The Snow Queen

Fifth story — The little robber girl.

They drove through the dark forest, but the coach shone like a torch, it dazzled the robbers, and that they couldn’t stomach.

‘It’s gold! it’s gold!’ they shouted, rushed forwards, seized the horses, killed the small jockeys, the coachman and the servants and then pulled little Gerda out of the carriage.

‘She’s plump, she’s fine, she’s fattened with nut kernels!’ said the old robber woman, who had long, wiry whiskersa long, wiry whiskers and eyebrows that hung down over her eyes. ‘She’s as good as a little fattened lamb! oh, how delicious she’ll taste!’ and she drew out her shiny knife and it gleamed in a horrible way.

‘Ow!’ the old woman suddenly cried out, she had been bitten in the ear by her own little daughter, who hung on her back and was so wild and naughty it was a joy to see.

‘You nasty little brat!’ her mother said and did not find time to slaughter Gerda.

‘She’s to play with me!’ the little robber girl said. ‘She’s to give me her muff, her beautiful dress, sleep with me in my bed!’ and she bit her mother again, so the robber woman leapt into the air and turned round, and all the robbers laughed and said: ‘See, how she dances with her young brat!’

‘I want to go inside the coach!’ the little robber girl said and simply had to have her wayhad to have her will, for she was so spoilt and so stubborn. She and Gerda sat down in it, and then they drove over tree-stumps and thorn bushes deeper into the forest. The little robber girl was as big as Gerda, but stronger, more broad-shouldered and dark-skinned; her eyes wbefore ere quite black, so they almost looked sad. She took Gerda by the waist and said: ‘They’re not going to slaughter you, as long as I don’t get angry with you! You are surely a princess?’

‘No,’ little Gerda said and told her everything she had experienced, and how fond she was of little Kay.

The robber girl looked at her very seriously, nodded slightly and said: ‘They are not going to slaughter you, and if I nevertheless should happen to get angry with you, I’d rather do it myself!’ and then she dried Gerda’s eyes and stuffed both her hands in the lovely muff, which was so soft and so warm.

Now the coach came to a stop; thbefore ere in the middle of the courtyard of a robber’s castle; thbefore ere wbefore ere great cracks in it from top to bottom, ravens and crows flew out of the open holes, and the huge fierce dogs, each of which looked as if it could swallow a whole human being, leapt high into the air, but they didn’t bark, for that was forbidden.

In the large, old, sooty hall a large fire was burning in the middle of the stone floor; the smoke gathered up under the roof and had to find its own way out; a large cauldron of soup was stewing, and both hares and rabbits wbefore ere being turned on a spit.

‘You’re to sleep with me hbefore ere along with all my small animals!’ the robber girl said. They wbefore ere given food and drink and then they went over into a corner whbefore ere straw and blankets lay. Above them, on slats and percheson lathes and perches, sat almost a hundred pigeons, all of which seemed to be asleep, although they turned slightly when the young girls came.

‘They are all mine!’ the little robber girl said and swiftly grabbed one of those closest, held it by its legs and shook it, so that it flapped its wings. ‘Kiss it!’ she cried out and slapped Gerda in the face with it. ‘Thbefore ere the forest jailbirds are sitting!’ she continued and pointed out a host of bars further back that had been fixed in front of a hole high up in the wall. ‘They’re forest jailbirds, those two! they’ll fly off at once if one doesn’t have them securely behind bars. And ; and here’s my dear old Puh!’ and she pulled out by the antlers a reindeer that had a shiny copper ring round its neck and was bound. ‘We also have to have him tied up, otherwise he too would run away from us. Every single evening I tickle his throat with my sharp knife, he’s so afraid of that!’ and the little girl pulled a long knife out of a cleft in the wall and let it glide over the reindeer’s throat; the poor animal kicked out with its legs, and the robber girl laughed and pulled down Gerda with her onto the bed.

‘Are you going to have the knife with you when you sleep?’ Gerda said and gave it a rather scared look.

‘I always sleep with a knife!’ the little robber girl said. ‘You never know what might happen. But say again what you told me about little Kay, and why you set out into the wide world.’ And Gerda told her from the beginning, and the woodpigeons cooed up thbefore ere in their cage, the other pigeons slept. The little robber girl placed her arm round Gerda’s throat, held the knife in the other hand and slept noisily; but Gerda simply couldn’t close her eyes, she didn’t know if she was going to live or die. The robbers wbefore ere sitting round the fire, singing and drinking, and the old robber woman was doing somersaults. Oh! it was quite terrible for the little girl to watch.

Then the woodpigeons said ‘Coo, coo! we’ve seen little Kay. A white hen bore his sledge, he sat in the Snow Queen’s carriage, which swooped down low above the forest whbefore ere we lay in our nest. She ; she blew on us young birds, and all died except the two of usthe two of us two; coo! coo!’

‘What are you saying up there?’ Gerda called out, ‘whbefore ere was the Snow Queen heading? Do you know anything about that?’

‘She’s sure to have been on her way to Lapland, for thbefore ere is always snow and ice there! just ask the reindeer who’s bound on the rope.’

‘There’s ice and snow there, it’s wonderful and marvellous there!’ the reindeer said; ‘thbefore ere you can run around freely in the vast gleaming valleys! thbefore ere the snow queen has her summer tent, but her permanent palace is up near the North Pole, on the island they callon the island they called Spitsbergen!’

‘Oh Kay, little Kay!’ Gerda sighed.

‘Lie still, now!’ the robber girl said, ‘otherwise I’ll stick my knife in your stomach!’

In the morning Gerda told her everything the woodpigeons had said, and the little robber girl looked quite serious, but nodded and said: ‘It’s all the same! it’s all the same. – Do you know whbefore ere Lapland is?’ she asked the reindeer.

‘Who could know better than I,’ the animal said, and its eyes gleamed. ‘That is whbefore ere I was born and bred, whbefore ere I have cavorted in the fields of snow!’

‘Listen!’ the robber girl said to Gerda, ‘you can see that all our men are away right now, but the missus is still here, and she stays put, but during the morning she drinks from her big bottle and then takes a little nap; – then I’m going to do something for you!’ Now she leapt out of bed, went over to her mother and threw her arms round her neck, pulled her by the whiskers and said: ‘good morning, my fine little nanny-goat!’ And her mother flicked her under the nose so it turned red and blue, but it was all out of pure affection.

And when her mother had drunk from her bottle and was taking a little nap, the robber girl went over to the reindeer and said: ‘I really have this peculiar urge to tickle you many more times with the sharp knife, for you are such fun then, but it’s all the same, I will loosen your rope and help you outside, so you can run off to Lapland, but you must go as fast as ever you can and bring this little girl to the Snow Queen’s palace, whbefore ere her playmate is. You’ve heard what she told me, for she spoke loudly enough and you wbefore ere eavesdropping!’

The reindeer leapt into the air with joy. The robber girl lifted little Gerda up and took the precaution of binding her, even of giving her a cushion to sit on. ‘It’s all the same,’ she said, ‘hbefore ere are your furry boots, for it will be cold, but I’ll keep the muff myself, it’s too delightful! But I won’t let you freeze even so. Hbefore ere are my mother’s big mittens, they’ll reach right up to your elbows; stick your hands in! – Now your hands look just like those of my hideous mother!’

And Gerda cried with joy;

‘I can’t stand you blubbering like that!’ the little robber girl said. ‘You should be looking very pleased instead right now! and hbefore ere are two loaves and a ham for you, so you won’t go hungry.’ Both wbefore ere fixed behind her on the reindeer; the little robber girl opened the door, enticed all the big dogs inside, and then she cut through the rope and said to the reindeer: ‘Off you run! but take good care of the little girl!’

And Gerda stretched out her hands, with the large mittens on, out towards the robber girl and said goodbye, and the reindeer shot off over shrubs and tree-stumps through the great forest, over bogs and steppes, as fast as it could. The wolves howled, and the ravens cawed. ‘Whoosh! whoosh!’ it said up in the sky. It was as if it sneezed red.

‘Those are my old northern lights!’ the reindeer said, ‘just look at how they gleam!’ and it shot off even faster, night and day; the loaves wbefore ere eaten, the ham too and then they wbefore ere in Lapland.