Amalgamation Beginning with Ernst Böklen's seminal study
Schneewittchenstudien in 1915, folklorists have noted that the tale of Snow White (and by extension, tale type ATU 709) shows a combination of motifs present in other folktales: the children in the woods (ATU 327, "Children and the Ogre" and or "
Hansel and Gretel"); a heroine cursed into a deep sleep (ATU 410, "
Sleeping Beauty"); treacherous sisters (ATU 510, "
Cinderella", and, "
One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes"); a house in the woods (ATU 451, "
The Seven Ravens").
Folklorist Joseph Jacobs, in ''Europa's Fairy Book'', in his commentaries, considered "Snow White" a later tale influenced or contaminated by these other stories. Scholar
Sigrid Schmidt reached a similar conclusion regarding the story after comparing European and African variants.
Mythical parallels Scholar Graham Anderson suggested that the story of Snow White had ancient mythical roots and compared it to the Roman legend of
Chione, recorded in
Ovid's
Metamorphoses. The name
Chione means "Snow" in Greek and, in the story, she is described as the most beautiful woman in the land, so beautiful that the gods
Apollo and
Mercury both fell in love with her. Mercury put her to sleep with the touch of his
caduceus and raped her in her sleep. Then Apollo, disguised as an old crone, approached her and raped her again. This led Chione to openly boast that she was more beautiful than the goddess
Diana herself, resulting in Diana shooting her through the tongue with an arrow.
Historical inspiration Several German towns have laid claim to the origins of the fairy tale as part of tourism campaigns. As of 2009, the most active and well-known were
Bad Wildungen and
Lohr am Main. These two towns stood out by connecting the fairy tale to local historical figures, namely 16th-century countess Margaretha von Waldeck and 18th-century baroness Maria Sophia von Erthal.
Margaretha von Waldeck In 1994, the German historian Eckhard Sander published
Schneewittchen: Märchen oder Wahrheit? (Snow White: Fairy Tale or True Story?), claiming he had uncovered an account that may have inspired the Grimms' fairy tale. After hearing a tour guide claim that workers in the mining town of Bergfreiheit had inspired the
seven dwarfs, Sander set out to prove that Snow White had originated in that area. According to Sander, the character of Snow White was based on the life of
Margaretha von Waldeck, daughter of
Philip IV, Count of
Waldeck-Wildungen (1493–1574) and his first wife, Countess Margaret
Cirksena of
Ostfriesland (1500–1537), daughter of
Edzard I, Count of East Frisia. According to
Bad Wildungen city documents, she was famous for her beauty. By 1539, Margaretha had a stepmother, Katharina von
Hatzfeld (1510–1546). Perhaps soon after, Margaretha was sent to be raised at nearby
Weilburg at the court of
Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg. In 1545, she traveled through the
Siebengebirge ("seven hills") to live with her mother's brother Johann
Cirksena (1506–1572) at
Valkenburg Castle, in present-day
Limburg, Netherlands. In 1549, her father sent her to the
Brussels court of
Mary of Hungary, governor of the
Habsburg Netherlands and sister of
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Margaretha's presence at the court was partially meant to improve the relationship of her father with the emperor and help the release of
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, who had been imprisoned in Brussels for his role in the
Schmalkaldic War. Three surviving letters from Margaretha to her father show that her health declined steadily over the next few years and she died at the age of 21 in March 1554. Rumors held that her death was caused by poison. However, unlike Snow White, Margaretha's stepmother could not have been involved since her father's second wife died in 1546 and he only remarried again in October 1554. Margaretha's father owned several copper mines. A majority of workers were children, and Sander suggested that the legendary seven dwarfs were inspired by
child labor in the mine. Sander connected the residence of the seven dwarfs to the former copper-mining village Bergfreiheit, now a district of Bad Wildungen that calls itself
Schneewittchendorf (Snow White Village) as part of its tourism industry. Like the fairy tale's dwarfs, the child laborers there used to live in large groups (about 20) in a single room house. Sander theorized that other elements of the fairy tale were drawn from local folklore and different members of Margaretha's family. For instance, the wicked mother figure paralleled the relationship of Margaretha's sister-in-law and niece, and the wedding of Snow White paralleled the wedding of Margaretha's nephew. Both Margaretha's niece and niece-in-law shared her name. Her father, Philipp Christoph von und zu Erthal, was the local representative of the Prince
Elector of Mainz. After the death of Maria Sophia's birth mother in 1738, her father remarried in 1743. In 1992, Bartels' fellow theorist and local museum head Werner Loibl analyzed a surviving letter from the stepmother, Claudia Elisabeth von Reichenstein, which revealed that she answered Philipp Christoph's mail and handled important decisions while he was traveling abroad. Based on this, Loibl extrapolated that she was domineering and favored her children from her first marriage. Also in 1992, Loibl unveiled a Snow White-themed exhibit at the Spessart Museum in Lohr Castle (once owned by Philipp Christoph). Mirrors made in Lohr were said to always tell the truth due to their high quality and smooth surfaces that were unusually clear for the time. Lohr Castle was home to one such mirror during the time that Maria Sophia's stepmother lived there. Supporters of the theory compared it to the
Magic Mirror in "Snow White." It was constructed by the Mirror Manufacture of the
Electorate of Mainz in Lohr, and may have been in the castle as early as 1719. It can still be viewed there today. The dwarfs in Maria's story are also linked to a mining town,
Bieber, located just west of Lohr and set among seven mountains. The smallest tunnels could only be accessed by very short miners, who often wore bright hoods, as the dwarfs have frequently been depicted over the years. The Lohr study group maintains that the glass coffin may be linked to the region's famous glassworks, while the poisoned apple may be associated with the deadly
nightshade poison that grows in abundance in Lohr. Despite the joking origins of Bartels's theory, it became popular as a marketing tactic for the local town.
Criticism of historical theories Virtually no serious scholars agree with Sander's or Bartels's theories. As stated by Professor Donald Haase, "There have been a couple of attempts to show that the story of Snow White is based on the fate of an historical figure, but they are pure speculation and not at all convincing." Bartels’ theory in particular is recognized as a joke.
Ruth Bottigheimer also noted that Maria Sophia von Erthal was born too late to have significant influence on the fairy tale, with motifs like the glass coffin already appearing in literature by the 17th century. == See also ==