Folk tales are inherently changeable. Look through their history and you’ll find many versions. Some of them are horrible by today’s standards. Modern writers have made startling reversals on traditional stories. In Cecilia Eng’s song “Red as Blood,” Snow White is a vampire. (Pale white skin, lips red as blood…) I’ve written previously about Warner Brothers’ “Coal Black.” The problems arise when an adaptation isn’t what it claims to be and when it’s clearly designed by committee. That’s what Disney’s new version of Snow White is shaping up to be.

The story can be traced back to Pentamerone, published in 1634, and probably has roots in older stories. It took a more familiar form in the Grimms’ story “Schneewittchen” (Snow Drop). In these stories, the heroine is seven years old when she flees the queen and is poisoned into a coma. The queen in “Schneewittchen” succeeds only on the third attempt, which says something about the seven-year-old’s continued gullibility. She is put into a glass coffin, which grows along with her until she is awakened as an adult. The Grimms’ version is more gruesome than today’s usual versions. The queen orders the huntsman to bring back Snow Drop’s lungs and liver. As in the Disney version, he doesn’t kill her and brings back an animal’s organs — which the queen proceeds to eat. At the end, the queen is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes till she dies.

(more…)