Playground of Ideas

By accident I encountered the tale of Gold-tree and Silver-tree (in Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales, Editor: Joseph Jacobs), which is a clear parallel of the story of Snow White. Plot: Silver-tree is a queen, her daughter being Gold-tree, the princess. The queen asks a trout in a well whether she is the most beautiful; the trout replies it is the princess. The queen asks to eat the princess's heart and liver, but the princess has gotten married and is abroad. The king orders a huntsman to bring the heart and liver of a he-goat. The queen asks the trout again and learns that the princess lives. She orders a ship to visit her daughter. When she arrives, the princess's husband is out hunting. The princess is protected by locking her in a room, but the queen stabs her in the finger with a poisoned stab. The prince returns and keeps his wife's body locked away in a room. The prince remarries, and the second wife discovers the body, pulls out the stab, and Gold-tree the princess wak...