Snow white. A long time ago, when the snowflakes fell like feathers, a queen sat sewing at a window.

She pricked her finger on a needle so that three drops of blood fell upon the snow.

How pretty her red blood looked dazzling on the whiteness.

The queen said,

Ah me.

If only I had a child with skin as white as snow,

and lips as red as blood,

and hair as black as the ebony window.

In the spring, she had a child who was just as she had imagined

and everyone called her Snow White.

But alas, the good queen died and the king married a new queen whose heart was evil.

This wicked queen had a magical mirror, and when she stood and gazed into it, she asked,

Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all?

And when the mirror replied,

Thou, O Queen, are the fairest of them all.

Her vain heart rejoiced.

Snow White grew more and more beautiful with every passing year.

At last, the time came when the mirror said,

Oh, Queen, if truth be told, Snow White is fairest, now she is 16 years old. And the queen almost smashed the mirror in her rage. The next morning, she summoned a hunter and gave him orders. Take Snow White out and don't bother to bring back anything but her heart.

The hunter led Snow White to the woods where, taking pity on her innocent heart,

he told her to run and hide.

She ran and ran, cutting herself on brambles.

...