--- title: "The Snow Queen" story_id: "d3984f55-aaa5-41b6-966a-e7ce283529db" text_id: "25404a57-a39e-48f8-b504-68be49b38a6d" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 5 part_count: 7 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?part=5" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # The Snow Queen > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen) Version: Modernized ## Fifth story — The little robber girl. They drove through the dark forest, but the coach shone like a torch. It dazzled the robbers, and they couldn’t stand that. ‘It’s gold! It’s gold!’ they shouted. They rushed forwards, seized the horses and killed the small horse riders, the coachman and the servants. Then they pulled little Gerda out of the carriage. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/dc62257e-5e4b-4fa9-b33e-c418368ebad2) ‘She’s plump, she’s fine, she’s fattened with nut kernels!’ said the old robber woman, who had 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!’ She drew out her shiny knife, and it gleamed horribly. ‘Ow!’ the old woman suddenly cried out. Her own little daughter had bitten her ear. The girl 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 and her beautiful dress, and sleep with me in my bed!’ She bit her mother again. 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. She simply had to have her way, 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 were 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 do get angry with you, I’d rather do it myself!’ Then she dried Gerda’s eyes and stuffed both her hands into the lovely muff, so soft and so warm. Now the coach came to a stop, there in the middle of the courtyard of a robber’s castle. The castle had great cracks from top to bottom. Ravens and crows flew out of the open holes. Huge, fierce dogs leapt high into the air, each looking as if it could swallow a whole human being. But they didn’t bark, for that was forbidden. In the large, old, sooty hall a large fire burned in the middle of the stone floor. The smoke gathered under the roof and had to find its own way out. Soup simmered in a large cauldron, and hares and rabbits turned on a spit, the rod used to roast them over the fire. ‘You’re to sleep with me here along with all my small animals!’ the robber girl said. They were given food and drink and then they went over into a corner where straw and blankets lay. Above them, on slats 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. She quickly grabbed one of the nearest pigeons, held it by its legs and shook it, so it flapped its wings. ‘Kiss it!’ she cried out and slapped Gerda in the face with it. ‘There the forest jailbirds are sitting!’ she continued, pointing to a row of bars further back, fixed in front of a hole high up in the wall. ‘They’re forest jailbirds, those two! They’ll fly off at once if they’re not safely behind bars. And here’s my dear old Puh!’ She pulled out a tied-up reindeer by its antlers. It had a shiny copper ring round its neck. ‘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!’ The little girl pulled a long knife out of a crack in the wall and let it glide over the reindeer’s throat. The poor animal kicked its legs, and the robber girl laughed and pulled Gerda down 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.’ Gerda told her from the beginning. The woodpigeons cooed up in their cage; the other pigeons slept. The little robber girl put her arm round Gerda’s neck, held the knife in her 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 were 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 carried his sledge. He sat in the Snow Queen’s carriage, which swooped low over the forest where we lay in our nest. She blew on us young birds, and all died except the two of us. Coo! Coo!’ ‘What are you saying up there?’ Gerda called out. ‘Where was the Snow Queen heading? Do you know anything about that?’ ‘She’s sure to have been on her way to Lapland, for there is always snow and ice there! Just ask the reindeer tied up with the rope.’ ‘There’s ice and snow there, it’s wonderful and marvellous there!’ the reindeer said. ‘There you can run freely through the vast, gleaming valleys! There the Snow Queen has her summer tent. But her permanent palace is up near the North Pole, on the island called Spitsbergen!’ ‘Oh Kay, little Kay!’ Gerda sighed. ‘Lie still, now!’ the robber girl said, ‘otherwise I’ll stab you with my knife!’ In the morning Gerda told her everything the woodpigeons had said. The little robber girl looked quite serious, but nodded and said: ‘It’s all the same! It’s all the same. – Do you know where Lapland is?’ she asked the reindeer. ‘Who could know better than I,’ the animal said, and its eyes gleamed. ‘That is where I was born and raised, where I have frolicked in the fields of snow!’ ‘Listen!’ the robber girl said to Gerda. ‘You can see all our men are away right now. But the missus, my mother, is still here, and she stays put. 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. 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 strange 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. You must go as fast as you can and bring this little girl to the Snow Queen’s palace, where her playmate is. You’ve heard what she told me, for she spoke loudly enough and you were eavesdropping!’ The reindeer leapt into the air with joy. The robber girl lifted little Gerda up and tied her on securely. She even gave her a cushion to sit on. ‘It’s all the same,’ she said. ‘Here are your furry boots, for it will be cold. But I’ll keep the muff myself—it’s too delightful! Even so, I won’t let you freeze. Here 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 here are two loaves and a ham for you, so you won’t go hungry.’ Both were tied behind her on the reindeer. The little robber girl opened the door and lured all the big dogs inside. Then she cut through the rope and said to the reindeer: ‘Off you run! But take good care of the little girl!’ Gerda stretched her hands, in the large mittens, towards the robber girl and said goodbye. The reindeer shot off as fast as it could over shrubs and tree-stumps, through the great forest, over bogs and steppes, the wide grasslands. 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!’ It shot off even faster, night and day. The loaves were eaten, the ham too, and then they were in Lapland. ## Modernization notes - stick my knife in your stomach! → stab you with my knife!: The robber girl still threatens to stab Gerda. The precise bodily target is left out in the modernized version to make the threat less graphic for children. ## Parts - [1](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown) — First story (a fairy tale in seven stories) — which deals with the mirror and the shards of glass. - [2](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown&part=2) — The second story — A little boy and a little girl. - [3](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown&part=3) — Third story — The flower-garden of the woman who knew the art of sorcery - [4](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown&part=4) — Fourth story — The prince and princess. - [5](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown&part=5) — Fifth story — The little robber girl. - [6](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown&part=6) — Sixth story — The Lapp woman and the Finn woman. - [7](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown&part=7) — Seventh story — What happened in the Snow Queen’s palace, and what happened afterwards. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales and Stories, 2022, The Hans Christian Andersen Centre, University of Southern Denmark, Odense - author: Hans Christian Andersen - translator: John Irons ## Illustration [Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/dc62257e-5e4b-4fa9-b33e-c418368ebad2) — Stories from Hans Andersen, 1911, Hodder & Stoughton, New York and London [Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/41a689dd-903b-47a0-b7c7-4205bb4d35e6) — Stories from Hans Andersen, 1911, Hodder & Stoughton, New York and London ## Reading music The Four Seasons — Winter: Largo Antonio Vivaldi John Harrison (violin) Robert Turizziani (conductor) Wichita State University Chamber Players (ensemble) [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown) - [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/the-snow-queen?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. 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