Snowdrop

Intro

Call her Snowdrop or Snow-White — the girl whose skin was white as snow, lips red as blood, hair black as ebony. This is the full German fairy tale (Brothers Grimm, Sneewittchen), not a Disney summary: jealousy, exile, three temptations, and a long sleep under glass until a true waking. Age 9–12+. Canonical vs the thinner Snow White duplicate (#21).

Story

### The wish at the window

In midwinter a queen sat sewing by an ebony-framed window. She pricked her finger; three drops of blood fell on the snow. If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, as black as this wood, she wished. Soon a daughter was born with exactly that beauty. The queen named her Snowdrop — and died.

### The mirror’s answer

The king married again. The new queen was proud and asked her magic mirror each morning: Who is the fairest of all? For years the glass answered, You, O Queen. When Snowdrop turned seven, the mirror said, You are fair, but Snowdrop is fairer still. Envy took root like ice.

### The huntsman and the forest

The queen ordered a huntsman to take the child into the woods, kill her, and bring back her lungs and liver as proof. In the forest the girl begged for her life. The huntsman’s heart failed him. He let her run and killed a young wild boar instead, carrying its organs to the queen, who had them cooked and ate them, believing her rival gone.

Snowdrop fled until evening and found a little cottage. Inside stood seven small beds, seven plates, seven loaves. She ate a little from each plate, drank a sip from each cup, and tried each bed until the seventh fitted. There she slept.

### The seven dwarfs

At dusk seven dwarfs returned from mining in the mountains. They saw the disordered table, found the sleeping girl, and woke her gently. She told her story. They offered shelter if she would keep house — cook, sew, keep all tidy — while they worked. Beware of your stepmother, they warned. Let no stranger in.

### Three visits

The mirror still told the truth: Snowdrop lived with the dwarfs. The queen, furious, disguised herself as a pedlar woman.

First she sold pretty stays and laced Snowdrop so tight the girl fell as if dead. The dwarfs cut the lace; she breathed again.

Next the queen came as a comb-seller and stuck a poisoned comb into Snowdrop’s hair. Again the dwarfs found her and pulled the comb free.

Third, the queen dressed as a farmer’s wife and offered a beautiful apple — half white, half red, the red half poisoned. Snowdrop, worn down by kindness, took one bite of the red side and fell as if lifeless. This time the dwarfs could not wake her. They laid her in a glass coffin on the mountain so all could still see her beauty, and kept watch.

### The prince and the waking

A prince riding by begged the dwarfs to give him the coffin. As his servants carried it, they stumbled; the piece of poisoned apple shook from Snowdrop’s throat. She opened her eyes. The prince asked her hand. At their wedding the wicked queen was invited; her mirror named the young bride fairest. Rage drove the queen to the feast — where iron slippers heated on coals waited. In the old Grimm ending she danced in them until she fell. Tellers for younger ears may soften that close; the core remains: envy destroys the envious, and truth outlasts a looking-glass.