Once upon a time in the middle of winter,when the flakes of snow were falling like feather from the sky,a queen sat at a window sewing,and the frame of the window was made of black ebony.
And while she was sewing and looking out of the window at the snow,she pricked her finger with the needle,and three drops of blood fell upon the snow
And the red looked pretty upon the white snow,and she thought to herself,"I wish that I had a child with skin as white as snow,lips as red as blood,and hair as black as the wood of the window frame.
Soon after that she had a little daughter,whose skin was as white as snow,and lips as red as blood,and her hair was as black as ebony.
and she was therefore called snow white.And when the child was born,the Queen died.
After a year had passed,the king married another wife.
She was a beautiful woman,but proud,and she could not bear think that anyone else could be more beautiful than her.
She had a magic mirror ,and when she stood in front of it and looked at herself in it,and said:
"Mirror,mirror,mirror,on the wall,
who is the fairest of us all?"
Then the mirror would always answer:
"You,oh queen,are the fairest of them all!"
Then she was satisfied,for she knew that the mirror spoke the truth.
But Snow White was growing up,and grew more and more beautiful-more beautiful than the Queen herself.
And once when the Queen asked her mirror:
"Mirror,mirror,mirror,on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?"
It answered:
"Queen,you are fair,that's very true,
But Snow White is fairest still than you."
Then the Queen was shocked,and turned green with envy.
And from that hour her heart turned against Snow White,and she hated her.
And envy and pride grew in her heart like weeds,so that she had no peace day or night.
She called a huntsman,and said,"Take the child away into the forest;I will no longer have her in my sight.Kill her,and bring me back her heart as proof."
The huntsman obeyed,and took her away.
But when he had drawn his knife,and was about to pierce Snow White's innocent heart,she began to weep,and said,
"Ah dear huntsman,leave me my life! I will go away into the wild wood,and never come home again."
And as she was so beautiful,the huntsman had pity on her and said,"Run away,then,you poor child."
"The wild beasts will soon eat you,
anyway",he thought,and yet it seemed as if a stone had been rolled from off his heart since he decided to spare her life.
And as a young boar just then came running by he killed it with his spear,and cut out its heart and took it to the Queen as proof that child was dead.
The cook had to prepare this,and the wicked Queen ate it,and thought she had eaten the heart of Snow White.
But now the poor child was all alone in the great forest.
and was terrified of every leaf of every tree,and did not know what to do.
Then she began to run,and ran over sharp stones and through thorns,and the wild beasts chased after her,but did her no harm.
She ran as far as her feet would go until it was almost evening;
then she saw a little cottage and went into it to rest herself.
Everything in the cottage was small,but very neat and clean.
There was a table on which was a white cloth,and seven little plates,and on each plate a little spoon.
There were seven little knives and forks,and seven little glasses.
Against the wall stood seven little beds side by side,covered with clean white sheets.
Little Snow White was so hungry and thirsty that she ate some porridge and bread from each plate and drank a drop of wine out of each glass,for she did not wish to take all from one only.
Then,as she was so tired,she laid herself down on one of the little beds,but none of them suited her.
One was too long,another too short.But at last she found that the seventh one was right,and so she remained in it,said a prayer and went to sleep.