White and red have historically been poetic standards of beauty, with both men and women described as having skin as white as snow, marble or cheese; cheeks as red as blood or roses; and hair as black as a raven’s wing.
In many fairytales and myths, these colors are used to describe a desired wife, husband or child. They can represent physical health and beauty. Red and white are also associated with the Otherworld in Celtic myth.

The image is most famously seen in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” but only appears in that tale type in Germany and Scandinavia. Otherwise, it is most common in variants of “The Love of Three Oranges.”

For stories related to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, see Type 709.

Quest for the Red-and-White Bride
According to Christine Goldberg, there are two types of the blood motif.
Blood on snow
In one, the hero is a hunter, looking at the blood of his prey on the snow. This indicates “qualities of aloofness, cruelty and dominance that are typical of German Marchen as described by Max Luthi.” It implies that he wants a wife to “subjugate.”
Blood on cheese
The other type is where the hero cuts himself accidentally, and the blood lands on something white, such as snow, cheese, or an orange peel. It makes him pitiable (and has similarities to Snow White’s mother pricking her finger). Here the implication is that he wants a wife like himself, the color of his blood specifically. (Goldberg 122)
Perhaps the cheese, as a milk product, is a feminine symbol? Goldberg cites Jones, "The New Comparative Method: Structural and Symbolic Analysis of the Allomotifs of "Snow White" (1990: 39-42).

AFRICA
The Story of King Sulayman ibn ‘Abd al-Malik. North Africa. The king sees two ravens fighting in his courtyard. This causes him to wonder, “Did God ever create a girl with skin as white as this marble, with hair as black as those ravens and with cheeks as red as their blood on the marble floor?”
  • A Hundred and One Nights.
​Loundja, daughter of Tseriel: Kabylie, Algeria.
  • ​Maspero, F. Le Grain magique: contes, poèmes et proverbes berbères de Kabylie. 1971. "Loundja, fille de Tseriel."
​
ALBANIA
La Princesse de la Chine. “Ce sang est rouge comme le sang des joues de la fille du roi de Chine.” A bird's blood on snow is compared to the cheek of a beautiful princess.
ASIA
Uldsheitu Chung Goa Beidshi. A Khan is out hunting and kills some hares, and dreams of a wife "with a face as white as this snow and cheeks as crimson as this blood." Someone tells him "the beauty of Uldsheitu Chung Goa Beidshi, the wife of thy brother, surpasses this by far." 
BOHEMIA
Die Seejungfrau.
  • Waldau. Böhmisches Märchenbuch p. 559

BRITAIN
“The Story of Conall Gulban.”  The Son of the King of Eirin: A prince is hunting and kills a raven. "I will never marry any woman except one whose hair will be as black as the raven's feathers, and whose cheek will be as red as the raven's blood." This variant leaves out the white color of the snow.  
BRITTANY
"La princesse aux trois couleurs" (The princess of three colors)
  • Francois Luzel. Les contes de Luzel: Contes inedits. vol. 1.131-137.

FRANCE
Incarnat, Blanc et Noir – 18th century French tale
  • Nouveau Recueil de Contes de Fees (1718) 1731, 158-169. Link.
  • Cabinet des Fees vol. 31, pp. 233-238
  • Busk, R. H. Roman Legends: A Collection of the Fables and Folk-lore of Rome. 2015. Contains an English summary.
Le Roman de Perceval by Chretien du Troyes (c. 1180s). The image of three drops of a goose's blood on snow reminds Perceval of his beloved Blancheflur (White Flower).
This scene recurs in other versions of the story.
The same thing happens in "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach (German, 13th century). 
In "Peredur the Son of Efrawg" in the Mabinogion (12th or 13th century), Peredur is inspired by a raven perched on a bird's bloody carcass in the snow. 

GREECE
Anthousa, Xanthousa, Chrisomalousa (Anthousa the Fair with Golden Hair). The blood-on-snow motif does not occur, but the story is part of the same family. The main character's three names mean "blossoming," "fair-haired," and "golden-haired."
INDIA
La Princesse Sang-de-Gazelle-sur-la-Neige. 
  • Emanuel Cosquin: Les contes indiens et l'occident, pp. 218-246. See also Monographie C in the index of that book.

IRELAND
"The Snow, the Crow and the Blood."
  • MacManus, Seumas. Donegal Fairy Stories. 1900. pp. 153-174. 
“Blaiman, Son of Apple.”  Hare's blood in the snow. “The King of Ireland’s Son.” “Beauty of the World.” (bloody raven in the snow)
ITALY
The Three Citrons (Le tre cetra). A prince cuts his hand slicing ricotta cheese and decides he wants a wife “exactly as white and red as that cheese tinged with blood.” When trying to capture a fairy, he finds a girl as white as milk and red as a strawberry, and then a girl "as tender and white as curds and whey, with a streak of red on her face that made her look like an Abruzzo ham or a Nola salami." The Raven (Lo Cuervo). ​Italy. This is Aarne-Thompson type 516, similar to "Trusty John." The Love of the Three Pomegranates. “What is white is not red, and what is red, is not white.” Also found in Karlinger,  Italienische, 79-85; Karlinger connects the colors to innocence and passion.
  • Italo Calvino. Italian Folktales. 1980 no. 107, p389
The King of Spain and the English Milord. Italy. A maiden "as white as ricotta and rosy as a rose."
  • Calvino, Italo. Italian Folktales. 1980. No. 158, p568
Snow-White-Fire-Red (Bianca-comu-nivi-russa-comu-focu). Italy. ​The Beauty with the Seven Veils.  Sicily. Prince forgets his bride; but he laughs at a woman and cuts his finger, causing a drop of blood to fall on the white orange peel. The old woman curses him “May you never marry until you find a bride as white as the orange peel and as red as blood,” which causes him to remember her, but by this point she’s been replaced by an ugly slave.
  • Gonzenbach, Laura. Sicilianische Marchen 1: pp. 73-84, no. 13
The Three Love-Oranges. "Never will I marry till I find one with a complexion as fair as this snow, and tinted like this rosy blood."
  • Busk, The Folk-Lore of Rome, 1874, pp. 15-21.
The Three Lemons. Neapolitan, p 234. Blood and cream.
NORWAY
The Companion. Features a quest for a princess as red as blood and white as milk.
PALESTINE
Šoqak  Boqak. "One snowy day he took his servant and went hunting. A doe sprang in front of them, and he aimed and shot her. The servant slaughtered her, and as her blood flowed to the ground, he said, "O master! May you find a bride who's like this blood on the snow."[3]
Soqak Boqak is a nonsense phrase.
  • Muhawi and Kanaana. Speak Bird, Speak Again. 1989, no. 21. Notes. 
​
SCOTLAND
The Giant and the Fair Man-servant: Scottish. A variant of ATU 505, "The Grateful Dead,” featuring the hunt for a bride as white as snow and red as blood.
  • The Celtic Magazine, vol. 13. 1888. pp. 20-28. 
[Submitted by site reader Rachel.]

SERBIA
Das höllische Blendwerk und die göttliche Macht. “Eines Morgens ging ein kaiserlicher Prinz zur Jagd, und wie er über den Schnee ging, fing er aus der Nase zu bluten an, und sah, wie das rothe Blut auf dem weißen Schnee so schön sich ausnahm, da dachte er bei sich selbst: »Ach wenn mir doch ein Mädchen zur Frau beschieden wäre, so weiß wie Schnee und so roth wie Blut.” 
Der rollende Rinsmagen.
SPAIN
Sanch-y-neu
WALES
Culhwch ac Olwen: from the Mabinogion (Wales, 14th-century). Culhwch's stepmother curses him so that he can marry no one but the beautifiul Olwen, daughter of giant Ysbaddaden. Olwen, the heroine, is associated with flowers and especially with the colors red and white:
“More yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and her fingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the meadow fountain . . . Her bosom was more snowy than the breast of the white swan, her cheek was redder than the reddest roses . . . Four white trefoils sprung up wherever she trod.”
This is how she gets her name, Olwen, meaning “white footprint.” To enhance the color symbolism, when she first appears, she is dressed in “flame-colored silk” and precious gems including rubies.
WALLACHIA
Der verstossene sohn. Bleeding raven on snow.  "O batt' ich ein weib mit einem leib so weiss wie schnee, mit wangen so roth wie blut, und mit haaren so schwarz wie rabenfedern!"
Snow White
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Schneewittchen): German. Snow White variant collected by the Grimms: a count and countess are driving in the countryside. They pass three heaps of white snow, three pits full of blood, and three black ravens. In this tale it is the husband who wishes for a girl “white as snow, red as blood, and with hair as black as the ravens,” and she instantly appears. The jealous countess tries to get rid of her, which segues into the more well-known Snow White story. “Vom Schneemädchen” (Of the Snow Maiden)
  • Johann Mailáth. Magyarische Sagen, Mährchen und Erzählungen, Volumes 1-2.  p. 172
La bianca e la negra. Features two cousins, one white and beautiful, the other black, ugly and jealous. Did I mention this motif tends to get kind of racist? La Tarongeta. (Little Tangerine.) Catalonian. A queen buys a golden tangerine, leaves it near a window, and finds it covered in snow. She wishes for child white as snow and gold as tangerine.
  • Joan Amades. Folklore de Catalunya, rondallistica: rondalles, traditions, llegendes. 1950.
Snow Bella: Lousiana French version.
  • Claudel, Calvin and Joseph M. Carriere. Southern Folklore Quarterly, VI (1942), pp. 153-162. "Snow Bella: A Tale from the French Folklore of Louisiana."
Blanca Flor: Spain. From Villaluenga, Toledo. Variant from Silata in Asia Minor: Silata. Riddaren i Bjødnahame. Norway. A giant’s daughter has a nosebleed and sees her blood on the snow, and wishes for a daughter with those colors.
THE POMEGRANATE GIRL
In many stories, particularly those in Africa and the Middle East, rather than snow and blood, the colors are compared to the red and white of a pomegranate. This is often reflected in the heroine's name. Ravit Raufman suggests that the heroine named Pomegranate creates more sensual, fertile images than the frozen Snow White.
Cristina Mazzoni pointed out the use of different kinds of fruit in variants of "The Three Citrons." Citrons are yellow, sour, and grammatically male. Basile contrasted these with the maiden trapped inside, who was red, white and sweet, more like the grammatically feminine pomegranate. This discrepancy may have influenced Italo Calvino to name his version "The Love of the Three Pomegranates."

Nouri Hadige (The Pomegranate Seed): Armenia. Here, the beautiful girl is born after her mother eats a pomegranate seed. The evil stepmother consults with the moon rather than a mirror. The girl takes care of a sleeping prince for seven years; after he awakens, he in turn has  to awaken her from a cursed sleep caused by her stepmother.
  • Villa, Susie Hoogasian. 100 Armenian Tales and Their Folkloristic Relevance. 1966. “Nuri Hadige.”
  • Sherents, Gevorg. Vana Saz, Vol. 1. 1885. “Nar Khatyun” (Pomegranate Queen), pp. 106–112.
Pomegranate Seed: Arabia. Begins with a woman eating a pomegranate in order to become pregnant.
  • Patai, Raphael. Arab Folktales from Palestine and Israel. 1998. pp. 217-22.
Romana: a Hebrew tale from Egypt. A king and queen eat a magic pomegranate and have a daughter whom they name Romana, "pomegranate." The queen dies, and the new queen tries to kill Romana. The old woman who gave the king the pomegranate saves Romana twice, but tells her to run away. Romana finds safety at a house of forty thieves, but the stepmother sends her a ring which puts her into a deathlike sleep. A prince awakens her from her glass coffin, but the stepmother turns Romana into a dove and tries to substitute her own daughter as bride.
In the version given in Miriam's Tambourine, Romana has an evil stepsister named Laymuna, or lemon. This suggest a color contrast similar to that of Snow White and Rose Red or other sibling pairs on this page. 
  • Schwartz, Howard. Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. pp. 67-78
  • Rush, Barbra. The Book of Jewish Women's Tales. "The Pomegranate Girl."
  • Frankel, Ellen. The Jewish Spirit. 1997.
  • Kimmel, Eric A. Rimona of the Flashing Sword. 1995.
Na Magraneta: Catalan. The girl is born after her mother drops a pomegranate seed. She is aided by thirteen robbers.
CINDERELLA
Cinderella variant from Germany, mentioned by the Grimms. “A beautiful Countess had a rose in one hand and a snowball in the other, and wished for a child as red as the rose, and as white as the snow. God grants her wish.” The Snow White Maiden (An Iobhal Gheal): Celtic.
  • ​Marianne Roalfe Cox. Cinderella, no. 27.
Rose-red Snow-white: Denmark.
  • Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella #284. Rosenröd Snehvid. 
  • Grundtvig, S., Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde. Copenhagen, 1857. II. 157.
The Red Slippers: Jewish, Eastern Europe. A girl named Rosy-Red with red leather slippers is mistreated by stepmother and stepsisters. A water spirit gives her gold, but sends frogs and toads to her sisters. The mistreated Rosy-Red runs away, losing one of her slippers, but a king's son finds it and seeks the owner. When he finds Rosy-Red, they are married. Snow Maid and Crow Maid (Yukimusume and Karasumusume): Japanese. Mentioned as a variant of no. 34, "Nukabuku, Komebuku" (Rice Rich, Talc Rich) in The Yanagita Kunio Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale -  a version of Cinderella where the heroine is aided by her mother, and the evil stepsister is turned into a mudsnail.
It was collected in Nishiyatsushiro District, Yamanashi Prefecture.
  • Zoku Kai mukashibanashi shu, Dobashi Riki. Kyodo Kenkyusha: 1936, p. 149.

OTHER TALE TYPES
Bawang Merah Bawang Putih (literally "Red Onion, White Garlic"). Indonesian. Here, their names are more related to taste and smell, such as the garlic being more pungent. How Molo Stole the Lovely Rose-Red: Chinese. Molo, a swordsman, helps a young man rescue his lover Rose-Red who is a slave girl in a prince's house.
  • Wilhelm, R. The Chinese Fairy Book. 1921.
Little Rose and Big Briar (Lilla Rosa och Långa Leda): Sweden. The kind and good Rose is given great beauty, golden hair, and gold coins falling from her mouth; her cruel stepsister Leda, name changed to Briar in the English translation, becomes ugly with brambles for hair and toads falling from her mouth. After Rose’s marriage, her jealous stepmother changes her into a golden goose, but Rose’s husband is able to rescue her. AT 403A: the Black and the White Brides. Told and recorded by Sven Sederstrom. The Blechers’ English translation gives both girls plant names and a clear dichotomy. This doesn’t seem to exist in the Swedish original.
  • Blecher, Lone Thygesen and George Blecher. Swedish folktales and legends. 1993. p. 208.
  • Hylten-Cavallius, Gunnar Olof, and George Stephens. Svenska Folk-Sagor och Afventyr. Stockholm, 1844. p. 114.
Prince Spin Head and Miss Snow White: Dutch. A literary tale similar to Beauty and the Beast, with a spider as husband. Snow White comes from "Dri'-fa," or "snowdrift." Rose the Red and White Lily: A Child Ballad. The Snow Daughter and the Fire Son, from Bukovina. The children are born magically and have properties of ice and fire. The daughter is as white as snow and the son is as red as fire.
Snow White and Rose Red (Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot) - two sisters, named after the rose bushes by their house. This is a literary fairytale, not a folktale.  Snow White and the Fox (Snegurushka), a Russian story  A Stepchild that was Treated Mighty Bad. The heroine is named Snow White and Rose Red. Similarities to Mother Holle. The Story of Hild the Good Stepmother: Iceland. A Queen has a nosebleed on a sleigh ride and wants a daughter as red and white as the blood and snow. This comes to pass, but she's compelled to place a curse on her daughter Ingibjorg, so that she will burn down her father's palace, have a baby before she's married, and kill a man. After the Queen dies, the King marries a princess named Hild. When Hild learns of the curse, she sets out to fulfil it without hurting anyone or damaging Ingibjorg's reputation. 
The villain of the story is named Rauður, or Red.
  • Bodker, Laurits, et al. European Folk Tales vol. 1. 1963. Iceland, translated by Anthony Faulkes.
  • Árnason, Jón.  Íslenzkar þjóðsögur go æfintýri. 1852. "Sagan af Hildi góðu stjupu."
  • Rittershaus, Adeline. Die neuisländischen Volksmärchen. 1902. no. 34. "Die gute Stiefmutter."
The Twelve Wild Ducks: Norway. Begins with the wish for a white and red daughter like blood on snow, in exchange for sons. The heroine is named Snow-white-and-Rosy-Red (Snehvit og Rosenrød). The Twelve Wild Geese: Ireland. Same as the above, but includes a black raven.
MALE VERSIONS
The Cattle Raid of Froech: Irish, from the 12th-century Book of Leinster, but might date back to the 8th century. Oldest recorded European variant of the red/black/white theme. The princess Finnabair sees her love Froech swimming across a black pool with a branch of red berries, and is struck by the contrast to his white skin.
The Juniper Tree, German. A mother wishes, “ah, if I had but a child as red as blood and as white as snow.” She then gives birth to a son. “Deirdre and the Fate of the Sons of Usnach,” Irish. Deirdre declares, "I can love only a man with those three colors: cheeks red as blood, hair black as a raven, and body white as snow." The King of the Seven Veils: Italy. Notably, does not mention where the blood came from.
  • Visentini, Isaia. Fiabe mantovane (Turin, 1879), no. 42, pg. 191. "Il re del sette veli." 
The Sleeping Prince. ​Extremadura, Spain. A princess is sewing on a sunny day, pricks her finger and a drop of her blood lands on the snow-covered windowsill. A bird tells her that there is a prince who is "gold and white and red" like the sunlight, snow and blood. She goes travelling until she finds the prince's castle, facing ogres on the way, and finally awakens him so that they are married.
  • Lurie, Alison. Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Fairytales. "The Sleeping Prince."
  • ​Delarue, Paul. "Incarnat, Blanc et Or." 1955.
  • de Soto, Segio Hernandez. ​Cuentos populares recogidos en Estremadura. 1886. "El Rey durmiente en su lecho." 
​Ngana Fenda Maria: Angola. The heroine cuts her finger while cutting sugar cane. She seeks out a man named Vidiji Milanda who is beautiful like the white sugarcane and red blood. She finds him in a deathlike sleep and must fill twelve jugs with tears to wake him. When she is almost done, she sleeps while her slave finishes the final jug, but the slave takes her place and marries the man. Fenda Maria is forced to live as a slave, but the husband finds out the truth after he hears her telling her story to household objects. Russu-comu-sangu: Palermo, Italy. Described by Giuseppe Pitre. A princess born of her parents' wish and cursed by an old woman seeks the Prince Red as Blood. She finds him with the help of the Winds, trapped in a deep well. It takes over a month to free him, and a Moorish maiden steals her place just as the prince is freed. The princess must reveal the truth to the prince. Biancu com'ovu e russu comu focu (White Like an Egg and Red Like Fire): Italian. A tale from Palermo, mentioned by Giuseppe Pitre, as a gender-swapped version of the Three Oranges tale. A cursed princess must search for Prince Red Like Fire. Pitre also mentions a version from Polizzi-Generosa, "La bedda di lu russu di l'ovu."
I haven't been able to find a copy of this tale, only a couple of mentions. "Pome and Peel," (Pomo e Scorzo) Italian variant of Faithful Johannes. A young nobleman is as white as an apple's flesh, and his foster-brother is red and white like an apple peel. Red, white and black are thematic colors throughout the tale.
  • Calvino, Italo. Italian Folktales

SOURCES
  • Jones, Steven Swann. "The New Comparative Method: Structural and Symbolic Analysis of the Allomotifs of "Snow White." 1990.
  • Kawan, Christine Shojaei. Reflections on International Narrative Research on the Example of the Tale of the three Oranges​.
  • ​Hemming, Jessica. Folklore Vol. 123, no. 3 (Dec 2012). pp. 310-329. "Red, White, and Black in Symbolic Thought: The Tricolour Folk Motif, Colour Naming, and Trichromatic Vision."
  • Goldberg, Christine. The Tale of the Three Oranges (1997)
  • Mazzoni, Cristina. Marvels & Tales, vol. 29, no. 2 (2015). pp. 228-244. 'The Fruit of Love in Giambattista Basile's “The Three Citrons.”'
  • Mellen, Philip. “Blood-on-the-Snow: The Development of a Motif.” Comparative Literature Studies Vol. 15, No. 4, Special Student Number (Dec., 1978), pp. 363-371.
  • Raufman, Ravit. "Red as a Pomegranate. Jewish North African versions of Snow White." Fabula. Vol. 58, issue 3/4, Nov. 2017. pp. 294-318.
  • Vaz da Silva, Francisco. Marvels & Tales Vol. 21, No. 2 (2007), pp. 240-252. "Red as Blood, White as Snow, Black as Crow: Chromatic Symbolism of Womanhood in Fairy Tales."