Snow White - Snow White and Rose Red

There is another Brothers Grimm tale called Snow White and Rose Red which also includes a character called Snow White. However, this Snow White is a completely separate character from the one found in this tale. The original German names are also different: Schneewittchen and Schneeweißchen. There is actually no difference in the meaning (both mean "snow white"), but the first name is more influenced by the dialects of Low Saxon while the second one is the standard German version, implying a class difference between the two Snow Whites.

Another possibility is that the story of Snow White merged with the story of Elizabeth I of England and her rival and ultimately her victim Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots). Her biographers described Mary as having skin of snow, blackest hair, and lips blood red. She was considered a beauty all her life. The story goes that Mary brought two venetian mirrors from France and wanting to give Elizabeth, her cousin, a gift, sent her one mirror and had her portrait placed into the other matching frame. The two were wrapped in straw and sent to Elizabeth. Elizabeth was much older than Mary Stuart and not as beautiful. In addition, Elizabeth had never had a real mirror, just rubbed metal plate. When she first saw herself in the Venetian mirror, she saw her age and her flaws clearly for the first time. Then she looked at the portrait of her beautiful cousin and her hatred was complete. She felt Mary was mocking her. Mary was young and would surely take the throne form her old maid cousin, eventually. The rumor is that you could hear Elizabeth screaming all the way to Westminster and that she threw her shoe and broke the costly mirror. She simultaneously hatched the scheme to imprison and kill Mary, and abduct her son to be raised as her heir.

Read more about this topic:  Snow White

Famous quotes containing the words snow, white, rose and/or red:

    February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    We will win this war because we are willing to sacrifice 10,000,000 lives. How many lives is the White Man willing to sacrifice?
    Jerome Cady, U.S. screenwriter, and Lewis Milestone. General Mitsubi (Richard Loo)

    Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.
    Don Marquis (1878–1937)

    O My Luve’s like a red, red rose,
    That’s newly sprung in June;
    O My Luve’s like the melodie
    That’s sweetly played in tune.
    Robert Burns (1759–1796)