There was once a queen who had no children, and it grieved her sorely. One winter's afternoon she was sitting by the window sewing when she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. Then she thought to herself:
"Ah, what would I give to have a daughter with skin as white as snow and cheeks as red as blood."
After a while a little daughter came to her with skin as white as snow and cheeks as red as blood. So they called her Snow White.
But before Snow White had grown up, her mother, the Queen, died and her father married again, a most beautiful princess who was very vain of her beauty and jealous of all women who might be thought as beautiful as she was. And every morning she used to stand before her mirror and say:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?"

And the mirror always used to reply:
"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,
The greatest beauty is thine own."

But Snow White grew fairer and fairer every year, till at last one day when the Queen in the morning spoke to her mirror and said:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?"

the mirror replied:
"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,
Snow White's the fairest thou must own."

Then the Queen grew terribly jealous of Snow White and thought and thought how she could get rid of her, till at last she went to a hunter and engaged him for a large sum of money to take Snow White out into the forest and there kill her and bring back her heart.
But when the hunter had taken Snow White out into the forest and thought to kill her, she was so beautiful that his heart failed him, and he let her go, telling her she must not, for his sake and for her own, return to the King's palace. Then he killed a deer and took back the heart to the Queen, telling her that it was the heart of Snow White.