Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede

My guess: when the original audience heard about the woman whose daughters frolicked unharmed in the deep, dark, scary woods, they started crying, 'She's a witch! A witch!' So the storyteller tossed in a spare angel. Mom tells them he is an angel who watches over good children. Sometimes, they stay out in the woods too late, spend the night on a bed of moss, and wake to see a ghost-like boy leaving. The sisters like to gather berries in the forest together, and the birds and beasts like to frolick around them.

No one's trying to enslave or poison or eat or dismember their relative. And that's one of the things that I love about this story: the two sisters and the mom all love each other. Ooh, foreshadowing! They're going to be forced apart! Or the mother will have to make some hideous choice between them! Or the fate of one will uplift and/or destroy the other! Very dramatic! Except not. Snow-White says, 'We will not leave each other.' Rose-Red says, 'Never so long as we live.' And their mother finishes, 'What one has she must share with the other.' You'd think they'd play an important part in the story. Snow-White and Rose-Red (from the Brothers Grimm)Ī poor woman has two rose bushes (one white and one red) and two beautiful daughters (one called Snow-White and one called Rose-Red). But who cares? It has a talking bear! Talking bears are always good! Okay, fine, even if you look at it from a mile away, the narrative is a total mess. Except that if you look at it a little too closely, it kind of doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I think it's even better than its more-famous counterpart. Today's fairy tale is 'Snow-White and Rose-Red.' Not to be confused with 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.' Totally different.

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede