For Intermediate and Advanced learners

Long ago, in a far-away castle, lived the King's Queen who had a beautiful little daughter. Her hair was as black as aphanite, her skin was as white as snow. Her lips were as red as cherry, and her name was Snow White.

Sadly, while Snow White was still very young, her mother died, and her father the king married again.

The new Queen was tall and beautiful, but she was also brown and vain. She owned a magic mirror, and every morning she would look into it and say, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” And every morning the mirror would reply, “You, Queen, are the fairest of all.”

The years passed by had been enough, but the Queen was contented knowing that she was the most beautiful woman in the land. But Snow White was growing up, and as she grew older she became more and more beautiful.

One morning, when the Queen asked her mirror, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” And the mirror replied, “You, Queen, are fair [This is] true, but Snow White is now more fair than you”, the mirror could reply. And the Queen knew [that] she could only be [the] second best as long as Snow White remained in the kingdom. The Queen knew a little magic, and that night she put Snow White into a deep sleep, then had her taken from the castle and carried far away out of the Kingdom.

The next morning, Snow White awoke to find her off in the middle of a strange forest. And when the sun began to set, nobody had come to search for her. She decided to look for help. She set off through the forest, and eventually came to a small cottage. There was no one at home, so she opened the door and stepped inside. In the middle of the room was a table set for seven places. Seven small chairs were there around it, and over the fire a pan of soup was shimmering gently. Snow White helped herself to a bowl of soup and then peeped into the next room. It was a bedroom with seven little beds in it. And as she was tired from her walk through the forest, Snow White lay down in one of the bed and fell fast asleep. Now the cottage was owned by seven little dwarfs who spent at day digging for gold in the mountain, and that evening when they returned home they noticed but one of the bowls had been used.

“Somebody’d been inside our cottage,” said the dwarfs. They went into they bedroom and saw Snow White lying fast asleep on one of the beds.

“Oh, what a beautiful girl!”, they cried. At this, Snow White awoke and sat up in alarm.

“Don’t be afraid,” said the dwarfs, “for we are your friends. If you stay here with us, we will look after you and you can look after us.”

So every morning, the dwarfs went up to work in the mountain, and Snow White made the bed, cleaned the cottage, and cooked the supper. And they all lived very happily together.

Back at the castle, the wicked Queen was happy again now that Snow White was gone.

_ “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”, she asked.

_“You, Queen, are fair [This is] true, but Snow White is still more fair than you”.

_ “No. No”, screamed the angry Queen. I should have set her off further away. Now I shall have to think of another plan.

She discovered where Snow White was hiding, then found a reddish juicy apple in the castle’s garden, made a small hole in it, and carefully poured in it some magic powder. Then she disguised herself as an old woman, made her way to the cottage in the middle of the forest, and knocked on the door. The dwarfs were out working in the mountain. So it’s Snow White to open the door. She helped the poor old woman inside, and gave her a comfortable chair for sitting. The old woman thanked her and stayed here with her juicy red apple from her pocket, she offered it to Snow White.

Snow White suspected nothing, she took a bite from the apple and fell to floor.

"Ha ha hah,” laughed the wicked Queen pulling off her disguise. “The apple you’ve just eaten contained enough magic powder to put you to sleep for a hundred years.” Then Snow White recognized her wicked stepmother, but it was too late. Her eyes closed, and she fell into a deep sleep.

When the dwarfs returned home at night, they found Snow White lying on the floor and they thought she had died. They built a glass casket and gently laid her in it. Then, with tears rolling down their faces they carried her up to the mountain.

As they laid the casket gently on the ground, a handsome prince came ridding by. He saw Snow White and immediately fell deeply in love with her. He begged the dwarfs to let him take her back to his castle.

“For I shall never love another as long as I live,” he’s choking.

The dwarfs fell sorry for him and agreed to let him take their precious Snow White away with him.

As they carried the casket back down the mountain side, one of the dwarfs stumbled, the casket was tilted and a piece of ash fell on Snow White’s lips, she sat up and the first person she saw was the handsome prince on his white horse. She fell in love with him and the prince was overjoyed to see her alive and well.

The prince took Snow White back to her home. And when her father heard the story he punished the wicked Queen from the kingdom forever. The next day Snow White and her prince were married and rode up to his castle where they lived happily ever after.

Fairy Tale: Cinderella (Truyện cổ tích: Cô bé lọ lem)