time she found the cottage. It's a pretty memorable bit of imagery.)

1819: When she heard this she turned pale with rage and envy, and called to one of her servants, and said, 'Take Snowdrop away into the wide wood, that I may never see her any more.' Then the servant led her away; but his heart melted when Snowdrop begged him to spare her life, and he said, 'I will not hurt you, thou pretty child.' So he left her by herself; and though he thought it most likely that the wild beasts would tear her in pieces, he felt as if a great weight were taken off his heart when he had made up his mind not to kill her but to leave her to her fate, with the chance of someone finding and saving her. Then poor Snowdrop wandered along through the wood in great fear; and the wild beasts roared about her, but none did her any harm. In the evening she came to a cottage among the hills, and went in to rest, for her little feet would carry her no further.

(I think this is the change that bugs me the most.)

1812: It startled the queen to hear this, and she knew that she had been deceived, that the huntsman had not killed Snow-White. Because only the seven dwarfs lived in the seven mountains, she knew at once that they must have rescued her. She began to plan immediately how she might kill her, because she would have no peace until the mirror once again said that she was the most beautiful woman in the land. At last she thought of something to do. She disguised herself as an old peddler woman and colored her face, so that no one would recognize her, and went to the dwarf's house.

1819: Then the queen was very much frightened; for she knew that the glass always spoke the truth, and was sure that the servant had betrayed her. And she could not bear to think that anyone lived who was more beautiful than she was; so she dressed herself up as an old pedlar, and went her way over the hills, to the place where the dwarfs dwelt.

(I'm leaving out the three times the queen tries to kill Snow White rather than basically quoting the whole thing, but (and I think it shows in what I have quoted) Both the Queen and Snow White become somewhat "dumbed down" in the rewrite, and the rewrite also loses much of the oral quality the 1812 version has. It's also worth noting that, while both versions do have Snow White wait until she's seen the peddler woman take a bite of the apple before she'll eat any herself, the 1812 version specifically states that she makes the peddler woman hand her the apple through the window, which, for young children, actually is learning from your mistakes. But when your seven, the need for PRETTY SHINY THING outweighs common sense enough for you to obey the letter of the law but let the spirit slide a bit.

On to the creepy prince being creepy, and the ending.)

1812: One day a young prince came to the dwarfs' house and wanted shelter for the night. When he came into their parlor and saw Snow-White lying there in a glass coffin, illuminated so beautifully by seven little candles, he could not get enough of her beauty. He read the golden inscription and saw that she was the daughter of a king. He asked the dwarfs to sell him the coffin with the dead Snow-White, but they would not do this for any amount of gold. Then he asked them to give her to him, for he could not live without being able to see her, and he would keep her, and honor her as his most cherished thing on earth. Then the dwarfs took pity on him and gave him the coffin.
The prince had it carried to his castle, and had it placed in a room where he sat by it the whole day, never taking his eyes from it. Whenever he had to go out and was unable to see Snow-White, he became sad. And he could not eat a bite, unless the coffin was standing next to him. Now the servants who always had to carry the coffin to and fro became angry about this. One time one of them opened the coffin, lifted Snow-White upright, and said, "We are plagued the whole day long, just because of such a dead girl," and he hit her in the back with his hand. Then the terrible piece of apple that she had bitten off came out of her throat, and Snow-White came back to life.

1819: And thus Snowdrop lay for a long, long time, and still only looked as though she was asleep; for she was even now as white as snow, and as red as blood, and as black as ebony. At last a prince came and called at the dwarfs' house; and he saw Snowdrop, and read what was written in golden letters. Then he offered the dwarfs money, and prayed and besought them to let him take her away; but they said, 'We will not part with her for all the gold in the world.' At last, however, they had pity on him, and gave him the coffin; but the moment he lifted it up to carry it home with him, the piece of apple fell from between her lips, and Snowdrop awoke, and said, 'Where am I?' And the prince said, 'Thou art quite safe with me.'

The queen's fate is also changed, though I have encountered versions where it's unchanged, but has all the other "child friendly" alterations to the story.

1812: She was horrified to hear this, and so overtaken with fear that she could not say anything. Still, her jealousy drove her to go to the wedding and see the young queen. When she arrived she saw that it was Snow-White. Then they put a pair of iron shoes into the fire until they glowed, and she had to put them on and dance in them. Her feet were terribly burned, and she could not stop until she had danced herself to death.

(final paragraph)

1819: When she heard this she started with rage; but her envy and curiosity were so great, that she could not help setting out to see the bride. And when she got there, and saw that it was no other than Snowdrop, who, as she thought, had been dead a long while, she choked with rage, and fell down and died: but Snowdrop and the prince lived and reigned happily over that land many, many years; and sometimes they went up into the mountains, and paid a visit to the little dwarfs, who had been so kind to Snowdrop in her time of need.

(final paragraph)

If you're interested in the history and themes of "Snow White," I recommend Terri Windling's essay, as well as reading the seven versions of the story that you can read here (this is the same site I used for the 1812 version of the text). Some other stories that bear very strong similarities to "Snow White" are Germany's "The Juniper Tree," England's "The Rose Tree" and Japan's "Hase-Hime." (There are others, too, but those are the ones I had written down.

Some completed canons I like that are either direct adaptations of "Snow White," or that have a large part of the plot built around the "Snow White" tale:

Books:
White As Snow by Tanith Lee
"Princess" series by Jim Hines
Snow by Tracy Lynn
Mira, Mirror by Mette Ivie Harrison

Movies:

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" (While I will go one endlessly about it's problems and how I dislike it's influence on many modern interpretations of fairy tales, yes, I do like it, and for all it's cheery singing and cute animals, there are parts that are truly sinister and frightening, and there's some stunning imagery. I also thinks it's rather necessary viewing for discussions of modern ideas about fairy tales.)
"Snow White: A Tale of Terror"
"Snow White: Fairest of Them All"
"Sydney White"

Honorable mention: "Mirror, Mirror" (I need to rewatch to see how much my issues with certain parts affects my ability to have fun with the very large parts that I did enjoy.)

TV:

"The 10th Kingdom"