Blogpost 2: Snow White: Apple and Alchemy

“Lips red as blood, hair black as night, bring me your heart, my dear, dear Snow White.” 
-  Queen Ravenna; Snow White and the Huntsman

       

Just like any other fairy tale, the princess of the woods, Snow White, has her own unique story. Another fairy tale written by the famous Brothers’ Grimm; and one of the first Disney classics released back in December 1937, it was one of the major hits of fairy tale back in the generation. With its different story line and happy ending, it sure garnered a lot of interest and therefore is one of the famous classics made. Like any other fairy tale, it was always Disney to be the first to animate them out. And like any other Disney animation, this story was not an exception that has origins of a darker version.

Here we go again for another fairy tale dig up. Writing this kind of posts tires me and always results to procrastinating. As I have started this, there's no going back. But like the first one, as I went through research, there's a lot of interesting things that Snow White has to show. As a bit of a classic enthusiast, I conducted a little research on our little princess’ story; or as the Grimm’s call it by the original name, Little Snow White.

There are some interesting connections I had found out while conducting this research. One is with the two material elements in the story: the apple and the mirror.

I came across an article entitled “Venus: Snow White or Wicked Queen” written by Monica Davis from the site WisdomOfTheToga.com. 

The article was a compilation of different connections that the fruit apple has to different stories and also, to the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite. The apple and the mirror were apparently the goddess’ symbols. And from that different connections from the apple came including the battle of who is the fairest in the story The Judgment of Paris back in Greek mythology; which is seen as the evil queen was talking to the mirror, demanding who is the fairest of the land.

According to her, she said that “Apple is a long generic term for many kinds of nuts, fruits and vegetables: tomatoes – love apples; cucumbers and potatoes — earth apples; melons – gourd apples. But “apple”, paired with a woman has a curiously powerful historical alliance. ” 

With that being said, and from the connections she stated in the site, there is a clear proof that the apple and the female has its own valuable importance being used in different times, such as the apple as a symbol of deception from the Bible when Eve forced Adam to eat it. The mirror, as one of Aphrodite’s symbols is therefore related to beauty. 

That was for Snow White’s connection to mythology. As I dig on further, there’s another connection that makes Snow White’s tale a bit more interesting.

I found an article entitled, “Guest Post: Snow White and the Philosopher’s Stone” written by John Patrick Pazdziora, from the site FairyTaleMagazine.com. 

According to this article, John was also digging about fairy tale stories and he came out with an interesting idea that Snow White has a connection to alchemy. Alchemy is this certain study of elements in science that involves transformation of substances into another substance but of greater value. Back in the Medieval Ages, alchemists are said to contain magical powers because of this certain field of study.

Back to Snow White, there is a sentence from the first paragraph of the original fairy tale:

“If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in this frame.”

According to John, black, white, and red are the classic color spectrum in the literary alchemy. Each color represents a phase of the chemical process, the Great Work as the alchemists call it. Black is the nigredo stage or where the base metal is burned to cleanse it. White is the albedo where the purified element is washed repeatedly for the final stage, rubedo. It is the blossoming of a streak of red in the white metal; it is put into a container until the transformation is complete, symbolizing a burial in the coffin. And what this does to alchemy is that once this process is complete, it said that it possesses the power to transform all material substance into gold.

For Snow White, John stated Snow White as a philosophical orphan, “The nigredo is her loss of home and self-identification in the forest, that labyrinthine fairy tale symbol for peril, liminal space, and the transmigration between worlds. The albedo is her time with the seven dwarfs. The end of the calm albedo is signified by the arrival of the queen-crone, and specifically an apple that’s half white, half red.” 

With these that he stated, he went to a conclusion that Snow White is a possible alchemical tale. The way her tale comes full circle has similarities to the Great Work’s process, may it be intentional, or coincidence. 

I’m surprised how these connections occurred. And quite fascinated that it looks like the Grimms are not just story tellers, but philosophers as well. 

I’ve read another thing that the seven dwarfs represent the stages of being high. Like, drug-like high. But no, it’s not. For the dwarfs, an article entitled “The Philosophy Behind Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” written by Thais Campos from the site Suite101.com.

It said that they actually represent the seven planes of consciousness that philosophers believed in each person. According to the article, Snow White arrived at the dwarfs’ house with the place in a clutter of mess and decided to clean the whole place. This action symbolizes cleansing of one’s soul so the seven planes can be in harmony; making a pure soul. Same as the way the alchemy thing is discussed earlier; a process of cleansing and purification to make a something whole.  

Campos said that “These [seven] planes correspond to the physical realm (body, sensations, emotions and concrete mind) and spiritual realm (pure mind, intuition, will).” 

So having the seven dwarfs as characters for this story is not for fancy. Their significance had been proved as well as the number "seven", and there's a lot of explanations for that number.

To how and why these details are implied by the brothers’, maybe they are sending us a message. These details couldn’t possibly be put for no apparent reason. As John had said, “Maybe we don’t ask questions of fairy tales because they’re asking questions of us.” Based on the earlier studies and information that I had found, the way they made the story is not for a petty children’s fairy tale. Well, in its image, maybe they are. They are ‘fairy tales’ after all. But based on the Grimm’s structure, they don’t just make it as it is, they have different values they want to show, though it’s up to the readers if they are interested enough to search for it.

Blogpost 1: Sleeping Beauty: Talia and the Flax

“… and they lived happily ever after.”

                    We all know how Snow White gets to be kissed and rescued by her prince; how Cinderella was fitted with the shoe; and how Sleeping Beauty gets to wake up after a long slumber. Different stories, yet with the same endings. Isn't it a little tiring? Princesses sitting around, waiting for the awesome skill of a writer to give a cliche happy ending, and well, everybody's happy. It's common, and sometimes, flat. And that's what's intriguing. I just can't let myself believe to these stories as simple, so I made some research. And one thing that caught my attention is Sleeping Beauty.

               

               I first searched about  its mythology and I came across an article entitled, "The Story Behind Sleeping Beauty" from the site Suite101.com, written by John K. Davis.

                The article is a quick summary about the Sleeping Beauty story's development from an old version to the latest. Starting from its origins from a 12th century Norse saga entitled "Volsunga" with Odin and Bruhilda; to Giambattista Basile's "Pentamerone" which will be discussed later on; to Charles Perrault's "La Belle au Bois Dormant"; and lastly, to the Brothers Grimm with "Sleeping Beauty".

             According to Davis, he said that, "The beloved fairy tale story of a young woman [Sleeping Beauty] who goes into a comatose state after getting a splinter in her finger and then being revived by a handsome prince, has its basic elements in both Nordic mythology and 16th century French literature."

              As we know, Norse Mythology is a collection of Scandinavian oral trdaitions based on various deitites, gods, and folklores. And back then, these mythologies are the popular ones. So there's no surprise that Sleeping Beauty is not juts a flat story of just a princess in a deep slumber. Contrary to our belief of a good happy ending that Disney provided, this article had a very different story; much to my surprise. Not only that it’s far to what we have watched as kids, but also it has a darker side of the story. I find this a little disturbing considering that this is a story meant for kids. Or, so I think. The idea of a princess being raped by a king stated a clear figure of incest, which is a little sensitive to be put on screen. Now I kind of know why Disney princesses have such a good image.For the story, it was foretold by the wise men of the King that danger will come to her from a splinter of some flax, so the King ordered for the removal of any of that kind. But when one day Talia saw a woman and grow curious with her spinning, she touched the spindle and splintered herself with the flax fiber; which is used to make linen cloths. Thus, falling into a deep slumber. 

               Another article I found, well not really an article but a downloadable PDF entitled "The Archetypal Interpretation of Sleeping Beauty: Awakening the Power of Love" by Grace Hogstad from the site Journals.sfu.ca; she stated that the earliest Sleeping Beauty was dated back in the 1300’s through the title “Troylus and Zellandine”. According to its story, it says that an evil deity places a curse on Princess Zellandine that causes her to go on a deep sleep. A few years later, Prince Troylus came upon the sleeping princess and rapes her in her sleep. It almost has the same element as the previous story though with a different character.

            

               In the file, Grace Hogstad says, "Basile's is the only one that shows a connection between the cause of sleep and the awakening—the flax splinter and the infant sucking it out. Perhaps because all later versions do not feature rape—consequently, no babies are born during the princess' sleep—the iterations that come after do not use flax. Instead, the bringer of magic sleep thereafter, when a disgruntled fairy places a curse on the princess, is a spindle." 

              By personal observation I agree to what she said. As I went through this research there was nothing that exactly explained the reason in detail to why and how Sleeping Beauty fell asleep and how she woke up. Basile's version is the only one that kind of answered both. 

                    

           Eventually, as I followed through the rest of the file, I found out that there a lot of versions the Sleeping Beauty story had been made. From Italian, to French, to German, and to English versions, it took almost six centuries of development for this fairy tale until the present child-friendly version came out. 

               

          Now going back to the story with the 'flax' thing, I found out that this idea is actually from the Italian version written by Giambatista Basile from his book "Pentamenrone", with the title "Sun, Moon, and Talia". Apparently, ''Talia" was the name given to Sleeping Beauty before, or for this certain version. 

                           

                Just a quick note: Flax seeds are known for it is a great sleep-regulating substance serotonin in the body due to their high levels of both trytophan and omega-3 fatty acids. In short, it helps improve sleep patterns and enhance immune support.  

           Although with the lots of searching and reading I have done for this entry, there still a lot more information about the under story and mysteries of this fairy tale that I cannot tell further. If you want to read the file for yourself, you can download the PDF file that was linked above.

                     

           All throughout, I was surprised of the things that I found out. Who wouldn't know that a simple Disney Princess story had a much more deeper, (even deeper than I thought) kind of inside. It was quite surprising that a Princess' story could come out in a weird but a classical kind of theme. It shows that every story has their own unique background, no matter how crappy and cliche they come out. We sometimes criticize Disney for the lots of Princess' stuff theme pattern they often produce but I realized, even though we look at it that way, Disney have their own unique kind of genius.