The Evil Queen (Knights of Fables)

**Queen Grimhilde**, or The Evil Queen, is a character from the well-known fairy tale, *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.* She is Snow White's stepmother, and the main villain in The Wishing Spell. Though her history is in accordance with the classic fairytale of Snow White, she is also given a backstory to explain why she is so "evil". Before the people in the Northern Woodlands started calling her the Evil Queen, her name was Grimhilde.

## Story

Grimhilde was raised by the villagers of a town in the Northern Woodlands; her mother, who had been on the run from something, had died giving birth to her. It seems that her father, a maker of mirrors, never told her she was beautiful, leading to insecurity about her appearance. When her father dies, she marries the King whom she met at the well by her father's house. She grows to love Snow White as if she were her own daughter.

But when the King's three witch-like cousins come for a visit they give her the Magic Mirror in which resides the spirit of her dead father. It serves as a corrupting influence on her. After her husband's death, the Queen slowly descends into madness, giving her rule over his kingdom before he died. "From that time on the cruel Queen ruled all alone, her every word was law, and all trembled in mortal fear of her anger, and she used her magic to stay young and beautiful forever. She visits Dr. Facilier for help with the mirror, but Dr. Facilier couldn't help her with that. To save Grimhilde heartbreak, Dr. Facilier cut out her heart and turned it to stone, so that she would only feel heartbreak, pain, or emotion when she touched it.

### Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The vain Queen owned a magical mirror with which she could look upon whatever she wished. The Magic Mirror shows a haunted, smokey face of her familiar demon which replies to the Queen's requests. She regularly asks the mirror who is the fairest in the realm ("Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?" which is often misquoted as "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all) , and the mirror would always reply that she is. The Queen has magical power only over her own domain, which is the castle.

One day, she summoned the Magic Mirror asking it "who is the fairest of them all?" When the magic mirror stated some details on the fairest woman, she then learns it's Snow White and sends her huntsman to bring back her heart. After telling her Magic Mirror of Snow White's death, the mirror then replies that she is still alive in the cottage of the seven dwarfs and that the heart she's holding is a deceased pig's heart. She then turns herself into an ugly old hag, makes a poison apple and goes out into the forest and find Snow White.

The next morning, she meets Snow White and tells her the apple she's about to give her is a wishing apple and when Snow White eats it and falls dead, the Evil Queen then states that she is now the fairest in the land. The seven dwarfs then chase her up a cliff and when she was stuck in the top into the cliff, she then picks up a stick to pick up an giant stone to kill the dwarfs, but suddenly falls when the lighting strikes in front of her and falls with the stone and gets crushed to her death. By the end of the tale, Snow White obtains the mirror and the Queen becomes the spirit inside the mirror after her death in the tale.