A summary of Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Snow Queen"

The tale was written in 1844. The work consists of seven separate stories, sequentially describing the fates of two small children.

The text has been adapted into numerous films. The 1957 Soviet animated film won awards at international festivals in Cannes and Venice. The 2013 Disney animated film Frozen was a huge success at the global box office.

Shards of the magic mirror

An evil troll created a wondrous mirror with a negative optical effect. Every good and beautiful thing was reflected in it as ugly. The object’s evil properties were visually magnified. People’s faces were distorted beyond recognition. Kind thoughts were reflected in unimaginable grimaces. The troll’s disciples actively carried this creation around the world. Soon, no one remained unreflected in the glass.

One day, the disciples wanted to reach the heavens. The mirror was torn from their hands. It fell to the hard ground and shattered into billions of tiny pieces. Billions of glass grains scattered across the world. They often hit people in the eyes or penetrated directly into the heart. A person with such a shard began to see only the bad parts of everything. The heart muscle quickly turned into a cold, icy lump. Large pieces ended up on windowpanes.

Neighborhood kids

In a large, densely populated city, a boy named Kai and a girl named Gerda lived next door. The parents grew rose bushes in wooden boxes at roof level. Peas dangled from the boxes in long green garlands. The children were close friends and often sat on a wooden bench beneath the flowers. In winter, their modest agricultural pleasures ceased. The children heated copper coins on a hot stove. They pressed the metal against the frozen glass and peered through the thawed round holes.

The old grandmother told them evening stories. She would say, "It’s the white bees swarming!" The grandmother told the children about the Snow Queen flying on a dark cloud. That evening, Kai saw a large snowflake outside the window. The snowflake began to grow. She turned into a woman of dazzling ice. The woman nodded to the boy.

One summer, Kai and Gerda were looking at a thick book of animals. Suddenly, tiny shards of the devil’s mirror struck the boy in the eye and heart. The boy changed dramatically. He picked blooming roses, began to be rude to Gerda, and mocked the neighbors. Kai’s playfulness took on a cold and calculating form. He began studying snowflakes under a magnifying glass.

One winter, Kai went sledding in the large town square. A tall woman in a white sleigh appeared. The boy deftly tied his sleigh to her vehicle. They quickly sped out of the town gates. Thick snow began to fall in large flakes. The woman turned out to be the Snow Queen. She lifted Kai into the spacious sleigh. The Queen wrapped him in her bearskin coat and kissed him twice on the forehead. The heat of the kisses froze the remnants of his warm feelings. Kai forgot Gerda, his grandmother, and his home. They soared into a black cloud.

Searches along the river

In the spring, Gerda decided to go in search of her adopted brother. The girl came to a swiftly flowing river, giving up her new red shoes to the waves. The boat carrying Gerda accidentally drifted away from the shore and carried her far from her hometown. The girl arrived at a large cherry orchard. On the shore stood a house with stained glass windows and wooden soldiers at the front door.

An old, lonely woman lived in the house. She deftly hooked the boat with a wooden stick and pulled Gerda ashore. The old woman treated the girl to delicious cherries and combed her hair with a golden comb. The mechanical combing had a profound magical effect — Gerda instantly forgot Kai. The witch artificially hid living roses deep underground.

Gerda played for a long time in the sunny garden. One day, she noticed a painted rose on the old woman’s hat. The girl burst into tears. Her hot tears soaked the dry soil. Live roses instantly sprouted in the garden bed. The flowers told Gerda an important statistic: Kai was not buried among the dead people. The girl began questioning the other plants. They knew only their own stories. Gerda opened the heavy, rusty latch. She left the old woman’s garden. Outside, it was a damp, late autumn day.

The Palace of the Prince and Princess

During her long forest wanderings, Gerda encountered a large raven. The bird told her about a clever local princess. The girl had read every newspaper in the world. The princess had recently chosen a husband among the common folk. A young man approached the palace on foot. The young man spoke confidently to the princess. He ignored the court hierarchy, and his new boots squeaked loudly. Gerda firmly believed that this brave youth was the missing Kai.

The raven and his tame bride escorted Gerda to the palace late at night. They quietly ascended the stairs and passed through magnificent halls. The rooms were upholstered in thick pink satin. Illusory dreams of horsemen flashed past the girl. In the royal bedroom, two beds hung from the high ceiling. They were shaped like massive lilies. The girl approached a red lily and pulled back a petal. She saw the back of a dark-blond head. The young man woke up and turned his head. It was a prince she had never met.

Gerda told the prince and princess the story of her long wanderings. The kind rulers generously rewarded the ravens. Gerda stayed at the palace for several well-fed days. Later, the girl asked for a horse-drawn carriage to continue her journey. The princess gave Gerda a solid golden carriage. The girl received a warm muff, a beautiful dress, and sturdy shoes. The forest raven accompanied the young traveler for the first 22 kilometers of the journey.

Attack in the Dark Forest

The golden carriage entered a dense, dark forest. Local forest bandits immediately attacked the shining carriage, brutally murdering the coachman and the young servants. The old robber woman pulled out a long, sharp knife. She wanted to kill Gerda. She was suddenly stopped by her own disobedient daughter. The little robber bit her mother painfully on the ear. She took all of Gerda’s clothes for herself.

The girls arrived in the courtyard of an old, ruined castle. A fire burned in the vast hall, and thick smoke sought its own outlet toward the ceiling. The little robber girl showed Gerda her personal menagerie. It housed wood pigeons and an old reindeer. The reindeer wore a shiny copper collar. Gerda regularly frightened the animal with her sharp knife.

The pigeons sat in a wooden cage, cooing softly. The birds told Gerda the latest news. They had seen Kai in the Snow Queen’s large white sleigh. The reindeer quickly confirmed this, providing the precise geographic coordinates — the queen had flown off to snowy Lapland.

Early in the morning, the little robber girl cut the reindeer’s strong rope with a knife. She commanded the animal to quickly take Gerda to the Snow Queen’s palace. The girl received her mother’s enormous mittens, two fresh loaves of bread, and a whole ham. The reindeer ran through stumps and swamps to the far north.

Road through the ice

The reindeer and Gerda stopped at a low, miserable hut with a thatched roof. Inside was an old Lapp woman, frying fish by the dim light of a grease lamp. The woman listened attentively to the frozen travelers’ story. She wrote a short message on a piece of dried cod. The Lapp woman directed the travelers to Finland, where the Snow Queen’s summer cottage was located.

The reindeer ran over 750 kilometers without stopping. He found the wise Finnish woman’s dwelling. Inside, the heat was unbearable. The woman read the inscription on the fish and wisely dropped the cod into a cauldron of hot soup. The reindeer asked Gerda for a drink that would give her the physical strength of twelve warriors. The Finnish woman categorically refused. The woman explained bluntly: "Kai really is with the Snow Queen." Gerda’s immense inner strength lies hidden in her pure childlike heart. She needs no external enhancers.

The Finnish woman ordered the deer to leave the girl near a large bush with red berries. The deer fulfilled the logistical instructions to the letter. He ran back into the forest, crying. Gerda was left completely alone in the bitter cold, without warm boots. The advance guards of the ice army rushed towards her. The snowflakes resembled large, aggressive hedgehogs and fat polar bears. Gerda boldly walked straight through the blizzard toward the high chambers.

Return of lost feelings

The Ice Palace consisted of hundreds of enormous, empty halls. Violent snowstorms marked the spaces. The rooms were regularly illuminated by the northern lights, according to a strict lighting algorithm. In the center of the largest hall was a frozen lake. Its ice had cracked into thousands of perfectly uniform pieces. The Snow Queen called this level location the mirror of the mind.

Kai sat on the smooth ice, absorbed in solving a spatial ice puzzle. He was tasked with forming the short word "eternity." For successfully completing the task, the queen promised freedom, the whole wide world, and new skates. The boy’s skin was black from the intense cold. The intense cold concealed his dangerous physiological condition.

Gerda entered the gigantic, deserted hall. The girl immediately recognized Kai. She quickly ran up and hugged him tightly around the neck. The young man remained absolutely cold and motionless. The girl wept bitterly, overcome with helpless resentment. Her hot tears fell copiously onto Kai’s chest. They penetrated deep inside and melted the thick icy crust. The temperature difference shattered a small shard of mirror. The boy recognized Gerda and wept loudly. A second shard was washed from his eye by a stream of warm tears.

Kai and Gerda were overjoyed at their reunion. The ice floes themselves broke into a joyful dance. After a rest, they formed the assigned word "eternity." Kai had regained his full independence. The joyful children held hands tightly and left the ice palace.

The travelers met a faithful reindeer near a bush of red berries. They visited the warm home of a Finnish woman and the cramped hut of a Lapp. The women sewed them new warm clothes. They repaired their sled. At the edge of a green forest, the children met a young girl on a sturdy horse. It was a grown-up little robber girl. She shared some sad news. The forest raven had died of old age, and the prince and princess had departed forever for foreign lands. The robber girl shook their hands and set off on her new journey.

Kai and Gerda heard the familiar ringing of the tall city bells. They climbed the old wooden staircase. The rose bushes still bloomed brightly outside their window. As they passed through the low door, the young people suddenly realized they had physically matured. The cold, lifeless splendor of the snowy palaces was forgotten like a heavy night’s sleep. They sat quietly in small children’s chairs. They had grown up in appearance, but retained the spirits of children. Outside, it was a warm, balmy summer.