In a big city with so many houses and inhabitants and so little space, people didn't even have a small garden. As a result most people had to be content with a few flowers planted in pots. Here lived two poor children who had a garden slightly larger than a flowerpot. They were not brother and sister, but they were very dear to each other, as if they were brother and sister.
Their respective parents lived in two attics facing each other. The roofs of the two homes almost touched; there was a water pipe under each roof; and each room had a small window. People could get from one window to the other by crossing the water pipe.
The parents of the two families each had a large box in which grew a small rose and the vegetables they needed. The roses in both boxes grew very beautifully. Now these two sets of parents placed the box across the water conduit, with the ends of the box almost against the windows on either side, as if they were two embankments full of blossoms.
The pea vines hung over the box, and the roses stretched out their long branches. They coiled and twisted around each other in the windows, almost like a triumphal arch woven of green leaves and flowers. Because the box was placed so high, the children knew they could not just climb up to it, though sometimes they got permission to do so, and the two of them came together and sat on a little stool under the roses. They can have a good time up here.
This pastime was over by winter. The windows were often covered with ice. But then they would heat a copper plate on the stove, stick it to the windowpane, and dissolve a small, round peephole! Behind the peep-hole in each window was a beautiful, gentle eye peeping out. It was the little boy and the little girl. The boy's name was Gaj; the girl's name was Gerda.
In the summer, they could come together in just one jump; in the winter, though, one had to walk down a big ladder and then climb up another. Outside, snowflakes were flying.
That's the white bees gathering." The elderly grandmother said.
Do they have a queen bee too?" The little boy asked. For he knew that real bees had a queen in their swarms.
Yes, they have one!" Grandmother said, "She flies wherever the bees are densest. She is the biggest one of the bees. She never lives quietly in this world; she flies in a moment to the thick swarms of bees. She used to fly through the streets of the city on winter nights and look inside the windows. The windows were covered with strange ice, as if they were blooming with flowers."
Yes, this I have seen!" The two children said in unison. They knew it was true.
Can I walk in here after the snow?" The little girl asked.
As soon as you let her in," the boy said, "I'm going to ask her to sit on the warm hearth, then she'll melt into water."
But the old grandmother straightened his hair and told some other story.
Evening, when little Gaj was in the house and half undressed, he climbed up into the chair by the window and looked out through that little peephole. There were several snowflakes falling slowly outside, and the largest of them landed on the side of the flower box. The snowflake grew larger and larger, and finally turned into a woman.
She was clad in the finest, white veil woven from snowflakes like countless stars. She was very beautiful and delicate, though she was formed of ice - glowing, shining ice. Yet she was alive: her eyes glowed like two bright stars; though there was no peace or quiet in her eyes.
She nodded and waved at Gaj. The little boy got scared. He jumped out of his chair and felt as if a giant bird was flying past outside the window.
The next day there was a frost ...... followed by a thaw ...... Spring came. The sun shone, green shoots sprang up, swallows built their nests, windows opened, and little children sat high up in the little garden on the water conduit on the roof of the building again.
The roses bloomed really beautifully this summer! The little girl read a hymn well, and there the roses were mentioned. Talking about roses made her think of her own flowers. So she sang the hymn to the little boy, and at the same time he sang:
The roses grow in abundance in the valleys,
There we meet the Holy Child Jesus.
These two little ones, arm in arm, kissed the roses, looked at God's radiant sun, and spoke to it as if the Holy Child Jesus were there. What a sunny summer day it was! And how beautiful everything was outside, among those rose bushes - which seemed as if they would never bloom enough!
Gaye and Gerda sat looking at picture books with birds and animals. At that moment the clock on that cathedral tower struck exactly five times. So Gaj said:
Ah! Something pierced my heart! Something has fallen into my eye!"
The little girl threw her arms around his neck. He blinked his eyes. No, he didn't see anything.
I don't think there's anything!" He said. But it wasn't. What fell was exactly a shard of glass that had cracked off that mirror. We remember it well, it was a magic mirror, an ugly piece of glass.
It made all that was great and good contemptible and abominable, but reflected all that was vile and sinful prominently, and at the same time made the shortcomings of every thing noticeable to all. Such a splinter clung to poor little Ghai's heart, and his heart at once became like ice. He wasn't unpleasantly surprised, but the shard was hidden in his heart.
Why are you crying?" He asked. "It makes you look really bad! I don't like this look at all. Ugh!" He suddenly shouted, "That rose was eaten by worms! Look, this one has grown crooked too! They sure are some ugly roses! They really look like the box in which they were planted!"
So he kicked the box hard and pulled out all of those two roses
Gai, what are you doing?" The little girl called up.
As soon as he saw her terrified look, he immediately pulled out another rose. Then he jumped into his window and left gentle little Gerda outside.
When she later followed him in with a picture book, he said it was only worthy of a small child at milk. He always inserted a "but ......" when his grandmother was telling a story, and when he had a chance he stole after her, wearing a pair of old spectacles, and spoke after her fashion: he learned so cleverly that he made everybody laugh at him.
He soon learned to imitate the conversation and walk of the people in the street. Whatever was odd and ugly in people, Ghai imitated. Everyone said, "This boy, he must have a very special mind!" Yet it was all because he hid a shard of glass in his eyes and a shard of glass in his heart.
He even went so far as to sneer at little Gerda - the Gerda who loved him with all her heart.
His games were obviously a little different than they used to be, and he played much smarter than he used to. One winter day, when the snowflakes were flying, he came out with a magnifying glass and lifted the hem of his blue blouse so that the snowflakes fell on it.
Gerda, come and look at this mirror!" He said.
Each snowflake was magnified to look like a beautiful flower, or a star with six pointed corners. It was very wonderful.
Look how ingenious this is!" Ghai said, "It's much more interesting than a real flower: there's nothing wrong with it at all - as long as they don't melt, it's very neat."
Not long afterward, Gaj approached, wearing thick gloves and carrying a sled. He barked into Gerda's ear and said, "I Box got permission to go over to the square - lots of other kids are playing there." And so he went.
On the square the boldest of the children used to tie their sleds to the back of the countryman's wagon, and then sit on them for a long run. They ran with great delight. While they were playing, a big sleigh came sliding by. It was painted snow-white, and on it sat a man, dressed in a thick-furred white leather gown and a thick-furred white hat.
The sleigh skidded twice around the square. So Gaj hastened to tie his own sled to it and slid along with it. It slid faster and faster until it reached a neighboring street. The man on the sled turned around and nodded kindly to Ghai. It was as if they knew each other.
Every time Gaj tried to unhitch his sled, the man nodded to him again; and Gaj sat down again. So on, they slid all the way out of the city gates. By this time the snow was falling so thickly that the boy could not see out of his hand, and yet he was sliding forward. He let go of the rope sharply now, trying to get away from that big sled.
But it was of no use at all, his little sled was fastened securely. They slid forward like the wind. At this point he screamed loudly, but no one paid any attention to him. The snowflakes were flying, and so were the sleds. From time to time they jumped upward as if they were flying over fences and ditches. He became very frightened. He wanted to say a prayer, but all he could remember was the multiplication table.
The snow got heavier and heavier. At last the snowflakes looked like huge white chickens. The sledge suddenly jumped to the side and stopped; the man sledding stood up. The man's leather coat and hat were made entirely of snowflakes. This turned out to be a woman, tall and slim, and her whole body shone white. She was the Snow Queen.
We're gliding along nicely," she said, "but you're freezing, aren't you? Come into my leather jacket."
She carried him into her sled and sat him beside her, and she wrapped him in her own leather coat. It was as if he had crashed into a snowdrift.
Do you still feel cold?" She asked, placing a kiss on his forehead.
Ah! That kiss was colder than ice! It penetrated all the way into his heart, half of which had become ice - he felt as if he was dying. But the feeling didn't last long, and he immediately felt comfortable. He also no longer felt the cold around him.
My sled! Don't forget my sled!"
That was the first thing that came to his mind. It was already securely tied to a white chicken, and the broiler was flying behind them with the sled on its back. The Snow Queen had kissed Ghai again. From then on he completely forgot about tiny Gerda, his grandmother and all the people in the house.
You won't need any more kisses now," she said, "because I'll kiss you to death if you ever want any more."
Gaie looked at her. She was so beautiful, and he could never imagine a more beautiful and intelligent face. Unlike the way she used to look when she sat outside the window and waved at him, she didn't look at all like she was made of snow now. To his eyes she was perfect; he felt no fear at all now.
He told her that he could do mental math, even fractions; that he knew the entire size of the country and its inhabitants. She just smiled. It seemed to him at this point that he didn't know too much. He looked up into the vast sky; she took him with her above the dark clouds. The storm winds were blowing and howling as if they were singing an old song.
They flew over woods and lakes, over sea and land; below them the cold winds roared, the jackals whistled, and the snowflakes sent out flashes. Above flew a flock of screeching crows. But farther up was lighted a bright moon, and Ghai had looked at it all through this long winter night. At dawn he fell asleep at the feet of the snow queen.
Expanded:
Significance of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tale "The Snow Queen":
Although the snow and ice are beautiful, they represent the cold winter months. Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" tells the story of the cold and heartless Snow Queen who injects a shard of glass into the heart of a young boy, Gaj, thus making him as cold and heartless as the Snow Queen. Later, Gaj's best friend Gerda travels through clumps of resistance to reach the Snow Queen's palace and melts the shard in Gaj's heart with warm tears.
This fairy tale also expresses mankind's desire for beauty, and like many fairy tales, represents the power of love to conquer all.
Baidu Encyclopedia - The Snow Queen