The Snow Queen

#####The Snow Queen

once, long ago, there was a little boy

called Kai and a little girl called Gerda. They lived next door to each other, and they loved each other very much.

Between their two houses was a garden where Kai and Gerda played among the flowers all summer long. Gerda’s favourite flowers were the roses, and she made up a verse about them, specially for Kai:

“Until the last rose blooms and dies, We will be friends, Gerda and Kai.”

When winter came, they sat inside by the warm stove and listened to Kai’s grandmother telling stories about the wicked Snow Queen.

“She flies with the sleet and smothers the fields with snow. She stiffens the flowers with frost and freezes the rivers. Her heart is a block of ice. And she would like to make everyone’s heart as icy as her own.”

As the old woman spoke, the wind howled round the house, and a window clattered open. A flurry of sleet blew into Kai’s face, and a splinter of ice pierced his eye. Instantly, it travelled to his heart and lodged there.

Kai cried out in pain. But a few moments later he was laughing again. And Gerda thought no more about it.

The next day, Kai went to play in the town square with the other boys.

“Can I come?” said Gerda.

But Kai turned on her angrily, “Of course not. You’re only a stupid girl.”

Gerda was very hurt. How could she know that the icicle in Kai’s heart was turning it to ice?

The boys liked to tie their sledges to the farmer’s cart, which pulled them across the snow. But this day a big white sleigh stood in the square, its driver dressed in white fur.

“This will be better than the farmer’s cart,” thought Kai, and he tied his sledge to the back of the white sleigh.

The sleigh moved off — faster and

faster, until Kai began to get frightened. He wanted to untie his sledge, but could not undo the rope. On and on they went out of the city gates, on and on, flying with the wind.

“Help! Help!” shouted Kai, but nobody heard him. They flew for hours, until suddenly they stopped and the driver stood up. The driver was a tall, thin woman and her coat and hat were made of snow. Kai stared in wonder. There before him stood the Snow Queen!

She lifted Kai into the sleigh beside her and wrapped him in her coat. “You’re cold,” she said, and kissed him on the forehead. Though her kiss was like ice, Kai no longer felt the cold. He thought that nobody in the world could be more beautiful than the Snow Queen. For it was she who had sent the wind to plunge an icicle into Kai’s heart. By now, it had turned to solid ice. And he forgot all about Gerda and his grandmother.

Gerda wept bitterly when Kai did not come home. Everyone said he must be dead, lost somewhere in the deep snow. All winter she waited, but Kai did not come back. At last the warmer weather came. And Gerda was given new red shoes to wear with her Spring clothes.

She put them on and went to the wide river. “Have you seen my friend Kai?” she asked the waves. “I’ll give you my new red shoes if you tell me where he is!”

The tumbling waves nodded their foaming heads. So she climbed into a little boat moored among the reeds, then tossed her shoes as far as she could into the water. As she did so, the boat drifted away from the bank and began racing downstream. Gerda was frightened, but she dared not jump out.

“Perhaps the boat will carry me to Kai,” she thought.

The boat carried Gerda down the river until it passed a little thatched house beside a cherry orchard. A strange old lady came out of the cottage wearing a large hat. With her crooked walking stick, she hooked the boat and pulled it to the shore.

“Poor child,” she said to Gerda. “How did you come to be floating all alone through the wide world?”

So Gerda told the old lady her whole story, and asked if she had seen Kai.

“He’s not been here yet, my dear, but I expect he will be very soon.” She Look Gerda into the house and gave her cherries to eat. And while she ate them, the old lady combed the girl’s hair.

Now in truth, the old lady was the loneliest of all magicians, and she wanted to keep Gerda with her. So she combed away all her memories. Soon Gerda forgot all about Kai.

For days Gerdia played in the cottage. But one sunny morning she was wandering among the flowers in the garden when she saw a bush blossoming with red roses. Gerda kissed the flowers in delight, and straight away she remembered Kai.

“I’ve stayed here too long!” she cried out - and her voice disturbed a big black crow from a nearby tree.

“Caw! What’s the matter, little girl?” “I have to find my friend Kai. Have you seen him?”

“I saw a boy pass this way last week. He had won the heart of a princess, and now he’s a prince. They live together in a beautiful palace not far from here.”

“Oh, I would be so happy for Kai if he had become a prince,” laughed Gerda.

“Can you show me the way there?” So the crow flew off and led Gerda to the palace. Inside they both crept up a shadowy staircase until they came to the royal bedchamber. Gerda peeped in at the sleeping prince - and burst into tears.

“Oh, Crow! It isn’t Kai at all! I’ll have to go on looking. But I’m so tired!”

Her crying woke the young prince and princess, and they were amazed to see a little girl sobbing at the foot of their bed. But when they heard her story, they understood her tears.

“I’ll give you my prettiest dress to cheer you up.” said the princess.

“And I’ll give you my golden coach,” said the prince, “so you can travel farther and faster, and find little Kai all the sooner.”

In the prince’s coach, Gerda rode through a dark forest. The coachwork glistened among the trees - and some wicked robbers saw it, shining in the moonlight.

“It’s gold! All gold!” they shouted, and they ambushed it at the next crossroads.

They dragged Gerda out of the coach and carried her away to their robber castle At the door stood a black-eyed girl, the daughter of the robber chief.

When they found out that Gerda was not a rich princess and had nothing to steal, they decided to kill her. “Oh don’t do that!” cried the robber’s daughter. “She can play with me, and I can wear her pretty clothes!”

The robber chief scowled. “All right, then. But I’ll keep her under lock and key, or she might escape and give away our hiding place.”

That night, Gerda told her new friend about Kai, and how she longed to find him. As she spoke, the doves in the rafters and an old reindeer listened to her story.

Suddenly one of the doves said, “Coo, coo. We’ve seen little Kai. He rode in the Snow Qucen’s sleigh as she flew towards Lapland.”

“Ah yes,” said the reindeer. “I was born in Lapland. It glitters with ice and snow, and the Queen has her summer palace there.”

“I must get there quickly!” exclaimed Gerda. “Now I understand why he was unkind to me that day. His heart was turning to ice!”

The robbers were sleeping. The chief’s daughter crept to her father’s pillow and stole the key to set Gerda free. “Take her to Lapland,” she told the reindeer. “Help her to find Kai.”

The reindeer was delighted to be going home, and he leapt over the moors and marshes. They travelled for several days and nights, until at last they came to Lapland. It was very, very cold, with ice and snow everywhere.

“Look! Over there!” cried Gerda. Sparkling in the distance was the Snow Queen’s summer palace, like a mountain of diamonds.

Inside her palace, the Snow Queen had made kai her slave. She was as sharp tongued and spiteful as frost, forcing him to polish the vast, icy floors. He would have wept, but his heart was too frozen for tears.

The Snow Queen gave Kai some icicles and said, “Shape these into the word ETERNITY, and I may set you free.” Then she flew away to heap snow on the cities and fetch down avalanches on the heads of climbers.

Kai was left alone with the icicles. His hands were blue with cold, but he felt nothing. He was still trying to shape the word ETERNITY when Gerda found her way into the palace and to his vast, frozen room.

“Kai!” she cried. “I’ve found you at last!” And she flung her arms around him.

But Kai stood still and cold and unsmiling. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you another of the Snow Queen’s slaves? Go away. Let go of me!”

Gerda refused to let go. Despite his unkind looks, she wept tears of happiness at seeing him again. And as she cried, her warm tears trickled into Kai’s eye… and melted the ice in his heart. And Kai remembered her.

“Gerda! It’s you!” he laughed. And they hugged and kissed each other and danced for joy. The pieces of ice danced too, and shaped the word ETERNITY on the icy floor. “Now I’m free!” cried Kai. “I’m free of the Snow Queen’s Powers and my heart is my own again.”

Gerda led Kai to the place where the reindeer was waiting. As they travelled back, the sun shone brightly, and by the time they reached home, it was Summer again. And the roses in the garden were in full bloom.