Once upon a time, in deep winter, a queen was admiring the falling snow, when she saw a rose blooming in defiance of the cold. Reaching for it she cut her finger and three drops of blood fell. And because the red seemed so alive against the white she thought, “If only I had a child as white as snow, lips as red as blood, hair as black as a raven’s wings, and all with the strength of that rose.” Soon after a daughter was born to the queen and was named Snow White.