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The Snow Queen: Hans Christian Andersen

The story is about two children, Kay and Gerda, who live opposite each other in attic apartments separated by a narrow alleyway. Their parents place flower boxes across the alley so the children can play together amidst roses and vines. When winter comes, the windows freeze over but they melt peep holes to look out for each other. The story explores the relationship between the two children and how they maintain their friendship despite the challenges of the harsh winter weather.

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657 views6 pages

The Snow Queen: Hans Christian Andersen

The story is about two children, Kay and Gerda, who live opposite each other in attic apartments separated by a narrow alleyway. Their parents place flower boxes across the alley so the children can play together amidst roses and vines. When winter comes, the windows freeze over but they melt peep holes to look out for each other. The story explores the relationship between the two children and how they maintain their friendship despite the challenges of the harsh winter weather.

Uploaded by

wdsfghj sdfghmn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Snow Queen

by Hans Christian Andersen

The image of The Snow Queen is by Kelley McMorris and is used with her permission.
FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters

Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know
more than we know now: but to begin.

Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most
mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for he had
made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and beautiful when
it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but that which was good-for-
nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified and increased in ugliness. In
this mirror the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the
best persons were turned into frights, or appeared to stand on their heads;
their faces were so distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if
anyone had a mole, you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread
over both nose and mouth.

"That's glorious fun!" said the sprite. If a good thought passed through a man's
mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed heartily at his
clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his school--for he kept a
sprite school--told each other that a miracle had happened; and that now only,
as they thought, it would be possible to see how the world really looked. They
ran about with the mirror; and at last there was not a land or a person who
was not represented distorted in the mirror. So then they thought they would
fly up to the sky, and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the mirror,
the more terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher
still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when suddenly the mirror shook
so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of their hands and fell to the earth,
where it was dashed in a hundred million and more pieces. And now it worked
much more evil than before; for some of these pieces were hardly so large as
a grain of sand, and they flew about in the wide world, and when they got into
people's eyes, there they stayed; and then people saw everything perverted,
or only had an eye for that which was evil. This happened because the very
smallest bit had the same power which the whole mirror had possessed.
Some persons even got a splinter in their heart, and then it made one
shudder, for their heart became like a lump of ice. Some of the broken pieces
were so large that they were used for windowpanes, through which one could
not see one's friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles; and that was a sad
affair when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then the
wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked, for all this tickled his fancy. The
fine splinters still flew about in the air: and now we shall hear what happened
next.
SECOND STORY. A Little Boy and a Little Girl

In a large town, where there are so many houses, and so many people, that
there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden; and where, on this
account, most persons are obliged to content themselves with flowers in pots;
there lived two little children, who had a garden somewhat larger than a
flower-pot. They were not brother and sister; but they cared for each other as
much as if they were. Their parents lived exactly opposite. They inhabited two
garrets; and where the roof of the one house joined that of the other, and the
gutter ran along the extreme end of it, there was to each house a small
window: one needed only to step over the gutter to get from one window to
the other.

The children's parents had large wooden boxes there, in which vegetables for
the kitchen were planted, and little rosetrees besides: there was a rose in
each box, and they grew splendidly. They now thought of placing the boxes
across the gutter, so that they nearly reached from one window to the other,
and looked just like two walls of flowers. The tendrils of the peas hung down
over the boxes; and the rose-trees shot up long branches, twined round the
windows, and then bent towards each other: it was almost like a triumphant
arch of foliage and flowers. The boxes were very high, and the children knew
that they must not creep over them; so they often obtained permission to get
out of the windows to each other, and to sit on their little stools among the
roses, where they could play delightfully. In winter there was an end of this
pleasure. The windows were often frozen over; but then they heated copper
farthings on the stove, and laid the hot farthing on the windowpane, and then
they had a capital peep-hole, quite nicely rounded; and out of each peeped a
gentle friendly eye--it was the little boy and the little girl who were looking out.
His name was Kay, hers was Gerda. In summer, with one jump, they could
get to each other; but in winter they were obliged first to go down the long
stairs, and then up the long stairs again: and out-of-doors there was quite a
snow-storm.

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