Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a small kingdom ruled by a king and a queen. The queen was very fair and very kind, unlike her husband the king, who fancied himself noble and just but was no more than a tyrannical despot. He was exceptionally cruel when he delved too deep in his cups, which was quite often, and the queen had learned to stay away from court whenever the king flew into his drunken rages. But despite the king's drunkenness and unfair rule, a somewhat stable peace still reigned throughout the realm. The people, not knowing any other way of life, were content and accustomed to living beneath the heel of their betters. This is how the kingdom was for many years.
But at long last, to the joy of the land, the queen was finally with child. The people danced in the streets at hearing the wondrous news while the castle cannons were lit and exploded in joy. The king was exceptionally happy, for this child was to be the first royal heir, and for a long time he secretly feared he was barren. For the king had a small and puny member that would stay flaccid despite its master's lustful wishes, and at random times of the day or week, would suddenly grow hard and strong whether the king wished it or not. Fortunately, it had been during these times that the king had approached his queen and had mounted her as a spring buck would a fair doe. And upon hearing the news that his seed would soon bear fruit, the king swore to become a better ruler and did away with his want of drink. And as the child grew within the queen's womb, the kingdom became a better land than before, and the people rejoiced even more.
And so with the promise of an heir, the king treated his queen with all the love and dignity befit of her station, and loved her very much. The queen returned his love, yet still knew not a name for her child. So she held a royal contest to see who would come up with the suitable name for the upcoming heir. The rich and poor participated alike. They stood in long, long lines with names ranging from the most exotic to the most hideous. But the queen was patient and listened to every one of them. It was not until the fourth day that the queen heard upon a name she thought desirable.
" Her Grace should name thy child Snow White," stated an old blacksmith.
" Oh? And why Snow White, blacksmith?" asked the queen.
" My Gracious Lady, I am very old and remember much what others do not," said the blacksmith. " I remember how fair your mother had been before she passed. "
" And what did my mother look like?" the queen asked, for she herself had been but a child when her mother perished and knew very little of what she looked like.
" I saw her but once, when she first entered these lands, but 'twas a sight I shall take to my death. She had hair black as a crow's wing, and skin as white as first snow. Her lips were as red as roses and her eyes bright and green as a spring day. You bear much likeness to her, My Grace, and your child will bear a likeness to you as well."
" And how do you know that my child will be of the delicate sex?" inquired the queen. " All the soothsayers of the land have read the stars, and told me of I was gotten of a boy."
" They are fools, madam," stated the blacksmith. " You are gotten of a girl child, and you shall name her Snow White."
The queen opened her mouth to speak and blinked her eyes, and in that small amount of the time, the mysterious blacksmith was gone. She sent everyone away from court as the blacksmith's words troubled her greatly. She did not continue the name contest and retreated into her chambers where she stayed until the babe was born.
The child was born with great joy spreading across the land, but also with great sorrow, for the queen soon became ill of childbed fever. And in her delirium, she urged her grief sick king to name the child Snow White as the blacksmith had foretold, and died soon after. The king obeyed her wishes and named his royal heir, a girl, Snow White.
2
Many years passed, and the princess steadily grew into a beautiful young woman named Snow White. She looked every way like her mother, and had her mother's kind and generous nature. The king loved his daughter very much, even though it pained him to look upon her, for he still grieved over his wife's death all those years ago. Despite the urgings from his closest council, the king did not remarry, and spent his time in paperwork and statesmanship.
But one day while the king was out hunting, he came across a woman washing clothes by the river. This woman was not young but well into her years like the king. However, she was the most beautiful woman the king had ever laid eyes on.
" My lady!" the king proclaimed as he kneeled before the startled woman. " Your beauty sets my heart aflame, and burns away the grief I've held for these past ten and seven years since my wife has passed! Please, my lady, return with me to my castle, and I shall make you queen!"
" But Your Majesty!" exclaimed the woman, " I know nothing of the courtly arts! I am but a humble washer woman and know not the ways of a fine lady!"
" I care not!" cried the king as he looked upon the woman's angelic face with eyes wet with tears of longing. " I fear I am no longer master of myself. Please, good lady, be my queen! Tell me your name!"
" I am called Frida, and yes my lord, I will be your queen!" the woman replied merrily.
The king rejoiced, then swept up his new bride upon his black horse, and rode back to the castle with all haste. And as his steed trotted through the streets and as he proclaimed his love, the king did not see the new light that had entered Frida's eyes.
As the king promised, he made Frida his queen the very next day. The people rejoiced, as they were relieved to see their once sad king happy again. Everyone throughout the kingdom celebrated their new queen but for Snow White, for she did not like the new queen taking her father's affections from her. But Snow White kept this as a secret in her heart. The princess retained her kind and generous nature before her new stepmother, but cursed her name in the darkness.
Frida soon became to be a very loving and humble queen. She and her ladies in waiting would spend a long time making clothing for the poor in winter, and Frida and the king would travel the realm in all gaiety and splendor. The king was in love with his new queen, and Frida returned his affections adequately. She was a kind and virtuous woman and turned out to be an equal companion for the king, whose member had gone soft one day and refused to rise ever since. Yet despite this, Frida appeared to love him all the same.
" My loving queen, I know how troubled you must feel whenever I lie with you," the king whispered one night. " So I will appoint a man for your pleasure, a man with the spirit of a wild stallion to appease you. My love, you need but say it, and I will make this so."
" My lord, you need not do this," Frida giggled softly. " I did not wed thee for bed sport. Your love alone pleases me many times over."
" Oh!" the king sighed. " My lady, thou art perfect in every way! I was right in to have made you my queen!"
But even though the king was unable to use his member, he engaged in other means to please his wife. He kissed her deeply as his hands groped her small breasts, then wander down between her legs where she sighed wantonly, and whispered in his ear how to please her there. And as the king's hand work furiously beneath sheets of silk and downy goose feathers, the queen clutched him tightly and nibbled like a mouse upon his ear.
" Oh my love!" she panted as her hips bucked and jerked on their accord to her husband's movements. " Oh my love, tell me! Tell me, who is the fairest in all the land!"
" You are, my beautiful, gracious queen!" the king gasped. " You are the fairest in all the land and beyond!" He sensed her time was near and he plunged his fingers deeper inside her. The queen cried out with a great shudder, and hot water poured from 'tween her legs and onto the king's hand and soaked the silken and feathered sheets. Then the king and queen grew still as sleep took them and they both slept peacefully in the queen's mess.
3
It was not until three years since Frida became queen that Frida began to change. She ceased making clothes for the poor and became short of temper. Like the king of old, she grew a fondness for drink and believed herself ugly and unloved, even though the king and her courtiers spoke otherwise. The queen became so vain, that she ordered her ladies in waiting to wear ugly masks so as not to draw the eye of the king, or any other man who may find them more beautiful than she. Frida became more cruel when the king was unable to keep pace with her demands in the bedroom and soon they did not share the same bed no more. The king further distanced himself away from his once loving wife, and returned to spending time with his daughter, Snow White, who rejoiced at her father's affections for her.
" Daughter, I know not what has become of the queen," the king lamented to her one day. " When I first met her, she was an angel from God himself. Now she is but a shrieking harpy with a tongue twice as sharp."
" Father, you are king of this land," Snow White told him. " You may do as thou wilt. If the queen no longer pleases you, then be rid of her."
" 'Tis not that easy, child," the king sighed sadly. " The queen still has some good in her, and I wish not to be alone."
" But you have me, Father," Snow White insisted. " You will not be alone."
The king looked over at his daughter with the smallest of smiles. " You are young and do not understand. In time, when you have a king and a realm of your own, only then will you understand."
Unbeknownst to the two of them was a lady in waiting to the queen who had accompanied them on their outing. Even though the king found great dislike in the masks the queen's ladies wore, he also did not order the ladies to remove their masks in his presence. This one lady did not only relish in wearing of the masks, but also acted as the queen's lover and spy. So she listened with great intent within the confines of her mask shaped like a jackal, and was quick to relay what she heard into the ears of the queen.
The queen's rage was swift and hot. She ordered her ladies out of the room save for her spy and with a dagger, cut the girl's dress into pieces. Then Frida the queen ordered the girl onto her knees and crushed her pretty face into her wet and waiting snatch. And as the girl licked that stiff knob of flesh and pushed her fingers into her queen, Frida spoke of her plans aloud and ran her dagger along the girl's back, where it left thin red lines over scarred ones.
" Snow White, much to my great despair, has become the fairest in all the land," Frida whispered. " The king loves me no more! What must I do? What must I do to regain his love once again?"
Upon hearing this, the queen's lover paused in her workings between the queen's legs, and stared up into her face. " My lady, I know of a witch who lives in the king's forest. If it pleases Your Majesty, I will show thee the way, and she will give you the answers you seek."
Queen Frida gazed down upon her lover. " Very well, Greta. We will seek out this woman. Now be a good little whore and tell me, who is the fairest in all the land?"
" You are, my queen!" the girl called Greta chirped, her pretty face now shining with the queen's lust. " You are the fairest in all the land!"
" You are a liar!" Frida yelled. " You only speak thus because I am your queen! Now cease your lies, and please me!"
" Yes! As you wish, my queen, my love!" And Greta returned to her pleasing of the queen, who rode her face as one would a horse until she cried out and spilled her water onto her.
Greta proved true, and late in the night, she and the queen stole away from the castle and into the king's forest. But Snow White had spied upon them leaving, and being of curious mind, followed the two in secret. Snow White followed them for a long, long time and into a part of the forest she knew not, until she came upon a dark and frightful looking cave. Snow White then sneaked into the cave after the queen and her lover, and watched fretfully in the darkness.
" Hail you, old woman!" Greta cried upon seeing the witch. " We are but two travelers seeking your wisdom and guidance."
" I know who you are. I have foreseen it," the witch rasped. She was indeed very, very old and skinny and kept close to a roaring fire that was the only light in the cave. " You are Greta, whore to the queen whom you have brought with you. What is it that you seek, Queen Frida?"
" I wish to be young and beautiful again," Frida declared. " I was once the fairest in all the land and loved by the king and his people. Now I am hideous to look upon, and have lost my king's favor. My whore says you have the power to restore my beauty, 'tis why I am here."
" I can make thee young and beautiful again," the witch answered. " But it will cost thee. What art thou willing to sacrifice for the sake of vanity and beauty?"
" I will give up anything! Whatever you wish, whatever you desire, shall be yours if you but grant me my wish!" Queen Frida cried.
" And what of a bargain of the flesh?" the witch croaked. " For the spirits I call upon, flesh is their price."
" Then take my whore, Greta," Frida commanded. " Take her and do as you please with her, if it means you'll grant my desire!"
" Nay, she is spoiled flesh! What the spirits demand is pure, untouched flesh. The girl who followed her will suffice."
And the witch turned to where Snow White was hiding, who cried out in fear and tried to run. But she found she was no longer mistress of her own limbs as the witch's power took hold of her body, and forced the princess into the light of the fire. The queen reddened in anger and Greta only squeaked in fright.
" This girl is pure and unspoiled," the witch declared. " Will you sacrifice this innocent child to appease your vanity and pettiness?"
" Yes! Yes!" cried the queen desperately. " She is yours! Now that you have your payment, give me what I desire!"
" Very well then. Take off her clothes, and put her in that circle of stones," the witch ordered, and the queen and her whore were quick to do her bidding. Snow White still could not move and could only cry silent tears and watch.
The witch raised her arms and voice to the dark ceiling of the cave and began to speak in an unknown tongue. The fire grew hotter and brighter, until Frida and Greta had to cover their eyes to keep from being blinded, and to retreat from the fire to keep from getting burned. Then the fire took its own form and encircled poor Snow White, who had been robbed of speech due to the witch's power. Then the witch stepped into the flaming circle, as the fire did not touch or burn her.
" You, Snow White, are the fairest of the land, in both of heart and face," the witch said. " Therefore, 'tis your beauty that shall be taken to restore the queen's own, and your innocence taken to seal this pact. Let it be done! Let this be so!"
And the witch disappeared instead to be replaced by a massive demon. Its claws were big and sharp and its jaws were like that of a jackal that drooled and hung perpetually open. Still, Snow White could not cry out or move. She could not even blink even as the fire and its dirt stung and dried her eyes. She could only watch as the demon's claws touched gently upon her breasts, then cut cruelly into her flesh.
And the demon took his lust out on the princess. Pain and terror now took hold of Snow White as the demon's hard and large cock angrily thrust between her legs. And as the demon panted and grunted, his claws tore into her flesh and pulled out ribbons of her black shiny tresses. The demon heartily enjoyed his payment and wherever he licked her, there was naught but burned flesh behind. And when the demon was sated, he took Snow White's beauty and placed it into the witch's hands, then disappeared.
" From this day forward," the witch said. " Queen Frida, you shall be the fairest in all the land. People will look upon you and sigh longingly. The king will love you again, and you shall stay forever young and forever beautiful."
And the witch took Snow White's beauty and placed it upon Queen Frida's face. Greta, upon seeing her fair queen, fell to her knees and cried in reverent awe. Queen Frida rejoiced and cried with glee, and with no more concerns, took her whore by the hand and left the witch and the cave.
The fire was spent and the witch stared down at Snow White. She lived still, yet her flesh was charred and blackened, and she cried in agony and despair. Her beauty was gone, and only burnt flesh remained on her once beautiful face.
" The queen may have what she desired, but I have looked into your future, child," said the witch. " You shall be a curse upon the queen. Hatred and revenge will be your lovers. Spill the queen's blood and drink it. Only then will your former beauty and innocence be restored."
And with those parting words, the witch disappeared. The cave grew very still, broken only by Snow White's cries.
4
It was not until two days Snow White was found. Not by her father the king, who had grown sick with worry for her, but by a small party of dwarves fresh from a morning's hunt. Their hounds caught scent of blood and of something wounded, and still aroused from chasing deer and rabbits, broke free from their masters' sides and ran into the darkness of the cave. It was there the dwarves found Snow White, bloody and burned, but still alive.
" I say to thee, what manner of creature is this?' demanded one of the dwarves, the first to enter the cave with spear and torch in hand.
" I like not the looks of this," cautioned another. " A foul deed was born here. Gather the hounds, and let us be away from here!"
" Stay your hand and your spooks, Geralt!" cried the first. With spear in hand, he herded the hounds away, and stared down at the blackened body in the dirt.
" Bah! 'Tis but some poor soul, Geralt, who napped too close to his fire!" laughed the first, then pushed his spear into the ruined flesh. And when the body gave a sudden quiver and a wailing cry, the dwarf sounded his fear and poised to strike the body.
But Geralt stayed his brother's hand and where there was once fear, there now shone pity in his eyes. " Stay your hand, Ebris! He lives!"
" Ach!" spat Ebris with great disgust. " I raise thy spear not in hate but in mercy. The fire was unkind in not taking him with it!"
And the two brothers struggled violently and aroused the hounds, whose barks sent the remaining brothers inside to witness their struggle with great wonder and confusion. It was not until Faran, the oldest of the brothers, stepped foot between them and ceased their conflict.
" Ho there! What is this?" Faran demanded. " What trickery has turned brother against brother?"
" Not trickery, but this." And Geralt pointed down to the quivering mass among the dirt and ashes. " We thought him dead, but Ebris drew blood and sought to slay him when he cried out. 'Twas I who forced him to stay his hand."
Faran gazed down on the body, and as he did, was overcome with the same pity that overtook Geralt. " Ebris did no wrong in granting this poor soul the gift of death, but we will give a greater gift, and that is life. Come, brothers, put down thy sword and spear, and bear this creature to our home."
And so the seven dwarves fastened a litter amongst them to bear Snow White away from the fouled cave. Neither brother spoke as they marched further into the forests, and into another land.
5
In the following years, a great sadness overcame the king and his mind. Since his beloved daughter had gone, he haunted the castle halls in the dark, and would strike and curse at unseen shadows. And in the day, he would wander into the forests believing he had seen Snow White and her fair mother dancing just beyond the trees, until his courtiers struggled to return him to the castle in maddening throes. It was during these fits that Queen Frida watched from her chambers with great dislike.
" Oh, how I pray for the day the old fool dies!" she hissed to her whore, Greta. " The witch had been wrong! I am the fairest in the land and still the king loves me not!"
" Your Majesty, the king's affections are but paltry trinkets when compared to the love your subjects shower you with," Greta said. " I hear he will be of no more soon, as his madness will take him."
" Then let it have him soon! He is old and disgusting anyway. Unlike you, my sweet Greta." And the queen turned to Greta and felt her bosom until Greta sighed contentedly and placed herself in the queen's arms.
" When the king lies dead, I shall make you my queen!" Queen Frida spoke as she undressed her whore. " For I care not for men, with their hard and ugly bodies, but for the soft and sweetness of women! And you, Greta, will rule by my side!"
And one day, the king, now burdened with age, took to his bed and stayed there. But it was not until three days later that he summoned his queen and his council and spoke barely a whisper.
" My death draws near," said the king. " And I rejoice, for my daughter and her beautiful mother will be waiting for me."
" And what of me, dear husband?" Queen Frida asked. " I, who have loved you since the day you came upon me by the river. What shall become of I and your kingdom?"
And the king looked upon Queen Frida, and his heart clenched. Queen Frida remained the same as the day he had found her by the riverbed, but he sensed an unnamed evil about his queen he could not remember before. And her face brought forth another face in his mind that made his heart sing, but alas, the king was gripped in a fog of madness that would not clear and it angered him.
" Lord Wendell shall be named Protector until you find a husband," the king ordered harshly. " You are not the woman I found on that fateful day, Frida. I cannot name it, but you are not yourself. Now go! Leave me to my grief!"
And Queen Frida fled from the king's chamber with great haste lest her anger betray her, and came upon the great hall where she walked the floor until her anger cooled. It was then that Lord Wendell approached and being smitten by the queen's beauty, stood silently until he was acknowledged.
" Yes? What is it you want?" Queen Frida demanded.
" Your Majesty, I know thou art greatly troubled by the king's words but please, he is not of sound mind. Yet know this: when the king is no more, grant me the honor of being your husband, and it shall be as it is now!" Lord Wendell proclaimed.
And anger swept over Queen Frida again and she made to send Lord Wendell away. But when she looked into his eyes and found them swollen with blind love, her anger went away and she looked down her nose on Lord Wendell and smiled upon him.
" Your fair words touch my heart, my lord," Queen Frida said and the queen, when she wished it, became a charming and humbled woman. " Yes, my dearest husband is most unwell and his words have pained me. Yet I shan't think of his passing too soon, and I pray he lives and love me still."