In the enchanting world of fairy tales, death is far from permanent. In fact, death is often a catalyst for some form of vital transformation. While many sanitized versions of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs have Snow White peacefully asleep in her coffin, in many earlier versions, Snow White is dead.
What happens to her while she lies dead in her coffin can be a disturbing story in and of itself. An early Italian version, The Crystal Casket, exemplifies the macabre with dark necrophiliac themes.
The 16th Century Italian Tale: The Crystal Casket
The Italian tale The Crystal Casket begins with a lovely young girl named Ermellina and a persistent teacher. After the teacher convinces Ermellina to introduce her to her widowed father, the adults get married and the teacher transforms into a cruel stepmother.
Ermellina is Rescued and Tricked
An eagle rescues the young girl and carries her to a crystal palace, where she is protected by fairies. When the stepmother finds out the girl is alive, she enlists the help of a witch. The witch, under various disguises, takes poisoned treats and a cursed dress to the girl.
Despite Ermellina's promise to the fairies to not answer the door, she does. The fairies, after reviving her once, are miffed and do not revive her the second time.
The Crystal Casket and the Doll Within
The fairies place Ermellina in a jewelled crystal casket, rope it to the back of a horse, and send it to the town square. The horse and casket are found by a young king who instantly falls in love with the beautiful 'doll' within.
What Happens in the Palace Stays in the Palace
When the young king returns home with the casket, he tells his mother that he went hunting and instead found a wife. His mother is, understandably, perplexed: "But what is it? A doll? A dead woman?" The objectification of Ermellina is evident by the king's response that it does not matter what 'it' is because 'it' is his wife. The king retires to his room with the corpse where he is consumed by love.
He remains in the room with his 'wife' and refuses to leave even to eat. What it is, exactly, that the king is doing with his doll behind locked doors is veiled in obscurity.
The King is Pulled Away by War
Only war has the power to drag the weeping king from his room and his macabre doll within. Before leaving, he gives explicit instructions to appoint two chambermaids to the corpse's care. He also states that if harm or neglect should befall his wife, the chambermaids will be executed. Once the king is gone, his mother forgets his concerns and ignores the corpse.
Ermellina Returns to Life
When the mother receives word that her son will soon be returning, she sends the chambermaids to attend to her son's bride. Ermellina's beauty lies hidden under layers of dirt and dust. When the chambermaids attempt to wash her face, they spill water and stain her dress. The mother orders that another dress be made, and when the cursed dress is removed, Ermellina returns to life.
A brave chambermaid exclaims, "I am a woman, and so is this one; she will not eat me." It is not until this moment that Ermellina is referred to as anything other than an 'it' or a 'doll'.
The king's mother sympathetically listens to the girl's sad story and dresses her as a queen. However, when her son returns, she scurries Ermellina away and hides her in a distant palace room.
An Anxious King Returns
The king arrives home, and ignoring the pomp and circumstance of his arrival, he races past in search of his beloved. The chambermaids fall on their knees and plead their case that the corpse was giving off such a stench it had to be buried. The king immediately orders the gallows to be erected.
Seeing her son's seriousness and heartbreak, his mother relents and presents him with the living breathing Ermellina. The king jubilantly declares that since he loved her when dead, they should be married and become man and wife "in truth," which they do.
As cannibalism, torture, murder, witchcraft, incest and rape are staples in the fairy tale canon, necrophilia is certainly within the realm of possibility. As these tales often portray death as an agent of change or a rehearsal for a more permanent state, what happened to Ermellina as a corpse could be seen as preparatory for the impending responsibilities of marriage to a king.
Meanwhile, in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, she creates a collection of short stories based on legends and fairy tales. Carter's re-imagining of the Snow White tales in The Snow Child reveals her mastery at drawing out the dark and sensual side of ancient stories.
In The Snow Child, the necrophiliac theme in earlier tales, such as The Crystal Casket, is brought to the forefront as the girl is alive when the king first sees her; it is not until she falls dead that the king rapes her corpse in front of his mildly-disgusted wife.
From its earliest known written version to The Crystal Casket, readers can journey through the maze of dark possibilities within the history and origins of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Sources
Ermellina and The Crystal Casket
Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber