Snow White

Meet the voices

• Narrator · 旁白 — Tells the Brothers Grimm's German fairy tale of Snow White, plainly and warmly.
• Snow White · 白雪公主 — The king's daughter, kind and trusting, who has never had a mother and wants someone to love her.
• Snow White's Mother · 白雪公主的妈妈 — The first queen, who sits sewing at a window in the winter snow and wishes for a child.
• The Queen · 王后 — Snow White's stepmother, beautiful and proud, who wants to be the most beautiful woman in the land.
• The Magic Mirror · 魔镜 — The queen's magic mirror, which can only tell the truth.
• The Huntsman · 猎人 — The queen's huntsman, a rough man with a soft heart.
• The First Dwarf · 第一个小矮人 — The first and oldest-looking of the seven dwarfs who dig in the mountains, gruff and kind, with a long white beard.
• The Second Dwarf · 第二个小矮人 — The second of the seven dwarfs, slow and serious, with a long grey beard.
• The Third Dwarf · 第三个小矮人 — The third of the seven dwarfs, deep-voiced and steady, with a dark brown beard.
• The Fourth Dwarf · 第四个小矮人 — The fourth of the seven dwarfs, gentle and calm, with a short reddish beard.
• The Fifth Dwarf · 第五个小矮人 — The fifth of the seven dwarfs, round, hearty and loud, with a bushy grey beard.
• The Sixth Dwarf · 第六个小矮人 — The sixth of the seven dwarfs, quiet and grave, with a long black-and-grey beard.
• The Seventh Dwarf · 第七个小矮人 — The seventh and smallest of the seven dwarfs, lively and warm, with quick eyes and a short brown beard.
• The Prince · 王子 — A king's son, young, warm and earnest.
• The King · 国王 — Snow White's father, the king, who marries again a year after her mother dies.

15 chapters in 3 parts

Part 1: The Mirror's Answer 魔镜的话

Part 2: The Old Woman at the Door 门外的老奶奶

Part 3: The Prince 王子

Key words in Snow White

• 最 zuì: most
• 红 hóng: red
• 死 sǐ: to die; dead
• 森林 sēn lín: forest
• 哭 kū: to cry
• 跑 pǎo: to run
• 门 mén: door
• 山 shān: mountain
• 醒 xǐng: to wake up
• 毒 dú: poison; poisoned

Behind the story

Snow White (白雪公主) is tale 53 in the Brothers Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales). Its German title is Sneewittchen, “Little Snow-White”. This book follows their final edition of 1857: every scene comes from that text, in the Grimms' order, shortened and told in simple Chinese.

Her name comes from her mother's wish. On a winter day the first queen sits sewing at a window framed in black ebony. She pricks her finger, three drops of blood fall on the snow, and she wishes for a child as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as ebony: 白白的像雪，红红的像血，黑黑的像乌木。

This book keeps to the Grimms' forest kingdom, as Walter Crane's and Franz Jüttner's old pictures show it: a king's palace in deep winter snow, a great wild forest, and beyond the seven mountains the little house of seven dwarfs, who dig in the mountains for copper and gold.

Did you know?

• 白雪 (báixuě) means “white snow”, and 公主 (gōngzhǔ) means “princess”, so 白雪公主 is “Princess White Snow”.
• 魔镜 (mójìng) is a “magic mirror”: 魔 (mó) is “magic” and 镜 (jìng) is “mirror”. The queen's mirror can only tell the truth.
• 最 (zuì), “most”, is one of this book's key words: every day the queen asks the mirror who is 最漂亮 (zuì piàoliang), “the most beautiful”.