SNOW WHITE WITHOUT THE SEVEN DWARFS

Story by: Murathan Mungan.

Translation: Yurdanur Salman.

Once upon a time, a princess called Snow White lived in a far-off country. But she did not have the Seven Dwarfs. Therefore, her only desire in life was to have the Seven Dwarfs. From morning till night, she would sit at the window praying to God to send her the Seven Dwarfs, and she never gave up expecting them to appear one day. At her door, Princes riding white steeds waited by the thousands; a new one would arrive as the others were leaving, but what was the use? She did not have the Seven Dwarfs to begin with. The Knights and Princes all promised her richess and happiness; they all asked for her hand, and begged and beseeched her, but she would not accept any of them; she scorned all these early suitors.
"First I must have my Seven Dwarfs; I should be living with them in a small cottage. I should be cleaning their cottage, mopping the floor for them, washing their dishes and doing their laundry; then the witch should arrive and make me suffer; only after these things happen should you come and rescue me; it is pointless for you to come now!" she would say.
Knights and Princes were turned away from Snow White’s door empty-handed. Her stepmother was extremely sad because of this; yet she could not do anything to change the situation. However hard she might try, she could not succeed in changing Snow White’s mind. Of course Snow White had a stepmother, too. For in that country, everybody had a stepmother. All the young girls thought their stepmothers had "hearts of stone"; but like all the others, Snow White’s stepmother was only a mother.
Snow White never got weary of waiting for the Seven Dwarfs. She just withered in front of that window. She would look into the basket of every peddler woman who walked past her house, saying, "I wonder if there’s an apple in here?" But Snow White became tired of taking each elderly woman for an apple seller and checking each basket for a poisonous apple. In the meantime, she kept pleading with her stepmother’s famous magic mirror:
"Oh, mirror, I beg you, I beseech you; go tell my stepmother to have me sent to the forest to be killed; get the hunter to have pity on me, to put rabbit’s blood on my clothes... for the sake of my life, go tell all this to my stepmother."
Days went by and none of these things happened. Snow White was not able to get Seven Dwarfs for herself. Yet her expectations got stronger as they got older: They took root deeper and deeper in her being. Years went by pitilessly; she got older; she turned into an old maid. Finally she completely despaired of ever finding the Seven Dwarfs; she gave up looking for them. And now, Knights and Princes of the good old days did not stop by her door or at her window any more.
Thus, this particular Snow White could never get into any tale. She never had a tale of her own. And one day, she found herself quite old, an ugly spinster. She saw that her life had dried up as much as her body. She panicked so much that she became lost in her fear and doubts. On the other hand, she would not give up her tale or her dreams either. Thus, she decided to acquire a new place for herself in the tale. She put her arm through an apple basket and began to go around to cottages in the neighborhood, not minding the rough countryside. She said to herself, "I can always find a Snow White at a window waiting for her destiny, anyway." She thought, "Maybe, in a far off cottage, at a dark window, a Snow White is waiting for me." She wanted, at least, to make her happy, to help make her wishes and dreams come true by giving her the poisonous apple.
She walked so many miles, she climbed so many hills, she went over so many hills and dales! But no Snow White ever called her to the window. She returned from each cottage, from each gate, empty-handed. All her apples rotted in the basket from their own poison.

She lost all her teeth; her nose got longer; she grew a hunchback. Her legs became shaky; she developed chronic sciatica and she had rheumatic pains all over her body. Her eyesight got weaker; she became hard of hearing; she had a stoop. All the same, with great perseverance and obstinacy, she went on travelling over hill and dale and through forests, to look for a Snow White that she could get to bite into one of her apples.
(Snow White was supposed to fall into a long dreamy sleep until the Knight on a white steed arrived... Whereas, all the tales had fallen into an endless winter sleep.)
In the end, she decided that time had changed everything, and she became unhappy and bitter towards the whole world. She withdrew into her own private corner. She spent heartbroken, disappointed days in poverty and suffering. Nobody had any respect for her ideals any more. Snow White had realized this at last.
She had sacrificed herself for her ideals. On her deathbed she thought of herself as a heroine — with some shortcomings. She had ventured to live a whole tale all by herself.
And Snow White died when she was ninety.
In her small cottage she died as a poor and lonely old woman.
When she died, the whole country was moved. National Mourning was declared and all the flags were lowered. A big, spectacular funeral was arranged. From seven-year-olds to seventy-year-olds everybody from all over the country came to attend the funeral. All the people shed tears for their Princess.
At the funeral, the coffin in which Snow White’s body lay was carried by the Seven Dwarfs. Later, the Seven Dwarfs wept at length by her tomb, crying, "Oh, how can we ever live without you!"
The Knights and Princes on white steeds, who could not attend the funeral due to family matters, just sent telegrams extending their condolences.