Pursuing Ogress of Snow-white-fire-red

Overview

The ogress who keeps Snow-white-fire-red is described as exceptionally tall and stout. She climbs into the dwelling on the girl’s lowered hair, and her daughter warns the visiting prince that she will devour him if discovered. When drunk, the ogress reveals how furniture can be enchanted to answer in the daughter’s place and how seven stored balls of yarn can obstruct pursuit. The girl uses those instructions to escape with the prince.

Delayed by the answering furniture, the mother eventually climbs a ladder and discovers the flight. She follows the fugitives’ scent and tries to make her daughter turn around, which the narrator says would enchant her. Mountains, blades, a river and further obstacles injure her without immediately stopping her. Exhausted and dying, she curses the prince to forget Snow-white-fire-red at his mother’s first kiss; this happens later. The earlier pitcher-gathering ogress who curses the boy is not explicitly identified as this pursuing mother, so the two encounters remain unmerged.

Origins & earliest records

Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), XV: Snow-white-fire-red, pp. 72–76; selected source: Pitrè, no. 13, Bianca-comu-nivi-russa-comu-focu.

Records & interpretation

Crane’s selected English narrative supplies the actions and stated outcome. His prefatory qualification allows altered tenses and omitted repetitions; the cited Italian version has not been independently collated here.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Italian Popular Tales, XV: Snow-white-fire-red, pp. 72–76

   Thomas Frederick Crane; selected source: Pitrè, no. 13, Bianca-comu-nivi-russa-comu-focu · 1885

   Complete selected tale and its attached comparative note; adjacent versions remain separate.

Family, evolution & connections

Snow-white-fire-red and her ogress mother — Crane XV

The complete XV narrative, pp.72–76; surrounding comparative summaries are separate.

The narrator explicitly calls the tower ogress’s captive her daughter. The opening pitcher-gathering ogress is not explicitly equated with this mother. The prince’s sister address does not supply shared parents; he later marries the heroine. No father or descendants are stated.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textCrane 1885, XV: Snow-white-fire-redResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.