Pure as Driven Snow Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs from a possible perspective of the 'Wicked' Witch-Queen


I shall tell my story plain, but fair. You have no doubt heard it before, a wicked Queen who tried to kill a pretty child. It is true I tried to kill her, judge me as you will, but the true tale has never been heard. I have remained on this side of the ether, waiting to vindicate myself and make the records true. Now I have been given that chance.

It is a story of an evil seed who caused a Queen to topple; even before she was born the wheel turned towards my destruction. Her mother, my fellow in the Sisterhood and Queen, cast a spell upon the snow with three drops of her blood and an invocation of ebony. She wished for a pretty baby, Snow White, but the spell came back three-fold. Pretty the baby was, fair and just she was not. Her entry into this world was brutal, killing her mother as she ripped her way out of the womb.

The good King chose to take me as his replacement bride, endowing on me the responsibilities involved in maintaining a happy and prosperous kingdom as he no longer wished to rule. I vowed to both him and my Sisterhood that I would rule wisely, with a hand fair and just, and let nothing harm the kingdom. The King mourned the loss of his first wife and spurned the child, leaving her under my care as well.

I employed a 'mirror' to help me with my rule. He was young, but could mix easily with the common people and persuade them to freely speak their minds. He would report back to me with a reflection of my kingdom. So many times my mirror told me I was fair and I was always well content for I knew he always told the truth.

As the years passed, I tried to bind the evil within Snow White, tried to educate her to be fair and just, but Fortuna did not smile on me. Snow White resented my presence and my power as queen and began to spread vicious rumours. She talked of me to the servants, casting doubt and fear into their hearts, painting me as wicked. Her beauty was growing dangerous, blinding the folk from seeing that she had no inner beauty, just a cold and evil lump where her heart should have been.

During Snow White's seventh year I stood with my mirror and he told me of the people and their love for the princess and their dislike of me. He told me of their wish to dispose of me as soon as Snow White was thirteen and the first red flower stained her sheets. I knew he told the truth and was alarmed; Snow White could never rule my kingdom. She would blot out the sun, blight the crops and set plague upon the towns. Snow White would have Death, Despair and Destruction sit by her right hand side.

Whenever I saw her after this my heart turned upside down within me, knowing of the misery and suffering she would bring to the land. These thoughts grew within me until I had no peace by day or by night. I had to keep my kingdom from her, I had vowed to keep it safe from all harm. Although my mind grew heavy with it's burden I chose to slay my husband's daughter just before her thirteenth birthday. I sent for my best huntsman and told him to take Snow White into the wood and kill her swiftly. I asked him to return her heart to me. The Sisterhood required it. They needed to feast on it to dissolve the evil contained within it.

The huntsman returned with a heart of a wild boar which was eaten under the belief it was the child's. It was only when I next spoke to my mirror did I learn of the deception. I threatened the huntsman with imprisonment and he confessed that he had not harmed her at all, that she had known what was planned and offered him a carnal reward if he set her free. Again her beauty was a powerful weapon, the huntsman's will shattered from the weight of it's blow.

The mirror had reported that a beautiful girl was living with the seven dwarfs in the hills, eating their food and sleeping in their beds. The dwarfs were renowned for their inhospitality and thus I knew the girl to be Snow White.

Day and night I sat and wondered what to do, for I knew that Snow White would come to claim the throne one day. At last thought out a plan to slay her on my own. I dressed as a pedlar woman with strings and laces and set out to the dwarfs cottage. I showed her fine ribbons which she could not resist. She stole the dwarfs' money and bought the most expensive, showy ones. I offered to lace up her bodice with them and pulled them so tight she could not breathe breathe. She sank to the floor and I left her there in the cottage.

When I next spoke to my mirror he again told stories of the girl with the dwarfs and I knew that the dwarfs had cut her laces in time. I went to the Sisterhood and asked for their help. They fashioned me a poisonous comb. An article of such vanity Snow White could not resist and she tried it on straight away. The poison was fast acting and she sank to the floor. But again the dwarfs returned before she was truly dead and found the Sisterhood comb.

Again my mirror told me of my failure and the people's continued mistrust. The threat to my kingdom grew stronger by the day. I went upstairs to my secret chamber and fashioned an apple. It was a very beautiful apple, half waxy white and half rosy red, so inviting that your mouth would water just by looking at it. But it was a bad apple; the red half I filled with poison, for I knew that the selfish minx would pick that side to eat.

I disguised myself once more, this time as a peasant wife with a basket full of apples, and set off to the dwarf cottage. The dwarfs had forbidden her to leave the house so she stretched her arm out the window and snatched the apple from my hand. She bit into it and immediately knew no more. The dwarfs could not possibly revive her this time. The burden was lifted from my mind and my kingdom began to prosper.

But you know as well as I do that the tale does not finish here. The evil within Snow White still lived, maintaining her beauty and whispering to the dwarfs that they should lay her in a crystal casket. The crystal enlarged her powers, summoning a prince from a neighbouring kingdom. Once he saw her beauty he did not care that she was lifeless and wished to have her, casket and all. The dwarfs relinquished her and the Prince made his way back to his private chambers with the body. As he rocked her in her casket the piece of apple was dislodged from her throat and she woke up. He immediately made her his bride and they invited all the royals to their wedding.

Again it was my mirror who told me who the fair Prince was marrying. I felt I should warn the Prince of the misfortune that would befall him and his kingdom if he placed a band of gold on her finger, so I went to the wedding. I did not get to speak my wisdom however, Snow White gave me a pair of enchanted shoes which danced me around until my heart gave way, my blood vessels burst and I passed to the other side.

As the band of gold was placed on Snow White's finger, black clouds blotted out the sun and she lived happily ever after. It was not the best ending, for the Prince's lands became wretched, but I kept my vows to the King; she did not destroy my kingdom.

Michelle Wauchope ©1997

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