Snow White’s mother was once the wicked one

A closer look

The original fairy tales were somehow even more psychologically scarring than you thought. In the first 1812 edition of the Brothers Grimm collections, characters like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel were actually tormented by their biological mothers. Recognizing that middle-class parents found the concept of a murderous blood-mother deeply disturbing, the brothers simply edited them all into 'wicked stepmothers' in later editions, ruining the reputation of step-parents forever.