Snow White

Characters: Both “Snow White” and “Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs” feature a pretty young girl named Snow White as the main and titular character, an evil stepmother queen, a huntsman, seven dwarves and a prince. “The Young Slave” still features a pretty young girl as the main and titular character, but this time her name is Lisa. The story also includes her mother Lilla, some fairies, and her aunt and uncle the Baron and Baroness. “Snow, Glass, Apples” features a queen as its protagonist, but also includes a king, a princess (Snow White, though she is never named), some dwarves, and a prince; although a monk, the King of the Fair and his page, a handmaiden, and merchants and the forest folk are also mentioned. “Sonne” has the smallest cast of all—the only people in the song are the seven dwarves and Snow White, and this time, the seven dwarves are the main characters, instead of Snow White.

While the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White” is closest to the most well-known version of the tale, Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Snow, Glass, Apples” is perhaps the version of the tale that “Sonne” comes closest to. This is simply because Snow White is no longer the protagonist, but instead the antagonist, unlike all the other versions we read.

Symbols: “Sonne” contains some of the same recognizable objects featured in “Snow White”: specifically, a bright red apple and a glass coffin. The music video also features one of the dwarfs brushing Snow White’s hair, although it is not a poison comb like in “Snow White”. However, the music video does not contain a magic mirror, the lung and liver of a boar, or a staylace.

Other differences: In “Sonne”, Snow White first enters the dwarves’ home while they’re eating dinner, unlike in “Snow White”, when she finds an empty cottage and eats some of the dwarves’ meal and falls asleep in one of their beds. There is no jealous queen who tries to kill Snow White; in “Sonne”, Snow White is the vain and violent one. She snatches a diamond from the dwarf who offers it to her, then punches him, and she spanks the dwarves. Also, Snow White does not die because the Queen poisons her, and she is not revived because the chunk of poison apple is dislodged from her throat; she dies accidentally by her own hand, and awakens when an apple falls from the tree above her coffin, shattering the glass and bringing her back to life.

I'm honestly not sure which version I like most. "Snow, Glass, Apples" is interesting because it switches things up a bit (i.e. Snow White is the evil one), but it's a bit too disturbing for my tastes. I find the prince especially creepy. I like "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs" because it tells the same story as the Brothers Grimm, but in a more easy-to-read form; I also think the poem is well-written. But I think my favorite is "The Young Slave"; I find it interesting because it's so different than the story I'm used to (without the extra violence that comes from a vampire story); the characters have names and Lilla becomes pregnant by eating a rose leaf-- that's not something I've encountered before. The addition of fairies (along with the rose) kind of reminds me of Sleeping Beauty, although the fairies in Sleeping Beauty (the Disney version, at least) don't curse the child out of malice. I also like Lisa talking to the doll, although the fact that she threatens to kill it is a bit disturbing. Another unique thing about this version of the tale is that Lisa appears to be magic, because she tells the Baron he won't be able to cross a river if he doesn't buy her presents, and he forgets and then he can't cross the river. It's at least a little refreshing that Lisa is not saved by a prince who thinks she's pretty, but because the Baron hears her pitiful tale and realizes she isn't a slave, and kicks his wife out and improves her life. She still gets a husband in the end, but it happens differently than the other versions.

It's also interesting to note that both Snow White and the seven dwarves in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" are very colorful; the whole movie is colorful. In "Sonne", however, the dwarves have a very dark and dreary appearance; Snow White and the apples are the only colorful points in the entire video.