#richilda

*Of course the place to start is with the classic German tale of Snow White (Schneewittchen) by the Brothers Grimm. I won't summarize that tale, because I think we all know it very well. But Heiner includes not only the familiar tale in her book, but the Grimms' notes on other German variants that they collected. There are also some notable differences between the version found in the original 1812 edition of the Grimms' Children's and Household Tales and the "standard" version from the final 1857 edition of their collection.

**In the Grimms' first edition of 1812, the wicked queen is Snow White's own mother. She's the queen who wishes for a child as white as snow, red as blood, and black as ebony at the beginning, only to bitterly regret her wish when Snow White grows to be more beautiful than she is. Only in later editions, to make the story more "moral" and more family-friendly, did the Grimms change the beginning so that Snow White's real mother dies and the wicked queen is a stepmother. Critics have sometimes argued that this change robs the story of its power; that at heart, the tale is about motherhood, and the envy that all mothers feel as their daughters blossom into young womanhood while they themselves age. I don't necessarily agree, however. As the Grimms noted themselves, there are other versions of the tale that predate theirs where the villainess is a stepmother, or where she has some other connection to the heroine. I'd say that the tale is more inherently about competition between women in general, and especially between older women and younger women, than it is between mothers and daughters, per se.

**Another difference between the first edition and later ones is how the piece of poisoned apple is dislodged from Snow White's throat. The 1812 edition has the prince take Snow White's glass coffin back to his castle and insist on having it near him always. One of the servants forced to carry it finally becomes so annoyed by the task that he opens the coffin and hits Snow White on the back: this is what shakes loose the piece of apple and revives her. In later editions, of course, this is softened to the servants accidentally stumbling as they start to carry the coffin away from the mountainside.

**In some oral versions, instead of sewing and pricking her finger with the needle, Snow White's mother peels an apple at the beginning and cuts her finger with the knife, like the mother in The Juniper Tree. This would be an interesting foreshadowing of Snow White's near-doom by apple later in the story.

**In another variant, a count and countess are riding in their carriage in winter, when they see three piles of snow, three pits of blood, and three ravens. The count wishes for "a girl" (it's not clear if he means a daughter or a lover) with skin white as snow, cheeks red as blood, and hair black as a raven. Soon afterward, they come across a young homeless girl who fits this description. The count takes her in and loves her (again, it's not clear if he loves her as an adopted daughter or a mistress), but his wife is jealous and resolves to be rid of her. From there, the story continues more-or-less like the Grimms' tale.

**In several oral versions, including the one above, there is no huntsman character. Instead, the queen or countess takes Snow White riding into the forest, makes an excuse for Snow White to get out of the carriage (e.g. to fetch a dropped glove or to pick flowers), then drives away, abandoning her.

**In one version, the dwarfs don't place the "dead" Snow White in a glass coffin, but are about to cremate her on a pyre when the prince fortunately happens along.

**In another version, the queen is Snow White's stepmother, has three daughters of her own, and hates Snow White for their sake. So she sends Snow White to a cave where, unbeknownst to the girl, there live seven woman-hating dwarfs who kill every maiden who comes across them. But when the dwarfs see Snow White, her entrancing beauty makes them not only spare her life, but take her in. Also in this version, the queen's magical source of information isn't a mirror, but a talking dog named Mirror. Nor does she disguise herself in her three attempts to kill Snow White, but comes to the dwarfs' cave as herself, lying that her own daughters were kidnapped by robbers and that she now wants to embrace Snow White as her child. Each time, Snow White is moved by her pleas to trust her.

*After the Grimms' overview of all the oral German variants they found, Heiner shares a German literary version of the tale that predates the Grimms' collection: Richilda by Johann Karl August Musäus, which was published in 1782.

**Richilda is the wicked queen figure, although she's not a queen, but the Countess of Brabant. Despite her villainy, she's presented as the story's protagonist: the story begins with her birth, which occurs after her mother's barrenness is cured by advice from Saint Albertus Magnus (a real medieval German bishop, scientist, and philosopher who was canonized by the Catholic Church). St. Albertus uses his mystical and scientific skills to create a magic mirror as a gift for the baby, which when she grows up will show her visions of anything she requests to see. Of course the primary thing the mirror shows her is that she is the most beautiful maiden in all of Brabant.

**Countless suitors compete and die for Richilda's hand, until finally her governess convinces her to choose a husband. Richilda consults the magic mirror and discovers the handsomest knight in Brabant... who unfortunately, is already married. But Richilda lies that she had a dream telling her that this man has been chosen by heaven as her husband, and this, combined with her renowned beauty, drives him to divorce his pregnant wife and marry her. Soon afterward, his ex-wife dies giving birth to a daughter, Blanca, whom he has raised by a governess and dwarf servants in another castle. (Presumably, Musäus took the forest-dwelling dwarfs from the oral Snow White tales and reimagined them as court dwarfs for his more "realistic" courtly version.)

*Fifteen years later, Richilda's husband dies and Richilda is eager to have suitors again. But when she consults her magic mirror to see if she's still the fairest in the land, she of course learns that she isn't: Blanca is now the fairest. She then commands her court physician, a Jew named Sambul, to make a poisoned pomegranate for her to give to Blanca. The plan apparently succeeds and Blanca dies: the grieving court dwarfs entomb her in a chapel vault, with a glass window in her coffin so they can still see her face when they visit her. But a few days later, miraculously, Blanca revives.

*At the news of this, Richilda has Sambul create poisoned soap to send to Blanca. But again, the same thing happens: she "dies," the dwarfs entomb her, but a few days later she revives again. This time – after having Sambul's beard plucked out and his ears cut off for failing her – Richilda has Sambul send Blanca a poisoned letter.

*Now we learn that Sambul isn't really the villainous antisemitic caricature he seemed to be. He's a righteous man, and though he gave into Richilda's demands out of fear (and desire for money – his portrayal isn't entirely free of antisemitism), he secretly used a temporary death-simulating potion, like those seen in certain Shakespeare plays, instead of real poison.

*Blanca doesn't revive as soon after the poisoned letter as she did the first two times, because Sambul strengthened the drug's dose. So her servants (and Richilda) think she's truly dead. But one day, a young knight named Godfrey of Ardenne stops at the castle while on a pilgrimage. He has with him a splinter from the staff of Elisha, which will allegedly break any enchantment. He places the splinter on Blanca's heart, and whether as a result or by coincidence, she instantly revives.

*Godfrey secretly takes Blanca home to his castle, letting no one else except her dwarfs know that she's alive. Then he visits Richilda, who becomes infatuated with him and makes every effort to seduce him. Godfrey pretends to give in and takes her home with him, allegedly to be his bride. But then he claims that twelve maidens and their lovers were to be married along with them, but one of the maidens has been murdered by her mother. In a twist that evokes The Goose Girl, he asks Richilda what should be done with the mother, and Richilda says she should be forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes. Thus she pronounces her own doom... although unlike the Grimms' wicked queen, she isn't forced to dance to death, but just until she's in extreme pain, and then is condemned to the dungeon. Blanca and Godfrey are married, live happily ever after, and richly reward Sambul, whose heroism in protecting Blanca (the narrator claims) is the reason why God has let the Jewish people survive against all odds.

Next come the versions of the tale from France and Italy...