Starting with snow white

particularized to an extent. They are 
not
anonymous and therefore not so easily adapted 
to a current reader. Further, the element of enslavement generates a link to a particular 
cultural moment(s). Modern society and culture could easily deem the narrative 
unacceptable or offensive on these grounds, finding the narrative core ill-fitting to the 
time.
While the same is not entirely true for “Richilda,” the novelette’s beginning, 
“During the time of the Crusades,” does establish a clear time, space, and context for the 
tale (“Richilda” 1). As such, there is not the sense that it could belong to anyone from 

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any time. Further, as previously noted, Blamires has argued that its particular reflection 
of German customs fails to be captured by 
every 
audience (
Telling Tales 
54). Thus, the 
tale’s ready application for a far-removed reader or teller (by nation, culture, or 
generation) becomes limited. The work is set at a distance from his or her own life and 
cultural context and therefore cannot easily be repositioned or adapted to the needs of 
subsequent generations. In contrast, the Grimms’ tale, with its broadened sense of 
setting, merely requires a similar framing of gendered relations and conceptions of life 
cycle.
Because the patriarchal model of gendered relations has continued to prove a 
dominant social construct in Western society, and the significant stages of growth within 
a woman’s life (puberty, marriage, and childbirth) under this model are addressed and in 
some ways reconciled, the tale itself persists and remains ripe for retelling. Jones 
suggests,
Presumably the purpose of this patterning of the folktale [with ‘three significant 
stages in the growth of the child into a woman’] is that it attempts to assist the 
heroine in her passage through these major life changes by providing her with 
psychological, sociological, and philosophical instruction along the way. By 
tracing and anticipating her journey, the folktale serves as a guide and model for 
the young woman. (“The Structure of ‘Snow White’” 178)
Through its development of this theme, the tale is retold both as a means of encouraging 
and discouraging certain types of behavior or characteristics within a young woman.
Just as the details (alternately sharpened or intentionally vague) and themes prove 
significant to the retelling, so too does the length. In fact, this element might either 
contribute to or detract from the aforementioned means of ensuring a tale’s continuation.
The Grimms’ “Sneewittchen,” returns to the simpler, storytelling mode of Basile, but 

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tightens the narrative structure still further. As such, the significantly compressed plot of 
the fairy tale maintains an equitable balance of memorable details and gaps for 
improvisational performance (of the reader or teller).

Through repetition and emphasis 
on a small number of key figures in the tale, easily distinguished through their flat 
characterization, the reader recalls each of the central folkloric actions of the Grimms’ 
tale (per Jones’ model). With the iteration and reiteration of “beautiful” coloring at the 
tale’s start, a reader easily recalls the (good) mother’s almost magical creation of the 
young heroine, Little Snow White. The bad mother is then introduced, and the magic 
mirror, which she repeatedly addresses, makes her vanity memorable. After the 
huntsman fools her, with the feigned murder of Snow White, the young girl escapes to 
the company of the dwarfs. Through consultations with her mirror, the bad mother re-
enters in her persistent murderous attempts (three, to be exact), matching her folkloric 
precursors. Finally, Snow White appears dead, but is re-awakened under the care of a 
prince, only to be married to him and see her bad mother appropriately punished. The 
good mother, the huntsman, and the prince have relatively small roles at the start and 
close of the text (though they do, of course, influence episodic action). Outside of these, 
if the dwarfs are considered a group, one is looking toward three major figures—the 
good, the evil, and the helpers. Pared down still further, it is a tale which sets a model 
female figure against her anti-type. Thus, the limitation on length also significantly 
contributes to the tale’s emphasis on particular characters, details, and themes, 
simplifying (in some respects), to ensure transmission. 

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“Richilda,” on the other hand, while drawing upon folklore, is more a novelette 
and less a tale. As such, its details and embellishments are significant. As earlier argued, 
its art springs forth from its bitingly ironic treatments of the false appearances of religious 
piety, love, and gendered failings. Without that artful elaboration, the narrative loses 
something, but 
with them, 
the performance of retelling, while remaining true to that