Children's stories, German -- Translations into English; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Germany
The Dwarfs, when they came home in the evening, found little Snow-White
lying upon the ground. She breathed no longer and was dead. They lifted
her up, looked to see whether they could find anything poisonous,
unlaced her, combed her hair, washed her with water and wine, but it
was all of no use. The poor child was dead, and remained dead. They
laid her upon a bier, and all seven of them sat round it and wept for
her, and wept three days long.
Then they were going to bury her, but she still looked as if she was
living, and still had her pretty red cheeks. They said, “We could not
bury her in the dark ground,” and they had a transparent coffin of
glass made, so that she might be seen from all sides. They laid her in
it, and wrote her name upon it in golden letters, and that she was a
King’s Daughter.
Then they put the coffin out upon the mountain, and one of them always
stayed by it to watch it. And birds came too, and wept for little
Snow-White; first an owl, then a raven, and last a dove.
And now little Snow-White lay a long, long time in the coffin. She did
not change, but looked as if she were asleep; for she was as white as
snow, as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony.
It happened, however, that a King’s Son came into the forest, and went
to the Dwarfs’ house to spend the night. He saw the coffin on the
mountain, and the beautiful little Snow-White within it, and read what
was written upon it in golden letters.
Then he said to the Dwarfs, “Let me have the coffin. I will give you
whatever you want for it.”
But the Dwarfs answered, “We will not part with it for all the gold in
the world.”
Then he said, “Let me have it as a gift, for I cannot live without
seeing little Snow-White. I will honor and prize her as my dearest
possession,” As he spoke in this way the good Dwarfs took pity upon
him, and gave him the coffin.
And now the King’s Son had it carried away by his servants on their
shoulders. And it happened, that they stumbled over a tree-stump, and
with the shock the poisonous piece of apple, which little Snow-White
had bitten off, came out of her throat. And before long she opened her
eyes, lifted up the lid of the coffin, sat up, and was once more alive.
“Oh, where am I?” she cried.
The King’s Son, full of joy, said, “You are with me,” and told her what
had happened, and said, “I love you more than everything in the world.
Come with me to my father’s palace, you shall be my wife.”
And little Snow-White was willing, and went with him, and their wedding
was held with great show and splendor. But the wicked Queen was also
bidden to the feast. When she had arrayed herself in beautiful clothes,
she went before the Looking-Glass, and said:
“_Looking-Glass, Looking-Glass, on the wall,
Who in this land is the fairest of all?_”
the Glass answered:
“_Oh, Queen, of all here the fairest art thou,
But the young Queen is fairer by far, I trow!_”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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