The Snow Queen


"The Snow Queen" is an 1844 original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kai. The Snow Queen is written in a novel-styled narrative and divided into seven chapters, unlike Andersen's other stories.
The story is one of Andersen's longest and most highly acclaimed stories. It is regularly included in selected tales and collections of his work and is frequently reprinted in illustrated storybook editions for children.

Story

A mirror and its fragments

The devil, in the form of a troll, has made a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything that it reflects. The mirror does not reflect the good and beautiful aspects of people and things but magnifies their bad and ugly aspects. The troll's minions take the mirror all over the world to distort everything, then carry it up to heaven to mock God and the angels. As they approach heaven, the mirror trembles and falls, shattering into billions of pieces. Some become windowpanes, some spectacles, and some get stuck in people's hearts and eyes, giving them a cold and bitter disposition. The troll laughs himself sore at his mischief.

Kai and Gerda

Years later, a little boy Kai and a little girl Gerda live next door to each other in the garrets of buildings with adjoining roofs in a large city. They could get from one's home to the other's just by stepping over the gutters of each building. The two families grow vegetables and roses in window boxes placed on the gutters. Gerda and Kai have a window box garden to play in, and they become devoted to each other as playmates, and as close as if they were siblings.
Gerda's grandmother tells the children about the Snow Queen, who is ruler over the "snow bees"snowflakes that look like bees. As bees have a queen, so do the snow bees, and she is seen where the snowflakes cluster the most. Looking out of his frosted window one winter, Kai sees the Snow Queen, who beckons him to come with her. Kai draws back in fear from the window.
By the following spring, Gerda has learned a song that she sings to Kai: Because roses adorn the window box garden, the sight of roses always reminds Gerda of her love for Kai.
On a summer day, splinters of the troll's mirror get into Kai's heart and eye. Kai becomes cruel and aggressive. He destroys their window-box garden, he makes fun of Gerda's grandmother, and he no longer cares about Gerda, since everyone now appears bad and ugly to him. When winter comes again, the only things he finds no fault in are snowflakes, which he studies through a magnifying glass. Kai goes out with his sled to play in the snowy market square and hitches it to a sleigh driven by a mysterious robed figure. The sleigh drives through the town gate, going faster and faster through the countryside, then stops, and the driver reveals herself to be the Snow Queen. She kisses Kai to numb him from the cold, and again to make him forget about Gerda and his family. They then fly together in the sleigh up into the clouds.

The magician woman's garden

The people of the city conclude that Kai died in the nearby river. When spring arrives, Gerda goes to the river and offers it her favorite red shoes if the river will return Kai. The shoes wash back to shore, so she climbs into a nearby boat to throw them out farther. The boat is unmoored, drifts away from the shore and becomes caught in the current.
Gerda drifts until she reaches the home of an old woman, who pulls her to shore with her crooked staff. The woman is a sorceress and wants Gerda to stay with her forever, so she causes Gerda to forget Kai, and causes all the roses in her garden to sink beneath the earth, since she knows that the sight of them will remind Gerda of her friend. The woman lets Gerda play in her flower garden day after day, where all of the flowers are in bloom, until one day she notices a rose on the woman's hat. She remembers Kai and begins to cry, and her tears raise one of the rose bushes from the ground. The roses assure her that Kai is not dead, since they could see all of the dead while they were underground. Gerda questions the other flowers; each sings its own song, but none have anything to say about Kai. Gerda flees the garden and discovers that autumn has arrived while she was there.

The prince and the princess

Gerda meets a crow, who tells her that he might have seen Kai. He explains that a clever princess in the land decided that she should get married as soon as she could find a man good for conversation. For two days men met the princess in hopes of marrying her, but upon meeting her they were tongue-tied. On the third day, a small fellow with shabby clothes walked confidently into the palace and won over the princess by listening to her. Gerda sneaks into the palace with the crow but finds that the prince is not Kai after all. She is offered hospitality in the palace, but instead asks for a horse, carriage and boots so she can continue looking for Kai.

The little robber girl

While traveling in the carriage Gerda is captured by robbers. Her life is spared when a little robber girl demands to have Gerda as a playmate. They ride together to the robbers' castle, where the girl's pet doves tell Gerda that they saw Kai when he was carried away by the Snow Queen in the direction of Lapland. The captive reindeer Bae tells her that he knows how to get to Lapland since it is his home.

The Lapp woman and Finn woman

The robber girl frees Gerda and the reindeer to travel north to the Snow Queen's palace. They make two stops: first at the Lapp woman's home and then at the Finn woman's home. The Finn woman tells the reindeer that the secret of Gerda's unique power to save Kai is in her sweet and innocent child's heart:

In the Snow Queen's palace

When Gerda reaches the Snow Queen's palace, she is halted by the snowflakes guarding it. She prays the Lord's Prayer, which causes her breath to take the shape of angels, who resist the snowflakes and allow Gerda to enter the palace. Gerda finds Kai alone and almost immobile on a frozen lake, which the Snow Queen calls the "Mirror of Reason", on which her throne sits. Kai is engaged in the task that the Snow Queen gave him: he must use pieces of ice like a Chinese puzzle to form characters and words. If he is able to form the word that the Snow Queen told him to spell, she will release him from her power and give him a pair of skates.
Gerda runs up to Kai and kisses him, and he is saved by the power of her love: Gerda weeps warm tears on him, melting his heart and burning away the mirror splinter in it. As a result, Kai bursts into tears, which dislodges the splinter from his eye, and becomes cheerful and healthy again. He remembers Gerda, and the two dance around so joyously that the splinters of ice that Kai had been playing with are caught up into the dance. When they tire of dancing the splinters fall down to spell "eternity," the very word Kai was trying to spell. Kai and Gerda leave the Snow Queen's domain with the help of the reindeer, the Finn woman, and the Lapp woman. They meet the robber girl, and from there they walk back to their home. Kai and Gerda find that everything at home is the same, and that it is they who have changed; they are now grown up, and are also delighted to see that it is summertime.
At the end, the grandmother reads a passage from the Bible:

Characters

  • Gerda, a little girl who succeeds in finding her friend Kai and saving him from the Snow Queen.
  • Kai in Danish and Norwegian, a little boy who lives in a large city, in the garret of a building across the street from the home of Gerda, his playmate, whom he loves dearly. He falls victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror and the blandishments of the Snow Queen.
  • The Snow Queen, the queen of the snowflakes or "snow-bees", who travels throughout the world with the snow. Her palace and gardens are in the lands of permafrost, specifically Spitsbergen. She takes Kai back to this palace after he has fallen victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror. She promises to free Kai if he can spell "eternity" with the pieces of ice in her palace.
  • The Troll or the Devil, who makes an evil mirror that distorts reality and later shatters to infect people with its splinters that distort sight and freeze hearts. Some English translations of "The Snow Queen" translate this character as the "sprite" or the "hobgoblin".
  • The Grandmother, Gerda's grandmother, who tells Kai and Gerda the legend of the Snow Queen.
  • The Old Lady who Knew Magic, who maintains a cottage on the river, with a garden that is permanently in summer. She seeks to keep Gerda with her, but Gerda's thought of roses awakens her from the old woman's enchantment.
  • The Crow, who thinks that the new prince of his land is Kai.
  • The Tame Crow, who is the mate of the field crow and has the run of the princess's palace. She lets Gerda into the royal bedchamber in her search for Kai.
  • The Princess, who desires a prince-consort as intelligent as she, and who finds Gerda in her palace. She helps Gerda in her search for Kai by giving her warm, rich clothing, servants, and a golden coach.
  • The Prince, formerly a poor young man, who comes to the palace and passes the test set by the princess to become prince.
  • The Old Robber Woman, the only woman among the robbers who capture Gerda as she travels through their region in a golden coach.
  • The Little Robber Girl, daughter of the robber hag. She takes Gerda as a playmate, whereupon her captive doves and reindeer Bae tell Gerda that Kai is with the Snow Queen. The Robber Girl then helps Gerda continue her journey to find Kai.
  • Bae, the reindeer who carries Gerda to the Snow Queen's palace.
  • The Lappish Woman, who provides shelter to Gerda and Kai, and writes a message on a dried cod fish to the Finnish Woman further on the way to the Snow Queen's gardens.
  • The Finnish Woman, who lives just two miles away from the Snow Queen's gardens and palace. She knows the secret of Gerda's power to save Kai.