The Dark Powers of Snow White

In the tale, I mean. Not that Snow White was a witch or anything like that.

“Would that I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window frame.”

It might be that you’ve never read those lines if you’ve only ever consumed Disney’s version of Snow White. It just occurred to me, in fact, that the beginning of that movie has the magic mirror describe the princess. Not her own mother.

I’m not sure why that was. Sure, the queen pricks her finger, which causes a few droplets of blood to fall onto the snow on the sill of her window. Blood might have been deemed too shocking for kids to see in an animation. And I get that. If that’s the case, however, I’d like to know why they felt it appropriate to animate the queen kicking the head off the skeleton of someone she clearly starved to death…

Let me get back on track here.

So the queen cuts herself. It’s not really specified, but I imagine she was transfixed by a sort of poetic beauty by the colors, and wished to have a daughter with these very passionate and poetic hues.

In the better known version of Grimm story, the queen had such a daughter and, unfortunately, died. Like I mentioned before, probably from natural causes.

The thing is, I’m a writer, and one who enjoys conspiracy theories at that. I don’t believe even half of them, but if we’re being completely honest, coming up with conspiracy theories is a lot like coming up with a story. You have certain scenarios, and you’re trying to connect them in the way that best makes sense.

So when you tell me that this queen made a fantastical wish, that this wish came true, and that she died shortly (or immediately) thence, my brain can’t help but go, “Coincidence?”

“Me thinks not,” I reply. Mostly because I can make it not be a coincidence. Especially since I’m writing my own enhanced version of Snow-white.

The Ancient Powers

I’ve already talked about the Ancient Powers a little bit in a past post. They’re basically the medium that allows magic to happen in this world. I’m not going to go too much into detail about them, because like I said, I don’t want to define them all that much. Not even for myself. This will allow me the freedom to integrate them as much as possible to this, and possible future enhancements of other fairy tales.

I don’t want them to be a “get out of jail free” card either. I don’t want them to be a cheap resource that I can use when I’ve written myself into a corner. Because of this, I do need to lay down some rules, conventions, or loose guidelines that I can behold myself to. If I do this, I’ll make it hard for myself to abuse this aspect of the world I created.

So let me tell you a little bit about these Ancient Powers.

The Workings of Mystic Forces

“Be careful what you wish for. It might just come true.”

I have a thing for sayings. It amazes me how they impart wisdom and convey a warning in so few words. Even the sayings that are wrong or badly thought out are useful. You just have to think about them, determine why they might be mistaken, and you’re all the wiser for it.

I also think that, as people, we’re full of folly, and have a need for sayings to remind us. That way, we can fight against that folly.

Which made me think, “Why don’t I just embody sayings in this world?”

Thus were the Ancient Powers born.

Anyone can beseech the Powers. People with lore can do it whenever they want. People without lore, however, can only do it when they wish or desire something with true intensity.

Of course, in this world, there are elfs, dwarfs, witches, trolls, ogres, etc, etc, etc. All these beings (or The Others as people call them) know how to entreat the Ancient Powers. Humans can learn, which is where sorcerers and sorceresses come from. All of the beings mentioned previously know that a price is always to be paid when beseeching a favor from the Ancient Powers.

There are those, however, that wish intensely for something, and commit the error of saying it outloud. Those people will have their wishes granted, but the Powers will have their payment.

You might be wondering what kind of currency the Ancient Powers use.

It can be the time you devote to something, or the emotions caused by your feelings. If you’re sad, for example, and bawl, the intensity of that emotion is enough payment for the Powers. The burning of a loaf of bread you were going to eat is good for them too. In the end, they demand sacrifice.

Of course, the moment someone says sacrifice, some people’s thoughts turn dark. And indeed, the Powers are willing to take life and blood sacrifices as well. This dark aspect of the Powers is what originated the cult of the Queen, why the cult is gaining ground, and why the Powers are now seen as evil by most people during Snow-white’s time.

Or at least, that’s what the cult wants the people to believe.

Told you I like conspiracies.

Finally, after dancing around it for a couple of posts, you now know why Snow’s mother dies in my enhanced version of the tale: She wished for a curious daughter too intensely, and outloud. The Powers heard her, and since the queen had not made a sacrifice to them, they took her life.

Don’t worry. Despite what the adherents of the Queen would tell you, these powers aren’t actually dark. They’re just fair. Some people just think that fair is mean.

Since they’re fair, however, they didn’t just make Snow’s appearance odd in exchange for the life of her mother. They also gave her a blessing. It was this blessing that protected her from the huntsman when he tried to kill her, and it’s the reason the animals in the forest didn’t harm her when she fled into the woods.

I’ll keep my lips shut about this one, though. I prefer you find out about it when you read the actual story.

Until then, fellow, I hope the runes fall in your favor.

And remember: Whisper your wishes.

For Your Consideration
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Did You Know the Name of Snow White’s Kingdom?

Me neither, but I’m making it up.

Let Me Tell You a Little Story

There was war once between the four kingdoms of the land. At first, it was violent, massive, and bloody. Neither crows nor wolves would go hungry during these years of bloodshed and screamletting.

Upon seeing how taxing this war was, the four kings changed tactics. They took this war from fields, to courts. The soldiers were now spies, traitors, and assassins. Swords were no longer used to fight this war. Round pieces of metal, coins, took their place.

There soon came a time when no one wanted to be king or queen, due to the high likelihood of an agonizing death thanks to poison. There was also the chance of being stabbed on the back while celebrating your nuptials with your husband or wife. Nothing you said was private. Everyone was privy to everything you did.

The names of these kingdoms changed frequently during these times. But the new king of one of them grew tired of this chaos and summoned the other three to a field. He sent the same letter to his counterparts, saying that he would be there alone with nothing but his side arm, and that he hoped the other three would attend.

The day of the meeting came. The king was there, alone, with nothing but his side arm. The other three monarchs came, each with a unit of 100 men behind them. When they saw the lone king they feared a trap, and mobilized for a fight.

But the lone king simply stood on top of a hill with his arms open, demonstrating his vulnerability. Eventually, the three other monarchs approached. The lone king moved slowly to unsheathe his sword, drive it tip-first into the ground, and spoke to the others.

“Plant your swords into me, if you will. Or plant them into the ground if you prefer.”

Queen Greenwood planted her sword into the ground. Because of this, her kingdom retains her name.

King Greyrein planted his sword into the ground. Because of this, his kingdom retains his name.

King Brownmountain planted his sword into the ground. Because of this, his kingdom retains his name.

The lone king, King Bluesea, sighed with relief and asked, “Who is the proudest among us?”

This was a time when words meant what they meant. A time when they were not played with. There was no doubt as to what he meant. After some deliberation and discussion, it was determined that Greyrein was the proudest of them.

King Bluesea, the one that had summoned the other three, then spoke four phrases. Each in a different language, that of the monarchs before him.

“We are not friends, and may never become so, but peace is not about friendship,” he said in his tongue, that of Bluesea

“Peace is about understanding. Words are meant to be understood. But my people do not speak the words of your kingdom,” he said in the language of Greenwood.

“I will teach my people the language of one of your kingdoms, that they may speak their mother tongue, and an adopted one. That there may be understanding within and without,” he said in the language of Brownmaountain.

“And I propose it be the language of the proudest among us, that he will be at peace, and so will the rest of us,” he said in the language of Greyrain.

“Suppose we disagree,” said queen Greenwood, but in the language of Greyrain.

The other three laguhed.

“Then uproot your sword and drive it into me,” said Bluesea.

But the swords remained planted. The first festival to celebrate the peace took place one year after the meeting. Peoples from all four kingdoms, those that had learned the language of Greyrain, were taken to celebrate.

Food, drink, games, songs, jokes, ideas, and even beds were shared during the five days of the festival. It was called “The Reminder of Peace”, and it was agreed that it would take place every five years.

Even though the swords were never touched, and not a one of them ever tumbled, they rusted. The kings saw this, deemed it improper, and hired seven dwarfs to forge a monument. A monument of four towering swords, thrust into the ground just like the original ones. One was green, the other blue, the other grey, the other brown. This symbol was dubbed “Pride’s Defeat”.

Many years will pass since this time, and the festival will still be celebrated centuries, if not millennia in the future. More than a golden era of peace, this could be called a silver era. No wolves, eagles, or crows shall feed on the flesh of soldiers, but there will always be tension among humans. No wars are fought, but feuds will endlessly take place among the peoples of the four kingdoms.

It is during this festival, however, that Snow White and her Prince shall one day meet. She hailing from Brownmountain, and he from Greenwood.

This is part of the Worldbuilding I came up with for my enhanced edition of Snow-white. More specifically, this is a little bit of background story that, now defined, will help me narrate things as someone who has actually lived through the history of this world. This in turn will make the narrative organic, and it will feel natural to you, reader.

There’s not much more to say, really. The following posts will show you more of this world I’m creating, as well as more instances in which I had to stop writing and “troubleshoot” a bit of “writer’s block.”

Until then, fellow, I hope the runes fall in your favor.

For Your Consideration

Should you like to be notified of when I update this blog, send me an email to longtainjohn@gmail.com. I’ll be glad to add you to my newsletter. If you’d like to see if I can convince you even further to join my newsletter, click right here.

The Name of Snow White’s Evil Queen

Is this post’s title click baity? Well, I hope so. I did give the Evil Queen a name in the enhanced version of Little Snow-white I’m writing, but the original texts recorded by the Grimm brothers don’t give us a name for them

The bad news here is that I’m experimenting with click-baity titles. I don't really know what I'm doing, so they might not even be all that enticing. The good news is that I’ve found out how to not feel guilty about using them: I’ll address it as the cheap tactic that it is, and attempt to make it humorous.

But let’s assume that you’re interested in that bit I mentioned about writing an enhanced version of Snow-white. Maybe you picked up on the fact that I said I’d given the evil queen a name. If you’re still reading this despite my shameful behavior, I’m going to hazard a guess that you’re interested in reading about it.

I promise to be decent from now on…until I have to come up with another title.

The Second Roadblock as I Wrote My Enhanced Version

Snow-white is the only character that is given a name in the Grimm texts. No one else is ever named, despite what Disney would have us believe. If I’ve gotten you to read the most easily accessible version of this story in a copy of the Grimms’ anthology, then you know that those dwarfs did not have names. And if I remember correctly, it wasn’t even Disney that named them. It was a musical that bestowed names upon those elfs.

And yes, I just called the dwarfs elfs. This is due to the fact that throughout the original tales, and even in ancient nordic texts like The Elder Edda, elf and dwarf are interchangeable.

Anyways, forgive my digression. I wanted to talk about the second roadblock I stumbled upon, and that is, precisely, names. Mainly, who should I name so that the narrative does not get repetitive and confusing?

Villains are, of course, main characters. This led me to name our evil queen. As I sat down to write the chapter in which she made her first appearance, I again had to stop and think. Who else would I be naming?

Even though I had a treatment, or a detailed summary of the book, I wasn’t quite sure who would need a name yet. The king and queen would not need names for reasons that will be apparent when you read my finished story.

The prince? I wasn’t sure. Heck, I wasn’t even sure he would be a prince. For some reason, I thought he might be the son of one of the king’s lords. Politically, at least, I thought that would be a better move for the king. To have a member of a family already subjected to him elevated to king, instead of some foreigner.

But my biggest concern was whether I would have to name all seven dwarfs. This meant having to give each one a detailed and realistic personality, which meant having to stop my writing, and work on the character profiles for the dwarfs.

I did not want to do that. This was supposed to be a short, fun, light project, as I said in my last post. Working on seven different character profiles was a much bigger commitment than I was willing to accept for this endeavor. Besides, the dwarfs didn’t even have names originally, and they barely took part in the story. They were, quite literally, treated as a single entity. I didn’t want the extra work, and I wanted to remain as faithful to the original tale as possible.

Looking at the Problem From Afar

I had to step away from the writing, and think over a teapot about this “little” conundrum. The water had not even boiled when I came to the realization that I either did things right, or not at all.

By the time I finished the teapot, I hadn’t made a decision yet. It would actually take the whole day for me to make up my mind. I have faith in this enhanced version of Snow-white. I enjoy working on it.

I was going to do things right.

The following day saw me sitting down not to continue writing the chapter I’d left incomplete, but to think about the conventions dwarfs would use to name their offspring. Then, I wrote down the seven names of my dwarfs, and worked on their profiles.

I hope, fellow, that you soon get to meet the evil queen Revna, and the dwarfs Mat, Tok, Mer, Roc, Carv, Or, and Tun.

Until then, I’ll see you in the next post, and hope that the runes fall in your favor.

For Your Consideration
Should you like to be notified of when I update this blog, send me an email to longtainjohn@gmail.com. I’ll be glad to add you to my newsletter. If you’d like to see if I can convince you even further to join my newsletter, click right here.

Why Did Snow White’s Mother Die?

The story passed on to us by the Grimm brothers never gives us an answer. Natural causes, most likely. Actually, the real reason Snow’s mother died in the version we can all read today is revisionism. I’ll write a whole post about that in the near future, but I want to stay on topic right now. The Grimm version never tells us why she died after giving birth. The fact that, probably, 1 in every 20 women died giving birth during the middle ages is a good enough answer, sure. But I want something more.

Birth Giving in the Middle Ages

As I sat down to write the second chapter of my Snow-white version, I realized I knew nothing about births in the 1500s. Absolutely nothing. This was a problem, since I always imagined Snow’s mom died right after giving birth to her. This meant I had to set the scene, and I had no idea how to even do that.

Research is a big part of writing. So instead of making progress on the story, I took off on another adventure into the internet. Thankfully, long gone are the days where I had to write a research paper and cite my sources. Unfortunately, I still have to make an effort to verify my sources. The internet is a twisting corridor full of misinformation, traps, and false exits. It’s full of ignorance, is what I’m trying to say. I have to admit I sometimes wish all my friends would turn into historians.

Alas, I am historian-friendless. All I can hope is that my narration of the moment in which Snow’s brought into this world is somewhat believable, if not truthful. With that part done, however, I suddenly had a spark of beautiful and elating inspiration.

What if Snow’s mother dies because of the wish she made to have a daughter of white, red, and black? said a voice in my head.

“Ooof,” I said out loud.

Magic in Snow-white’s World

I started making connections in my mind. I’ve read some of the fairy tales collected by the Grimm brothers, and it always struck me as weird that some of them have Christian elements. It’s to be expected, of course, as these tales are mostly based during the middle ages, but the mixture of pagan and Christian aspects is hard to take in stride.

It was this disharmony that gave me an idea in the end. Just as Christianity came to replace older religions, what if there’s a shift happening in the world of my enhanced version of Snow-white? What if people used to believe in certain gods, or powers, but another creed was gaining grounds in the beliefs of the people?

The Ancient Powers, I called them. And that’s what people in this world call them as well. But then came the Queen (of light) to drive away what her adherents are now calling the Dark Powers.

I thought this idea fitting because from the initial planning stages, I wanted magic to have a more prominent part in this world. I didn’t want for the evil queen to be the only one that used it, but the dwarfs as well. The addition of the Ancient Powers was precisely what I needed, and I could introduce the magical part of this world from, practically, the very beginning of the story.

This was still a simple enough project up to this point still. I didn’t have to define, precisely, how the Ancient Powers work. I could keep them as a mysterious force the same way many writers do with their magic systems. I was still workin on a fun, light project.

It wouldn’t last long, unfortunately. Or thankfully, rather. The truth is, I’m excited about everything that came about because of this. And I’ll tell you all about it in future posts.

Until then, fellow, I hope the runes fall in your favor.

For Your Consideration

Should you like to be notified of when I update this blog, send me an email to longtainjohn@gmail.com. I’ll be glad to add you to my newsletter. If you’d like to see if I can convince you even further to join my newsletter, click right here.

Did Snow White’s Parents Love Each Other?

Context

I’m writing an enhanced version of the Little Snow-white story, and you could say this was my first roadblock when I started. I had to define the relationship between the king and queen. Sure, the queen wasn’t going to be around for very long, but she’s the one that started this whole story. She’s the one that made the wish to have a daughter who sported very passionate and poetic colors.

The same goes for the king. In the original story, he doesn’t participate much, and just fades out of existence after he’s mentioned to have gotten married a second time. My very intention in writing an enhanced edition of this tale was to answer questions like that: What happened to him? Or where did he go? This means that I had to write at least some scenes with him.

Which meant that I had to write them together, the king and queen, and show at least a bit of what their relationship was like. Which leads me back to the question at the very top of this post.

Did Snow White’s parents love each other?

This was not a question I’d been expecting, to be honest. When I sat down to write the first chapter of this story, I knew I was going to have the king and queen interact with each other. I just hadn’t considered the question of how. How were they going to treat each other? What was their relationship like, and how would its state affect their interactions?

The page was blank, the cursor blinked, and I just stared at the screen, thinking about this question. It was very likely that their marriage was arranged. Or maybe, they’d actually fallen in love before their marriage was arranged. Or maybe their marriage was not arranged at all. Perhaps they’d chosen to marry each other and their decision had been respected. 

I had to choose between those options, and decided to go with the first one. Their marriage had indeed been arranged, and they did something that is almost never done. Or at least, I’ve never heard anyone talk about this when they decide to open up about their marriages.

They devoted time to learn to care for each other. They didn’t “click”, nor was there a “spark”, and the “chemistry” was not there. But they opened up to the other about themselves, and talked about what was important to the other.

That in itself would be a very interesting story to tell. Heck, I’ve been wanting to write a story about that for a very, very long time now. But unfortunately, this is not their story. It’s Snow-white’s, and her story begins with the queen sewing at a window. She’s already married to the king, and they’ve already gotten to know each other as best they could in the time since their wedding.

And The Writing Began

Having decided that, it was a breeze to write this chapter. Sure, a whole hour had gone by as I thought and pondered about their relationship, but that’s the way of writing. Much of the time flies by as you make decisions, and deal with answering questions that hadn’t come up until you actually sit down to write.

I’d already worked out their personalities. I already knew the king was a noble, responsible, conscious liege. The queen was a caring, wise, patient leader. In my experience, determining that is enough to write the interactions between my characters. What was preventing me from typing away was that I’d forgotten there was history between these two, and I hadn’t established it.

But there it is: An arranged marriage that worked out because of the willingness of the couple to make it work, and their actions to make it so. That’s all I needed to start typing away.

Simple enough, right? I thought enhancing Snow-white’s story would not be such a problem. I thought it would be a quick, fun, light project that I could finish in less than a month. The story had already been written, after all, and I was just adding a detail here or there.

You’ll find out in the following posts that I was very, very wrong.

May the runes fall in your favor, fellow.

For Your consideration

Should you like to be notified of when I update this blog, send me an email to longtainjohn@gmail.com. I’ll be glad to add you to my newsletter. If you’d like to see if I can convince you even further to join my newsletter, click right here.

How a White Ape Made Me Write an Adaptation of Snow White

If you think that your childhood can actually be ruined, I don’t recommend you read the original works that inspired Disney’s adaptations. With only one exception that comes to mind, Disney has thoroughly revisioned them. The originals are completely different stories to what you may hold very near and dear to your heart.

If, however, you know that nothing can actually go back in time to truly taint your childhood, and you’re fascinated by the changes that take place when people decide to disregard the integrity of the original work, or maybe even it’s original intent, then read on. I think you’ll be quite interested to know why I decided to write my own Snow-white story.

It all started with Tarzan. Which, by the way, is a word in the language of the apes that adopted him. It means ‘white ape.’ 

Yes, I did say apes. Not gorillas. That was Disney shoehorning a bit of environmental awareness in their adaptation. Which is fine, don’t get me wrong. You might be getting the idea that I begrudge them for this, but I truly don’t, as you’ll be able to find out if you read on.

Tarzan is my favorite Disney movie. I watched it for the first time back when it came out, and I was eleven or twelve years old. As I kept growing, Disney kept producing movies. A lot of them adaptations of old, ancient even, stories. For most of that time, I was working on becoming a writer myself. Each movie they put out only inspired me to keep going, since I wanted to make people feel as much and intensely as some of those movies and stories made me feel. Disney is not my main influence, it’s not even a cherished one, but it is one of them.

Tarzan, however, stayed with me, and I eventually got curious as to what the original story was like. I downloaded Mr. Borough’s first book in the series (yes, there’s a series of Tarzan of books. Over 20, if i’m not mistaken) from project Gutenberg, and got to reading.

Holy father-killing apes, was I reading a completely different story than the one Disney told to me. Seriously. When I was done reading the book, I doubted the animation could even be called Tarzan. It would be like changing The Lion King’s title to Hamlet just because it shares some elements with, and is based on, Shakespeare’s story.

And Then Came The Pale, Poisoned Princess

So I decided to go to the original fairy tales and see how much Disney changed them in their animations. I went on Amazon, bought a book with all 200+ stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and started with Snow White because that was the first adaptation Disney produced.

Surprisingly, this one was pretty faithful to the original. This is, in fact, the one exception I was talking about in the very beginning of this little article. It’s so faithful, in fact, that it did nothing to answer the questions that sprang to my mind as I was reading.

Why did Snow White’s father, the king no less, never care about her daughter disappearing?

Where did the mirror come from?

Why did the evil queen do nothing when the hunter made a fool out of her?

Where did the evil queen come from?

Why did Snow-white’s mother die after giving birth?

The prince just comes out of effin’ left field! What the heck?

Also, did you know that the evil queen actually tried to kill Snow-white three times after telling the hunter to murder her? Or that, originally, the prince never kissed Snow-white? Or that in the very first version of the recorded tale, the evil queen was Snow’s very own mother?

As a writer, all those loose ends left me with the equivalent of blue balls. It is frustrating as all hell, and a cold shower is like applying a band-aid to a cut the length of your arm.

I will not say that I took matters into my own hands because it meshes too well with the blue balls analogy. What I will say is that I started working on ways to answer those questions, and tighten all those loose ends. It was an impulse, a natural drive that led me to do that, and by the time I was done, I loved what I’d produced. It was basically a treatment for what I perceived to be a pretty good story.

So Why Not Write It And Share It?

I’m not gonna say that I’m writing a better story than the original one, or even a better one than what Disney did. I know there’ll be people that will read it and think that it is the worst atrocity done to this classic.

But I’m writing it, liking it, and am convinced that there will be people out there that will enjoy it as much as me.

So here we are. If you’re interested, be sure to follow this blog. I’ll be posting more articles on the problems I run into while adapting this wonderful classic. If you enjoyed this one, you’re sure to enjoy the rest.

May the runes fall in your favor, fellow.

For Your Consideration

Should you like to be notified of when I update this blog, send me an email to longtainjohn@gmail.com. I’ll be glad to add you to my newsletter. If you’d like to see if I can convince you even further to join my newsletter, click right here.