Snow White is a character from many European fairy tales, the most well known being the German version collected by the Brothers Grimm.
In their story, a queen wishes that she would bear a child with "skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony." She then dies giving birth to Snow White, who has all of the qualities her mother wished for.
The king takes a new wife who possesses a magical mirror. She often asks the mirror "who in the land is fairest of all?" The mirror always responds with "You, my queen, are fairest of all."
When Snow White is seven years old, the mirror responds "Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true, but Snow White is fairer than you." The Queen, very jealous, orders a huntsman take Snow White to the woods and kill her. He brings her into the woods, but cannot kill her, and tells her to flee. He kills a young deer instead, and brings back its heart to be prepared by the cook and eaten by the Queen.
Snow White discovers a tiny cottage where she rests. The owners of the cottage, seven dwarfs, pity her and tell her that if she will keep house for them, she can stay with them. The Queen, back in her castle, asks the mirror who is fairest, and learns that Snow White is still alive.
The Queen disguises herself as a peddler, and offers Snow White "stay-laces" and laces her up so tight that she faints and the Queen leaves her for dead. When the dwarfs return, they loosen the laces and revive Snow White. Then, the Queen dresses as an old woman and brushes Snow White's hair with a poisoned comb, and she again faints, but is revived by the dwarves. The Queen disguises herself as a farmer's wife and offers Snow White a poisoned apple. She is hesitant to take it, so the queen cuts the apple and eats the white part, giving Snow White the poisoned red part. Snow White collapses, and when the dwarfs are unable to revive her, they place her in a glass coffin.
After time, a prince sees her and is enchanted by her beauty and begs her coffin from the dwarfs. His servants carry the coffin away, but stumble on some bushes. That movement causes a piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her. The prince declares his love for her and a wedding is planned.
The Queen, once again, asks the mirror who is fairest, and is surprised when its response is "the young queen is a thousand times fairer than you." She arrives at the wedding, not knowing that the young queen was Snow White. As punishment for her previous deeds, she is forced to step into a pair of heated iron shoes and dance until she falls down dead.
