The Snow Queen – A Fairy Tale
by Hans Christian Andersen
Suddenly they stopped before a little house, which looked very miserable. The roof
reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that the family were obliged to creep
upon their stomachs when they went in or out. Nobody was at home except an old
Lapland woman, who was dressing fish by the light of an oil lamp. And the Reindeer
told her the whole of Gerda’s history, but first of all his own; for that seemed to him of
much greater importance. Gerda was so chilled that she could not speak.
“Poor thing,” said the Lapland woman, “you have far to run still. You have more than
a hundred miles to go before you get to Finland; there the Snow Queen has her
country-house, and burns blue lights every evening. I will give you a few words from
me, which I will write on a dried haberdine, for paper I have none; this you can take
with you to the Finland woman, and she will be able to give you more information
than I can.”
When Gerda had warmed herself, and had eaten and drunk, the Lapland woman wrote
a few words on a dried haberdine, begged Gerda to take care of them, put her on the
Reindeer, bound her fast, and away sprang the animal. “Ddsa! Ddsa!” was again heard
in the air; the most charming blue lights burned the whole night in the sky, and at last
they came to Finland. They knocked at the chimney of the Finland woman; for as to a
door, she had none.
There was such a heat inside that the Finland woman herself went about almost naked.
She was diminutive and dirty. She immediately loosened little Gerda’s clothes, pulled
off her thick gloves and boots; for otherwise the heat would have been too great, and
after laying a piece of ice on the Reindeer’s head, read what was written on the fishskin. She read it three times: she then knew it by heart; so she put the fish into the
cupboard, for it might very well be eaten, and she never threw anything away.
Then the Reindeer related his own story first, and afterwards that of little Gerda; and
the Finland woman winked her eyes, but said nothing.
“You are so clever,” said the Reindeer; “you can, I know, twist all the winds of the
world together in a knot. If the seaman loosens one knot, then he has a good wind; if a
second, then it blows pretty stiffly; if he undoes the third and fourth, then it rages so
that the forests are upturned. Will you give the little maiden a potion, that she may
possess the strength of twelve men, and vanquish the Snow Queen?”
“The strength of twelve men!” said the Finland woman. “Much good that would be!”
Then she went to a cupboard, and drew out a large skin rolled up. When she had
unrolled it, strange characters were to be seen written thereon; and the Finland woman
read at such a rate that the perspiration trickled down her forehead.
But the Reindeer begged so hard for little Gerda, and Gerda looked so imploringly
with tearful eyes at the Finland woman, that she winked, and drew the Reindeer aside
into a corner, where they whispered together, while the animal got some fresh ice put
on his head.
“‘Tis true little Kay is at the Snow Queen’s, and finds everything there quite to his
taste; and he thinks it the very best place in the world; but the reason of that is, he has
a splinter of glass in his eye, and in his heart. These must be got out first; otherwise he
will never go back to mankind, and the Snow Queen will retain her power over him.”
“But can you give little Gerda nothing to take which will endue her with power over
the whole?”
“I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don’t you see how great it
is? Don’t you see how men and animals are forced to serve her; how well she gets
through the world barefooted? She must not hear of her power from us; that power
lies in her heart, because she is a sweet and innocent child! If she cannot get to the
Snow Queen by herself, and rid little Kay of the glass, we cannot help her. Two miles
hence the garden of the Snow Queen begins; thither you may carry the little girl. Set
her down by the large bush with red berries, standing in the snow; don’t stay talking,
but hasten back as fast as possible.” And now the Finland woman placed little Gerda
on the Reindeer’s back, and off he ran with all imaginable speed.
“Oh! I have not got my boots! I have not brought my gloves!” cried little Gerda. She
remarked she was without them from the cutting frost; but the Reindeer dared not
stand still; on he ran till he came to the great bush with the red berries, and there he set
Gerda down, kissed her mouth, while large bright tears flowed from the animal’s eyes,
and then back he went as fast as possible. There stood poor Gerda now, without shoes
or gloves, in the very middle of dreadful icy Finland.
She ran on as fast as she could. There then came a whole regiment of snow-flakes, but
they did not fall from above, and they were quite bright and shining from the Aurora
Borealis. The flakes ran along the ground, and the nearer they came the larger they
grew. Gerda well remembered how large and strange the snow-flakes appeared when
she once saw them through a magnifying-glass; but now they were large and terrific in
another manner, they were all alive. They were the outposts of the Snow Queen. They
had the most wondrous shapes; some looked like large ugly porcupines; others like
snakes knotted together, with their heads sticking out; and others, again, like small fat
bears, with the hair standing on end: all were of dazzling whiteness, all were living
snow-flakes.
Little Gerda repeated the Lord’s Prayer. The cold was so intense that she could see her
own breath, which came like smoke out of her mouth. It grew thicker and thicker, and
took the form of little angels, that grew more and more when they touched the earth.
All had helms on their heads, and lances and shields in their hands; they increased in
numbers; and when Gerda had finished the Lord’s Prayer, she was surrounded by a
whole legion. They thrust at the horrid snow-flakes with their spears, so that they flew
into a thousand pieces; and little Gerda walked on bravely and in security. The angels
patted her hands and feet; and then she felt the cold less, and went on quickly towards
the palace of the Snow Queen.
But now we shall see how Kay fared. He never thought of Gerda, and least of all that
she was standing before the palace.
Natalie Hush 