Snow-White and Rose-Red are two little girls living with their mother, a poor widow, in a small cottage by the woods.

Snow-White is quiet and shy and prefers to spend her time indoors, doing housework and reading.

During the summer, when the girls are walking through the forest, they find a dwarf whose beard is stuck in a tree.

The dwarf had previously put a spell on the prince by stealing his precious stones and turning him into a bear.

[5][6][7] According to scholars Johannes Bolte, Jiri Polívka, Stith Thompson, and Hans-Jörg Uther, the tale, in the Grimm's compilation, originated from a story written by author Karoline Stahl and published in 1818.

[8][9][7] In an early analysis, German scholar Kurt Ranke noted that the existing variants originated from "Central Europe": Flanders, France, Germany and Switzerland.

[11][12] In addition, Kurt Ranke argued that the Grimm's tale influenced variants collected later, such as Wittrösken und Rautrösken.

[15][16] Johannes Bolte and Jiří Polívka cited a tale titled Rozenroodje, collected by J. F. Vincx from Hageland (Flanders).

[8] The tale type is also attested in the East Slavic Folktale Classification (Russian: СУС, romanized: SUS), indexed as type SUS 426, "Две девушки, медведь (волк) и карлик" ("Two Girls, the Bear/Wolf and the Dwarf"), but only in Russia and Ukraine.

[19] French scholars Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Thèneze, establishers of the French folktale catalogue, reported only two variants in France of tale type ATU 426, Les deux fillettes, l'ours et le nain ("The Two Little Girls, the Bear and the Dwarf"), which they considered to be retellings of the Grimm's story.