Hey everybody, welcome back. This is Food for
Thought, Thoughts that Fit With You, and I'm
your host, Neogentrics. Again, it's lovely to
see that everyone is enjoying my different podcasts,
the different stories that I'm covering, and
everything else that I've managed to put here
on my channel. But we're still going with the
Dark Truths series. There's a lot of stories
to cover, and there's a lot of things that need
to be made clear. A lot of these stories that
everyone seemed to love, that they thought was
great. You know, growing up and nowadays, we're
going into a society where the past is being
forgotten and nobody wants to hear about the
tragic truths of the past. No one wants to hear
about how gruesome and how terrible it was. They
want to move into an age where, you know, everything
is all rainbows and butterflies. There's only
one problem with that. With that comes ignorance
and famed ignorarity. People tend to move away
from stuff that they don't seem to understand
or want to enjoy. Even horror films nowadays
have been made, how do I put it, subliminal,
where you're basically immune to it. They're
not scary anymore. They've become a normal type
of series that you watch. And unless you're some
type of paranormal freak, you don't really enjoy
them anymore. The sad thing is, people don't
seem to understand that if you want something
that's really horrific, you should probably travel
into the past, as that's where most of it dwells.
An example would be Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves. It's one of the most famous fairy tales
in the world. You know, it was one of the very
first Disney animated in their feature film series.
However, the true story that inspired Snow White
is no fairy tale. Margaret Von Walden. Deck.
Waldeck. Hmm. She was a 16th century princess,
but the Grimm brothers had to change a few details
to make the story less, um, wretched, if you
know what I mean. The real life Snow White battled
against an evil stepmother, fell in love with
a prince, was poisoned, but there was no happy
ending for Margaret, just like the tragic story
behind Beauty and the Beast. If you haven't heard
that podcast yet, you should probably go and
check it out on my channel. It's somewhere there.
If I haven't covered it yet, believe me, it will
be coming to my podcast real soon. Anyway, Margaret's
biography shows the dangers of entrusting your
life to royalty when you shouldn't. However bad
the real Snow White's life was, the dwarves...
And the story had it actually even worse. Now,
we know who inspired Snow White. The real story
behind the dwarves can finally be brought to
light. No, they weren't happy singing minors
like Disney portrays them. Instead, they were
child laborers who were stunted and deformed
from years of working deep underground. Turns
out that the real story is not exactly Disney
material, to be fair. So, before we jump into
that, we're going to take a short break here.
After that little bit that I just gave you, decide
if you still want to hear the rest of this story.
If you do, continue listening. If not, it's probably
time you change and go to a different episode
from the listings that I have on my podcast channel.
Or, check out someone else until the next episode
on my channel comes out. Until then, I'll just
be right back. Well, I'm assuming if you made
it this far that you're willing to hear the rest
of this story. So if that's the case, let's go
ahead and move on to the real life Snow White
and her story and how tragic it actually was
compared to the fairy tale. In 2013, a scholar
named Eckhart Sanders, you may remember I mentioned
him before, argued that Snow White was based
on the life of a real woman. The woman's name
was Margaret von Waldeck. a Bavarian princess
from the 16th century. Margaret grew up in a
castle and lived in the court of Mary of Hungary,
sister to Europe's most powerful ruler. Even
so, her life was way too tragic to be confused
with a fairy tale. Still, Margaret suffered under
an evil stepmother after the death of her biological
mother when Margaret was only four years old.
Just like Snow White, Margaret was also poisoned,
only her prince tragically wasn't able to save
her from her fate. Next, we're going to cover
the workers in the mine. Like I mentioned before,
the mines left children stunted and deformed
from the fact that they used to work in there
for so long. Long ago, before child labor laws
became a thing here in the present, Margaret's
father made poor children work in his mines as
quasi -slaves. They're not entirely slaves, but
they weren't entirely free either. The conditions
were terrible, and many of the children died
at a very young age, so no one would ever know
that they existed. And, you know, those who managed
to survive had severely stunted growth, probably,
you know, from being overworked and malnourished,
working in those mines for all those years. Many
of them also had deformed limbs due to malnutrition,
as you would imagine. Historian Eckhart Sanders,
He believed that the dwarves in the fairy tale
may be based on the poor children who worked
in the copper mines for Margaret's father. Because
of their stunted growth and deformed lives, the
child laborers were often called the poor dwarves.
Unfortunately, there's little record of Margaret's
relationship with these abused child laborers,
so they can't really claim that it's actually
the case. The real Snow White lived in a magical
castle until her father sent her away. Sort of
true. Okay. Margaret was the daughter of a German
count, and from a young age, she was famous for
her beauty, obviously. After her mother died,
her father remarried, and the young Snow White,
more or less, was sent away, possibly at her
stepmother's request. Now, at the age of 12,
Margaret moved once again to live with her dead
mother's brother at Valkenburg Castle in the
Netherlands. Today, only the ruins of the once
massive castle even still remain. Her life was
only stable for a short time, as in 1549, when
she was 16, her father sent her to the court
of Mary of Hungary in Brussels. Margaret's father
was hoping to use his beautiful daughter to sway
the Holy Roman Empire to his side, but... The
plot ended very badly for Margaret. And like
with Snow White, Margaret also still had an evil
stepmother she had to deal with. Like I mentioned
before, after her mother died, her father, Count
Philip IV, my Roman numerals, I'm getting them
confused, of Waldeck remarried, like I've mentioned
before, his new wife was Catherine von Hotsfield.
Even as a teenager, though, Margaret was famous
for her beauty even during this period, and like
in the fairy tale, the evil stepmother allegedly
was bitterly jealous of Margaret and her good
looks. So what do you think Katharina did? She
ordered her new husband to send her daughter
far, far away. This request wasn't unusual. Her
marriage was uncommon. I'm sorry, was common.
And the children of the previous marriages were
often cast aside when the new wife arrives. Wow,
that sounded dark. Margaret would eventually
be poisoned in Brussels, but unlike in the fairy
tale, Katharina wasn't actually behind that plot.
She didn't do anything, as you would have imagined.
Now that I've covered that, let me take a short
break here, and I'm going to talk about the dwarves
for a minute. Okay, so we got that mess out of
the way. Let's talk about something else. Seven
dwarves, huh? Seven dwarves, seven dwarves, seven
dwarves. Well, I already told you this is a deal
with child labor, so do you honestly believe
that seven dwarves is actually the case? It's
more like 20, to be fair. Or more, give or take
on how many actually survived. In the Disney
version, the dwarves are happy companions to
Snow White. They protected her from harm and
worked together to save her life. In the 16th
century version, however, like I said before,
they were exploited children who work under horrific
conditions. Margaret's father housed the child
workers in a copper mining village called...
Forgive me for the pronunciation of this. I have
it written down, but... I do believe that's how
it's pronounced. Anyway, the village... calls
itself Schneewichtendorf or Snow White's Village
in English translation. God help me. I'm still
learning. I'm learning Russian and Italian, not
German. So like the Disney dwarves, however,
the child laborers often lived in a single room
house, but it was a lot more than seven to a
home. Okay. In the 16th century, it was typical
for upwards of 20 child laborers to share a single
room. Disney's version might have been different
if it was called Snow White and the 20 malnourished
children workers. But, I mean, for lack of a
better phrasing and Disney trying to make it
as child -friendly as they possibly can. Good
on you, Disney, for that much anyway. It doesn't
change the fact that they weren't as happy as
they portrayed. While she was in Brussels in
the court of Mary of Hungary, Margaret met a
real prince. That part is no lie. Mary's nephew
was only 22 when they met, but he was also the
son of Europe's most powerful ruler, the Holy
Roman Empire's Charles V. His name was Philip.
Irony. But he was later known as King of Spain,
Philip II, for various reasons. Margaret met
Philip during one... of the prince's visits with
his aunt. Philip pursued Margaret for months,
and the two reportedly had a steamy love affair,
if you will. Tragically, though, their love was
doomed, as Margaret was Protestant and Philip
was Catholic. If that wasn't enough to keep the
two apart, after a brief romance, Margaret was
murdered, as I mentioned before. Now, in real
life, the evil stepmother wasn't actually the
murderer, like in the story. The brothers Grimm
eventually wrote down the story of Snow White
in the 19th Street book of fairy tales. But when
they did that, the brothers rewrote the parts
of Margaret's story to make it read more like
a fairy tale. And in the brother Grimm's version,
the evil stepmother has a magic mirror that she
uses every morning, asking it mirror mirror on
the wall. Who is the in this land is the fairest
of them all or something of that nature. And
in the original. However, the evil stepmother
is eventually driven mad with jealousy over Snow
White's beauty. She disguises herself as a peddler
and chokes Snow White to death with a lace bonnet
or a poison apple in some versions that we're
more familiar with. In real life, though, Margaret
was killed, but her stepmother wasn't the killer.
Margaret's stepmother actually died before Margaret
actually did. On another unrelated note. The
poison apple was actually, like I said before,
which was added later. How do I put this? Margaret,
hold on, let me go back to this. Margaret was
actually really poisoned, but there was no apple
involved. Okay, if the Snow White's fairy tale
was based on Margaret's life, you know, why did
later versions change the murder weapon to an
apple? Well, the change up might have happened
to make the story a little juicier, if you will.
Although the showdown between the disguised stepmother
and the innocent Snow White is pretty high tension
to start with. However, there might have been
a historical basis for the poisoned apple story.
How do I put this? German historian Eckhart Sanders
argues that the poisoned apple in the Snow White
fairy tale came from a different historical event.
An old man was once arrested in Germany for giving
poisoned apples to children. Um, and he was suspected
the children were stealing. He suspected that
the children were stealing his fruit. So he poisoned
a few of the pieces to teach them a lesson. Although
the idea of using poison fruit as a weapon might
have found its way into the Snow White story
based off of that story as inspiration. Though
I don't condone people for, I mean, how do I
put this? If you find someone stealing from your
stuff, don't kill them. Especially if they're
children. Not like that, anyway. However, moving
forward, that's kind of the basis where the apple
came from. But again, like I said, the original
real -life Snow White Margaret was poisoned,
but the apple wasn't the way that she had died.
And the stepmother couldn't have actually done
it, like I said before, because she already had
died before her. So, let's take a short break
here. And then I'm going to move forward into
what happened next. Seeing how we finally came
to terms that the stepmother in the real life
version of Snowlight, didn't actually kill her
like in the story versions it kind of begs the
question who murdered her then because obviously
she had to die of poison somehow in some way
for the story to be based off of that right well
let's have a look shall we in real life margaret
didn't live a happily ever after we understand
this She had a whirlwind romance with King Philip
II of Spain, but true enough to what I mentioned
before, love's kiss couldn't bring her back to
life. What's more, her murder had more to do
with the royal politics than it did with beauty,
which is ironic. Philip was heir to the throne
of Spain, and his father was Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V. That's a mouthful. the most powerful
ruler in Europe at that period. Charles was in
the middle of a bloody conflict with his Protestant
subjects who were revolting against their emperor
in the middle of the Reformation. Charles couldn't
allow his son to fall for a Protestant like Margaret.
Because, you know, he was trying to deal with
all of that at the same time. And according to
some historical accounts, Charles sent Spanish
agents to basically poison Margaret. The plot
worked, and she died only 21 years old. Dun,
dun, dun. The king of the prince, who was supposedly
her savior in the story, more or less, is the
one who killed her. Not the stepmother. But,
you know, that doesn't exactly work out well
for happily ever afters or bedtime fairy tales.
Father attempts to poison the sons. The prince
is very mate, but then the prince comes and saves
her. Yeah, that's going to work over really well.
Anyway. The real Snow White white dwarves. Regardless
of the version, Snow White always appears with
the seven dwarves and. It's a central part of
the fairy tale and is made explicit to the title
of Disney for their version. In the Grimm's version,
though, the dwarves live together in a house
and dig ore from the mountain. They take in Snow
White after her stepmother's first attempt to
end her life, in this version. They protect her
when her stepmother tries again to kill her.
So, who are the dwarves in Margaret's life? It
turns out that her father owned several copper
mines, and just like the mines that the dwarves
visited every day in their cheery hi -ho song,
which I'm not going into right now, unfortunately,
the real copper mines were nothing to sing about,
and the child laborers who worked there were
in no position to save anybody. If not anything,
they needed saving themselves. On the other hand,
there's another theory that claims that the real
-life Snow White was an 18th century princess
also. While there's a great deal of evidence
that Margaret von Waldeck inspired the Snow White
story, some believe that the fairy tale is actually
based on a different German princess, Maria Sophia
von Erthel. She was born in 1729, I believe,
in Bavaria, and was the daughter of Prince Philip
Christoph von Erthel, Maria actually owned a
talking mirror. I'm going to leave that alone.
It was an acoustical toy that could speak. And
it is now at the Spessart Museum in Germany.
So it still exists. It's still there. And like
Margaret, Maria Sofia also had close ties to
the mines. She grew up near the mining town of
Biber. Irony of name. where only very short miners
could access the smallest tunnels. These workers
often wore bright hoods and dark outfits, just
like the dwarves in the fairy tale. Needless
to say, It isn't surprising that there are multiple
real life stories that match so closely with
the Snow White fairy tale. I mean, during the
17th century, 20 to 25 percent of all children
lost a birth parent in a time when morality was
high, especially for childbearing women. A number
of daughters grew up with evil stepmothers or
Margaret's mother, like in this example, had
nine children before she died and she was still
in her 30s. So, holy hell, nine children? I wrote
this down. I didn't read it. Okay. Anyway, it's
possible that Snow White's story was actually
based on Maria instead of Margaret. But hey,
who's to say? Rather than Margaret or the fable,
you know, could be a mix of multiple true stories
altogether. I mean, you never really know. But
the whole point of this is that the real life
version or real people that it was based off
of didn't exactly have the same kind of happy
ending that we know of. And the children that
worked in the mines weren't actually happy -go
-lucky dwarves that could save anybody in each
version of the story anyway. And even if it was
the short man who mined that in the Maria Sophia
version of the story, based off of the real life
Maria Sophia, there's still not a chance in hell
that the dwarves would be able to save her, let
alone... help her out in their condition since
they work in those mines. And in a lot of places,
these mines were considered poisonous in their
own right, so these guys would have been weak,
not exactly strong enough to do anything. Regardless,
Margaret von Waldeck's tragic life is a reminder
that falling in love with a prince doesn't always
lead to a happy ending. And I just thought I'd
go ahead and point that out. That wasn't the
whole point of me giving this story or this spiel
in the first place. No point in this was to let
you know that the story isn't as gung -ho as
everyone thinks it is. But then, most of these
stories aren't. And with that, I bring this to
a close. I thank you guys for listening. Again,
this is Food for Thought Thoughts, if it were
you. I'm your host, NeoGentrix. Look forward
to the next Dark Truth Reveal episode. Until
then, enjoy the rest of your day.