"Snow-White and Rose-Red'"

This article focuses on the story. For the Enchanted Forest characters, see Snow White and Red Riding Hood respectively.

Snow-White and Rose-Red
Story
Background Information
Written by:	The Brothers Grimm
Publication:	1812
Adaptation Information
Featured episode(s):	"Red-Handed" "Child of the Moon" "The Bear King" Shadow of the Queen
Relevant Pages

"Snow-White and Rose-Red," also known as "Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot," is a fairytale featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by the German authors Jacob and Wilhelm of the Brothers Grimm and incorporated into the book Grimms' Fairy Tales in 1812.

Traditional Plot

Snow-White and Rose-Red are two little girls living with their mother, a poor widow, in a small cottage. They are very good little girls, they love each other dearly, and their mother is very fond of them. Rose-Red is outspoken and cheerful and loves to play outside. Snow-White is quiet and shy and prefers doing housework and reading. One winter night, there is a knock at the door. Rose Red opens the door to find a bear. At first, she is terrified, but the bear tells her not to be afraid. "I'm half frozen and I merely want to warm up a little at your place," he says. They let the bear in, and he lies down in front of the fire. Snow-White and Rose-Red beat the snow off the bear, and they quickly become quite friendly with him. They play with the bear and roll him around playfully. They let the bear spend the night in front of the fire. In the morning, he leaves trotting out into the woods. The bear comes back every night for the rest of that winter and the family grows used to him. When summer comes, the bear tells them that he must go away for a while to guard his treasure from a wicked dwarf. During the summer, when the girls are walking through the forest, they find a dwarf whose beard is stuck in a tree. The girls rescue him by cutting his beard free, but the dwarf is ungrateful and yells at them for cutting his beautiful beard. The girls encounter the dwarf several times that summer, rescue him from some peril each time and the dwarf is ungrateful each time. Then one day, they meet the dwarf once again. This time, he is terrified because the bear is about to kill him. The dwarf pleads with the bear and begs it to eat the girls. Instead, the bear pays no heed and kills the dwarf with one swipe of his paw. Instantly, the bear turns into a prince. The dwarf had previously put a spell on the prince by stealing his precious stones and turning him into a bear, but the curse is broken with the death of the dwarf. Snow-White marries the prince and Rose-Red marries the prince's brother.

Show Adaptations

• Snow White and Red Riding Hood are only an allusion to the two sisters. They are not biological sisters. However, their eternal friendship and mutual loyalty replace it. ("Red-Handed," "Child of the Moon")
• Red's transformation into a wolf is also an allusion to the Prince transforming into a bear. ("Red-Handed" et al.)
• Red is kept in wolf form by a witch, who is also known for turning people into bears. ("The Bear King")

Trivia

• The fairytale appears in Henry's storybook in "The Thing You Love Most," "Snow Falls" (micro-excerpt beneath a scene from "Pilot"), "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (also beneath a scene from "Pilot"), "What Happened to Frederick," "Hat Trick," "We Are Both," "Snow Drifts," "Operation Mongoose Part 2," "Mother's Little Helper" and "The Final Battle Part 1." The English translation is taken from an online eBook by Project Gutenberg from 2008, itself based on translations by the nineteenth century author Edgar Taylor, and Marian Edwardes. The same text appears in every episode (although the layout sometimes differs), but "What Happened to Frederick" and "The Final Battle Part 1" are the only episodes which show the excerpt in its entirety (in other episodes, it is partially obscured or off-screen):

As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it up, grumbling to himself: ‘Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine beard. Bad luck to you!’ and then he swung the bag upon his back, and went off without even once looking at the children. Some time afterwards Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish of fish. As they came near the brook they saw something like a large grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. They ran to it and found it was the dwarf. ‘Where are you going?’ said Rose-red; ‘you surely don’t want to go  into the water?’ ‘I am not such a fool!’ cried the  dwarf; ‘don’t you see that the accursed fish wants to pull me in?’ The little man had been sitting there fish- ing, and unluckily the wind had tangled up his beard with the fishing-line; a moment later a big fish made a bite and the feeble creature had not strength to pull it out; the fish kept the upper hand and pulled the dwarf towards him. He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water. The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast together. There was nothing to do but to bring out the scissors and cut the beard, whereby a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that he screamed out: ‘Is that civil, you toadstool, to disfigure a man’s face? Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. I wish you had been made to run the soles off your shoes!’ Then he took out a sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without another word he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone. It happened that soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them across a heath upon which huge pieces of rock lay strewn about. There they noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round and round above them; it sank lower and lower, and at last settled near a rock not far away. Immediately they heard a loud, piteous cry. They ran up and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old acquaint- tance the dwarf, and was going to carry him off.

• The exact same excerpt appears in the Underworld storybook in "The Brothers Jones" and "Last Rites"; the latter also shows the excerpt in its entirety.

Characters Featured

Original Character	Adapted as	First Featured in
Snow-White	Snow White	"Red-Handed"
Rose-Red	Red Riding Hood	"Red-Handed"
The dwarf	Witch (The Bear King) (allusion)	"The Bear King"
The bear	Red Riding Hood (allusion)	"The Bear King"
Widow	Granny	"Red-Handed"

Locations Featured

Original Location	Adapted as	First Featured in
Widow's cottage	Granny's cottage	"Red-Handed"

References

Stories

A – M The Adventures of Pinocchio | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Aesop's Fables | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Arthurian legend | "Beauty and the Beast" | Beowulf | The BFG | Carrie | Celtic mythology | "Cinderella" | A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | The Count of Monte Cristo | The Curse of Capistrano | Don Quixote | The Emerald City of Oz | Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus | "The Frog Prince" | Germanic mythology | "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" | Greek mythology | "Hansel and Gretel" | The Hundred and One Dalmatians | "Jack and the Beanstalk" | "Jack and Jill" | "Jack the Giant Killer" | "Little Bo Peep" | "Jack Sprat" | La Cenerentola | "The Little Mermaid" | "Little Red Riding Hood" | The Lord of the Rings | The Marvelous Land of Oz | Mary Reilly | Moby-Dick | Mulan | The Mysterious Island N – Z Nursery rhymes | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | One Thousand and One Nights | The Patchwork Girl of Oz | Peter and the Wolf | Peter and Wendy | "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" | "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" | Polynesian mythology | Pride and Prejudice | The Prince and the Pauper | "Rapunzel" | "Rip Van Winkle" | Robin Hood | Roman mythology | "Rumpelstiltskin" | The Scarlet Letter | Slavic mythology | "Sleeping Beauty" | "The Snow Queen" | "Snow White" | "Snow-White and Rose-Red" | "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" | Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde | Swan Lake | "Three Billy Goats Gruff" | The Three Musketeers | The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark | Treasure Island | Through the Looking-Glass | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea | "The Ugly Duckling" | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz