The Snow Queen

Seventh story — What happened in the Snow Queen’s palace, and what happened afterwards.

The walls of the palace were made of whirling snow,of whirling snow and its windows and doors of biting winds. Therewinds; there were more than a hundred halls, formed as the snow drifted. The largest stretched for many miles. All of them weredrifted, the largest stretching many miles, all of them lit by the brightest northern lights, and they were so large, so empty, so icy cold and so gleaming. There was never any merriment here. Notform of gaiety here, not even a little bear-ball where the gale could blow and the polar bears walk on their hind legs and put on airs and graces. Nevergraces; never a small card party with slaps and blows to the mouth. Never the slightest signmouth; never the slightest signs of a coffee party forof the young white-fox ladies. Everythingladies; everything was empty, large and cold in the Snow Queen’s halls.halls of the Snow Queen. The northern lights gleamed so precisely that one could tell when they were turned right up and when they were screwed right down. In the very middle of the empty endless snow-hall there was a frozen lake; it had cracked into a thousand pieces, but each piece resembled the next one completely, so that it was nothing less than a work of art. Inpiece of art; and in the middle of it the Snow Queen sat when she was home. She saidat home, and then she said that she sat in the mirror of reason, and that this was the only and best thing in thethis world.

Little Kay was quite blue with cold, yes, almost black. Butblack, but he didn’t notice it, since her kiss had stopped him shivering with cold,it even so, since she had kissed the shiver of cold off him, and his heart was practically a lump of ice. He dragged some sharp,was dragging some sharp flat pieces of ice around and put them togetherwith him, which he combined in all sorts of ways, for he wanted to make something from them. Itout of them; it was just like when we make figures from small wooden pieces, in the puzzle called the Chinese Gamehave small slabs of wood and make figures out of them, which is called the Chinese Game. Kay was also trying to make figures, the most ingenious of all:, it was the Ice Mind Game. ToGame; to his eyes, the figures were excellent and extremely important. Itquite excellent and of the utmost importance; it was the speck of glass in his eye that made him see them like that! He put together figures that formed a written word. But he could never formthings like that! he composed whole figures, which were a written word, but he never succeeded in forming the exact word he wanted: Eternity. Thethat he wanted, the word Eternity, and the Snow Queen had said: ‘If you can compose that figure for me, you will be your own master, and I will give youshall be your own master, and I will make you a present of the entire world and a pair of new skates.’ But he was unable to.

‘Now I’m going to swish off to the warm countries!’ the Snow Queen said.said, ‘I want to look down into the black cauldrons!’ – These were the fire-spewing volcanoes called Etna and Vesuvius.mountains of Etna and Vesuvius, as they are called. – ‘I’m going to give them a white coat of snow! That’swhitewash them a bit! that’s all part of it; it’s good on top of lemons and grapes!’ Offand off flew the Snow Queen.Queen, and Kay sat all alone in the empty ice-hall, miles long, lookingon his own in the many-mile-long empty ice-hall and looked at the pieces of ice and rackingracked his brains till they creaked. He satcreaked, he sat there stiff and still, lookinghe looked as if he had frozen to death.

At that momentIt was at this moment that little Gerda entered the palace through the great gate made of biting winds. Shewinds; but she said an evening prayer, andprayer and then the winds lay down as if they wanted to sleep. Shesleep, and she entered the large, empty, cold halls. Thenhalls – then she caught sight of Kay, recognisedknew him, threw her arms round his neck, held him tight and called out:out. ‘Kay! Dear little Kay! Atdear little Kay! at last I’ve found you!’

But he sat sat there quite still, stiff and cold. Thencold; – then little Gerda cried hot tears. Theytears, they fell on his chest andchest, they entered his heart, thawingthey thawed out the lump of ice and destroying the tiny fragmentconsumed the tiny fragment of mirror inside. Heinside; he looked at her and she sang the hymn:

The roses are in blossom in the vale;
There the Christ child too speaks without fail.

Then Kay burst into tears. He wept so hard that the speck from the mirror rolled out of his eyes. He recognised her and cried out with joy:tears; he wept so hard that the speck from the mirror rolled out of his eyes, he knew her and cried out joyously: ‘Gerda! Dear little Gerda! – Wheredear little Gerda! – where have you been all this time? And where have I been?’ And he looked around him. ‘How cold it is here! Howhow empty and huge it is here!’ Heand he held on tight to Gerda, and she laughed and cried with joy. Itjoy; it was so wonderful that even the pieces of ice danced with joy. Whenaround with joy and when they were tired and lay down, they formed exactly the the combination of letters the Snow Queen had told him to find. Nowsaid he was to try to find, so now he was his own master, and she would have to give himmake him a present of the entire world and a pair of new skates.

GerdaAnd Gerda kissed his cheeks, and they started to bloom. Shebloom; she kissed his eyes, and they shone like hers. Shehers, she kissed his hands and feet, and he was strong and healthy. It made no difference if the Snow Queen returned home: his charter of freedom, the promise that he was free, stood written therehis charter of freedom stood written there in gleaming pieces of ice.

TheyAnd they took each other by the hand and walked out of the large palace. Theypalace; they talked about grandmother and and about the roses up on the roof. Whereverroof; and wherever they walked, the winds died down and the sun came out. Whenout; and when they reached the bush with with the red berries, the reindeer was waiting for them. Itstanding there waiting for them; it had another young reindeer with it, its udder full of milk. The young reindeer gave the childrenit with a full udder, and it gave the young ones its warm milk and kissed them on the lips. Then the reindeerthey carried Kay and Gerda first to the Finn woman. Theywoman, where they warmed themselves in her hot living room and were given directions for their journey home. Then they wenthome journey, then on to the SámiLappExplanation: Lapp is an older name for a Sámi person, now often considered offensive. The modernized version uses Sámi, the people’s own name, while keeping the original in the source view. woman, who had sewn new clothes for them and got her sleigh ready.

TheAnd the reindeer and the young reindeer ran alongside, accompanying themalongside and followed them, right to the border of the country. There they could seecountry, where the first green signs of spring, andspring could be seen, where they said goodbye to the reindeer and the SámiLappExplanation: Lapp is an older name for a Sámi person, now often considered offensive. The modernized version uses Sámi, the people’s own name, while keeping the original in the source view. woman. ‘Goodbye’ they all said to each other. TheAnd the first small birds started to chirp, and chirp, the forest had green buds. Out of it came a young girlbuds, and out of it on a magnificent horse, which Gerda recognised: itknew (it had been hitched to the gold carriage. The girl worecarriage), came a young girl with a shining red cap and heldon her head and holding pistols in front of her. Ither; it was the little robber girl. Shegirl, who was bored with being at home and wanted to head north first,northwards first and then in a different direction if that didn’t please her. She recognised Gerda immediately and Gerda recognisedknew Gerda immediately and Gerda knew her – and there was great joy.

‘You’re a fine fellow to go wandering off!traipsing around!’ she said to little Kay; ‘I wonder if you’re worth running to the ends of the world for!’

But Gerda patted her on the cheek, and asked about the prince and princess.

‘They’ve left for abroad!’ the robber girl said.

‘But the crow?’ little Gerda asked.

‘Well, the crow’s dead!’ she answered. ‘HisThe tame sweetheart is now a widow and wearsgoes around with a small piece of black wool round her leg. She complains so pitifully,leg; she complains so pitifully and it’s nonsense, all of it! – But tell me how things have gone for you, and how you managed to findget hold of him!’

And both Gerda and Kay told her.

‘And snip-snap-clover-song-is-over!’ the robber girl said. Shesaid, took them both by the hand and promised to come and visitthat if she ever passed through their city. Thenhappened to pass by their city, she would come up and pay them a visit, then she rode off into the wide world, but Kay and Gerda walked hand in hand. As, and as they walked along, it was a wonderful spring with flowers and greenness everywhere. The church bells rang, and they recognised the tall towers, the great city: that was where they lived. They; the church bells rang, and they knew the tall towers, the great city, that was where they lived, and they entered it and went to grandmother’s door, up the stairs, into the living room, where everything stood just as before, and the clock said: ‘tick, tock’ and its hands turned round. But; but as they went through the door, they noticed that they had become adults. The roses from the gutter bloomed into the open windows. Therein at the open windows, and there were the small children’s chairs, and Kay and Gerda sat down on them, holding hands. They had forgotten the cold, empty splendourthem and held each other’s hands, they had forgotten like some heavy dream the cold empty magnificence of the Snow Queen’s palace, as if it were some heavy dream.palace. Grandmother was sitting in God’s bright sunshine and was reading out loud from the Bible: ‘Unless you become as little children, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven!’

And Kay and Gerda looked into each other’s eyes, and suddenly they understood the old hymn:

The roses are in blossom in the vale;
There the Christ child too speaks without fail.

There they sat, two grown-ups and yet children, children at heart, and it was summer, warm, wonderful summer.