First published in 1844, “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen is a fairy tale divided into seven separate short stories that delineate the search for the true essence of life. Two friends Gerda and Kay witness a huge change in their life when the latter is struck with the tiny pieces of a magic mirror in his heart and eye. He begins to forget Gerda and inclines toward anything that is cold and thus becomes a captive of the Snow Queen. The tale follows Gerda’s adventurous quest to find her missing friend and bring him back safely.
Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen was a 19th-century renowned author who carved an impeccable reputation for himself in the genre of fantasy and fairytale.
The Snow Queen | Summary
Stories
Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters
A wicked sprite creates a magical mirror possessing the power to reflect the good and beautiful as poor and mean, and the already ugly as magnified in ugliness. He takes great pleasure in the fun elements of the mirror. He runs a sprite school and children experience amusement at their encounter with the invention. The mirror grins as the young sprites fly with it and in an uncontrollable shaking due to the grin, the mirror falls down and breaks into pieces. Now the entire world could access the mirror in its tiny and big pieces because they do possess the evil capacity of the entire mirror. People could now only see evil as they use them for windowpanes or spectacles. The splinters keep suspending in the air and the forthcoming events continue in the next story.
A Little Boy and a Little Girl
In a large town live two children Kay and Gerda next to each other who are not siblings but possess a deep concern for each other and have a garden just larger than a flower pot, despite the overpopulation. They place the vegetable boxes along the gutter that separates their houses in order to build a wall of flowers. In winter, due to freezing windows, Kay and Gerda find it difficult to talk to each other and only peep through the windows. Kay’s grandmother narrates to him about the queen of honey bees and her constant movement between the earth and the sky. Kay then sits beside his window and observes a large snowflake transforming into a beautiful young woman nodding to him and he could not believe his eyes.
Weather switches to the pleasant spring and then summer with roses blooming like never before. Suddenly, Kay feels an itch in his heart and eye which is a consequential effect of the magic mirror’s pieces getting inside him. His attitude towards the beautiful roses alters to that of disgust and kicks the boxes where they are planted. He now imitates everyone and does not share similar opinions with Gerda. One day Kay encounters the Snow Queen amidst a thick snowfall. She kisses him as he accompanies her in her sledge, forgetting everything and everyone at his home.
Of the Flower Garden at the Old Woman’s Who Understood Witchcraft
Gerda weeps as Kay does not return, believing him to be dead by drowning in the river after she learns about his sledge race. She decides to offer her new red shoes to the river and get Kay back. She throws them at the waves but it only reaches the bank as a matter of fact that the river does not possess Kay. But Gerda believes to throw it from an intimate distance and decides to opt for a boat. It loses control and she cries for help. The sparrows above her fly along the boat to comfort her. However, the thought of the river possibly carrying her to Kay’s destination makes her less sad. She passes through a cottage where two armed men stand at the door and calls out to them when an old woman comes out and rescues the poor girl.
The old woman fails to acknowledge Kay’s presence but insists Gerda stay and wait for him. Gradually, the old woman practices some witchcraft owing to her fondness for Gerda and an intention to keep her forever by erasing Kay’s memories and all the rose bushes from the land. She is not evil but cares for Gerda too much. The girl enjoys her stay amongst the beautiful flowers of all sizes and colors. But one day she observes a rose on the old woman’s hat and she longs for it. Her warm tears touch the ground and roses shoot out and with them the buried memories of Kay. She interacts with all the flowers to learn about the whereabouts of her dear Kay and each of them narrates their own stories. Tired of their unhelpful replies, she runs off from the garden.
The Prince and Princess
Gerda interacts with a Raven who feels sorry for her distressed state. He provides her solace with the possibility of knowledge about the little Kay who now lives with a Princess. The bird ventures into the story of the Princess who desires to marry a man who can answer well. All the young men are invited to the palace for the Princess to choose her husband. The Raven describes a young boy who arrives at the palace without any horse which fits Kay’s appearance. His arrival bears the purpose of gaining the princess’ wisdom and not marrying her. Gerda insists to be taken to the palace and the Raven makes arrangements with his ladybird at the palace for the same. But after entering the bedchamber, she does not find Kay but another boy. The Princess asks Gerda about the matter and rewards the Ravens for their help to the young girl. Gerda sets off for her search again the next morning and the Prince and Princess along with Ravens bid her adieu.
The Little Robber Maiden
Amidst the dark woods, the carriage attracts the attention of the robbers who attacks it and pulls little Gerda out. The old woman robber marvels at the girl for her physique. Her daughter talks her out of killing Gerda as she would be the right company for her. They enter the robber’s castle completely contrasts with the previous castle Gerda has been to. The maiden possesses many animals that she treats cruelly which is in opposition to Gerda’s loving relationship with flora and fauna. The maiden spikes interest in Kay’s story and compels Gerda to narrate her tale from the beginning. The pigeons above her inform about Kay’s journey with the Snow Queen about which the reindeer would be able to pass on more information better.
Gerda’s resolve to travel to Lapland and rescue Kay softens the maiden’s heart and she prepares for her journey in the absence of her old mother with the reindeer. With this, Gerday arrives at Lapland and the reindeer also attains its freedom.
The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman
Gerda and the reindeer reach a little house where one would require crawling on the stomach to enter it. An old Lapland woman becomes the listener to the sad tales of both her guests. The woman informs them about a Finland woman who is in a better position to deliver apt information about the Queen’s country house. Upon reaching the Finland woman’s premises, they knock at her chimney due to the absence of a door. She receives the human and the accompanying animal with the message from the Lapland woman. Her house burns with heat, contrasting the cold fretting temperature at the previous woman’s shelter. She takes the reindeer aside and briefs him about the glass piece and splinter in Kay’s eyes and heart respectively which are the obstacles preventing his return to mankind.
No artificial or imposition of a superficial power in the world can overcome it except Gerda’s own natural strength. She has managed to travel the world barefoot with men and animals serving her and treating her quite well. The true power lies within her innocent self. She needs to reach the Snow Queen herself without anyone’s aid and instructs the reindeer about his course of action. The animal drops off Gerda at the garden of the Queen and runs away. The snowflakes are animalistic, appearing to be creatures that are alive and as a spectacle never seen before. At last, she reaches the palace while chanting the Lord’s Prayer.
What Took Place in the Palace of the Snow Queen, and what Happened Afterward
A magnificent palace with empty halls, a precise position of the northern light, and a large frozen lake with thousands of cracks and driving snow takes away Gerda’s breath. The Queen is sitting on her throne at the center of the lake and Kay is seen collecting pieces of ice to construct a figure. However, he is unable to carve out a figure for the word “eternity” unlike all other words. The Snow Queen takes a flight to the warm lands to render it an icy touch and in her absence, Gerda enters the premises and embraces the cold-hearted Kay who reacts only when Gerda’s burning tears touch his bosom and melts the splinter. She recites the hymn “The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there the children to greet” bringing Kay back to life. He cries profusely, enabling the glass piece to pop out of his eye. The joy of recognition fills their heart.
A journey back to their rosy walled house with their grandmother waiting begins, comprising of various stops such as the spot near the red berries where the reindeer are waiting, the Finland woman whose house would provide warmth, and the Lapland woman who would stitch new clothes and repair their sledges. As they reach the country border, Gerda encounters the little robber maiden who informs the former about the prince and princess having a trip abroad while the lady raven is a widow now. As the kids enter their house, they realize about their grown-up selves and sit on the two little chairs holding each other’s hand listening to their grandmother reading the Bible, forgetting about the Snow Queen. At last, they understand the hidden message of the old hymn: “The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there the children to greet.” The young and childish spirit in one’s heart is what keeps one alive and happy.
The Snow Queen | Analysis
Andersen’s tale is not only unique to the genre of fairytale and fantasy in length but also in its structure which is unlike the usual short stories of the time. With a third-person narrator and a framing story that provides the background to the main events of the tale, the author presents an encapsulating narrative rich in figurative language and scenic beauty. Through the fantastical story in the first section about a magic mirror capable of magnifying ugliness in the world as an invention of a mischievous sprite, the prevalent truth about certain inventions in the world comes to the fore.
The 19th century was the era when industrialization was in full swing and each day ensured developments and inventions in the area of science and technology. The world’s dependency on material and mechanical aspects facilitated a distance between nature and emotional well-being. Suddenly everything was about power and money with no time for fulfilling relationships. This unmistakable backdrop in the tale exposes what the world needed then and still needs now— love and empathy. The sprite’s eventual broken glass enters humans’ hearts and eyes, metaphorically rendering them cold in demeanor and a distorted vision. Like Kay who becomes the victim of those pieces and loses his warmth of friendship as well as the vision of beauty in the world, humans in the contemporary mechanical age suffer from pessimistic viewing.
Continuing with the same line of thought, Kay’s unknowingly changed perception which includes forgetting Gerda depicts the loosening of old ties when new ones have formed as well as the enticement children experience when something new approaches them. Today, in the modern world, relationships are losing their sanctity. Kay’s disrespectful imitation of his grandmother, though as a consequence of the splinter in his heart, is a microcosmic representation of the contempt humans even with the same blood feel for each other. But through Gerda’s will and resolute journey in search of Kay, the tale also represents how some relations, such as that of friends, can prosper in the face of pretentious and farcical relations that the Snow Queen attempts to build with the little boy.
Andersen’s withdrawal from a justifiable end to the fate of the Snow Queen and the sprite is quite unsettling. These were the two so-called villains in the tale but the author dismisses them without a proper course of action.
The mirror motif ties them together and also provides a cyclic nature to the tale. In the first story, the sprite invents the magical mirror which shatters into pieces and falls on the earth, and in the last story, the Snow Queen resides on her throne at the center of a frozen lake acting as a mirror with a thousand cracks. Both take pleasure in the misery of others. However, the author refuses to provide any back story for their intentions or a moral win over them. This could be analyzed as his deliberate choice for he believed to deliver a more pressing message rather than the old moral of good prevailing over evil. His thrust is on the journey that Gerda sets forth on in its challenges and resolutions which every individual is assumed to undertake at least once in his/her life.
Hence, “The Snow Queen” is not much about the titular character but about the cold fretting, and the deathly life she represents which a young girl conquers over through our passionate and revivifying force of love and friendship.
The Snow Queen | Themes
Nature
Andersen’s narrative is rich in vivid descriptions of places where Gerda and Kay bump into their own set of adventures. The flowery gardens of the old woman in the third story, Gerda’s penchant for roses, Kay’s later preoccupation with snow, the icy castle of the Snow Queen, and the wooden setting of the robber maiden’s house are some of the scenic backdrops that the tale as a whole delights its readers with.
While it serves as the perfect setting for a fairy tale where good and evil reside together, it also becomes a tool of temporality through seasonal shifts. The passing of time by the means of repeated transitions of winter to spring and then to summer signals the long years of journey that Gerda undertakes in her quest to find Kay.
The environmental nature is juxtaposed with human nature where each influences the action of one another. To present an instance, the encapsulating beauty of flowers in the old woman’s garden facilitates Gerda’s oblivion to her purpose and later Gerda’s warm and pure heart fights with the fierce snowflakes guarding the Queen’s castle. Nature is always a giver and thus the waves’ refusal to take Gerda’s red shoes in the third story is an exhibition of that characteristic. It also offers a landscape for imagination which is a prerequisite for the fairytale genre. It allows a space for the writer to materialize everything which might be impossible in the real world.
Childhood Innocence and Fancy
Childhood is the most impressionable stage in a human’s life which often manifests fantastical elements. Young minds brew with imagination and possibilities for an alternate world in their innocence that contrasts the corrupting world of adulthood. For instance, Gerda asking the river to return Kay to her believing it to have swallowed him is representative of her gullibility. The child becomes the sight of innocence as opposed to the fallen adult or the figure of lamb as opposed to the tiger to interpret in the Christian and Romantic understanding.
Fairytales deliver the harsh realities of the world through a mythical and fanciful representation of issues such as power, control, greed, mischief, death, etc. The unexpected time lapse in the story towards the end opens a new avenue of possibility for Gerda’s entire journey and Kay’s captivity by the Snow Queen to be just a dream as they both turn adults when they return back. It is through this fancy that children learn some of the most valuable lessons in life— love, and friendship in the case of our protagonists.
Journey
There are multiple journeys a reader can trace in this tale—the physically excruciating journey of Gerda to find Kay, her emotional journey from sadness to oblivion to remembrance and to happiness after finally reuniting with her childhood best friend, Kay’s sledging journey to the Snow Queen’s castle and a metaphorical journey from the warmth of fancy to the webs of rationality and coldness. There is also a journey from childhood to adulthood and each journey gives as well takes from the two kids. While not much could be said for Kay, Gerda on the other hand has an enriching experience even though she is separated from her loved ones for quite a long time. She meets both humans and animals of varying personalities who help her to reach Kay.
A journey is only fruitful if we take away something from it. Gerda and Kay after returning back realize the true meaning of their favorite hymn “The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there the children to greet” which proposes the idea that God’s blessings only come to those who are pure and innocent by heart with love and respect for the nature. The quest in this tale passes down the moral message of encountering true divinity only in close proximity to nature even without undertaking any religious journey.
Love
The universal notion of love as an all-encompassing emotion and the most powerful weapon on earth proves to be true in the story. Gerda’s genuine love for her friend Kay overcomes all the obstacles she stands against in her journey. She is successful in compelling everyone, including animals and flowers to assist her in her quest. The human capacity for emotions transcends all material and evil forces, including the atrocities of the weather. Though, unlike quintessential fairytales where the protagonists end up marrying each other to mark a happy ending, Andersen’s story is about the triumph of emotions over rationality and the warmth of love over the coldness of staying aloof.
The Snow Queen | Characters
The Wicked Sprite – A Troll or a Hobgoblin in the first story who creates the magic mirror for his amusement that enables him to magnify ugliness in the world.
Kay – He is the young boy who becomes the victim of the magic mirror as a consequence of its breaking into pieces and a splinter and a glass spec entering his heart and eyes respectively. He loses his innocence and travels with the Snow Queen to her cold and lifeless castle, abandoning his family and friends. In the end, his childhood friend and neighbor Gerda rescue him and together they come back to a life full of sunshine and happiness.
Gerda – She is Kay’s friend who ventures on a journey to find her lost best friend while encountering various characters to enrich her experience. A soft-hearted and emotional little girl, she appeals to everyone with her innocence and pure intentions.
The Snow Queen – She is an evil queen who is wicked not in the traditional sense of fairy tales but to the extent where her attempt to take away Kay from the place of his belongingness is not justifiable. The coldness that surrounds her and that she is a representative of symbolically translates to death and end which would Kay was on the verge of under her care.
Old Woman – The first woman Gerda meets on her journey, she is a hidden sorceress who lives alone amongst the natural beauty bestowed by flowers of all kinds in the world. Her fondness for Gerda compels her to use her powers to influence the girl who is living with her forever, which is only successful for a few days.
The Princess – An intelligent and well-versed woman, she is on a hunt for a suitable prince who is compatible with her in mind. She proves to be a generous ruler by rendering assistance to Gerda in her search for Kay and also by rewarding the Ravens who help Gerda in her noble cause.
The Little Robber Maiden – She is a mischievous and sadistic woman who takes pleasure in torturing animals in her captivity and even provides an uncomfortable atmosphere to Gerda through her vile actions of ownership and death threats. But in the event of a sudden change of heart after learning about Gerda’s pain of losing her friend, she prepares arrangements for her to travel to Finland on a reindeer where the Snow Queen was living with Kay.
The Lapland Woman – Another woman Gerda encounters on her journey to the Queen’s castle, she is old and poor and accommodates the girl and her reindeer in her closer to the ground house that required crawling on the stomach. She writes a letter to another woman who would be the key person to inform her about the exact location of Gerda’s destination and also supplies her with suitable covering for the harsh winters.
The Finland Woman – The last woman who acts as a medium to reach Kay, she is the person who knows about Kay’s splinter in the heart and a glass piece in his eyes. Living in an overly heating house without a door, she provides the necessary warmth to the girl and her reindeer while also informing the latter about Gerda’s inherent powers of purity of soul and love that are the only true weapons to defeat the Snow Queen. No other magic would be able to rescue Kay and she is to fight the battle alone.
The Snow Queen | Literary Devices
Simile
“In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach”
“…for some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand”
“Some persons even got a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart became like a lump of ice.”
“…her eyes gazed fixedly, like two stars”
“…that sweet little face, which was so round and so like a rose.”
“Two little girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards; their frocks are as white as snow”
“And every flake seemed larger, and appeared like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star”
“…the shining glow-worms flew around like little floating lights.”
“He flew into a tree, and beat his black wings as long as he could see the carriage, that shone from afar like a sunbeam.”
“She is as good as a fatted lamb!”
Juxtaposition
“Oh, what a fright and a joy it was!”
Irony
“Some of the broken pieces were so large that they were used for windowpanes, through which one could not see one’s friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles, and that was a sad affair when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly.”
Onomatopoeia
“…while the storm moaned and whistled as though it were singing some old tune… the wolves howled, the snow crackled”
Personification
“‘That I don’t believe,’ said the Sunshine.”
“…the blue waves nodded in a strange manner”
“‘Dead he certainly is not,’ said the Roses. ‘We have been in the earth where all the dead are, but Kay was not there.’”
Allusion
The Hindu sacrificial custom of Sati is referred to in the reply of the Tiger Lily in the third story. A woman has to give up her life on the funeral pyre of her husband to mark the insignificance of her life after his death.
