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- [00:00]
Faith Moore
Hello and welcome to Storytime for Grown Ups. I'm Faith Moore and this is Summer Session. Normally on Storytime for Grown Ups we read classic literature a few chapters at a time with a few notes along the way. Like an audiobook with built in notes. But during the summer we switch things up a little. From now until September, we will be in Summer Session, which is sort of like a college class, only fun. This summer we're exploring fairy tales and their relationship to the books we've read this year on storytime and storytelling more broadly. We'll do this in once a week episodes, which will drop on Mondays. If this doesn't sound like your thing, don't worry. Storytime will be back with a new book in September. But for now, brew a pot of tea, find a cozy chair and settle in. Class is in session.
- [01:07]
Summer Session Host
Hi everyone. Welcome back. I'm so happy to be back with you again. I was away last week. I hope you enjoyed the interview that we did last week. Thank you for keeping writing to me. And I've been getting all kinds of emails, both about the interview, but also about the episode before for the interview, the Deep Dark Woods. And we're going to be talking about that some more today and then we're going to be diving in to some more fairy tale tropes and ideas and we're going to read some more today. So there's a lot going on today and I'm excited to share it all with you and to be back with you. So thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of this show. I'm always so glad to be with you and so happy to get your emails and things. So thank you for being a part of this for the summer. It's delightful. So the usual reminders before we get started, don't forget to subscribe in August. So coming up, not too long from now, you're gonna get the trailer for September's book. It's gonna drop into your podcast feed if you are subscribed. And if you are not subscribed, then you will miss it and be very, very sad, I'm sure. So please make sure you're subscribed. If you've been enjoying the show and you haven't already, please tap the five stars. It's really helpful for the show. It helps the show to grow because it means that more people see the show. It pops up in their podcast players through some kind of magic. I don't know, some sort of fairy tale algorithm is going on in there and people can see it if you tap the five stars and if you have a couple of extra seconds, if you leave a positive review, those are all really helpful things. If you've already done that or that feels too complicated, then you can just tell a friend. You can text a link to the show to a friend, family member, a colleague, somebody random that you see on the street. You can text a link or here email a link or just tell them. Look up Storytime for Grown Ups because I'm enjoying it and I think you will too. I really hope that you will help spread the word. My goal is for there to be even more of us ready to listen to the new book in September and go into the next school year with us. So thank you for being a part of this and for spreading the word in whatever way you choose to do that. And of course, scroll into the show notes. There's all kinds of links there that I think might be of interest. You can check out our merch store. You can buy story time for Grown Ups merchandise. There's mugs and T shirts and tote bags and all kinds of things with beautiful designs on them that relate to the different books that we've read. And also there's just our Storytime logo. So please pick up something if you're interested. You can also find the link to support the show financially if that's something you feel willing and able to do. I always really appreciate your donations. It helps me to spend more time on this show instead of on other things. And you can sign up to join our online community, which is called the drawing room. It's the withdrawing room in an old Victorian house. You would have a drawing room where you would withdraw after dinner to talk about literature and music and life and all sorts of things. And so we have a drawing room. It's an online one, but you can be a part of it. There's a link there to join and this is a good time to join because the next monthly tea time is coming up. It's going to be Wednesday, July 30th at 8pm Eastern, and I'll keep reminding you as we get closer, but since these episodes are only weekly, I have fewer chances to remind you. So it's going to be two July 30th at 8pm That's a Wednesday, and the tea times are just voice chats, like a group phone call that we have together. You can talk to me, I can talk to you, or you can just listen and we talk about what we've been talking about on the show together. And also just other things that are on our minds. People post, ask me anything questions and I answer them there. So it's a really fun and lovely time and the hour flies by. So if you're not a member and you're interested, please scroll into the show notes and click on that link and you can learn more about what you what the drawing room is and how to sign up. So I hope you'll join us. I hope to see some new faces or at least hear some new voices in our tea time on the 30th. Okay, so as I said before I went away, I saved your questions from the Deep Dark woods episode and I'm going to read some of them now. So we're going to try to get back into this conversation that we've started about these fairy tale tropes and symbols and ideas and looking at these stories as kind of allegories or metaphors that talk about these universal truths, these bigger ideas, these things that are bigger than just, you know, a wolf in the woods or a princess in a castle or whatever it is. So I want to get back into that by reading you some of the questions that I saved from the Deep Dark woods episode. And then we're going to transition from that into the topic of today's episode, which I will share about in a moment. And then I'm going to read you one fairy tale today. So let's get to our questions. And of course, don't forget to write to me faithk moore.com and click on Contact or just scroll into the show notes. It's one of those links that's there and you can write to me. More questions after today's episode. I'm thinking there's going to be quite a few questions after today's episode, so write in and we'll talk about them next week. Okay, so let's get started with these questions, which are again about the episode two weeks ago which was all about.
- [06:02]
Faith Moore
The Deep Dark woods.
- [06:03]
Summer Session Host
All right, the first one is from Julie. She says, after I finished the Deep Dark woods episode, I put on some music while doing chores around the house. The song Hungry like the Wolf came on and I burst out laughing. I hadn't made the connection to Red Riding Hood before that I'm loving Summer session. This next one is from Nicole Wheeler. She writes, how does the wolf eating the grandmother correlate with the wolf representing sex? I'm so confused. I can see the connection to not seeing the wolf. So sex as dangerous and then being tempted to get too close when you shouldn't but all the other details confuse me. And the last one is from Rachel Kaplan. Rachel writes, in the Brothers Grimm version of Hansel and Gretel that you read, I am struck by the evil stepmother.
- [06:49]
Faith Moore
She is truly so heartless that she.
- [06:51]
Summer Session Host
And the witch are very much alike. While the wicked stepmother in Cinderella was cruel, at least she didn't want Cinderella to die. The Hansel and Gretel story seems to.
- [07:00]
Faith Moore
Take the wicked stepmother trope to a whole other level.
- [07:03]
Summer Session Host
What is it with evil stepmothers and witches in fairy tales? Okay, so the first thing that I wanted to just kind of point out is that at this point you might be starting to pick up on fairy tale references, like, everywhere. I've been getting wonderful emails lately, and Julie's email about the song Hungry like the Wolf is one of them, which we'll talk about in a minute. But I've been getting emails about all kinds of places where these fairy tale symbols, tropes and show up, like in books and stories and movies and songs, even expressions. Like, there was one listener, Sally, who wrote in to say that she suddenly started thinking about the expression out of the woods. Like when someone is sick or going through a bad situation. But it's okay now we say that they're out of the woods. So this stuff is everywhere. And I hope that you will keep writing to me with other cool fairy tale references that you're noticing in your life or wherever, and I'll try to keep sharing them here as well so that we can keep a sort of reaction running. List. But I wanted to feature Julie's comment about the song because I think it ties really nicely into Nicole's question about the symbolism of Little Red Riding Hood and how eating Little Red, or anyone, is somehow a metaphor for having sex with them. So Hungry like the Wolf is a song by Duran Duran, and it came out in 1982. So if you've never heard it, it's one of these kind of 80s pop songs, and you can find it on Spotify or YouTube or whatever. But even though it's just a sort of silly pop song, it's using the exact same metaphor that the original Little Red Riding Hood story is using. I went back and forth about whether I should actually read some of the lyrics on here because they really are relevant. But I decided not to, because even though they never come out and say anything sexually explicit at all, they're so obviously about sex and so obviously almost kind of pornographic when you think about it that way, that I decided not to read them to you. Not to subject to that. But this really is a fantastic example of how this metaphor works, because essentially this is a song about a guy who wants to sleep with a woman. And the metaphor for that is that he's hungry like the wolf, right? He talks about hunting her. He talks about being in the forest. He talks about his mouth watering and his heightened senses and all of this. And this is exactly what's going on in Little Red Riding Hood as well. So Nicole's question is about how the grandmother and the wolf eating the grandmother ties into this metaphor of sex or sexual predators. And I think that's fair, since grandmothers don't really need to necessarily guard their virginities or whatever. But I think the grandmother isn't really necessarily part of the metaphor. I think the wolf eats the grandmother because he's trying to get at Little Red, right? He gets rid of the authority figure, the mother figure, who might stop Little Red from getting into bed with the wolf. So in that instance, the eating isn't really sex necessarily. But I do want to spend some time talking about how eating someone could be a metaphor for wanting to have sex with them in the context of. Of the wolf and Little Red. Because on the surface, eating and sex are two very different things. Except when you zoom out a little and you think about it, there are kind of a lot of similarities, right?
- [10:11]
Faith Moore
These are both carnal processes.
- [10:13]
Summer Session Host
They involve bodily fluids and being very close. And not to get too explicit, but they also involve taking something inside of oneself. And to be a bit more metaphorical about it, when we're in love with, we often talk about feeling like one person, right? With our partner, wishing we could be even closer to our love interest than we can actually physically be, wanting to know each other as deeply as possible, right? And all of this stuff. So ingesting someone is kind of a good metaphor for this, I think. And then if you want to make it about a kind of predatory situation, right? A situation in which a young girl is being taken advantage of by an older, more experienced man, as is happening in Little Red Riding Hood, because we're told that the wolf is gaffer wolf, remember, old man wolf, and Little Red is clearly a young girl. So if you're trying to allegorically represent that situation, having it be a prowling wolf who's hunting down Little Red and hoping to eat her, and Little Red being sort of drawn to the wolf, but also kind of clueless about what he wants, then you can hopefully see how this metaphor starts to work. And I think it's really Clear that this is what Perrault at least was going for. Remember, here's a quote from his version. This is the wolf talking. He says, put the cake and the little pot of butter upon the bread bin and come and lie down with me. And then the story says Little Red Riding Hood undressed herself and went into bed. Okay. He asks her to lie down with him. She undresses herself, lies down with him, and then he eats her. Okay? So the eating is very clearly the metaphor for sex for all the reasons that I just described. And I love that Julie made that connection to the Duran Duran song because it's a of part perfect example of that same exact metaphor being used in a much more modern context. So go away and listen to that song if you're interested. And do keep sending me the places where you're noticing these fairy tale ideas cropping up. But I included Rachel's question about wicked stepmothers and witches today as well as a kind of springboard into today's topic. Okay, so I'm not going to answer it outright right this second, but I hope that by the end of this episode, you'll be starting to get a sense of what this. These awful mother figures are doing in these fairy tales. Because today I'd like to add another fairy tale trope to our toolbox. And that trope is the idea of maidenhood. Okay, so now I would like to take a look at the concept of maidenhood. Let's transition into today's topic, and within this, we're going to encounter several other fairy tale elements that hold symbolic value. Because we talked before about how in many fairy tales, that central crisis, or the central obstacle to be overcome is the crisis of growing up. Right? The transformation that takes place for many of these fairy tale heroes and heroines is that they must go somehow from child to adult. Often this happens in the woods, as we discussed before, and there are often a variety of symbolic elements and episodes that kind of get them there. So one very important fairy tale version.
- [13:26]
Faith Moore
Of growing up has to do with.
- [13:28]
Summer Session Host
Women, with girls growing up into women. And there is a lot of fairy tale symbolism that has to do with this.
- [13:35]
Faith Moore
I think if we remember that many.
- [13:38]
Summer Session Host
Of these stories were for the benefit of children, right? To teach them important life lessons and universal truths in a way that was easier to digest than just sort of wagging our fingers in their faces and yelling at them not to do things or whatever. If we think of them this way, then the notion of essentially female puberty is a really great candidate for being turned into this type of story, right? First of all, female puberty is kind of taboo, right? Getting your period is even sometimes now kind of shameful. It can be embarrassing if you haven't had good education around puberty. It can be terrifying because you're suddenly bleeding and you might think you were very ill or even dying. And it also happens to girls and women. So it can seem sort of like you shouldn't talk about it around men because it's only something that happens to women. So it's ripe, I think, for being turned into a story that never actually mentions female puberty, but holds a lot of symbolic links to it. Like, we have all these euphemisms, right, for things that feel sort of embarrassing or taboo. So here's another topic that you don't really discuss in polite company. So now imagine that you're a mother and you want to prepare your daughter for this change, right? Both the onset of menarche, but also what it implies. Because, of course, something that's really important for young girls to understand is that when they get their period, when they go through puberty, then they can have.
- [15:06]
Faith Moore
Babies, they can get pregnant.
- [15:07]
Summer Session Host
So they need to be very aware and very careful now that they are essentially women. So you want to prepare your daughter, but back in the past, right, it's sort of taboo, but also this huge deal. So you make up a story to make it more manageable. You create stories that hold within them these ideas of changing from girl to woman, of becoming physically capable of having babies, of guarding your virginity and all of this. Okay? So I'm not saying that this is what happened in the creation of every single story that's about girls growing up, but. But I am saying that this is one aspect of stories like these, and we do have many, many fairy tales that feature princesses. Usually it's a princess dealing with the symbolic trappings of growing up. And often these stories are the most problematic ones in the modern day because they sometimes deal with sex. They almost always include a prince rescuing the heroine. They often have the princess falling asleep randomly. And they often also often have really weird stuff going on, like cannibalism and necrophilia and truly terrible stepmothers and things like that. And if you try to read them literally, if you don't allow for the symbolic nature of all these various elements, then you're often left going like, whoa, what the heck? This story is too weird. It's too creepy, it's gross. I have no interest in this. Okay, so today we're going to begin our exploration of maidenhood in fairy tales. We're going to with the story of Snow White. Okay, but before I read you Snow White today, I want to talk to you in kind of a fair amount of detail about the symbolism of this particular fairy tale, because next week we're going to read another similar story. So we're going to be talking about maidenhood for two weeks because it's kind of a huge fairy tale like domain. So next week, we'll read another story that holds many of the same symbolic elements. And I hope that by thinking about the symbolism of Snow White now, and as you listen to me read it in a few minutes, you'll be able to draw some connections to the other fairy tales that we will read next week. Okay? So the first thing to know, just to sort of orient yourself, is that the first appearance in writing of the Snow White story is in the Brothers Grimm. Okay. Perrault doesn't have a version. There's no other versions that we know of before the Brothers Grimm version. Also, for those of you interested in the Disney adaptations of these stories, you will probably see very quickly, when you start to listen to me read it, that this is the version that the Disney movie of Snow White is based on. Also, you will notice that the deep, dark woods shows up in this story as well. And that makes sense because, like I was just saying, this is a story about growing up. So pay attention to which parts of the story take place in the woods and what's happening to our main characters while they are in the woods. Okay, so what is Snow White actually about? What is it a metaphor for? What's the allegory? Well, Snow White is the story of a young girl reaching puberty and an older woman reaching menopause. Yes. I am serious. Okay. We've been talking about how usually in a fairy tale, beauty on the outside means beauty on the inside, and usually it does. But Snow White is an exception, Sort of. Okay, the wicked Queen. Okay, we're gonna get to the wicked stepmothers now. The wicked queen, Snow White, stepmother, is actually very beautiful, right? She looks in her magic mirror, and she asks who is the fairest in the land? And the mirror tells her that she is. Okay.
- [18:42]
Faith Moore
And we're told.
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Summer Session Host
You'll notice in the story, we're told that the mirror must speak the truth. So, in fact, the wicked queen really is beautiful, but she's getting older. Okay? She's a stepmother. She's cast in the mother role now, not the princess role. And she's married, so she's no longer a Maiden. She's not the young, beautiful princess anymore.
- [19:01]
Faith Moore
But she's still the fairest in the land. Except she lives with Snow White, who.
- [19:05]
Summer Session Host
Is a young girl, and she's just on the cusp of puberty. And at a certain point, most likely, though we're not told this outright in the story, but most likely at the moment when Snow White gets her period, the mirror tells the wicked queen that Snow White is the fairest in the land and not the queen, okay? So Snow White becomes the fairest at the moment when she tips from child toward adult. She's not an adult yet. She's still a child. But adulthood, or womanhood, is coming, okay?
- [19:38]
Faith Moore
She blooms.
- [19:39]
Summer Session Host
She goes from cute little girl to just beginning to show the first signs of womanhood. The first signs and that she will become a sexual being. And the mirror now says that she, Snow White, is the fairest. And the queen cannot stand this. She can't stand that someone is prettier than her, okay?
- [19:57]
Faith Moore
But it's more than that, because she.
- [19:58]
Summer Session Host
Can'T stand that she. The queen is tipping toward old age, tipping toward menopause. Snow White is tipping toward the prime of womanhood. The queen is tipping toward the onset of old age. So what does she do? She asks the huntsman to kill Snow White. And in the version that we're going to read, so spoiler alert, but she. She asks the huntsman to bring back Snow White's lungs and liver so that she can eat them. Why? This is not the only story where older women want to eat younger women or even children. Okay? So why would the wicked queen want to eat Snow White's vital organs? I think if this were really a college class, I would pause here because I would wait for you to raise your hands, and I bet that we'd have a bunch of waving hands right now. But you're not here, so I'm going to have to answer for you, right? She wants to ingest Snow White so that she can stay young, okay? She wants to ingest Snow White's vitality and youth and fertility and be young again. It's like the fairy tale equivalent of, like, a bunch of Botox and a terrible facelift or something. She can't face the fact of getting older. She can't face the end of her fertility and the end of her dominance in, like, the realm of beauty. So that's what the queen's problem is, okay? That's why she wants Snow White dead, and that's why she wants to eat her Snow White, though. You'll see is kind of oblivious to this. All she knows is that her stepmother is trying to kill her. And she's totally oblivious to the fact that she is undergoing this change from girl to woman. But off she goes, running away into the woods. So here again, we've got the main character going into the woods, and in.
- [21:37]
Faith Moore
The woods, the she will change.
- [21:39]
Summer Session Host
Okay. By the way, I didn't mention this in the Deep Dark woods episode, but you'll notice in Snow White that the forest creatures, the animals in the forest don't harm her. And this is something that we saw in Hansel and Gretel as well. And you'll notice that a lot of times, the innocents, the children, and the good virtuous people who go into the woods aren't harmed by the animals there. And that's how you know that they are good and virtuous people. Okay, but. Okay, so Snow White goes into the woods and finds herself at the dwarf's cottage. So remember, in the woods, the main character undergoes a transformation. And Snow White's transformation is going to be from girl to woman, from someone who is a child to someone who's capable of bearing a child. So in the woods, this place of transformation, Snow White begins to do womanly things, right? She keeps house. She takes care of the dwarfs, who are not children, but they're sort of like children. And she cooks. She's a little housewife in training, basically. And the queen, who you'll notice becomes a wicked witch when she enters the woods, okay, the queen shows up to try to kill her via objects that represent womanhood. Okay? So in the version that you're going to hear, it's not just an apple, right? The Disney version, you get just the apple, right? The queen tries to kill her, actually several times with several things. And you'll notice that they're all things that have to do with femininity. But, of course, the last one is the apple. And. And the apple has basically a long symbolic history that goes right back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, right? The apple is the forbidden fruit. It's symbolic of knowledge, it's symbolic of danger, it's symbolic of sex. And those are all things that Snow White is acquiring right now. As she becomes a woman, she's going to have the knowledge of herself as a woman capable of bearing children. So she now has to face the danger of unwanted pregnancy. Right? That's the issue that comes up for girls who go through puberty. And she now has to come face to face with the idea of sex and its consequences, because that's what she's going to now be able to do. And with that knowledge, right, biting into that apple, Snow White falls asleep as if she's dead. She goes into her chrysalis, essentially, right? She was a caterpillar, and she's going to emerge a beautiful butterfly.
- [24:00]
Faith Moore
This transformation is so huge and so.
- [24:04]
Summer Session Host
Life altering that she's got to kind of hibernate for a while to make it happen. She's got to fall asleep in the woods and wake up out of the woods with a man. And this is important, okay?
- [24:18]
Faith Moore
The prince.
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Summer Session Host
In a story like this, right, a story about maidenhood and the onset of puberty, the prince is almost entirely symbolic. You can't look at him as a real person, because if you do, you'll see he's doing some actually pretty questionable stuff, if you take it literally.
- [24:35]
Faith Moore
But really, the prince in this kind of a story is actually just the.
- [24:40]
Summer Session Host
Symbol of the princess's completed transformation. Because once you've become a woman and you're able to bear children, the only way to actually do that is with a man. And none of this is to say that someone should go right out and make a baby once they've had their first period or whatever. No, that's a terrible idea. Don't do that. But symbolically, that's what Snow White is now able to do. And that's why it's the prince that gets to wake her up, right? That gets to get her out of her chrysalis and carry her off into her new life of womanhood. And she emerges from the woods a woman. She went in a girl, and she comes out a woman. She dies to her girlhood, essentially, and wakes up to her womanhood. I really could go on and on about this story forever, but I don't want to totally spoil it before you listen to it. And I think that now I've given you kind of the broad strokes of the symbolism here so that you can listen now to the story and keep all of that in mind. And then please write to me. And next week, we'll talk more about this after you've heard it. And then we're going to read some more stories that use the same ideas. But keep. Try to keep what I said in mind as you listen now, and then write in with your thoughts and ideas and your questions, and we'll talk about them again at the top of next week's episode before we dive into other stories that use this same symbolism.
- [26:02]
Faith Moore
All right, let's get started with Snow White. By the Brothers Grimm, it's story time. Snow White. From Children's and Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm Once upon a time, in mid winter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed, she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with her needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought to herself, if all only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in this frame. Soon afterward, she had a little daughter who was as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood. And therefore they called her little Snow White. And as soon as the child was born, the queen died. A year later, the king took himself another wife. She was a beautiful woman, but she was proud and arrogant, and she could not stand it. If anyone might surpass her in beauty, she had a magic mirror. Every morning she stood before it, looked at herself and said, mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? To this the mirror answered, you, my queen, are fairest of all. Then she was satisfied, for she knew that the mirror spoke the truth. Snow White grew up and became ever more beautiful. When she was seven years old, she was as beautiful as the light of day, even more beautiful than the queen herself. One day, when the queen asked her, mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? It answered, you, my queen, are fair, it's true, but Snow White is a thousand times fairer than you. The queen took fright and turned yellow and green with envy. From that hour on, whenever she looked at Snow White, her heart turned over inside her body. So great was her hatred for the girl, the envy and pride grew ever greater, like a weed in her heart, until she had no peace, day and night. Then she summoned a huntsman and said to him, take Snow White out into the woods. I never want to see her again. Kill her. And as proof that she is dead, bring her lungs and her liver back to me. The huntsman obeyed and took Snow White into the woods. He took out his hunting knife and was about to stab it into her innocent heart when she began to cry, saying, oh, dear huntsman, let me live. I will run into the wild woods and never come back. Because she was so beautiful, the huntsman took pity on her and he said, run away, you poor child. He thought, the wild animals will soon devour you anyway. But still, it was as if A stone had fallen from his heart, for he would not have to kill her. Just then a young boar came running by. He killed it, cut out its lungs and liver and took them back to the Queen. As proof of Snow White's death, the cook had to boil them with salt, and the wicked woman ate them, supposing that she had eaten Snow White's lungs. And Liverpool. The poor child was now all alone in the Great Forest. And she was so afraid that she just looked at all the leaves on the trees and did not know what to do. Then she began to run. She ran over sharp stones and threw thorns and wild animals jumped at her, but they did her no harm. She ran as far as her feet could carry her. And just as evening was about to fall, she saw a little house and went inside in order to rest. Inside the house everything was small, but so neat and clean that no one could say otherwise. There was a little table with a white tablecloth and seven little plates. And each plate had a spoon. And there were seven knives and forks and seven mugs as well. Against the wall there were seven little beds, all standing in a row and covered with Snow White sheets. Because she was so hungry and thirsty, Snow White ate a few vegetables and a little bread from each little plate and. And from each mug she drank a drop of wine. Afterward, because she was so tired, she lay down on a bed. But none of them felt right. One was too long, the other too short. Until finally the seventh one was just right. She remained lying in it, entrusted herself to God, and fell asleep. After dark, the masters of the house returned home. They were seven dwarfs who picked and dug for ore in the mountains. They lit their seven candles, and as soon as it was light in their house, they saw that someone had been there. For not everything was in the same order as they had left it. The first one said, who has been.
- [31:29]
Summer Session Host
Sitting in my chair? The second one, who has been eating from my plate?
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Faith Moore
The third one, who has been eating my bread? The fourth one, who has been eating my vegetables? The fifth one, who has been sticking with my fork? The sixth one, who has been cutting with my knife? The seventh one, who has been drinking from my mug. Then the first one saw that there was a little imprint in his bed, and he said, who stepped on my bed? The others came running up and shouted, someone has been lying in mine as well. But the seventh one, looking at his bed, found Snow White lying there asleep. The seven dwarfs all came running up and they cried out with amazement. They fetched their seven candles and shone the Light on Snow White. Oh, good heaven. Good heaven. They cried. This child is so beautiful. They were so happy that they did not wake her up, but let her continue to sleep there in the bed. The seventh dwarf had to sleep with his companions, one hour with each one, and then the night was done. The next morning, Snow White woke up, and when she saw the Seven Dwarfs, she was frightened. But they were friendly and asked, what is your name? My name is Snow White, she answered.
- [32:49]
Summer Session Host
How did you find your way to our house?
- [32:51]
Faith Moore
The dwarfs asked further. Then she told them that her stepmother had tried to kill her, that the Huntsman had spared her life, and that she had run the entire day, finally coming to their house. The dwarf said, if you will keep house for us and cook, make beds, wash, sew and knit and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want. Yes, said Snow White, with all my heart. So she kept house for them. Every morning they went into the mountains looking for ore and gold, and in the evening when they came back home, their meal had to be ready. During the day, the girl was alone. The good dwarves warned her, saying, be.
- [33:35]
Summer Session Host
Careful about your stepmother. She will soon know that you are here.
- [33:39]
Faith Moore
Do not let anyone in. Now the Queen, believing that she had eaten Snow White's lungs and liver, could only think that she was again the first and the most beautiful woman of all. She stepped for her mirror and said, mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? It answered, you, my queen, are fair, it is true. But Snow White, beyond the mountains with the seven dwarfs is still a thousand times fairer than you. This startled the Queen, for she knew that the mirror did not lie. And she realized that the huntsman had deceived her and that Snow White was still alive. Then she thought and thought again how she could kill Snow White. For as long as she was not the most beautiful woman in the entire land, her envy would give her no rest. At last she thought of something coloring her face. She disguised herself as an old peddler woman so that no one would recognize her in this disguise. She went to the house of the Seven Dwarfs. Knocking on the door, she called out, beautiful wares. For sale. For sale. Snow White peered out the window and said, good day, dear woman. What do you have for sale? Good wares. Beautiful wares, she answered. Bodice laces in all colors. And she took out one that was braided from colorful silk.
- [35:09]
Summer Session Host
Would you like this one? I can let that honest woman in.
- [35:14]
Faith Moore
Thought Snow White, then unbolted the door and bought the pretty bodice lace. Child, said the old woman, how you look. Come, let me lace you up properly. The unsuspecting Snow White stood before her and let her do up the new lace. But the old woman pulled so quickly and so hard that Snow White could not breathe. You used to be the most beautiful one, said the old woman, and hurried away. Not long afterward, in the evening time, the seven dwarfs came home. How terrified they were when they saw their dear Snow White lying on the ground, not moving at all as though she were dead. They lifted her up, and seeing that she was so tightly laced, they cut the lace in two. Then she began to breathe a little, and little by little she came back to life. When the dwarfs heard what had happened, they said the old pedlar woman was no one else but the godless queen. Take care and let no one in.
- [36:14]
Summer Session Host
When we are not with you.
- [36:16]
Faith Moore
When the wicked woman returned home, she went to her mirror and asked, mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? The mirror answered once again, you, my queen, are fair, it is true. But Snow White, beyond the mountains with the seven dwarfs, is still a thousand times fairer than you. When she heard that, all her blood ran to her heart because she knew that Snow White had come back to life. This time she said, I shall think of something that will destroy you. Then, with the art of witchcraft, which she understood, she made a poisoned comb. Then she disguised herself, taking the form of a different old woman. Thus she went across the seven mountains to the seven dwarfs, knocked on the door and called out, good wares for sale. For sale. Snow White looked out and said, go on your way. I am not allowed to let anyone in.
- [37:20]
Summer Session Host
You surely may take a look, said.
- [37:23]
Faith Moore
The old woman, pulling out the poisoned comb and holding it up. The child liked it so much that she let herself be deceived, and she opened the door. After they had agreed on the purchase, the old woman said, now let me comb your hair properly. She had barely stuck the comb into Snow White's hair when the poison took effect and the girl fell down unconscious. You specimen of beauty, said the wicked woman. Now you are finished. And she walked away. Fortunately, it was almost evening and the seven dwarfs came home. When they saw Snow White lying on the ground as if she were dead, they immediately suspected her stepmother. They examined her and found the poisoned comb. They had scarcely pulled it out when Snow White came to herself again and told them what had happened.
- [38:14]
Summer Session Host
Once again they warned her to be.
- [38:16]
Faith Moore
On guard and not to open the.
- [38:18]
Summer Session Host
Door for anyone back at home.
- [38:20]
Faith Moore
The Queen stepped before her mirror and said, mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? The Mirror answered, you, my queen, are fair, it is true. But Snow White beyond the mountains with the seven dwarfs, is still a thousand times fairer than you. When the Queen heard the Mirror saying this, she shook and trembled with anger. Snow White shall die. She shouted, if it costs me my life. Then she went into her most secret room. No one else was allowed inside, and she made a poisoned apple from the outside. It was beautiful white with red cheeks, and anyone who saw it would want it. But anyone who might eat a little piece of it would die. Then, coloring her face, she disguised herself as a peasant woman, and thus went across the Seven Mountains to the Seven Dwarfs. She knocked on the door. Snow White stuck her head out the window and said, I am not allowed to let anyone in. The dwarfs have forbidden me to do so.
- [39:32]
Summer Session Host
That is all right with me, answered the peasant woman.
- [39:35]
Faith Moore
I'll easily get rid of my apples. Here, I'll give you one of them. No, said Snow White. I cannot accept anything.
- [39:45]
Summer Session Host
Are you afraid of poison?
- [39:47]
Faith Moore
Asked the old woman. Look, I'll cut the apple in two. You eat the red half, and I.
- [39:54]
Summer Session Host
Shall eat the white half.
- [39:56]
Faith Moore
Now the apple had been so artfully made that only the red half was poisoned. Snow White longed for the beautiful apple, and when she saw that the peasant woman was eating part of it, she could no longer resist, and she stuck her hand out and took the poisoned half. She barely had a bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground, dead. The Queen looked at her with a gruesome stare, laughed loudly, and said, white as snow, red as blood, black as ebony wood. This time the dwarfs cannot awaken you. Back at home, she asked her mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? It finally answered, you, my queen, are fairest of all. Then her envious heart was at rest, as well as an envious heart can be at rest. When the dwarfs came home that evening, they found Snow White lying on the ground. She was not breathing at all. She was dead. They lifted her up and looked for something poisonous. They undid her laces, they combed her hair, they washed her with water and wine, but nothing helped. The dear child was dead, and she remained dead. They laid her on a bier, and all seven sat next to her and mourned for her and cried for three days. They were going to bury her, but she still looked as fresh as a living person, and still had her beautiful red cheeks. They said, we cannot bury her in the black earth. And they had a transparent glass coffin made so she could be seen from all sides. They laid her inside and with golden letters wrote on it her name and that she was a princess. Then they put the coffin outside on a mountain, and one of them always stayed with it and watched over her. The animals, too came and mourned for Snow White. First an owl, then a raven, and finally a dove. Snow White lay there in the coffin a long, long time, and she did not decay, but looked like she was asleep, for she was still as white as snow and as red as blood and as black haired as ebony wood. Now it came to pass that a prince entered these woods and happened onto the dwarf's house, where he sought shelter for the night. He saw the coffin on the mountain with beautiful Snow White in it, and he read what was written on it with golden letters. Then he said to the dwarves, let me have the coffin. I will give you anything you want for it. But the dwarfs answered, we will not sell it for all the gold in the world. Then he said, then give it to me, for I cannot live without being able to see Snow White. I will honor her and respect her as my most cherished one. As he thus spoke, the good dwarfs felt pity for him and gave him the coffin. The prince had his servants carried away on their shoulders. But then it happened that one of them stumbled on some brush, and this dislodged from Snow White's throat the piece of poisoned apple that she had bitten off. Not long afterward, she opened her eyes, lifted the lid from her coffin, sat up, and was alive again. Good heavens. Where am I? She cried out. The prince said joyfully, you are with me. He told her what had happened and then said, I love you more than anything else in the world. Come with me to my father's castle. You shall become my wife. Snow White loved him, and she went with him. Their wedding was planned with great splendor and majesty. Snow White's godless stepmother was also invited to the feast. After putting on her beautiful clothes, she stepped before her mirror and said, mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? The mirror answered, you, my queen, are fair, it is true, but the young queen is a thousand times fairer than you. The wicked woman uttered a curse, and.
- [44:10]
Summer Session Host
She became so frightened that.
- [44:12]
Faith Moore
So frightened that she did not know what to do. At first she did not want to go to the wedding, but she found no peace. She had to go and see the young queen. When she arrived, she recognized Snow White and terrorized she could only stand there without moving. Then they put a pair of iron shoes into burning coals. They were brought forth with tongs and placed before her. She was forced to step into the red hot shoes and and dance until she fell down dead. Thank you so much for listening. Storytime will return in September with a new book read aloud in twice weekly episodes with a few notes along the way. Like an audiobook with built in notes, the new book will be revealed sometime in August. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on on this episode. Is there anything you'd like me to clarify? Did something particularly interest you? Please go to my website, faithkmoore.com click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts. Or you can click on the link in the Show Notes to contact me. I'll feature some of your thoughts as we go along. Speaking of links, please check out the other links in the Show Notes. You can learn more about me, pick up Storytime Merch or or become a.
- [45:31]
Summer Session Host
Member of our online community.
- [45:34]
Faith Moore
Before I go, I'd like to ask a quick favor. This is an independent podcast. It's produced, recorded and marketed by me, so I need your help. Spread the word about the show by posting about it on social media or texting a link to your friends. Subscribe, tap those five stars and leave a positive review wherever you're listening. If you are able to support the show financially, there's a link in the Show Notes to make a donation. I would really, really appreciate it. All right everyone, class is dismissed.
- [46:05]
Summer Session Host
I'll see you next week.