The Snow Queen
A splinter of a demon's mirror lodges in little Kay's eye and heart, and the Snow Queen carries him off to her frozen palace. His friend Gerda sets out alone, barefoot, to bring him home. A fairy tale in seven stories. By Hans Christian Andersen (1844). A public-domain classic.
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How it begins Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know more than we know now: but to begin.Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for he had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but that which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified and increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole, you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose and mouth. Keep reading →About this story
A splinter of a demon’s magic mirror lodges in little Kay’s eye and heart, and the Snow Queen carries him off to her frozen palace in the north. His friend Gerda sets out alone, with no shoes and no plan, to bring him home. Her search takes her through a flower garden, a palace, a robber’s den and Lapland.
Hans Christian Andersen published it in 1844, as a fairy tale in seven short stories. It is his longest and one of his best loved, and it is mostly about the courage of a child who will not give up on a friend. The 2013 film Frozen was loosely based on it.
- Themes
- Friendship, courage, love against coldness
- Good for
- A long fairy tale for reading aloud over several evenings
- Worth noticing
- How each person Gerda meets tries to help, or to stop her.
Chapters
- 1A Mirror and Its Splinters3 min · 15 Oct
- 2A Little Boy and a Little Girl10 min · 15 Oct
- 3The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Knew Magic12 min · 15 Oct
- 4The Prince and Princess11 min · 15 Oct
- 5The Little Robber Maiden8 min · 15 Oct
- 6The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman6 min · 15 Oct
- 7In the Palace of the Snow Queen7 min · 15 Oct