Illustration for “The Snow Queen” by Vilhelm Pedersen, one of the first illustrators of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales.
Plot
First story. Mirror and its fragments
Trolls carrying a mirror.
An evil troll makes a mirror in which everything good appears evil, and evil only catches the eye more clearly. One day, the troll’s disciples took this mirror and ran with it everywhere, pointing it at people for fun, and finally decided to reach the sky, “to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself.”
The higher they rose, the more the mirror twisted and writhed from grimaces; they could barely hold it in their hands. But then they got up again, and suddenly the mirror became so distorted that it tore out of their hands, flew to the ground and broke into pieces. Millions, billions of its fragments caused, however, even more trouble than the mirror itself. Some of them were no larger than a grain of sand, scattered throughout the world, sometimes fell into people’s eyes and remained there. A person with such a splinter in his eye began to see everything inside out or notice only the bad sides in every thing - after all, each splinter retained a property that distinguished the mirror itself. For some people, shrapnel went straight to the heart, and that was the worst thing: the heart turned into a piece of ice. Among these fragments there were also large ones, such that they could be inserted into window frames, but it was not worth looking through these windows at your good friends. Finally, there were also fragments that were used for glasses, only the trouble was if people put them on in order to look at things and judge them more accurately! And the evil troll laughed until he felt colic, the success of this invention tickled him so pleasantly.
Original text (Danish)
Jo høiere de fløi med Speilet, des stærkere grinede det, de kunde neppe holde fast paa det; høiere og høiere fløi de, nærmere Gud og Englene; da zittrede Speilet saa frygteligt i sit Griin, at det foer dem ud af Hænderne og styrtede ned mod Jorden, hvor det gik i hundrede Millionaire, Billioner og endnu flere Stykker, og da just gjorde det megen større Ulykke end før; thi nogle Stykker vare knap saa store som et Sandkorn, og disse fløi rundt om i den vide Verden, og hvor de kom Folk i Øinene, der bleve de siddende, og da saae de Mennesker Alting forkeert, eller havde kun Øine for hvad der var galt ved en Ting, thi hvert lille Speilgran havde beholdt samme Kræfter, som det hele Speil havde; nogle Mennesker fik endogsaa en lille Speilstump ind i Hjertet, og saa var det ganske grueligt, det Hjerte blev ligesom en Klump Iis. Nogle Speilstykker vare saa store, at de bleve brugte til Rudeglas, men gjennem den Rude var det ikke værd at see sine Venner; andre Stykker kom i Briller, og saa gik det daarligt, naar Folk toge de Briller paa for ret at see og være retfærdige; den Onde loe, saa hans Mave revnede, og det kildede ham saa deiligt.
Second story. Boy and girl
Kai and Gerda, a boy and a girl from poor families, are not relatives, but they love each other like brother and sister. Under the roof they have their own garden, “bigger than a flower pot,” where they grow roses. In winter, however, you can’t play in the kindergarten, so they go to visit each other.
In the summer they could find themselves visiting each other in one leap, but in the winter they had to first go down many, many steps, and then go up the same number. A snowball was fluttering in the yard.
- These are white bees swarming! - said the old grandmother.
- Do they also have a queen? - the boy asked; he knew that real bees had one.
- Eat! - answered the grandmother. - Snowflakes surround her in a thick swarm, but she is larger than all of them and never remains on the ground - she always floats on a black cloud. Often at night she flies through the city streets and looks into the windows; That’s why they are covered with ice patterns, like flowers.Original text (Danish)
Om Sommeren kunde de i eet Spring komme til hinanden, om Vinteren maatte de først de mange Trapper ned og de mange Trapper op; ude fygede Sneen.
“Det er de hvide Bier, som sværme,” sagde den gamle Bedstemoder.
“Har de ogsaa en Bidronning?” spurgte den lille Dreng, for han vidste, at imellem de virkelige Bier er der saadan een.
“Det har de!” sagde Bedstemoderen. “Hun flyver der, hvor de sværme tættest! hun er størst af dem alle, og aldrig bliver hun stille paa Jorden, hun flyver op igjen i den sorte Sky. Mangen Vinternat flyver hun gjennem Byens Gader og kiger ind af Vinduerne, og da fryse de saa underligt, ligesom med Blomster.”
Some time passes. In the summer, Kai and Gerda are sitting in their garden among the roses - and then a piece of the devil’s mirror gets into Kai’s eye. His heart becomes callous and “icy”: he laughs at his grandmother and mocks Gerda. The beauty of flowers no longer moves him, but he admires snowflakes with their mathematically ideal shapes (“not a single wrong line”). One day he goes sledding and, out of pampering, ties his children’s sleighs to a luxuriously decorated “adult” sleigh. Suddenly they accelerate - faster than he could have imagined, soar into the air and rush away: he was taken with her The Snow Queen.
Third story. Flower garden of a woman who knew how to cast magic
Gerda goes in search of Kai. In her travels, she meets a sorceress who lets her in to spend the night and ultimately decides to keep her and make her her adopted daughter. She casts a spell on Gerda, because of which the latter forgets about her sworn brother, and magically hides all the roses in her garden underground so that they do not inadvertently remind the heroine of the garden on the roof that belongs to her and Kai. But she forgets to remove the roses from her hat.
One day this hat catches Gerda's eye. The latter remembers everything and begins to cry. Where her tears flow, the roses hidden by the sorceress bloom. Gerda asks them:
Having received a negative answer, she realizes that Kai can still be saved and sets off on her journey.
Story four. Prince and Princess
Having left the sorceress’s garden, where eternal summer reigns, Gerda sees that in fact autumn has already come a long time ago, and decides to hurry up. On the way, she meets a raven who lives with his bride at the court of the local king. From a conversation with him, she concludes that the princess’s fiancé, who came from unknown lands, is Kai, and persuades the raven to take her to the palace to look at him. It becomes clear that she was mistaken; but the princess and her groom, after listening to Gerda’s story about her misadventures, take pity on her and give her “shoes, and a muff, and a wonderful dress,” and a golden carriage so that she can quickly find Kai.
Fifth story. Little robber
On the way, the carriage is attacked by robbers. They kill the postilions, coachman and servants, and also take Gerda's carriage, horses and expensive clothes. Gerda herself becomes the companion of a little robber, the daughter of the leader of a local gang - ill-mannered, greedy and stubborn, but essentially lonely. She arranges for her in her menagerie; the girl tells her story to the owner, and the latter is inspired and introduces her to the reindeer - the pride of the menagerie. He tells Gerda about his distant homeland, where the Snow Queen rules:
There you jump in freedom across endless sparkling icy plains! The Snow Queen's summer tent will be pitched there, and her permanent palaces will be at the North Pole, on the island of Spitsbergen!
Original text (Danish)
Der springer man frit om i de store skinnende Dale! Der har Sneedronningen sit Sommertelt, men hendes faste Slot er oppe mod Nordpolen, paa den Ø, som kaldes Spitsberg!
Gerda realizes that it is the Snow Queen who is keeping Kai with her and, with the permission of the little robber, sets off on a journey on a reindeer.
Story six. Lapland and Finnish
On the way, Gerda and the deer spend the night with a hospitable Laplander, who, after listening to their story, advises travelers to visit the Finnish sorceress. The deer, following her words, goes with Gerda to the Finn and asks her for the girl “a drink that would give her the strength of twelve heroes.” In response, the Finnish woman says that Gerda will not need such a drink: “the strength is in her sweet, innocent childish heart.” Having said goodbye to the Finnish woman, Gerda and the deer reach the kingdom of the Snow Queen. There they part; the girl must go on on her own.
Story seven. What happened in the halls of the Snow Queen and what happened next
Despite all the obstacles, Gerda gets to the Snow Queen's palace and finds Kai alone: he is trying to form the word "eternity" from ice shards - this task was offered to him by the queen before leaving (according to her, if he manages to do this, he will be "himself master,” and she will give him “the whole world and a pair of new skates”). At first he cannot understand who she is, but then Gerda sings him their favorite psalm:
Roses are blooming... Beauty, beauty!
Soon we will see the baby Christ.Original text (Danish)
Roserne voxe i Dale,
Der faae vi Barn-Jesus i Tale!
Kai remembers her, and the pieces of ice from joy naturally form into the right word. Now Kai is his own boss. The named brother and sister return home, and it turns out that they are already adults.
Censorship
Parallels in folk tales
In Scandinavian folklore there are references to the Ice Maiden, the embodiment of winter and death (this image was later developed by many children's writers, in particular Tove Jansson in The Magic Winter). They say that last words Andersen's father were: “Here comes the Ice Maiden and she came to me.” Similar characters are known to many peoples - in Japan it is Yuki-onna, in the Slavic tradition, possibly Mara-Marena. It is interesting that Andersen himself also has a fairy tale “The Ice Maiden”.
Film adaptations and the use of fairy tales as a literary basis
Film adaptations
- A Tale of Wanderings (a film using fairy tale motifs, 1982).
- The Snow Queen (cartoon, 1987) (Czechoslovakia).
- Revenge of the Snow Queen (cartoon, 1996).
Theater
“The Snow Queen” - performance by the Arkhangelsk Drama Theater named after M.V. Lomonosov, 2009.
“Gerda’s Room” is a performance by Yana Tumina’s Theater Laboratory on the stage of the Osobnyak Theater, St. Petersburg, 2018.
Opera
Ballet
- “The Snow Queen” (chorus: Kenneth Grieve, comp. Tuomas Kantelinen).
Let's start! When we get to the end of our story, we will know more than we do now.
So, once upon a time there lived a troll, an evil, despicable one - it was the devil himself. One day he was in a great mood: he made a mirror that had an amazing property. Everything good and beautiful, reflected in him, almost disappeared, but everything insignificant and disgusting was especially striking and became even uglier. Wonderful landscapes seemed like boiled spinach in this mirror, and the best of people looked like freaks; it seemed as if they were standing upside down, without bellies, and their faces were so distorted that they could not be recognized.
If someone had a single freckle on their face, that person could be sure that in the mirror it would blur all over their nose or mouth. The devil was terribly amused by all this. When a good, pious thought came into a person’s head, the mirror immediately made a face, and the troll laughed, rejoicing at his funny invention. All the troll's students - and he had his own school - said that a miracle had happened.
“Only now,” they said, “can you see the world and people as they really are.”
They carried the mirror everywhere, and in the end there was not a single country and not a single person left that would not be reflected in it in a distorted form. And so they wanted to get to heaven to laugh at the angels and at the Lord God. The higher they rose, the more the mirror grimaced and distorted; It was difficult for them to hold him: they flew higher and higher, closer and closer to God and the angels; but suddenly the mirror became so warped and trembled that it tore out of their hands and flew to the ground, where it shattered. Millions, billions, countless fragments did much more damage than the mirror itself. Some of them, the size of a grain of sand, scattered throughout the world and sometimes got into people’s eyes; they remained there, and from then on people saw everything topsy-turvy or noticed only the bad sides in everything: the fact is that each tiny fragment had the same power as a mirror. For some people, the fragments went straight into the heart - this was the worst thing - the heart turned into a piece of ice. There were also fragments so large that they could be inserted into the window frame, but it was not worth looking through these windows at your friends. Some fragments were inserted into glasses, but as soon as people put them on to take a good look at everything and make a fair judgment, trouble happened. And the evil troll laughed until his stomach hurt, as if he was being tickled. And many fragments of the mirror were still flying around the world. Let's listen to what happened next!
Story two
Boy and girl
In a big city, where there are so many people and houses that not everyone manages to set up a small garden and where therefore many have to be content with indoor flowers, there lived two poor children whose garden was slightly larger than a flower pot. They were not brother and sister, but they loved each other like family. Their parents lived next door, right under the roof - in the attics of two adjacent houses. The roofs of the houses almost touched, and under the ledges there was a drainage gutter - that’s where the windows of both rooms looked out. All you had to do was step over the gutter and you could immediately get through the window to your neighbors.
My parents had a large wooden box under their windows; In them they grew greens and roots, and in each box there was a small rose bush, these bushes grew wonderfully. So the parents came up with the idea to place the boxes across the groove; they stretched from one window to another, like two flower beds. Pea tendrils hung from the boxes like green garlands; more and more shoots appeared on the rose bushes: they framed the windows and intertwined - it all looked like triumphal arch from leaves and flowers.
The boxes were very high, and the children knew very well that they could not climb on them, so their parents often allowed them to visit each other along the gutter and sit on a bench under the roses. How much fun they played there!
But in winter the children were deprived of this pleasure. The windows were often completely frozen, but the kids heated copper coins on the stove and applied them to the frozen glass - the ice quickly thawed, and they got a wonderful window, so round, round - it showed a cheerful, affectionate eye, it was a boy and a girl looking out of their windows . His name was Kai, and hers was Gerda. In the summer they could find themselves at each other's side in one jump, but in the winter they had to first go down many steps and then climb up the same number of steps! And a blizzard was raging outside.
“It’s white bees swarming,” said the old grandmother.
-Do they have a queen? - asked the boy, because he knew that real bees have it.
“Yes,” answered the grandmother. — The queen flies where the snow swarm is thickest; she is larger than all the snowflakes and never lies on the ground for a long time, but again flies away with a black cloud. Sometimes at midnight she flies through the streets of the city and looks into the windows - then they are covered with wonderful ice patterns, like flowers.
“We saw, we saw,” the children said and believed that all this was true.
-Maybe the Snow Queen will come to us? - asked the girl.
- Just let him try! - said the boy. “I’ll put her on a hot stove and she’ll melt.”
But the grandmother stroked his head and started talking about something else.
In the evening, when Kai returned home and was almost undressed, preparing to go to bed, he climbed onto a bench by the window and looked into the round hole in the place where the ice had thawed. Snowflakes fluttered outside the window; one of them, the largest, sank to the edge of the flower box. The snowflake grew and grew until, finally, she turned into a tall woman, wrapped in the thinnest white blanket; it seemed to be woven from millions of snow stars. This woman, so beautiful and majestic, was all made of ice, made of dazzling, sparkling ice - and yet alive; her eyes shone like two clear stars, but there was neither warmth nor peace in them. She leaned towards the window, nodded to the boy and beckoned him with her hand. The boy got scared and jumped off the bench, and something like a huge bird flashed past the window.
The next day there was a glorious frost, but then a thaw began, and then spring came. The sun was shining, the first greenery was peeking through, swallows were building nests under the roof, the windows were wide open, and the children were again sitting in their tiny garden by the gutter high above the ground.
The roses bloomed especially magnificently that summer; the girl learned a psalm that spoke of roses, and while humming it, she thought about her roses. She sang this psalm to the boy, and he began to sing along with her:
Roses are blooming in the valleys. . . Beauty!
Soon we will see the baby Christ.
Holding hands, the children sang, kissed the roses, looked at the clear glare of the sun and talked to them - in this radiance they imagined the baby Christ himself. How beautiful these summer days were, how nice it was to sit next to each other under the bushes of fragrant roses - it seemed that they would never stop blooming.
Kai and Gerda sat and looked at a book with pictures - various animals and birds. And suddenly—just as the tower clock struck five—Kai screamed:
“I was stabbed right in the heart!” And now there's something in my eye! The girl wrapped her arms around his neck. Kai blinked his eyes; no, nothing was visible.
“It probably jumped out,” he said; but that's the point, it didn't pop up. It was just a tiny fragment of the devil's mirror; after all, we, of course, remember this terrible glass, reflected in which everything great and good seemed insignificant and disgusting, and the evil and bad stood out even more sharply, and every flaw immediately caught the eye. A tiny fragment hit Kai right in the heart. Now it was supposed to turn into a piece of ice. The pain went away, but the fragment remained.
-Why are you whining? - Kai asked. - How ugly you are now! It doesn't hurt me at all! . . . Ugh! - he suddenly shouted. - This rose is being eaten away by a worm! Look, she’s completely crooked! What ugly roses! No better than the boxes they stick out in!
And suddenly he pushed the box with his foot and plucked both roses.
-Kai! What are you doing? - the girl screamed.
Seeing how scared she was, Kai broke another branch and ran away from sweet little Gerda out his window.
After that, if the girl brought him a book with pictures, he said that these pictures were only good for babies; every time my grandmother said something, he interrupted her and found fault with her words; and sometimes it came over him that he would imitate her gait, put on glasses and imitate her voice. It turned out very similar, and people roared with laughter. Soon the boy learned to imitate all his neighbors. He so cleverly exposed all their oddities and shortcomings that people were amazed:
-What kind of head does this boy have!
And the reason for everything was a fragment of a mirror that hit him in the eye, and then in the heart. That’s why he even imitated little Gerda, who loved him with all her soul.
And now Kai played completely differently - too intricately. One day in winter, when it was snowing, he came with a large magnifying glass and held the hem of his blue coat under the falling snow.
-Look into the glass, Gerda! - he said. Each snowflake magnified many times under the glass and looked like a luxurious flower or a ten-pointed star. It was very beautiful.
-Look how skillfully it’s done! - Kai said. - This is much more interesting than real flowers. And what accuracy! Not a single crooked line. Oh, if only they didn't melt!
A little later Kai came in with big mittens, with a sled on his back, and shouted in Gerda’s ear:
-I was allowed to ride in a large area with other boys! - And running.
There were a lot of children skating in the square. The bravest boys tied their sleds to peasant sleighs and rode quite far. The fun was in full swing. At its height, large white sleighs appeared on the square; a man was sitting in them, wrapped in a fluffy, white fur coat, and he had the same hat on his head. The sleigh circled the square twice, Kai quickly tied his small sled to it and rolled off. The large sleigh rushed faster and soon turned from the square into an alley. The one who was sitting in them turned around and nodded welcomingly to Kai, as if they had known each other for a long time. Every time Kai wanted to untie the sled, the rider in a white fur coat nodded to him, and the boy rode on. So they left the city gates. The snow suddenly fell in thick flakes, so that the boy could not see anything one step ahead of him, and the sleigh kept rushing and rushing.
The boy tried to throw off the rope that he had caught on the large sled. This did not help: his sled seemed to have grown to the sleigh and was still rushing like a whirlwind. Kai shouted loudly, but no one heard him. The snowstorm was raging, and the sleigh was still racing, diving in the snowdrifts; they seemed to jump over hedges and ditches. Kai was trembling with fear, he wanted to read “Our Father,” but only the multiplication table was spinning in his mind.
The snow flakes grew and grew, and finally they turned into large white chickens. Suddenly the chickens scattered in all directions, the large sleigh stopped, and the man sitting in it stood up. She was a tall, slender, dazzlingly white woman - the Snow Queen; both the fur coat and the hat she was wearing were made of snow.
- We had a nice ride! - she said. - Wow, what a frost! Come on, crawl under my bear fur coat!
She placed the boy next to her on a large sleigh and wrapped him in her fur coat; Kai seemed to have fallen into a snowdrift.
-Are you still cold? - she asked and kissed his forehead. Uh! There was a kiss colder than ice, it pierced him right through and reached his very heart, and it was already half icy. For a moment it seemed to Kai that he was about to die, but then he felt good and no longer felt the cold.
-My sled! Don't forget about my sled! - the boy caught himself. The sled was tied to the back of one of the white hens, and she flew with it after the large sleigh. The Snow Queen kissed Kai again, and he forgot little Gerda and grandmother, everyone who was left at home.
“I won’t kiss you again,” she said. - Otherwise I’ll kiss you to death!
Kai looked at her, she was so pretty! He could not imagine a more intelligent, more charming face. Now she didn’t seem icy to him, like that time when she sat outside the window and nodded to him. In his eyes, she was perfection. Kai no longer felt fear and told her that he could count in his head and even knew fractions, and also knew how many square miles and inhabitants there were in each country... And the Snow Queen just smiled. And it seemed to Kai that he, in fact, knew so little, and he fixed his gaze on the endless airy space. The Snow Queen picked up the boy and soared with him onto the black cloud.
The storm cried and moaned, as if singing ancient songs. Kai and the Snow Queen flew over forests and lakes, over seas and land. Cold winds whistled beneath them, wolves howled, snow sparkled, and black crows circled screaming overhead; but high above there shone a large clear moon. Kai looked at him all the long, long winter night - during the day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.
Story three
Flower garden of a woman who knew how to cast magic
What happened to little Gerda after Kai did not return? Where did he disappear to? No one knew this, no one could tell anything about him. The boys only said that they saw him tie his sled to a large, magnificent sleigh, which then turned into another street and sped out of the city gates. Nobody knew where he went. Many tears were shed: little Gerda cried bitterly and for a long time. Finally, everyone decided that Kai was no longer alive: maybe he drowned in the river that flowed near the city. Oh, how these dark winter days dragged on! But then spring came, the sun shone.
“Kai is dead, he won’t come back again,” said little Gerda.
-I don’t believe this! - Sunlight objected.
-He died and will never come back! - she said to the swallows.
- We don’t believe it! - they answered, and, finally, Gerda herself stopped believing it.
“Let me put on my new red shoes,” she said one morning. “Kai has never seen them before.” And then I’ll go down to the river and ask about him.
It was still very early. The girl kissed her sleeping grandmother, put on her red shoes, walked out the gate alone and went down to the river:
“Is it true that you took my little friend?” I'll give you my red shoes if you return it to me.
And the girl felt as if the waves were nodding at her in a strange way; then she took off her red shoes - the most expensive thing she had - and threw them into the river; but she could not throw them far, and the waves immediately carried the shoes back to the shore - apparently, the river did not want to take her treasure, since she did not have little Kai. But Gerda thought that she had thrown her shoes too close, so she jumped into the boat, which was lying on a sandbank, walked to the very edge of the stern and threw the shoes into the water. The boat was not tied down and slid into the water due to a sharp push. Gerda noticed this and decided to quickly get ashore, but while she was making her way back to the bow, the boat sailed a fathom from the shore and rushed downstream. Gerda was very frightened and began to cry, but no one except the sparrows heard her; and the sparrows could not carry her to land, but they flew along the shore and chirped, as if they wanted to console her:
-We are here! We are here!
The banks of the river were very beautiful: ancient trees grew everywhere, wonderful flowers were colorful, sheep and cows grazed on the slopes, but no people were visible anywhere.
“Maybe the river is carrying me straight to Kai?” - thought Gerda. She became cheerful, stood up and admired the picturesque green banks for a long, long time; The boat sailed to a large cherry orchard, in which nestled a small house with wonderful red and blue windows and a thatched roof. Two wooden soldiers stood in front of the house and saluted everyone who passed by with their guns. Gerda thought that they were alive and called out to them, but the soldiers, of course, did not answer her; the boat sailed even closer - it came almost close to the shore.
The girl screamed even louder, and then a decrepit, pre-decrepit old woman in a wide-brimmed straw hat, painted with wonderful flowers, came out of the house, leaning on a stick.
-Oh, you poor thing! - said the old lady. - How did you end up on such a big, fast river, and even swim so far?
Then the old woman entered the water, picked up the boat with her hook, pulled it to the shore and landed Gerda.
The girl was very happy that she had finally made it to the shore, although she was a little afraid of the unfamiliar old woman.
-Well, let's go; “tell me who you are and how you got here,” said the old woman.
Gerda began to talk about everything that had happened to her, and the old woman shook her head and said: “Hm! Hm!” But then Gerda finished and asked her if she had seen little Kai. The old woman replied that he had not passed here yet, but that he would probably come here soon, so the girl had no need to grieve - let him taste her cherries and look at the flowers that grow in the garden; These flowers are more beautiful than any picture books, and each flower tells its own story. Then the old woman took Gerda by the hand, took her to her house and locked the door.
The windows in the house were high from the floor and all made of different glasses: red, blue and yellow, so the whole room was illuminated with some amazing rainbow light. There were wonderful cherries on the table, and the old woman allowed Gerda to eat as much as she liked. And while the girl was eating, the old woman combed her hair with a golden comb; it shone like gold and curled so wonderfully around her tender face, round and rosy, like a rose.
“I’ve wanted to have such a cute girl for a long time!” - said the old lady. - You'll see how nicely you and I will live!
And the longer she combed Gerda’s hair, the faster Gerda forgot her sworn brother Kai: after all, this old woman knew how to conjure. But she was not an evil sorceress and conjured only occasionally, for her own pleasure; and now she really wanted little Gerda to stay with her. And so she went into the garden, waved her stick over each rose bush, and as they stood in bloom, they all sank deep into the ground - and there was no trace of them left. The old woman was afraid that when Gerda saw the roses, she would remember her own, and then Kai’s, and run away.
Having done her job, the old woman took Gerda to the flower garden. Oh, how beautiful it was there, how fragrant the flowers were! All the flowers in the world, from all seasons, bloomed magnificently in this garden; no picture book could be more colorful and beautiful than this flower garden. Gerda jumped for joy and played among the flowers until the sun disappeared behind the tall cherry trees. Then they put her in a wonderful bed with red silk feather-beds, and those feather-beds were stuffed with blue violets; the girl fell asleep, and she dreamed such wonderful dreams that only the queen sees on her wedding day.
The next day Gerda was again allowed to play in the sun in the wonderful flower garden. Many days passed like this. Gerda now knew every flower, but even though there were so many of them, it still seemed to her that some flower was missing; just which one? One day she sat and looked at an old woman’s straw hat, painted with flowers, and among them the most beautiful was a rose. The old woman forgot to wipe it off her hat when she enchanted the living roses and hid them underground. This is what absent-mindedness can lead to!
-How! Are there any roses here? - Gerda exclaimed and ran to look for them in the flowerbeds. I searched and searched, but never found it.
Then the girl sank to the ground and began to cry. But her hot tears fell exactly on the place where the rose bush was hidden, and as soon as they wet the ground, it instantly appeared in the flowerbed as blooming as before. Gerda wrapped her arms around him and began to kiss the roses; Then she remembered those wonderful roses that bloomed at home, and then about Kai.
- How I hesitated! - said the girl. - After all, I need to look for Kai! You don't know where he is? - she asked the roses. - Do you believe that he is not alive?
-No, he didn’t die! - answered the roses. “We’ve been underground, where all the dead lie, but Kai is not among them.”
-Thank you! - said Gerda and went to other flowers. She looked into their cups and asked:
-Do you know where Kai is?
But each flower basked in the sun and dreamed only of its own fairy tale or story; Gerda listened to a lot of them, but none of the flowers said a word about Kai.
What did the fire lily tell her?
-Can you hear the drum beating? "Boom Boom!". The sounds are very monotonous, only two tones: “Boom!”, “Boom!”. Listen to the mournful singing of women! Listen to the screams of the priests... In a long scarlet robe, an Indian widow stands at the stake. Tongues of flame engulf her and the body of her deceased husband, but the woman thinks about the living person who is standing right there - about the one whose eyes burn brighter than the flame, whose gaze burns the heart hotter than the fire that is about to incinerate her body. Can the flame of the heart go out in the flames of the fire!
- I don’t understand anything! - said Gerda.
“This is my fairy tale,” explained the fire lily. What did the bindweed say?
-Old knight's castle rises above the rocks. A narrow mountain path leads to it. The old red walls are covered with thick ivy, its leaves cling to each other, the ivy wraps around the balcony; A lovely girl is standing on the balcony. She leans over the railing and looks down at the path: not a single rose can compare with her in freshness; and the blossom of the apple tree, plucked by a gust of wind, does not tremble as she does. How her marvelous silk dress rustles! “Won’t he really come?”
-Are you talking about Kai? - asked Gerda.
-I'm talking about my dreams! “This is my fairy tale,” answered the bindweed. What did the little snowdrop say?
— Between the trees there is a long board hanging on thick ropes - this is a swing. There are two little girls standing on them; their dresses are white as snow, and their hats have long green silk ribbons that flutter in the wind. A little brother, older than them, is standing on a swing, with his hand wrapped around the rope so as not to fall; in one hand he has a cup of water, and in the other a straw - he blows soap bubbles; the swing swings, bubbles fly through the air and shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow. The last bubble still hangs at the end of the tube and sways in the wind. A black dog, as light as a soap bubble, stands on its hind legs and wants to jump on the swing: but the swing flies up, the little dog falls, gets angry and yelps: the children tease her, the bubbles burst... A rocking board, soap foam flying through the air - that’s my song !
“Well, she’s very sweet, but you say all this in such a sad voice!” And again, not a word about Kai! What did the hyacinths say?
“Once upon a time there lived three sisters, slender, ethereal beauties. One was wearing a red dress, another was blue, and the third was completely white. Holding hands, they danced by the quiet lake in the clear moonlight. These were not elves, but real living girls. A sweet aroma filled the air, and the girls disappeared into the forest. But then the smell was even stronger, even sweeter - three coffins floated out of the forest onto the lake. There were girls lying in them; fireflies circled in the air like tiny flickering lights. Are the young dancers sleeping or dead? The scent of flowers says they are dead. The evening bell rings for the dead!
“You really upset me,” said Gerda. “You smell so strong too.” Now I can't get the dead girls out of my head! Is Kai really dead too? But the roses have been underground, and they say that he is not there.
- Ding-dong! — the hyacinth bells rang. — We didn’t call over Kai. We don't even know him. We sing our own song.
Gerda approached the buttercup, which was sitting among the shiny green leaves.
-Little clear sun! - said Gerda. - Tell me, do you know where I can look for my little friend?
Dandelion beamed even brighter and looked at Gerda. What song did the buttercup sing? But in this song there was not a word about Kai!
—It was the first spring day, the sun was shining welcomingly on the small courtyard and warming the earth. Its rays slid along the white wall of the neighboring house. The first yellow flowers bloomed near the wall, as if they were golden in the sun; the old grandmother was sitting in her chair in the yard;
Her granddaughter, the poor, lovely maid, returned home from visiting. She kissed her grandmother; kissing her is pure gold, it comes straight from the heart. Gold on the lips, gold in the heart, gold in the sky in the morning. Here it is, my little story! - said buttercup.
- My poor grandmother! - Gerda sighed. “She, of course, grieves and suffers because of me; how she grieved for Kai! But I will return home soon with Kai. There is no need to ask the flowers any more, they know nothing except their own songs - anyway, they will not advise me anything.
And she tied her dress higher to make it easier to run. But when Gerda wanted to jump over the daffodil, he hit her on the leg. The girl stopped, looked at the long yellow flower and asked:
- Maybe you know something?
And she leaned over the daffodil, waiting for an answer.
What did the narcissist say?
-I see myself! I see myself! Oh, how I smell! High under the roof, in a small closet, stands a half-dressed dancer. She sometimes stands on one leg, sometimes on both, she tramples the whole world - after all, she is just an illusion of the eye. Here she is pouring water from a kettle onto a piece of cloth she is holding in her hands. This is her corsage. Purity - best beauty! A white dress hangs on a nail driven into the wall; it was also washed with water from the kettle and dried on the roof. Here the girl gets dressed and ties a bright yellow scarf around her neck, and it sets off the whiteness of the dress even more sharply. One foot in the air again! Look how straight she hangs on the other, like a flower on its stem! I see myself in her! I see myself in her!
-What do I care about all this! - said Gerda. - There’s nothing to tell me about this!
And she ran to the end of the garden. The gate was locked, but Gerda loosened the rusty bolt for so long that it gave in, the gate swung open, and the girl ran barefoot along the road. She looked around three times, but no one was chasing her. Finally, she got tired, sat down on a large stone and looked around: summer had already passed, late autumn had arrived. This was not noticeable to the old woman in the magic garden, because the sun was shining there all the time and flowers of all seasons were blooming.
-God! “How I hesitated!” said Gerda. - It’s already autumn! No, I can't rest!
Oh, how her tired legs ached! How unfriendly and cold it was around! The long leaves on the willows had completely turned yellow, and dew was dripping from them in large drops. The leaves fell to the ground one after another. There were only berries left on the thorn bushes, but they were so astringent and tart.
Oh, how gray and dull the whole world seemed!
Fourth story
Prince and Princess
Gerda had to sit down and rest again. A large raven was jumping in the snow right in front of her; He looked at the girl for a long, long time, nodding his head, and finally said:
-Karr-karr! Good afternoon!
The raven couldn’t speak better, but with all his heart he wished the girl well and asked her where she was wandering around the world alone. Gerda understood the word “alone” well; she felt what it meant. So she told the raven about her life and asked if he had seen Kai.
The raven shook his head thoughtfully and croaked:
-Very likely! Very likely!
-How? Is it true? - the girl exclaimed; She showered the raven with kisses and hugged him so tightly that she almost strangled him.
-Be reasonable, be reasonable! - said the raven. - I think it was Kai! But he probably completely forgot about you because of his princess!
-Does he live with the princess? - asked Gerda.
- Yes, listen! - said the raven. “But it’s terribly difficult for me to speak human language.” Now, if you understood crow, I would tell you everything much better!
“No, I didn’t learn that,” Gerda sighed. “But grandma understood, she even knew the “secret” language. So I wish I could learn!
“Well, nothing,” said the raven. “I’ll tell you as best I can, even if it’s bad.” And he told about everything he knew.
- In the kingdom where you and I are, there lives a princess - she’s so smart that it’s impossible to say! She read all the newspapers in the world, and immediately forgot what was written in them - what a clever girl! Once recently she was sitting on the throne - and people say that this is mortal boredom! — and suddenly started humming this song: “So that I don’t get married! So that I don’t get married!” "Why not!" - she thought, and she wanted to get married. But she wanted to take as a husband a man who would be able to answer if they spoke to him, and not one who only knows how to put on airs - because that’s so boring. She ordered the drummers to beat the drums and call all the ladies of the court; and when the ladies of the court assembled and learned of the princess's intentions, they were very happy.
-That's good! - they said. “We thought about this ourselves quite recently. . .
- Believe that everything I tell you is true! - said the raven. I have a bride at my court, she is tame, and she can walk around the castle. So she told me everything.
His bride was also a crow: after all, everyone is looking for a wife to match themselves.
—The next day all the newspapers came out with a border of hearts and with the princess’s monograms. They announced that every young man of pleasant appearance could freely come to the palace and talk with the princess; The princess will take the one who speaks naturally, as if at home, and turns out to be the most eloquent of all, as her husband.
-Well, what about Kai, Kai? - asked Gerda. - When did he appear? And he came to get married?
-Wait, wait! Now we just got to it! Came on the third day small man- neither in a carriage nor on horseback, but simply on foot and bravely walked straight into the palace; his eyes shone like yours, he had beautiful long hair, but he was dressed very poorly.
-It's Kai! - Gerda was delighted. - Finally, I found him! She clapped her hands with joy.
“He had a knapsack behind his back,” said the raven.
-No, it was a sled! - Gerda objected. — He left home with the sled.
“Or maybe a sled,” agreed the raven. I didn't get a good look. But my bride, a tame crow, told me that when he entered the palace and saw the guards in uniforms embroidered with silver, and on the stairs footmen in golden liveries, he was not the least embarrassed, but only nodded to them friendly and said: “It must be It's boring to stand on the stairs! I’d better go to the rooms!” The halls were flooded with light; Privy Councilors and their Excellencies walked without boots and served golden dishes - after all, one must behave with dignity!
And the boy’s boots creaked terribly, but this did not bother him at all.
-It was probably Kai! - said Gerda. “I remember he had new boots, I heard them creaking in my grandmother’s room!”
“Yes, they creaked quite a bit,” continued the raven. “But the boy boldly approached the princess, who was sitting on a pearl the size of a spinning wheel. Around stood all the ladies of the court with their maids and with their maids' maids and all the gentlemen with their valets, their valets' servants and their valets' servants' servants; and the closer to the door they stood, the more arrogantly they behaved. It was impossible to look at the servant of the valets, who always wears shoes, without trepidation, he stood so importantly at the threshold!
-Oh, it must have been very scary! - said Gerda. - Well, so did Kai marry the princess?
“If I weren’t a raven, I would marry her myself, even though I’m engaged!” He began to talk with the princess and spoke as well as I do when I speak crow. So said my dear bride, the tame crow. The boy was very brave and at the same time sweet; he stated that he did not come to the palace to get married - he just wanted to talk with the smart princess; Well, so, he liked her, and she liked him.
-Yes, of course, it’s Kai! - said Gerda. - He's terribly smart! He could do math in his head, and he also knew fractions! Oh, please take me to the palace!
-Easy to say! - answered the raven, - How to do this? I will talk about this with my dear bride, the tame crow; maybe she will advise something; I must tell you that a little girl like you will never be allowed into the palace!
-They’ll let me in! - said Gerda. “As soon as Kai hears that I’m here, he’ll come for me right away.”
-Wait for me at the bars! - the raven croaked, shook his head and flew away. He returned only late in the evening.
-Karr! Carr! - he shouted. - My bride sends you best wishes and a piece of bread. She stole it from the kitchen - there is a lot of bread there, and you are probably hungry. You won't be able to get into the palace because you're barefoot. Guards in silver uniforms and footmen in golden liveries will never let you through. But don't cry, you'll get there after all! My fiancee knows a small back staircase that leads directly to the bedroom, and she can get the key.
They entered the garden and walked along a long alley where autumn leaves fell from the trees one after another. And when the lights went out in the windows, the raven led Gerda to the back door, which was slightly open.
Oh, how the girl’s heart beat with fear and impatience! It was as if she was going to do something bad, but she just wanted to make sure it was Kai! Yes, yes, of course he is here! She so vividly imagined his intelligent eyes and long hair. The girl clearly saw him smiling at her, as if in those days when they sat next to each other under the roses. He, of course, will be happy as soon as he sees her and finds out what a long journey she went on because of him and how all her relatives and friends grieved for him. She was not herself with fear and joy!
But here they are on the landing of the stairs. A small lamp was burning on the closet. A tame crow stood on the floor in the middle of the landing; it turned its head in all directions and looked at Gerda. The girl sat down and bowed to the crow, as her grandmother taught her.
“My fiance told me so many good things about you, dear young lady,” said the tame crow. —Your “vita,” as they say, is also very touching. Would you like to take the lamp, and I will go ahead? We'll go straight, we won't meet a soul here.
“It seems to me that someone is following us,” said Gerda, and at that moment some shadows rushed past her with a slight noise: horses on slender legs, with flowing manes, hunters, ladies and gentlemen on horseback.
- These are dreams! - said the crow. “They came to take away the thoughts of high people on the hunt.” So much the better for us, at least no one will stop you from taking a closer look at the sleeping people. But I hope that, having taken a high position at court, you will show yourself at your best. the best side and don't forget us!
-There is something to talk about! “That goes without saying,” said the forest raven. Here they entered the first hall. Its walls were covered with satin, and on that satin were woven wonderful flowers; and then dreams flashed past the girl again, but they flew so fast that Gerda could not see the noble horsemen. One hall was more magnificent than the other; Gerda was completely blinded by this luxury. Finally they entered the bedroom; its ceiling resembled a huge palm tree with leaves made of precious crystal; from the middle of the floor a thick golden trunk rose to the ceiling, and on it hung two beds in the shape of lilies; one was white - the princess was lying in it, and the other was red - in it Gerda hoped to find Kai. She pulled one of the red petals aside and saw the blond back of her head. Oh, it's Kai! She called out to him loudly and brought the lamp right up to his face - the dreams noisily rushed away; The prince woke up and turned his head. . . Oh, it wasn't Kai!
The prince resembled Kai only from the back of his head, but he was also young and handsome. The princess looked out of the white lily and asked what happened. Gerda burst into tears and told about everything that had happened to her, she also mentioned what the raven and his bride had done for her.
-Oh, you poor thing! — the prince and princess took pity on the girl; They praised the crows and said that they were not angry with them at all - but just let them not do this in the future! And for this act they even decided to reward them.
-Do you want to be free birds? - asked the princess. - Or do you want to take the position of court crows fully paid from kitchen scraps?
The raven and crow bowed and asked permission to remain at court. They thought about old age and said:
“It’s good to have a faithful piece of bread in your old age!”
The prince stood up and gave up his bed to Gerda until he could do nothing more for her. And the girl folded her hands and thought: “How kind people and animals are!” Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep sweetly. The dreams arrived again, but now they looked like God’s angels and were carrying a small sleigh on which Kai sat and nodded. Alas, it was just a dream, and as soon as the girl woke up, everything disappeared.
The next day, Gerda was dressed from head to toe in silk and velvet; she was offered to stay in the palace and live for her own pleasure; but Gerda only asked for a horse with a cart and boots - she wanted to immediately go in search of Kai.
She was given boots, a muff, and an elegant dress, and when she said goodbye to everyone, a new carriage made of pure gold drove up to the palace gates: the coat of arms of the prince and princess shone on it like a star. The coachman, servants and postilions - yes, there were even postilions - sat in their places, and on their heads there were small golden crowns. The prince and princess themselves seated Gerda in the carriage and wished her happiness. The forest raven - now he was already married - accompanied the girl for the first three miles; he sat next to her because he couldn’t stand driving backwards and forwards. A tame crow sat on the gate and flapped its wings; she did not go with them: since she was granted a position at court, she suffered from headaches from gluttony. The carriage was filled with sugar pretzels, and the box under the seat was filled with fruit and gingerbread.
-Bye Bye! - the prince and princess shouted. Gerda began to cry, and so did the crow. So they drove three miles, then the raven also said goodbye to her. It was hard for them to part. The raven flew up a tree and flapped its black wings until the carriage, sparkling like the sun, disappeared from sight.
Story five
Little robber
They rode through a dark forest, the carriage burned like a flame, the light hurt the robbers' eyes: they did not tolerate this.
-Gold! Gold! - they shouted, jumped out onto the road, grabbed the horses by the bridles, killed the little postilions, coachman and servants and pulled Gerda out of the carriage.
- Look, she’s so plump! Fattened with nuts! - said the old robber with a long, rough beard and shaggy, overhanging eyebrows.
-Like a fattened lamb! Let's see what it tastes like? And she pulled out her sharp knife; it sparkled so much that it was scary to look at it.
- Ay! - the robber suddenly shouted: it was her own daughter, who was sitting behind her, who bit her on the ear. She was so capricious and mischievous that it was a pleasure to watch.
-Oh, you mean girl! - the mother screamed, but she did not have time to kill Gerda.
-Let her play with me! - said the little robber. “Let her give me her muff and her pretty dress, and she will sleep with me in my bed!”
Then she bit the robber again, so much so that she jumped in pain and spun around in one place.
The robbers laughed and said:
-Look how she dances with her girl!
-I want to go to the carriage! - said the little robber and insisted on her own, - she was so spoiled and stubborn.
The little robber and Gerda got into the carriage and rushed over snags and stones, straight into the thicket of the forest. The little robber was as tall as Gerda, but stronger, broader in the shoulders and much darker; Her hair was dark, and her eyes were completely black and sad. She hugged Gerda and said:
“They won’t dare kill you until I’m angry with you myself.” You must be a princess?
“No,” Gerda answered and told her about everything that she had to go through and how much she loves Kai.
The little robber looked at her seriously and said:
“They won’t dare kill you, even if I’m angry with you—I’d rather kill you myself!”
She wiped Gerda's tears and put her hands in her beautiful, soft and warm muff.
The carriage stopped; They drove into the courtyard of the robber's castle. The castle was cracked from top to bottom; crows and ravens flew out of the cracks. Huge bulldogs, so ferocious, as if they were impatient to swallow a man, were jumping around the yard; but they did not bark - it was forbidden.
In the middle of a huge, old hall, blackened by smoke, a fire was blazing right on the stone floor. The smoke rose to the ceiling and had to find its own way out; the stew was cooked in a large cauldron, and hares and rabbits were roasted on spits.
“This night you will sleep with me, next to my little animals,” said the little robber.
The girls were fed and watered, and they went to their corner, where there was straw covered with carpets. Above this bed there were about a hundred pigeons sitting on perches and poles: it seemed that they were all asleep, but when the girls approached, the pigeons stirred slightly.
- These are all mine! - said the little robber. She grabbed the one that was sitting closer, took him by the paw and shook him so hard that he fluttered his wings.
-Here, kiss him! - she shouted, poking the dove right in Gerda’s face. - And there are forest scoundrels sitting there! - she continued, “These are wild pigeons, vityutni, those two!” - and pointed to the wooden grate that covered the recess in the wall. “They need to be kept locked up, otherwise they’ll fly away.” And here is my favorite, old deer! - And the girl pulled the antlers of a reindeer in a shiny copper collar; he was tied to the wall. “He also needs to be kept on a leash, otherwise he’ll run away in an instant.” Every evening I tickle his neck with my sharp knife. Wow, how he is afraid of him!
And the little robber pulled out a long knife from the crevice in the wall and ran it across the deer’s neck; the poor animal began to kick, and the little robber laughed and dragged Gerda to the bed.
-What, do you sleep with a knife? - Gerda asked and looked sideways in fear at the sharp knife.
-I always sleep with a knife! - answered the little robber. - Who knows what could happen? Now tell me again about Kai and how you traveled around the world.
Gerda told everything from the very beginning. Wood pigeons cooed quietly behind bars, and the rest were already asleep. The little robber hugged Gerda's neck with one hand - she had a knife in the other - and began to snore; but Gerda could not close her eyes: the girl did not know whether they would kill her or leave her alive. The robbers sat around the fire, drank wine and sang songs, and the old robber woman tumbled. The girl looked at them in horror.
Suddenly wild pigeons cooed:
-Kurr! Kurr! We saw Kai! The white hen carried his sleigh on her back, and he himself sat next to the Snow Queen in her sleigh; they rushed over the forest while we were still lying in the nest; she breathed on us, and all the chicks, except me and my brother, died. Kurr! Kurr!
-What are you saying? - Gerda exclaimed. —Where did the Snow Queen rush off to? Do you know anything else?
“Apparently, she flew to Lapland, because there is eternal snow and ice there.” Ask the reindeer what's tied up here.
-Yes, there is ice and snow there! Yes, it's wonderful there! - said the deer. - It’s good there! Ride free across the vast sparkling snowy plains! There the Snow Queen pitched her summer tent, and her permanent palaces are at the North Pole on the island of Spitsbergen!
-Oh Kai, my dear Kai! - Gerda sighed.
-Lie still! - muttered the little robber. - Otherwise I’ll stab you with a knife!
In the morning Gerda told her everything that the forest pigeons had said. The little robber looked at her seriously and said:
-Okay, okay... Do you know where Lapland is? - she asked the reindeer.
-Who should know this if not me! - the deer answered, and his eyes sparkled. - There I was born and raised, there I galloped across the snowy plains!
-Listen! - the little robber said to Gerda. “You see, all our people left, only mother remained at home; but after a while she’ll take a sip from the big bottle and take a nap—then I’ll do something for you.
Then she jumped out of bed, hugged her mother, pulled her beard and said:
- Hello, my dear little goat!
And her mother pinched her nose, so that it turned red and blue - they were caressing each other, lovingly.
Then, when the mother took a sip from her bottle and dozed off, the little robber approached the deer and said:
“I would tickle you with this sharp knife more than once!” You're shaking so funny. Anyway! I will untie you and set you free! You can go to your own Lapland. Just run as fast as you can and take this girl to the Snow Queen’s palace to her dear friend. You heard what she was saying, right? She spoke quite loudly, and you are always eavesdropping!
The reindeer jumped for joy. The little robber put Gerda on it, tied her tightly just in case, and even slipped a soft pillow under her so that she could sit comfortably.
“So be it,” she said, “take your fur boots, because you will be cold, and I won’t give up my muff, I really like it!” But I don't want you to feel cold. Here are my mother's mittens. They are huge, right up to the elbows. Put your hands in them! Well, now you have hands like my ugly mother!
Gerda cried with joy.
“I can’t stand it when they roar,” said the little robber. - You should be happy now! Here are two loaves of bread and a ham for you; so you don't go hungry.
The little robber tied all this on the deer's back, opened the gate, lured the dogs into the house, cut the rope with her sharp knife and said to the deer:
- Well, run! Look, take care of the girl!
Gerda extended both hands in huge mittens to the little robber and said goodbye to her. The deer set off at full speed through stumps and bushes, through forests, through swamps, across steppes. Wolves howled, crows cawed. “Fuck! Fuck!” - was suddenly heard from above. It seemed that the entire sky was covered in a scarlet glow.
-Here it is, my native northern lights! - said the deer. - Look how it burns!
And he ran even faster, not stopping day or night. A lot of time has passed. The bread was eaten, and the ham too. And here they are in Lapland.
Story six
Lapland and Finnish
They stopped at a miserable shack; the roof almost touched the ground, and the door was terribly low: to enter or exit the hut, people had to crawl on all fours. There was only an old Laplander at home, frying fish by the light of a smokehouse in which blubber was burning. The reindeer told the Laplander the story of Gerda, but first he told his own - it seemed much more important to him. And Gerda was so chilled that she could not even speak.
-Oh, you poor things! - said the Laplander. “You still have a long way to go; you need to run more than a hundred miles, then you will get to Finnmark; there is the Snow Queen's dacha, every evening she lights blue sparklers. I will write a few words on dried cod - I don’t have paper - and you take it to a Finnish woman who lives in those places. She will teach you better than me what to do.
When Gerda had warmed up, eaten and drunk, the Laplander wrote a few words on the dried cod, told Gerda to take good care of it, tied the girl to the back of the deer, and he rushed off again at full speed. “Fuck! Fuck!” - something crackled above, and the sky was illuminated all night by the wonderful blue flame of the northern lights.
So they got to Finnmark and knocked on the chimney of the Finnish woman’s shack - it didn’t even have a door.
It was so hot in the shack that the Finnish woman walked around half naked; she was a small, gloomy woman. She quickly undressed Gerda, pulled off her fur boots and mittens so that the girl would not be too hot, and put a piece of ice on the deer’s head and only then began to read what was written on the dried cod. She read the letter three times and memorized it, and threw the cod into the cauldron of soup: after all, the cod could be eaten - the Finnish woman did not waste anything.
Here the deer first told his story, and then the story of Gerda. The Finn listened to him silently and only blinked with her intelligent eyes.
“You are a wise woman,” said the reindeer. “I know you can tie all the winds in the world with one thread; If a sailor unties one knot, a fair wind will blow; if another one unties it, the wind will become stronger; If the third and fourth are unleashed, such a storm will break out that the trees will fall down. Could you give the girl such a drink that she would gain the strength of a dozen heroes and defeat the Snow Queen?
-The strength of a dozen heroes? - the Finnish woman repeated. - Yes, that would help her! The Finnish woman went up to some drawer, took out a large leather scroll from it and unrolled it; There were some strange writings written on it. The Finn began to take them apart and took them apart so diligently that sweat appeared on her forehead.
The deer again began to ask for little Gerda, and the girl looked at the Finn with such pleading eyes, full of tears, that she blinked again and took the deer into the corner. Placing a new piece of ice on his head, she whispered:
—Kai is really with the Snow Queen. He is happy with everything and is sure that this is the best place on earth. And the reason for everything is the fragments of the magic mirror that sit in his eye and heart. They need to be taken out, otherwise Kai will never be a real person, and the Snow Queen will retain her power over him!
-Can you give Gerda something to help her cope with this evil force?
“I can’t make her stronger than she is.” Don't you see how great her power is? Don't you see how people and animals serve her? After all, she walked around half the world barefoot! She should not think that we gave her strength: this strength is in her heart, her strength is that she is a sweet, innocent child. If she herself cannot penetrate the palace of the Snow Queen and remove the fragments from Kai’s heart and eye, we will not be able to help her. Two miles from here the Snow Queen's garden begins; tu yes you can carry the girl. You plant it near a bush with red berries that stands in the snow. Don't waste time talking, but come back immediately.
With these words, the Finnish woman put Gerda on the deer and he ran as fast as he could.
-Oh, I forgot my boots and mittens! - Gerda screamed: she was burned by the cold. But the deer did not dare to stop until it reached a bush with red berries. There he lowered the girl, kissed her on the lips, and large shiny tears rolled down his cheeks. Then he ran back like an arrow. Poor Gerda stood without boots or gloves in the middle of a terrible icy desert.
She ran forward as fast as she could; A whole regiment of snow flakes was rushing towards her, but they did not fall from the sky - the sky was completely clear, illuminated by the northern lights. No, snow flakes were rushing along the ground, and the closer they flew, the larger they became. Here Gerda remembered the big beautiful snowflakes that she had seen under a magnifying glass, but these were much larger, scarier, and all alive. These were the vanguard of the Snow Queen's army. Their appearance was outlandish: some resembled large ugly hedgehogs, others - balls of snakes, others - fat bear cubs with tousled hair; but they all sparkled with whiteness, they were all living snow flakes.
Gerda began to read “Our Father,” and the cold was such that her breath immediately turned into a thick fog. This fog thickened and thickened, and suddenly small bright angels began to stand out from it, which, touching the ground, grew into large, formidable angels with helmets on their heads; they were all armed with shields and spears. There were more and more angels, and when Gerda finished reading the prayer, a whole legion surrounded her. The angels pierced the snow monsters with spears, and they crumbled into hundreds of pieces. Gerda boldly went forward, now she had reliable protection; the angels stroked her arms and legs, and the girl almost did not feel the cold.
She was quickly approaching the palace of the Snow Queen.
Well, what was Kai doing at this time? Of course, he wasn't thinking about Gerda; where could he have guessed that she was standing in front of the palace.
Story seven
What happened in the halls of the snow queen and what happened next
The walls of the palace were covered with snowstorms, and the windows and doors were damaged by violent winds. The palace had more than a hundred halls; they were scattered haphazardly, at the whim of the blizzards; the largest hall extended for many, many miles. The entire palace was illuminated by the bright northern lights. How cold, how deserted it was in these dazzling white halls!
Fun never came here! Bear balls have never been held here to the music of the storm, balls at which polar bears would walk on their hind legs, showing their grace and graceful manners; Not once has society gathered here to play blind man's buff or forfeits; Even the little white fox godmothers never came here to chat over a cup of coffee. It was cold and deserted in the huge halls of the Snow Queen. Northern lights shone so correctly that one could calculate when it would flare up with a bright flame and when it would completely weaken.
In the middle of the largest deserted hall lay a frozen lake. The ice on it cracked and broke into thousands of pieces; all the pieces were exactly the same and correct - a real work of art! When the Snow Queen was at home, she sat in the middle of this lake and later said that she was sitting on the mirror of the mind: in her opinion, it was the one and only mirror, the best in the world.
Kai turned blue and almost blackened from the cold, but did not notice it, because the Snow Queen’s kiss made him insensitive to the cold, and his heart had long ago turned into a piece of ice. He was fiddling with the pointed flat pieces of ice, arranging them in all sorts of ways—Kai wanted to make something out of them. It was reminiscent of a game called “Chinese puzzle”; It consists of making various shapes from wooden planks. And Kai also put together figures, one more intricate than the other. This game was called “ice puzzle”. In his eyes, these figures were a miracle of art, and folding them was an activity of paramount importance. And all because he had a piece of a magic mirror in his eye. He put together whole words from ice floes, but could not compose what he so wanted - the word “eternity”. And the Snow Queen told him: “Put this word together and you will be your own master, and I will give you the whole world and new skates.” But he couldn't put it together.
-Now I’ll fly to warmer lands! - said the Snow Queen. - I’ll look into the black cauldrons!
She called the craters of the fire-breathing mountains, Vesuvius and Etna, cauldrons.
-I'll whiten them a little. That's how it should be. It's good for lemons and grapes! The Snow Queen flew away, and Kai was left alone in an empty ice hall that stretched for several miles. He looked at the ice floes and thought and thought, until his head was pounding. The numb boy sat motionless. You would have thought he was frozen.
Meanwhile, Gerda entered the huge gates, where fierce winds were blowing. But she read the evening prayer, and the winds died down, as if they had fallen asleep. Gerda entered the vast deserted ice hall, saw Kai and immediately recognized him. The girl threw herself on his neck, hugged him tightly and exclaimed:
-Kai, my dear Kai! Finally I found you!
But Kai didn’t even move: he sat still calm and cold. And then Gerda burst into tears: hot tears fell onto Kai’s chest and penetrated into his very heart; they melted the ice and melted a fragment of the mirror. Kai looked at Gerda, and she sang:
Kai suddenly burst into tears and cried so hard that a second piece of glass rolled out of his eye. He recognized Gerda and joyfully exclaimed:
-Gerda! Dear Gerda! Where have you been? And where was I myself? - And he looked around. - How cold it is here! How deserted these huge halls are!
He hugged Gerda tightly, and she laughed and cried with joy. Yes, her joy was so great that even the ice floes began to dance, and when they were tired, they lay down so that they formed the very word that the Snow Queen ordered Kaya to compose. For this word, she promised to give him freedom, the whole world and new skates.
Gerda kissed Kai on both cheeks, and they turned pink again; she kissed her eyes - and they shone like hers; kissed his hands and feet - and he became cheerful and healthy again. Let the Snow Queen return whenever she pleases - after all, his vacation note, written in shiny icy letters, lay here.
Kai and Gerda held hands and left the palace. They talked about grandmother and the roses that grew at home under the very roof. And everywhere they walked, the violent winds died down, and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. A reindeer was waiting for them near a bush with red berries; he brought with him a young doe, her udder was full of milk. She gave the children warm milk and kissed them on the lips. Then she and the reindeer took Kai and Gerda first to Finka. They warmed up with her and learned the way home, and then went to the Laplander; she sewed them new clothes and repaired Kai's sled.
The deer and doe ran side by side and accompanied them to the very border of Lapland, where the first greenery was already breaking through. Here Kai and Gerda parted with the deer and the Laplander.
-Farewell! Farewell! - they said to each other.
The first birds were chirping, the trees were covered with green buds. A young girl wearing a bright red cap and holding a pistol rode out of the forest on a magnificent horse. Gerda immediately recognized the horse; it had once been harnessed to a golden carriage. She was a little robber; she was tired of sitting at home and wanted to visit the north, and if she didn’t like it there, then other parts of the world.
He and Gerda immediately recognized each other. What a joy!
-What a tramp you are! - she said to Kai. “I would like to know if you are worth having people run after you to the ends of the earth!”
But Gerda stroked her cheek and asked about the prince and princess.
“They left for foreign lands,” answered the robber girl.
-And the raven? - asked Gerda.
-Raven died; The tame crow is widowed, now she wears black wool on her leg as a sign of mourning and complains about her fate. But all this is nonsense! Tell us better what happened to you and how you found him?
Kai and Gerda told her everything.
- That’s the end of the fairy tale! - said the robber, shook their hands, promised to visit them if she ever had a chance to visit their city. Then she went to travel around the world. Kai and Gerda, holding hands, went their way. Spring greeted them everywhere: flowers bloomed, grass turned green.
A bell was heard ringing, and they recognized the high towers of their hometown. Kai and Gerda entered the city where their grandmother lived; then they went up the stairs and entered a room where everything was as before: the clock was ticking, “tick-tock,” and the hands were still moving. But as they walked through the door, they noticed that they had grown and become adults. Roses bloomed on the gutter and peeked through the open windows.
Their children's benches stood right there. Kai and Gerda sat down on them and held hands. They forgot the cold, deserted splendor of the Snow Queen’s palace, like a heavy dream. Grandmother sat in the sun and read the gospel aloud: “If you do not become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven!”
Kai and Gerda looked at each other and only then understood the meaning of the old psalm:
Roses are blooming in the valleys... Beauty!
Soon we will see the baby Christ!
So they sat, both already adults, but children at heart and soul, and outside it was a warm, blessed summer.
*) Gibberish, common among children: certain letters or syllables starting with the same letter are added to ordinary syllables. ** Life (lat.)
07.01.2016
Many of us have at least once read the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by the famous children's writer Hans Christian Andersen. Best story about the triumph of good over evil and the value of true friendship, probably, will not be found. There are so many characters, emotions and feelings intertwined in this fairy tale that it may well become a good textbook that will tell about human values and shortcomings using examples. So what is the story of the Snow Queen, what prompted the writer to come up with such an instructive tale?
The Snow Queen: history of creation and autobiographical moments
The fairy tale “The Snow Queen” was written more than 170 years ago and first saw the light back in 1844. This is the longest fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, which, moreover, is very closely related to the life of the writer. 
Andersen himself once admitted that he considered The Snow Queen to be the fairy tale of his life. She lived in it since the time when a little boy Hans Christian was playing with his neighbor, the blonde Lisbeth, whom he called little sister. She accompanied Hans Christian in all his games and undertakings, and was also the first listener to his fairy tales. It is very possible that it was this girl from the childhood of the famous writer who became the prototype of little Gerda. 
Not only Gerda actually existed. Andersen's biographers claim that The prototype of the Snow Queen was the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, with whom the writer was in love. 
The girl's cold heart and unrequited love prompted him to write the story of the Snow Queen - a beauty who is alien to human feelings and emotions.
You can also find information that Andersen was familiar with the image of the Snow Queen from early childhood. In Danish folk lore, death was often called the Ice Maiden. When the boy's father was dying, he said that his time had come and the Ice Maiden had come for him. Perhaps Andersen's Snow Queen has much in common with the Scandinavian image of winter and death. Just as cold, just as insensitive. Just one kiss from her can freeze the heart of any person.
History of the Snow Queen: interesting facts
In addition to Scandinavian mythology, the image of the Ice Maiden is also present in other countries. In Japan it is Yuki-onna, and in Russia it is Mara Morena.
Andersen really liked the image of the Ice Maiden. His creative heritage also includes the fairy tale “The Maiden of the Ice”, and he adapted the prose “The Snow Queen” in seven chapters fairy tale of the same name in poems about the mysterious Snow Queen, who stole the groom from a young girl.
The fairy tale was written in a difficult year for history. There is an opinion that with the image of the Snow Queen and Gerda Andersen wanted to show the struggle between science and Christianity.
They say that H.-G. Andersen wrote a fairy tale, allowing for many grammatical errors. When the editors pointed them out, he pretended it was his idea.
It was Andersen's Snow Queen that inspired writer Tove Jansson to create The Magical Winter.
It should be mentioned that this story was censored in the Soviet Union. There was no mention of Christ, the Lord's Prayer, or the psalm that Kai and Gerda sang. It was also not mentioned that the grandmother read the Gospel to the children; this moment was replaced with an ordinary fairy tale. 
Andersen's fairy tale has gained enormous popularity. It was translated into languages different countries so that the story of the Snow Queen is known to children all over the world. In addition, there are multiple film adaptations and dramatizations, the most famous of which are the film “The Secret of the Snow Queen” and the cartoon “Frozen”. The story of Kai and Gerda became the basis of the opera of the same name.
Be sure to read The Snow Queen again. Now, knowing the history of the creation of this fairy tale, you will definitely discover something new for yourself and understand it differently.
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The last name of the author who wrote The Snow Queen is Andersen. The full name of the author of the work is Hans Christian Andersen. This work was written by the author in 1844. "The Snow Queen" is the most frequently filmed fairy tale by H.K. Andersen, the film was first released in 1966. There were also many animated versions, the first of which was released in 1957.
Fairy tale "The Snow Queen" short description
“The Snow Queen” is one of the most touching fairy tales in world literature. It is unlikely that anyone will be indifferent to the story about the girl Gerda, who selflessly sets out to rescue her named brother from trouble and believes in him to the end, even when it seems that everything is lost and eternal cold has finally filled the heart of little Kai. Her love melts the kingdom of the Snow Queen and reminds each of us that only kindness and patience can break the evil spell.
Hans Christian Andersen short biography
Hans Christian Andersen (born April 2, 1805 in the city of Odense (Danish-Norwegian Union) - died August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen (Denmark)) - Danish prose writer and poet, author of world-famous fairy tales and plays for children and adults, the most famous include: “The Snow Queen”, “Steady tin soldier", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Princess and the Pea", "The King's New Dress", "Ole Lukoye".
Born into a shoemaker's family, he studied at a school for the poor. Having saved a small amount (13 riksdalers), fourteen-year-old Andersen went to Copenhagen. He barely made ends meet, living on the pennies that well-wishers collected for him. At the same time he began writing comedies.
In 1822 he published the collection “Youthful Experiences,” which included his first plays, short stories and poems. Jonas Collin, the most honored of statesmen Denmark. Collin got him the right to study at the gymnasium for free and an annual scholarship. After graduating from high school, Andersen externally passed the exam at the University of Copenhagen to become a teacher.
Andersen made several trips to Europe, where he met G. Heine, R. Schumann, V. Hugo, A. Dumas, A. de Musset. In England he became friends with Charles Dickens, who became his great friend. Andersen corresponded with Dickens. Andersen also visited Asia Minor and Africa, but especially fell in love with Italy.
In 1840, the writer met the famous Swedish singer Jenny Lind, whom her contemporaries called the “Swedish nightingale.” However, the love was not mutual. Andersen lived the rest of his life alone, studying literary work and writing fairy tales and plays.
Genre of the work “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen
The work “The Snow Queen” belongs to the fairy tale genre. (A fairy tale is a narrative, usually folk-poetic work about fictional persons and events, mainly involving magical, fantastic forces.)
The fairy tale “The Snow Queen” is an extraordinary story about a boy Kai and a girl Gerda. They were separated by a piece of broken mirror. The main theme of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" is the struggle between good and evil.
Background
So let's start retelling summary"The Snow Queen". One day, an evil troll created a mirror, looking into which all good things decreased and disappeared, while evil, on the contrary, increased. But, unfortunately, the troll's students broke the mirror in an argument, and all its fragments scattered throughout the world. And if even one tiny piece fell into the human heart, then it froze and became a piece of ice. And if it got into the eye, then the person stopped seeing good, and in any action he felt only evil intent.
Kai and Gerda
The summary of “The Snow Queen” should be continued with the information that in one small town there lived friends: a boy and a girl, Kai and Gerda. They were each other's brother and sister, but only until the moment when shrapnel got into the boy's eye and heart. After the accident, the boy became embittered, began to be rude and lost his brotherly feelings for Gerda. In addition, he stopped seeing good. He began to think that no one loved him and everyone wished him harm.
And then one not very good day, Kai went sledding. He clung to a sleigh passing near him. But they belonged to the Snow Queen. She kissed the boy, thereby making his heart even colder. The queen took him to her ice palace.
Gerda's journey
Gerda was very sad for the boy for the rest of the winter and waited for his return, and, without waiting, she went in search of her brother as soon as spring came.
The first woman Gerda met on her way was a witch. She cast a spell on the girl that deprived her of her memory. But, seeing the roses, Gerda remembered everything and ran away from her.
After that, on her way she met a raven, who told her that a prince very similar to Kai had wooed the princess of his kingdom. But it turned out to be not him. The princess and the prince turned out to be very kind people, they gave her clothes and a carriage made of gold.
The girl’s path lay through a terrible and dark forest, where she was attacked by a gang of robbers. Among them was a little girl. She turned out to be kind and gave Gerda a deer. On it, the heroine went further and soon, having met pigeons, she found out where her sworn brother was.
On the way she met two more kind women - a Laplander and a Finnish woman. Each helped the girl in her search for Kai.
Domain of the Snow Queen
And so, having reached the possessions of the Snow Queen, she gathered the remnants of her strength and went through a severe snowstorm and the royal army. Gerda prayed all the way, and angels came to her aid. They helped her get to the ice castle.
Kai was there, but the queen was not there. The boy was like a statue, all frozen and cold. He didn't even pay attention to Gerda and continued playing the puzzle. Then the girl, unable to cope with her emotions, began to cry bitterly. Tears thawed Kai's heart. He also began to cry, and the fragment fell out along with the tear.
The main characters of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen". Gerda
There are many heroes in the fairy tale, but they are all minor. There are only three main ones: Gerda, Kai, and the queen. But still, the only truly main character of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” is only one - little Gerda.
Yes, she is very small, but she is also selfless and brave. In the fairy tale, all her strength is concentrated in her kind heart, which attracts sympathetic people to the girl, without whom she would not have reached the ice castle. It is kindness that helps Gerda defeat the queen and unfreeze her sworn brother.
Gerda is ready to do anything for her neighbors and is confident in decisions made. She does not doubt for a second and helps everyone who needs it, without counting on help. In the fairy tale, the girl shows only the best character traits, and she is the embodiment of justice and goodness.
Kai's image
Kai is a very controversial hero. On the one hand, he is kind and sensitive, but on the other, he is frivolous and stubborn. Even before the fragments hit the eye and heart. After the incident, Kai is completely under the influence of the Snow Queen and carries out her orders without saying a word against it. But after Gerda frees him, everything is fine again.
Yes, on the one hand, Kai is a positive character, but his inaction and passivity prevent the reader from falling in love with him.
The image of the Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is the embodiment of winter and cold. Her home is an endless expanse of ice. Just like ice, she is very beautiful in appearance and also smart. But her heart doesn't know feelings. That is why she is the prototype of evil in Andersen's fairy tale.
History of creation
It's time to tell the story of the creation of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It was first published in 1844. The tale is the longest in the author’s bibliography, and Andersen claimed that it is connected with the story of his life.
Andersen said that “The Snow Queen,” a summary of which is contained in the article, appeared in his head when he was little and played with his friend and neighbor, the white-headed Lisbeth. To him, she was practically a sister. The girl was always next to Hans, supported him in all his games and listened to his first fairy tales. Many researchers claim that she became the prototype of Gerda.
But not only Gerda had a prototype. Singer Jenny Lind has become the living embodiment of the queen. The author was in love with her, but the girl did not share his feelings, and Andersen made her cold heart the embodiment of the beauty and soullessness of the Snow Queen.
In addition, Andersen was fascinated by Scandinavian myths, and there death was called the ice maiden. Before his death, his father said that the maiden had come for him. Perhaps the Snow Queen has the same prototype as the Scandinavian winter and death. She also has no feelings, and the kiss of death can freeze her forever.
The image of a girl made of ice attracted the storyteller, and in his heritage there is another fairy tale about the Snow Queen, who stole her lover from his bride.
Andersen wrote the fairy tale in a very difficult time, when religion and science were in conflict. Therefore, there is an opinion that the confrontation between Gerda and the queen describes the events that took place.
In the USSR, the fairy tale was remade, since censorship did not allow the mention of Christ and the reading of the Gospel at night.
"The Snow Queen": analysis of the work
Andersen in his fairy tales creates an opposition - the opposition of good and evil, summer and winter, external and internal, death and life.
Thus, the Snow Queen has become a classic character in folklore. Dark and cold mistress of winter and death. She is contrasted with the warm and kind Gerda, the embodiment of life and summer.
Kai and Gerda, according to Schelling’s natural philosophy, are androgynous, that is, the opposition of death and life, summer and winter. Children are together in the summer, but suffer separation in the winter.
The first half of the tale talks about the creation of a magic mirror that can distort good, turning it into evil. A person traumatized by its fragment acts as an opponent of culture. On the one hand, this is a myth that affects culture and breaks the connection between man and nature. So Kai becomes soulless and rejects his love for summer and the beauty of nature. But he begins to love the creations of the mind with all his heart.
The fragment that ended up in the boy's eye allows him to think rationally, cynically, and show interest in the geometric structure of snowflakes.
As we know, a fairy tale cannot have a bad ending, so Andersen contrasted Christian values with the world of technology. That is why the children in the fairy tale sing psalms to the rose. Although the rose fades, the memory of it remains. Thus, memory is a mediator between the world of the living and the dead. This is exactly how Gerda, once in the witch’s garden, forgets Kai, and then her memory returns again and she runs away. It is roses that help her in this.
The scene in the castle with the false prince and princess is very symbolic. In this dark moment, Gerda is helped by ravens, symbolizing the powers of the night and wisdom. Climbing the stairs is a tribute to Plato's myth of the cave, in which non-existent shadows create the idea of a false reality. It takes a lot of strength for Gerda to distinguish between lies and truth.
The further the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” advances, the summary of which you already know, the more often peasant symbolism appears. Gerda, with the help of prayer, copes with the storm and ends up in the queen's domain. The atmosphere of the castle was created by the author himself. It highlights all the complexes and failures of the poor writer. According to biographers, the Andresen family had some mental disorders.
So the queen's powers can symbolize actions that can drive you crazy. The castle is motionless and cold, crystalline.
Thus, Kai’s injury leads to his seriousness and intellectual development, and his attitude towards his loved ones changes dramatically. Soon he is completely alone in the icy halls. These signs characterize schizophrenia.
Kai meditates over the ice, showing his loneliness. Gerda's arrival to Kai suggests his salvation from the world of the dead, from the world of madness. He returns to the world of love and kindness, eternal summer. The couple reunites again, and the person gains integrity thanks to a difficult path and overcoming himself.