In the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White,” a beautiful princess is targeted by her jealous stepmother, a vain and wicked queen who uses a magic mirror to confirm her beauty. The queen orders a huntsman to kill Snow White, but he spares her. Snow White finds refuge with seven dwarfs, and the queen, disguised, eventually poisons her with a poisoned apple. Snow White falls into a death-like sleep, but is revived by a prince who falls in love with her. The evil queen, invited to their wedding, is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she dies.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German scholars and folklorists whose collections of traditional stories helped preserve European oral storytelling traditions. First published in the nineteenth century, their fairy tales remain foundational works of children’s literature, valued for their moral insight and enduring narrative power.View all by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
