Snow White and Rose Red

Once there were two sisters, Snow White and Rose Red, who were as different as their names. Snow White was quiet and gentle, with skin like milk and hair like silk. Rose Red was wild and cheerful, with cheeks like apples and hair that tumbled in the wind. Yet they loved each other dearly and were inseparable.

They lived with their mother in a cottage deep in the forest. One winter night, a bear knocked at their door. The children were terrified, but the bear spoke in a gentle voice and asked to warm himself by the fire. They grew to love the bear, who visited every night, and they mourned when he left in spring to guard his treasure from an evil dwarf.

In spring, the girls found a dwarf whose beard was caught in a crevice of a tree. They freed him, but he was ungrateful and cursed them. Again and again they encountered the dwarf—once with his beard tangled in fishing line, another time caught by an eagle—and each time they saved him, and each time he raged at them.

One day, the girls met the bear and the dwarf together. The dwarf, realizing the bear was about to kill him, begged for mercy. But the bear struck, and the dwarf fell dead. As the bear stood over the body, his bearskin fell away, and a handsome prince stood before them.

The prince explained that the dwarf had stolen his treasure and cursed him to bear form until the dwarf's death. The curse was now broken, and the prince's brother, who had also been cursed, was freed as well.

The prince married Rose Red, and his brother married Snow White. The two couples lived happily in their castle, and the sisters' kindness was rewarded with love and fortune for the rest of their days. Their mother lived with them, and the cottage in the forest remained a place of magic and memory.