Historic Children’s Fairy Tales That Will Haunt Your Nightmares

Historic Children’s Fairy Tales That Will Haunt Your Nightmares

Aimee Heidelberg - December 10, 2023

Historic Children’s Fairy Tales That Will Haunt Your Nightmares
Snow White meets her second death with a poisoned comb (1852). Project Guternberg, public domain.

Little Snow White – Attempted (and successful) murder

The Brothers Grimm original version of Snow White is far more disturbing than the Disney version. Snow White’s stepmother, the evil queen, is informed by a magical mirror that Snow White is more beautiful. The queen commissions a huntsman to cut out Snow White’s liver and lungs. Unwilling to kill Snow White, he tries to substitute a boar’s liver and lungs. The evil queen eats them, thinking they belong to Snow White. Thanks to the magic mirror, the queen finds the girl hiding in the woods with seven dwarves and tries to kill her three times. First, with a corset laced too tight. Second, she tries a poisoned comb. Both times the dwarves revived Snow White. The final time, she uses a poisoned apple. This works, and the dwarves couldn’t bring Snow White back. They put her in a glass coffin because they couldn’t bear putting her in the ground.

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