Snow-White and Rose-Red (Grimm)
Short summary
A cottage in the forest, fairy tale times. A poor widow lived with her two daughters named after the rose trees in their garden.
One winter evening, a bear knocked at their door seeking warmth. The family befriended him, and he visited every night. In spring, the bear left to guard his treasures from wicked dwarfs. When he departed, Snow-white noticed gold shining through a tear in his fur.
The sisters later encountered a dwarf three times: stuck in a tree, tangled in fishing line, and caught by an eagle. Each time they saved him by cutting his beard, but he cursed them ungratefully. When they met him again with his jewels, a bear appeared. The dwarf pleaded:
Dear Mr. Bear, spare me... take these two wicked girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy's sake eat them!
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The widows daughters and their magical protection
A poor widow lived in a lonely cottage with a garden containing two rose-trees, one bearing white roses and the other red. She had two daughters who resembled these rose-trees in character. Snow-white was quiet and gentle, preferring to stay home helping with housework and reading to her mother.
Rose-red was more active and cheerful, preferring to run about in meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies.
They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red.
The sisters were devoted to each other, always holding hands when they went out together. When Snow-white promised they would never leave each other, Rose-red agreed they would stay together as long as they lived, while their mother added that what one had she must share with the other. The girls often wandered the forest alone, gathering berries, and forest animals trusted them completely. No harm ever came to them, and if they stayed too late and night fell, they simply slept on the moss until morning.
The bears friendship through winter
Once after spending a night in the forest, the girls awakened to find a beautiful child in shining white dress sitting near them. The child looked kindly at them but said nothing before disappearing into the forest. They discovered they had been sleeping dangerously close to a precipice and would have fallen if they had walked further in darkness. Their mother told them it must have been an angel watching over good children.
The sisters kept their mother's cottage immaculately neat. During summer Rose-red managed the house and placed fresh flower wreaths by her mother's bed each morning. In winter Snow-white lit the fire and hung the copper kettle that shone like gold. One evening as they sat by the hearth while their mother read aloud and they spun, someone knocked at the door. Rose-red opened it expecting a traveler, but instead found a large black bear.
Three encounters with the ungrateful dwarf
The bear spoke gently, asking only to warm himself by their fire. The mother welcomed him, and soon the family grew comfortable with their unusual guest.
The children played with the bear, tugging his hair and rolling him about. When they became too rough, he would call out playfully about beating their lover dead. The bear visited every evening throughout winter, becoming such a trusted friend that the doors remained unbolted until his arrival. When spring came, the bear explained he must leave to guard his treasures from wicked dwarfs who emerged when the earth thawed. As he departed, Snow-white noticed what seemed like gold shining through a tear in his coat.
Later, while gathering firewood, the sisters found a dwarf with a withered face and yard-long white beard trapped when his beard caught in a fallen tree.
Despite his rudeness and insults, Snow-white cut his beard to free him. The ungrateful dwarf grabbed a bag of gold and left without thanks. In their second encounter, they found the dwarf caught by his beard in a fishing line while a large fish pulled him toward water. Again they freed him by cutting his beard, and again he showed no gratitude, taking a sack of pearls and disappearing. During their third meeting, an eagle had seized the dwarf and was carrying him off. The girls rescued him, but he only complained about his torn coat before taking a sack of precious stones and vanishing into his cave.
The prince revealed and happy endings
On their way home from town, the sisters discovered the dwarf had spread his precious stones in the open, admiring their brilliance in the evening sun. When he angrily demanded why they were staring, a loud growling interrupted him. The black bear emerged from the forest, and the terrified dwarf begged the bear to spare him and eat the two girls instead, calling them tender morsels. The bear ignored his pleas and killed the wicked creature with a single blow.
I am a King's son, and I was bewitched by that wicked dwarf... I have had to run about the forest as a savage bear until I was freed by his death.
The bear's skin fell away, revealing a handsome prince clothed in gold. Snow-white married him, while Rose-red married his brother. They divided the dwarf's treasure between them, and the old mother lived peacefully with her children for many years, keeping the two rose-trees by her window.