The Snow Queen is an interesting fairy tale in that it did not exist before the 1840’s. The story is an original tale written by Hans Christian Andersen. Most fairy tales have some sort of conflict between good and evil; because of his beliefs, Andersen made the conflict in his story revolve around angels and demons.
Before I begin the tale, I want to address one issue: The Snow Queen is not Frozen. Not at all, not by a long shot. If you’re familiar with the story you likely know this already; if you’ve never heard it before, you’ll see it as you read it. I’ve heard some people talking about how similar the two stories are to one another, and it really bugs me. Frozen was originally intended to follow the plot of The Snow Queen, but the writers decided to make Elsa the main heroine instead of the main villain. The movie has very little in common with the original tale.
Now that I’ve gotten my pet peeve out of the way, let’s begin!
Once upon a time the devil created a magical mirror. This mirror distorted the vision of those who looked into it, allowing the viewer to see only the bad and the ugly instead of the good and the beautiful. The devil enjoyed taking a cohort of demons with him and traveling the world, warping the views of anyone who happened to look in the mirror.
Eventually this form of entertainment was not enough for the devil. He led his demons through the sky and attempted to take the mirror into Heaven, where he would force God and the angels to gaze into it. As they rose into the sky, the mirror began to shake with laughter. The devil and his demons attempted to keep going, but the mirror shook more the higher they rose. Eventually they lost their grip on it and the mirror slipped from their grasp, falling to Earth where it shattered into millions of pieces.
These pieces were tiny - some only the size of sand grains - and they blew around the world. Some of the pieces became lodged in people’s eyes, making the people see only the bad in their fellow man. Other pieces got stuck in people’s hearts, freezing them and stopping them from experiencing emotions.
Our story begins years later, with two children who grew up next door to one another. The boy was named Kai, and the girl Gerda; they were best friends. The buildings they lived in were so close together that one of them could get to the other’s home simply by stepping across the balconies each of their dwellings had. These balconies (called window-boxes) each had a garden that the children tended to.
One night Kai’s grandmother tells the children a story about the Snow Queen, a woman who rules over the snowflakes. During that winter Kai looks out of his window one night and sees the Snow Queen beckoning to him; he pulls away from the window in fear.
When spring arrives, so too does Gerda’s realization that she is in love with Kai. The gardens on their window-boxes have grown roses, and the sight of them never fails to remind Gerda of her love for her friend.
Unfortunately, everything changes during the summer (when the Fire Nation attacks? Sorry, couldn’t help it!). Splinters of the magical mirror from the beginning of the story get blown into Kai’s eyes and heart. Unable to feel, the boy only sees the ugliness in the world around him. He destroys the garden that he and Gerda have tended to all their lives. Kai also mocks his grandmother, thinking her nothing more than a foolish old woman. Despite the mirror fragment, Kai can still see perfection in one thing - snowflakes.
That winter Kai goes out to a festival and hitches his sled to the sleigh of a woman dressed in a white fur coat. The woman is in fact the Snow Queen!
After revealing this to Kai, she talks with him for a short time. Seeing his love of winter, the Snow Queen whisks Kai away from the city. (I wonder if C. S. Lewis drew any inspiration from this story? Andersen’s Snow Queen certainly seems similar to Lewis’ White Witch, Jadis.) Once outside its bounds she kisses him; once to make him immune to the cold, and a second time to take away his memories of Gerda and his family. She explains that a third kiss would kill him. The Snow Queen then takes Kai with her back to her palace.
Back in the town, it is believed that Kai drowned in a nearby river. Gerda is heartbroken, and sets out to determine the truth. She goes to the river and offers it her red shoes if it will give her back Kai; when it does not accept, she realizes that it does not have her friend. In exchange for her shoes, the river sends her to a sorceress who might know where Kai is.
(Remember - this is in the middle of winter. Gerda wanders around barefoot for the rest of the story. I’m amazed she didn’t lose her feet...)
Gerda travels to meet the sorceress, who lives in a land of eternal summer. The sorceress wants Gerda to stay with her, so she makes her forget Kai. Knowing that the sight of the rose bushes would remind her of her love for him, the sorceress also makes all of her rose bushes disappear under the earth. Fortunately for our heroine, Gerda begins to cry, and her tears raise one of the bushes from the ground. This brings back her memories of Kai. The bush tells Gerda that it was able to see the land of the dead while it was underground, and that Kai was not there.
Gerda flees the home of the sorceress, and eventually stumbles across a crow. The crow takes pity on the girl and tells her that Kai is in the palace of the princess. Gerda rushes to the palace, only to discover that Kai is not there. Instead she meets the prince, who looks remarkably like Kai. Gerda tells the prince and princess her story, and they provide her with warm clothes and a coach. (For some reason, she remains barefoot...) Gerda sets out from the palace, still determined to find Kai.
Unfortunately, her rich coach attracts robbers. Gerda is captured by them and taken back to their palace (So many palaces!!). While there, she manages to befriend a young robber girl. The girl keeps doves as pets, and they report having seen Kai being taken away by the Snow Queen towards Lapland. A reindeer that the robbers keep offers to take Gerda there, since Lapland was its home before it was captured.
Gerda’s robber friend frees both her and the reindeer. True to his word, he takes her to Lapland, and they begin the journey to the Snow Queen’s palace. Along the way they meet a Lapp woman and a Finn woman. Neither of them offer to help Gerda against the Snow Queen; as the Finn woman says, her kind heart has gotten her this far. If she cannot defeat the Snow Queen, no one can.
Gerda eventually makes it to the Snow Queen’s palace, which she finds guarded by snowflakes. Gerda recites the Lord’s Prayer, causing the fog from her breath to take the shape of angels. These angels fight the snowflakes, granting Gerda entrance to the palace. Once inside, she finds Kai sitting on a frozen lake. He has pieces of ice that he must use to spell the word “eternity”; if he can do this, the Snow Queen has promised to free him from her power and give him a pair of ice skates.
He is interrupted by Gerda running up and kissing him. As she cries, her warm tears melt the shard of mirror in his heart.
Kai also begins to weep, which dislodges the mirror shard from his eye. Overjoyed to see Gerda, Kai begins to dance with her. The children’s enthusiasm is so contagious that the pieces of ice Kai had been playing with also begin to dance; when they stop, they fall to the ground and spell out the word “eternity”, compelling the Snow Queen to free Kai.
(I have no idea what this picture is from, but it was so adorable that I had to share it.)
The reindeer helps Gerda and Kai to escape, along with some help from the Lapp and Finn women. On their way home they meet the robber girl and thank her. They continue on to their town, which they find different from when they left. The couple eventually realize that it is not their home which changed: it is them. During their adventure Gerda and Kai grew up. The story ends as they settle into their homes during summertime.
I find the ending of The Snow Queen to be quite similar to Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, which interests me. Having the children grow up and the world around them change because of it is an interesting literary tool that I don’t see used to often.
As to adaptations of The Snow Queen - well, hopefully you can see that Frozen isn’t one of them! Apart from the woman with snow powers, a reindeer (who is named Bae in the story instead of Sven), and shards in the heart (mirror shards, not ice, mind you), the stories are vastly different. Interestingly enough, the TV show Once Upon a Time did a story arc that took place after the events of Frozen. A Snow Queen comes to town with a plan to shatter a magical mirror that embeds itself in the eyes of everyone in town, forcing them to see only the bad in one another. I loved seeing a (mostly) accurate adaptation of The Snow Queen!
As far as books go, I’ve only read three that were based on The Snow Queen. Two are by Mercedes Lackey, and both are part of a series. The first, called The Snow Queen, is part of The Five Hundred Kingdoms series. The Snow Queen here is not really a villain, but it is a fascinating read. I recommend reading the other books in the series first, since the world the story is set in has a complicated system of magic that gets explained best in earlier books. All of the books in this series are actually based on fairy tales, each with a surprising twist!
The second book by Lackey is called The Wizard of London, and it is part of the Elemental Masters series. Chronologically I believe this book comes first, but it wasn’t the first published and it’s explanations of the magical system are not as good as other books in the series. Again, each book in this series is based off of fairy tales, and they’re quite an excellent read.
If you want something a bit shorter (and not part of a series!) Winter’s Child by Cameron Dokey is an excellent novel. Technically it is part of a series, but all of the books are standalone novels with nothing really in common.
Again, I hope you liked reading about The Snow Queen! If you have questions or comments, please post below or email me. This post was done at the request of a reader, and I’d love to do one about a fairy tale of your request too! Just let me know what you’d like me to cover.
I’ll be back next Monday with a post about Beauty and the Beast! See you then!
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