Something that I have always known is that there are multiple versions of most fairy tales. Usually they vary from culture to culture. I’m not really sure where I picked up this knowledge, but I’ve just always known that the Disney versions aren’t the only ones out there. Something I am beginning to learn now by reading through the text (The Classic Fairy Tales) is that all of these versions that I have previously heard of, are completely different from one another. Although they have the same basic core plot line, the stories turn out much different. Sometimes some of them even have different characters or different endings than the others. For example, in Giambattista Basile’s version of Snow White, called The Young Slave. “Snow White’s” name is actually Lisa in this version, and she was conceived when her mother ate a rose petal. After she was born, her mother brought her to fairy’s to bless her, and one of the fairies’ tripped and accidentally cursed her.
“She sent her to the fairies and they each gave her some charm, but the last one slipped and twisted her foot so badly as she was running to see the child, that in her acute pain she hurled a curse at her, to the effect that when she was seven years old, her mother, whilst combing out her hair, would leave the comb in her tresses, stuck in her head, and from this the child would perish” (pg. 80).
In most other versions, it is not the mother that sends the young girl into an eternal sleep. It is usually an Evil Queen or a Witch. This is also a character that varies. In Brothers Grimm version, Snow White grew to be the fairest lady in all the land and her envious step-mother (who also happens to be Queen) wants her dead, so that she is the most fair again. Snow White escapes and stumbles upon the Seven Dwarfs house in woods. They agree to let her stay if she keeps the house tidy. However, they knew that her step-mother would find out that she is there, and would try to kill her. After several attempts, (one being the comb in her head) the Evil Queen, disguised as an old women, gave Snow White a poisoned apple, which she ate, and put her into an eternal sleep.
“’I’ll get rid of my apples soon enough. Here, I’ll give you one.’ ‘No’ said Snow White, ‘I’m not supposed to take anything.’ ‘Are you afraid it’s poisoned?’ asked the old woman, ‘Here I’ll cut the apple in two. You can eat the red part, I’ll eat the white’ … But no sooner had she taken a bite when she fell down on the ground dead. The queen stared at her with savage eyes and burst out laughing. ‘White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony! This time the Dwarf’s won’t be able to bring you back to life!’” (pg. 88).
These examples are only two of the many differences found in each version of “Snow White”. I think that because all of these stories are so different, it makes them more interesting to read the same story over and over. It also goes to show how different people from multiple cultures lives were. All of these stories, based off of the same basic plot line, were told by different story tellers in different regions of the world. That’s what made all of the stories have their own little twist.
Skylar Nerone 