Is Snow White Real? A Look Back Into The Life Story Of Countess Margarete Von Waldeck
With the premiere of Rupert Sanders' "Snow White and the Huntsman" starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron, many are wondering if the folk tale popularized by the Brothers Grimm and Walt Disney -- about the girl with hair as black as ebony and skin as white as snow -- is based on a real person.
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, the authors of the original "Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge," or the story "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," were German scholars who collected, researched and wrote stories based on folklore in the early 1800s. The stories, which were spread by word of mouth, were treated as scholarly research, and the Grimm brothers eventually compiled more than 200 of them. One of those stories was "Snow White," and based on accounts from various people -- from peasants to aristocrats -- which drew some criticism based on how accurately the oral tradition was rendered during the transcription process.
However, in 1994, a German scholar named Eckhard Sander wrote "Schneewittchen: Marchen oder Wahrheit?" which translates to "Snow White: Is It a Fairy Tale?" in an effort to debunk claims that the protagonist in Snow White never existed and was not based on historical fact....