Snow Queen (The Snow Queen Ballet Full, J.N. Holland, #1) (Christmas Stories, #3) (Templar's Collectors Classics, #1) (Creative character building) (A North-South picture book) (Everystory) (Drama Library) (Fairy Tales) (Picture Puffin S.) (Usborne Young Reading: Series Two) (The Snow Queen) (Signet Books)

by Hans Christian Andersen

[nannah]

Ahh, this has always been my favorite fairy tale as a kid (besides East of the Sun, West of the Moon -- which might have been an inspiration for Andersen's The Snow Queen. There's a lot to be said about that, but that's a whole other analysis).

The imagery here is always so fantastic and stunning in a way other fairy tales tend to fall flat. The mirror that shatters into glittering shards, the blinding scenery of Lapland, and the witch's sickly-sweet and rainbow-colored garden ... I think it all kind of defined me growing up as a reader and a writer when it came to taste and style.

The Snow Queen is also one the only fairy tales to feature all the important characters -- as well as the protagonist -- as women. And they're not just lifeless cardboard cutouts; they all have life and distinct character. The kind and gentle witch who keeps Gerda because she wants company, the robber girl who's not really so bad as she seems at first (and who could have novels dedicated just to her, to be honest), and the Snow Queen herself, who in the end, was completely fair.

This translation is a lot different than others I've read. No less beautiful, but it's a little more direct and the dialogue a bit stilted. A lot more Christian as well ... or maybe that's just my memory ... In any case, the message here is very Christian (like many old fairy tales), and this version -- I think -- is also a lot sweeter than others. The illustrations are so detailed and lovely, though the human anatomy is stretched in the faces sometimes.

Everyone has their own interpretation of this story, from reading it as is (a brave girl rescuing her friend), from Gerda going into the land of Death itself to rescue Kay (who had actually died from the Snow Queen's kiss, with the language referencing children who froze to death), to a story representing the four seasons. Personally, I see it in a more mythological way, with Kay being almost like (a god/representative of) Spring being taken away by a representative Winter (the Snow Queen), and then in the end returns to bring Spring back to the land.

Kay originally is an emotional boy -- who then once the shards make homes in his eye and heart, becomes more rational, taking a liking to mathematics and arithmetic. When the Snow Queen takes him away, she also tries to teach him rational ways of thinking. It’s very different to the way Kay and definitely Gerda used to be, who are/were much more feeling people. And when Gerda rescues him, she returns to him love and feeling, much more befitting a representative of Spring.

And the Snow Queen, the “villain” of the novel, isn’t quite as evil as I remember thinking as a kid (isn’t that the way things usually are when you grow up, though?). Winter is impartial, and it’s harsh, but it’s not inherently evil (nature doesn’t know/define a difference between good and evil). And here in the novel, the Snow Queen gives Kay a riddle. If he solves it (spells the word “Eternity”), he’ll become his own master and will get his freedom. When Gerda rescues him and helps him solve it, the Snow Queen keeps her promise. She never pursues him, never curses him, etc. Winter is harsh, but not unfair.

And then Spring returns to the land after a harsh winter.

So I guess my interpretation of this overt Christian fairy tale is a slightly pre-Christian one. But I think however you interpret The Snow Queen, what really matters is what connection you have to it. And there’s no doubt that a lot of people have connected to it. It’s lasted a long time, and I think it’ll continue to do so.