Snow White is real, and the magic mirror is really weird

Leviathan Press:

According to the research of pharmacist and historian Karl Heinz Bartels, Snow White (Maria Sophia) died in 1796 at the age of 71. Bartels also found relevant historical prototypes for the magic mirror, the seven dwarfs, the wicked stepmother, etc., and this article also restores them based on this research.

In addition, a woman named Margaretha von Waldeck (1533-1554) also provided inspiration for Snow White. Margaretha's father also owned a copper mine and employed child laborers (dwarves). However, some scholars believe that although her father's second wife (Margaretha's stepmother) was a very strict person, she died in 1546, and Margaretha's father did not remarry until October 1554, so her stepmother was not the one who poisoned her.

A long time ago, a princess was born. She had hair like black jade, skin like white snow, and lips like red roses. Do you know who she is? She is the "Snow White" in Grimm's Fairy Tales, but this is not her real name.

Like all fairy tales, who would have thought Snow White was real?

It all sounds so strange. A talking mirror, an evil stepmother, dwarfs living in a cabin in the woods. It sounds like something a really good storyteller would make up, right? But as they say, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Snow White is not a made-up fairy tale character. She is real, just like you and me.

The real Snow White

Disney's Snow White. © Wikipedia

The real Snow White. © Wikipedia

Snow White was born at Lohr Castle in Lohr am Main, Bavaria, Germany, on June 15, 1729. Her name was written in beautiful cursive on the birth record of the Lohr Town Hall - Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina von Erthal.

For a little girl, such a long list of names is too long, so let's call her Maria Sofia for now.

It's easy to read.

Her father was the landowner of the time, Prince Philipp von Erthal, and her mother was the lovely Baroness Eva von Bettendorf. In the fairy tale, Snow White's mother was named Eva because that was her real name.

Snow White did grow up in a castle

Snow White's father. © Wikipedia

Snow White's mother. © Wikipedia

Lohr Castle, where Snow White grew up. © Wikipedia

Maria Sofia grew up in a picturesque castle with a grand hall, a nursery and huge stone fireplaces to keep warm during the coldest winters. There was plenty of room for the children to run around and play. It was truly a fairytale castle.

Snow White is not an only child

Other fairy tales allude to this. Maybe you've heard of another fairy tale called Snow White and Rose Red, or Briar Rose. This is her sister.

After Maria Sofia, the Baroness gave birth to six more children. These seven children were born one after another like a series of pebbles. In just ten years, the children grew up happily together, and the Castle of Lohr was filled with laughter and happiness.

The forest in the fairy tale is real too

Spessart Forest. © Wikipedia

To the west of the Lohr Castle is a forest - Spessart Forest. Spessart means "woodpecker". In the forest, you can hear the sound of woodpeckers pecking at wood, as well as the laughter of children chasing and playing hide-and-seek.

On the other side of the forest are 7 hills, just like in the story. If you cross the 7 hills like Maria Sofia did, you will come to a town called Bieber. This is where the 7 dwarfs appear. They are real too.

Hey, hey, we're going to work.

© Wikipedia

The copper and gem mines in the town of Biber, west of the Lohr Castle, belong to Snow White's father. These mines are so short that adults cannot enter them at all, so the miners here are children or dwarfs, and only they can enter the narrow mines. There were indeed child laborers in the 18th century.

Often, miners have been working in the mines since childhood, and due to malnutrition and poor working conditions, they never grow taller. Therefore, the locals call these miners, young and old, the "dwarfs" of the mines. Each miner wears a brightly colored hat because these brightly colored hats make them easier to find if something unexpected happens in the mines. Most of the "dwarfs" are indentured miners who live in huts on the edge of the Spessart Forest, near the mines. Each hut can accommodate 7 miners.

Snow White knew from childhood that her father owned a mine, and she was very friendly to the "dwarfs" and fought for better working conditions for them. She was a real social justice fighter, and she had been like this since she was a child. There is a text in the local archives:

"A lovely little girl who helps the poor and the needy." [Loer Historical Archives]

Evil stepmothers do exist

When Snow White was 10, her mother died, and the castle was shrouded in a cloud of sadness. Four years later, her father, desperate to find another mother for his children, married a widowed countess.

Claudia Elisabeth von Venningen, who was the Imperial Countess of Reichenstein before her marriage, is the evil stepmother.

She hated children, all of them, especially Maria Sofia. Her hatred for her was endless. She hated Snow White's beauty, but she hated the fact that everyone loved Maria Sofia even more.

The Countess has two children with her ex-husband. She hopes that everyone likes her biological children, and she wants everyone to think that she is the most beautiful woman in the world.

But on the contrary, everyone loves Maria, and everyone praises Maria as the most beautiful. Maria, Maria, Maria. Jealousy drives her crazy. And she is also very vain, so vain that it makes people feel pity. Even Snow White's father knows this, so he gives her a mirror.

Mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall

Disney's version of the magic mirror. © Wikipedia

The real magic mirror, which still hangs in the Spessart Museum at the Lohr Castle. © spessartmuseum

Magic mirror, magic mirror on the wall, this is the weirdest wedding gift.

The "magic mirror" was a product of the mirror factory in the Electorate of Lohr-Mainz. Snow White's father gave it to his bride as a wedding gift.

The mirror wasn't really magical, but people didn't understand how mirrors worked, so they thought it was a magic mirror. It actually had a mechanism that reflected the speaker's voice back in a deeper tone. It was an acoustic phenomenon, similar to an echo. The Countess stood in front of the mirror and murmured about her beauty, and the mirror repeated her words in a deeper and more magical voice. In the 18th century, it was like magic from a Disney movie.

The left end of the mirror is engraved with "amour propre", which means "narcissism", alluding to the Countess's self-absorbed vanity. Now the mirror is still hanging in the Château de Loire, which has become the Spessart Museum, where visitors can personally experience the charm of the "magic mirror".

I don't understand why Snow White's father would marry such a woman, but he did. From then on, tragedy befell Maria Sofia. It was all her father's fault. I'll tell you what happened to Maria Sofia later.

But now, I want to tell you something that you may not know.

The Brothers Grimm were not storytellers

Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm in 1847. © Wikipedia

The story of Snow White first appeared in the first edition of a book by the Brothers Grimm. It is not a fairy tale, and Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm were not fairy tale writers, and they did not "make up" the story.

The Brothers Grimm were scholars, researchers and writers who collected folk tales and wrote them down. These stories are part of a vast oral tradition. Over the years, we have adapted these stories and turned them into fairy tales that we can tell our children, where a princess finds her prince and they live happily ever after.

The setting of the Snow White story is very close to the home of the Grimm brothers. The cottage where the brothers grew up was less than 50 miles (about 80.5 kilometers) from Lohr Castle.

Snow White's castle has now become a museum

The castle where Snow White lived is now the Spessart Museum. © TripAdvisor

Snow White's birthplace, the Castle of Lohr, has now become the Spessart Museum. On the first floor, you can see the "Snow White Hall", which is filled with memorabilia related to her, and the "magic mirror" hangs there. If you go to explore the Spessart Forest, you can follow Snow White's footsteps, through the forest, over the 7 mountains, and finally reach the cottage where the 7 dwarfs live.

Lohr Castle and Museum. © Lohr.de

A life-size iron silhouette of Maria Sofia and the seven dwarfs stands outside the Spessart Museum, celebrating her life story.

"What the Brothers Grimm wrote was actually a documentary about our local area."

—Dr Karlheinz Bartels, scholar and researcher in Lohr am Main

The ending of a fairy tale is a metaphor

At the age of 16, Maria Sofia ran away from home. She couldn't stand her stepmother's neglect and physical and mental abuse for even one day. So she ran away, crying, into the forest. Through the forest, over 7 hills, until she reached the 7 dwarfs' cottage. Imagine the 7 dwarfs' surprise when they came home and found her sleeping in one of their beds. Disney wasn't kidding.

© TripAdvisor

Three years later, her father died and the mine closed.

Maria Sofia ended up living on the streets and eventually in a convent 40 miles away. She never met her prince.

Snow White died at the abbey at the age of 71, blind and alone. It is said that she ate an apple that had been poisoned by the poisonous nightshade, also known as the "moon shadow of death." This plant grew abundantly around the abbey. Her grave was discovered in 1998.

Her death had nothing to do with her vicious stepmother, because her stepmother had already passed away.

The part about the prince will disappoint you

In the fairy tale, a handsome prince appears on a white horse and finds Snow White lying breathless on the ground. He holds her in his arms and kisses her - and as he does so, the apple falls out of her throat.

This is actually a metaphor. In the 18th century, people believed that the Grim Reaper rode a tall white horse. This was a little cuter than the scary Grim Reaper we know today.

The kiss is also a metaphor. In the past, people did not know about pulses, nor did they know how to tell if a person was dead by checking their pulse. At that time, they believed that the "kiss of death" was a symbol of a person's death. When a person dies, there is only exhalation but no inhalation. Folklore believes that the "kiss of death" takes away a person's breath.

So the prince picked up the princess and rode off to a place where they lived happily ever after. There was no such place in the world. Because Snow White's prince was Prince Death.

By Linda Caroll

Translated by Rachel

Proofreading/Yord

Original article/medium.com/history-of-women/snow-white-was-real-and-the-magic-mirror-was-creepy-and-weird-a74c0ccd29df

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