Snow White - A Family story
The classic story of "Snow White" was modeled after the true life Countess Margarethe Von Waldeck, (1533-1554). But unlike the fairy tale, she didn’t live happily ever after - she was killed to stop her from marrying a king.
Countess Margarethe Von Waldeck and Anton The Lord of Hartforth are related by blood thru their common ancestor,
King Henry II of England.
Count of Waldeck armorial bearings
She grew up in the mining town of Bad Wildungen (Hesse, Germany) where small children known as dwarves toiled in the copper mines. Countess Margarethe's father was Philip IV Count von Waldeck-Wildungen. At 16, Margarete was sent to the the imperial court of Brabant (in Brussels today). Here she met Prince Philip, later to be known as King Philip II of Spain. (Philip II and Anton have a common ancestor, King Fernando III of Spain, also known as St. Ferdinand.)
Anton's cousin, Philip II of Spain
Prince Philip wanted to marry Countess Margarethe Von Waldeck. Writers said she was a beautiful blond. In an earlier version of the Brothers Grimm book (in 1808) Snow White's hair was called 'yellow.' The real Margarethe was blond.
Her life was tragic - her stepmother hated her and so did the King of Spain. The Spanish secret police killed her on behalf of Charles I, King of Spain because the marriage would have created a political inconvenience.
In her town of Bad Wildungen, a man was caught poisoning apples in order to get even with children who were stealing apples from his property. Somehow, over time, the poisoned apple story got mixed into the Snow White story.
And the dwarfs associated with Snow White in the fairy tale were based on real children - who worked 12 hours a day in a mine owned by Margarethe’s brother in Bergfreiheit. The children grew bent and crippled because of the work, the terrible conditions and because they were permanently undernourished. Most of them died by the age of 20.
Wildungen around the time the countess lived there
Other tales from the middle ages have origins in real places:
Rapunzel was supposed to have let down her hair from the tower of Trendelburg Castle, watching over the town by the same name. The castle was built by Konrad III of Schöneberg. In
Trendelburg, at the edge of Reinhards Forest, the regional stretch of the German Half-Timbered Road starts. Reinhards Forest has been known for centuries for fairytales, sagas and storytelling.
Trendelburg Castle: Rapunzel's Tower in the Brothers Grimm Tale
Sleeping Beauty's castle, Sababurg Castle, may be visited in awe as well.
Sababurg Castle: Sleeping Beauty's Castle in the Brothers Grimm Tale
The castle dates back to 1335, when the Archbishop of Mainz erected Zappenburg, later known as Sababurg Castle, for protection of the pilgrims to the Gottsbueren Shrine. This property north of Kassel near the river Wesel changed hands, and the new owner, Landgrave William II of Hessia, built a hunting seat on the ruins in 1455.