14 Snow-White (2) (Germany)
The Queen dressed up and disguised herself as a very old woman, hunched and ragged. When a little before sunset she came to the house of the dwarfs. The Queen spied Snow-White up there peering down from the window, and cackled softly:“Ripe apples, ripe apples! Who’ll buy my ripe apples?”Snow-White shook her head, but the Queen cut the apple in half, and threw the rosy half up to the window. And Snow-White,thinking what pleasure such fruits as these would give the dwarfs, caught the piece of apple, and lifted it to her nose to smell its sweetness. Then she took a bite, but before she could swallow it she fell down on the floor, seemingly dead.
That midnight the Queen stole catlike to her lookingglass and whispered the same question. The voice within cried hollowly: “Thou, O Queen!”
When the Seven Dwarfs came home that evening, their hearts were sad and dismal indeed. Nothing they could do brought any tinge of colour back into Snow-White’s cheeks,or warmth to her fingers. Yet they could not bear to think of hiding her away in the dark, cold ground, so, working all of them together, they made a coffin of glass, and put up a wooden bench not far from the house, and rested the glass coffin on it, mantling it with garlands of green leaves and flowers. The birds that Snow-White used to feed with her crumbs and scraps sang beside the coffin.
One fresh morning, when early summer was in the forest again, a Prince came riding with his huntsmen, and seeing this glass coffin on the bench, dismounted from his horse,and, pushing the green garlands aside, looked in at Snow-White lying there. His heart misgave him at the sight of her, for he had never seen a face so lovely or so wan. Then he told the dwarfs: “My father, the King, has a leech who is wondrously skilled in magic herbs. Give me leave to carry off this coffin, and I promise you that, your Snow-White,shall come back to you alive and well, or sleeping on as she sleeps now.”The dwarfs talked together in grief and dismay at the thought of losing Snow-White, even though only for a few days. But they agreed at last that this should be so.
It was dark night when the huntsmen were drawing near the palace of the King, and one of them stumbled over the jutting root of a tree. By this sudden jarring of her glass coffin,the morsel of poisonous apple that was stuck in Snow-White’s throat became dislodged. She lifted her head, coughed out the morsel, and cried: “God help me!”The Prince, hearing her cry, took off the lid of the coffin. Then Snow-White sat up, and gazed at him. The Prince rejoiced with all his heart,and sent back two of his huntsmen to give the dwarfs the glad news that Snow-White had come alive again; and that their master, the Prince, had bidden them all to the King’s palace.
The King and Queen, having heard Snow-White’s story,rejoiced with their son the Prince, and gave a banquet to welcome her; and the Seven Dwarfs sat at a table on stools of ebony, their napkins white as snow, and their wine red as blood. And Snow-White herself poured out wine for them just as she used to do.
As for the murderous Queen, she had become lean and haggard and dreaded even the thought of her magic lookingglass. In time she fell mortally sick. At last, in the dead of night she summoned one of her waiting-women and bade her take down the looking-glass from the wall, and bring it to her bedside. Then she drew close the curtains round her bed, and whispered:
“Looking-glass, looking-glass on the wall,
Who is the fairest of women all?”
And the voice within replied:
“Fair, in sooth, wert thou[1], I ween[2],
But Snow-White too is now a Queen.
Fairer than she is none[3], I vow.
Look at thyself! Make answer! Thou!”
At this, the looking-glass slipped out of her hand, and was dashed to pieces on the floor. Her blood seemed to curdle to ice in her body, and she fell back upon her pillows and died.
—Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm
[1] wert thou：﹝古﹞= were you。
[2] ween：﹝古﹞= think。
[3] Fairer than she is none：= None / No one is fairer than she (is)。