First story. Mirror and its fragments

“Once upon a time there was a troll, feisty, contemptuous; it was the devil himself ... ”The evil troll makes a mirror in which everything good seems evil, and evil - only strikes the eye brighter. Once the troll's disciples took this mirror, and ran with it everywhere, for the sake of fun pointing it at people, and finally decided to reach the sky, "to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself." But the mirror, having escaped from their hands, falls to the ground and shatters into thousands of fragments. "For some people, the fragments fell right into the heart, and it was the worst of all: the heart turned into a piece of ice ..."

Second story. Boy and girl

Kai and Gerda, a boy and a girl from poor families, are not relatives, but love each other like brother and sister. They have their own roof garden where they plant roses. True, you can't play in the kindergarten in winter, so they visit each other; Once, sitting by the window and admiring the falling snow, Kai asks his grandmother: snowflakes are like white bees, but do they have their own queen, like ordinary bees? Yes, says the grandmother, this is the Snow Queen; she flies over cities on a black cloud, windows freezing from her gaze. Some time passes, summer comes; Kai and Gerda are sitting in their garden among the roses - and then a splinter of the devil's mirror hits his eye. His heart becomes callous, "icy": he laughs at his grandmother, mocks Gerda, the beauty of flowers no longer touches him, but he admires snowflakes with their mathematically ideal forms ("not a single wrong line!"). One day he goes tobogganing and out of self-indulgence ties his children’s sleds to the luxuriously decorated “adult” sledges; suddenly they accelerate - faster than he could have imagined - soar into the air and rush away: the same Snow Queen took him with her.

Third story. Flower garden of a woman who knew how to conjure

Gerda goes in search of Kai. In her wanderings, she meets a sorceress who lets her in to spend the night and ultimately decides to keep the girl with her and make her her adopted daughter; she puts a spell on her, because of which Gerda forgets about her named brother, and by magic hides all the roses in her garden under the ground so that they do not inadvertently remind the baby about her and Kai's roof garden. But she forgets to remove the roses from her hat; Once Gerda catches this hat, she remembers everything and begins to cry. Where her tears flow down, the roses hidden by the sorceress bloom; Gerda asks them - maybe Kai is already dead and they saw him underground? - but, having received a negative answer, he realizes that he can still be saved, and starts his journey.

The fourth story. Prince and Princess

Leaving the sorceress's garden, where eternal summer reigns, Gerda sees that in fact autumn has long come, and decides to hurry up. On the way, she meets a learned raven who lives with his "bride" at the court of the local king; from a conversation with him, she concludes that the groom of the royal daughter, the princess, who came from unknown lands is Kai, and persuades the crow to take her to the palace to look at him. It becomes clear that she was wrong; but the princess and her fiancé, having heard Gerda's story about her misadventures, pity her and give the girl "shoes, and a muff, and a wonderful dress" and a golden carriage so that she can quickly find Kai.

Fifth story. Little robber

On the way, the travelers are attacked by robbers: they kill the servants and coachmen, take the carriage, horses and expensive clothes of Gerda. Gerda herself goes to the "friend" of the Little Robber, the daughter of the leader of the local gang - ill-mannered, greedy, stubborn, but essentially - lonely. The robber arranges her in her "menagerie"; the girl tells her story to the “mistress”, she gets imbued and introduces her to the Reindeer, the pride of the “menagerie”. The deer tells Gerda about his distant homeland, where the Snow Queen rules; Gerda realizes that it is the Snow Queen who keeps Kai with her, and, with the Robber's permission, sets out on a journey on the Reindeer.

Sixth story. Lapland and Finca

On the way, Gerda and Deer spend the night with a hospitable Lapland woman, who, after listening to their story, advises travelers to visit the Finnish witch. The deer, following her words, goes with Gerda to the Finnish woman and asks her for a drink for the girl, which would give her the strength of twelve heroes. In response, the Finnish woman says that Gerda will not need such a drink: "strength is in her sweet, innocent child's heart." Having said goodbye to the sorceress, Gerda and the deer arrive at the kingdom of the Snow Queen; there they part - then the girl must go on her own.

Seventh story. What happened in the palaces of the Snow Queen and what happened next

Despite all the obstacles, Gerda gets to the palace of the Snow Queen and finds Kai alone: ​​he is trying to put together the word “eternity” from the fragments of ice - such a task was offered to him by the queen before leaving (according to her, if he can do this, he will yourself a master ", and she" will give him all the light and a pair of new skates "). At first he cannot understand who she is; but then Gerda sings to him their favorite psalm ("Roses are blooming ... Beauty, beauty! Soon we will see the baby Christ"), Kai remembers her, and the pieces of ice "from joy" by themselves add up to the right word. Now Kai is his own master; the named brother and sister return home, and it turns out that they are already adults.

The psalm sung by Kai and Gerda was not cited, there was no mention of the Lord's prayer, thanks to which Gerda was able to calm down the icy winds that guarded the Snow Queen's palace and get to Kai.

Parallels in folk tales

In Scandinavian folklore, there are references to the Ice Maiden, the embodiment of winter and death (later this image was developed by many children's writers, in particular, Tove Jansson in The Magic Winter). They say that the last words of Father Andersen were: "Here comes the Ice Maiden and she came to me." Similar characters are known to many peoples - in Japan they are Yuki-onna, in the Russian tradition, possibly Mara-Morena. It is interesting that Andersen himself also has a fairy tale "The Maiden of Ice".

Screen adaptations

• The Mystery of the Snow Queen (1986 film)
• The Snow Queen (film, 1994)

Notes (edit)

Links

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

• The Snow Queen (musical)
• The Snow Queen (film, 2002)

See what the "Snow Queen (Andersen's Tale)" is in other dictionaries:

The Snow Queen- The Snow Queen can mean: The Snow Queen (character) is a character in the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. In literature, the Snow Queen (Andersen's tale) is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Snow Queen (fairy tale ... ... Wikipedia

The Snow Queen (cartoon, 1957)

The Snow Queen (film- The Snow Queen (film, 1966) This term has other meanings, see The Snow Queen (film). The Snow Queen Genre fairy tale Director Gennady Kazansky Scriptwriter ... Wikipedia

THE SNOW QUEEN- "THE SNOW QUEEN", USSR, LENFILM, 1966, color, 85 min. Story. Based on the play of the same name by E. Schwartz (motives of the tale by G. H. Andersen). Cast: Valery Nikitenko (see Valery NIKITENKO), Elena Proklova (see Elena Igorevna PROKLOVA), Slava Tsyupa, Evgenia ... ... Encyclopedia of Cinema

The Snow Queen (film, 1966)- This term has other meanings, see The Snow Queen. Snow Queen ... Wikipedia

THE SNOW QUEEN- 1966, 85 min., Color, sh / e, 2to. genre: the film is a fairy tale. dir. Gennady Kazansky, sc. Eugene Schwartz (based on the play of the same name by Eugene Schwartz, based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen), operas. Sergey Ivanov, thin Boris Burmistrov, comp. ... ... Lenfilm. Annotated Film Catalog (1918-2003)

List of fairy tales and stories by Hans Christian Andersen- Fire ... Wikipedia

Schwartz, Evgeny Lvovich- There are articles on Wikipedia about other people with that last name, see Schwartz. Evgeny Shvarts Evgeny Lvovich Schwartz in the 1930s Date of birth ... Wikipedia

The Snow Queen fairy tale is an extraordinary story about the boy Kai and the girl Gerda. They were separated by a shard of a broken mirror. The main theme of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" is the struggle between good and evil.

Background

So let's start retelling summary"The Snow Queen". Once an evil troll created a mirror, looking into which all goodness decreased and disappeared, while evil, on the contrary, increased. But, unfortunately, the troll's disciples smashed the mirror in an argument, and all its fragments scattered around the world. And if even one tiny piece fell into a human heart, it would freeze and become a piece of ice. And if he got into the eye, then the person ceased to see the good, and in any act he felt only malicious intent.

Kai and Gerda

The summary of the "Snow Queen" should be continued with the information that friends lived in one small town: a boy and a girl, Kai and Gerda. They were brother and sister to each other, but only until the moment when shards fell into the boy's eye and heart. After the accident, the boy became embittered, became rude and lost brotherly feelings for Gerda. Besides, he stopped seeing goodness. He began to think that no one loved him and that everyone wished him harm.

And then one not very good day, Kai went tobogganing. He clung to a sled passing by him. But they belonged to the Snow Queen. She kissed the boy, thereby making his heart even colder. The queen took him to her ice palace.

Gerda's journey

Gerda grieved very much for the boy for the rest of the winter and waited for his return, and, without waiting, went in search of her brother as soon as spring came.

The first on the way Gerda met a woman-sorceress. She cast a spell on the girl that deprived her of her memory. But, seeing the roses, Gerda remembered everything and ran away from her.

After that, a raven met her on her way, telling her that a prince very similar to Kai had wooed the princess of his kingdom. But it was not him. The princess and the prince turned out to be very kind people, they gave her clothes and a carriage of gold.

The girl's path lay through a terrible and dark forest, where a gang of robbers attacked her. There was a little girl among them. She turned out to be kind and gave Gerda a reindeer. On it, the heroine went on and soon, having met the pigeons, she found out where her named brother was.

On the way she met two more kind women - a Lapland woman and a Finnish woman. Each of them helped the girl in her search for Kai.

The Snow Queen's Domain

And so, having reached the possessions of the Snow Queen, she gathered the remnants of her strength and went through the strongest storm and the royal army. Gerda prayed all the way, and angels came to her aid. They helped her get to the ice castle.

Kai was there, but the queen was not. The boy was like a statue, frozen and cold. He didn’t even pay attention to Gerda and continued playing the puzzle. Then the girl, unable to cope with her emotions, cried bitterly. Tears froze Kai's heart. He, too, began to cry, and the shard fell out along with the tear.

The main characters of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen". Gerda

There are many heroes in the tale, but they are all secondary. The main ones are only three: Gerda, Kai, the queen. But still the only truly main character of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen" is only one - little Gerda.

Yes, she is very small, but also selfless and brave. In the fairy tale, all her strength is concentrated in a kind heart, which attracts sympathetic people to the girl, without whom she would not have reached the ice castle. It is kindness that helps Gerda defeat the queen and unfreeze the named brother.

Gerda is ready for anything for the sake of her neighbors and is confident in decisions taken... She does not hesitate for a second and helps everyone who needs it, not counting on help. In a fairy tale, the girl shows only the best character traits, and she is the embodiment of justice and kindness.

Kai's image

Kai is a very controversial hero. On the one hand, he is kind and sensitive, but on the other, frivolous and stubborn. Even before the fragments hit the eye and heart. After the incident, Kai is completely under the influence of the Snow Queen and follows her orders, without speaking a word against. But after Gerda frees him, everything is fine again.

Yes, on the one hand, Kai is a positive character, but his inaction and passivity prevent the reader from falling in love with him.

The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen is the embodiment of winter, cold. Her home is an endless ice space. Just like ice, she is very beautiful on the outside, and also smart. But her heart does not know the feelings. That is why she is the prototype of evil in Andersen's tale.

History of creation

It's time to tell the story of the creation of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It was first published in 1844. The tale is the longest in the author's bibliography, moreover, Andersen claimed that it is connected with the history of his life.

Andersen said that the "Snow Queen", a summary of which is contained in the article, appeared in his head even when he was little and played with his neighbor white-headed Lisbeth. For him, she was practically a sister. The girl was always close to Hans, supported him in all games and listened to his first tales. Many researchers claim that she became the prototype of Gerda.

But not only Gerda had a prototype. Singer Jenny Lind became the living embodiment of the queen. The author was in love with her, but the girl did not share his feelings, and Andersen made her cold heart the embodiment of the beauty and soullessness of the Snow Queen.

In addition, Andersen was carried away by Scandinavian myths, and there death was called the ice maiden. Before his death, his father said that the maiden had come for him. Perhaps the Snow Queen has the same prototype as the Scandinavian winter and death. She also lacks feelings, and the kiss of death can freeze forever.

The image of a girl made of ice attracted the storyteller, and in his legacy there is another tale about the Snow Queen, who stole her beloved from his bride.

Andersen wrote a fairy tale at a very difficult time, when religion and science were at war. Therefore, there is an opinion that the confrontation between Gerda and the queen describes the events that took place.

In the USSR, the fairy tale was redone, since the censorship did not allow the mention of Christ and the reading of the Gospel at night.

"The Snow Queen": analysis of the work

Andersen in his fairy tales creates an opposition - the confrontation between good and evil, summer and winter, external and internal, death and life.

Thus, the Snow Queen has become a classic character in folklore. Dark and cold mistress of winter and death. She is opposed by the warm and kind Gerda, the embodiment of life and summer.

Kai and Gerda, according to Schelling's natural philosophy, are androgynes, that is, the opposite of death and life, summer and winter. Children are together in summer, but in winter they endure separation.

The first half of the tale tells about the creation of a magic mirror capable of distorting good, turning it into evil. A person traumatized by its splinter acts as an enemy of culture. On the one hand, it is a myth that strikes culture and breaks the link between man and nature. So Kai becomes soulless and rejects the love of summer and the beauty of nature. But he begins to love the creations of reason with all his heart.

The shard that ended up in the boy's eye allows him to think reasonably, cynically, to show interest in the geometric structure of snowflakes.

As you know, there can be no bad end in a fairy tale, so Andersen opposed Christian values ​​to the world of technology. That is why the children in the fairy tale sing psalms to the rose. Although the rose withers, the memory of it remains. So the memory is a mediator between the world of the living and the dead. This is how Gerda, once in the witch's garden, forgets Kai, and then her memory returns again and she runs away. It is the roses that help her in this.

The scene in the castle with the false prince and princess is very symbolic. In this dark moment, Gerda is helped by crows, symbolizing the forces of night and wisdom. Climbing the stairs is a tribute to Plato's cave myth, in which non-existent shadows create a representation of a false reality. Gerda needs a lot of strength in order to discern where is the lie and where is the truth.

The further the fairy tale "The Snow Queen" progresses, the summary of which you already know, the more often peasant symbols are encountered. Gerda with the help of prayer copes with the storm and falls into the possession of the queen. The atmosphere of the castle was created by the author himself. It emphasizes all the complexes and failures of the poor writer. According to biographers, the Andresenov family had some mental deviations.

So the powers of the queen can symbolize actions that can drive you crazy. The castle is motionless and cold, crystal.

This is how Kai's injury makes him serious and intellectual development, and the attitude towards loved ones changes dramatically. Soon he is completely alone in the icy palaces. These signs characterize schizophrenia.

Kai meditates on the ice, showing his loneliness. Gerda's coming to Kai presupposes his salvation from the world of the dead, from the world of madness. He returns to the world of love and kindness, eternal summer. The couple reunites again, and the person gains integrity through a difficult path and overcoming oneself.

MIRROR AND ITS SHARDS

First story

Let's start! When we reach the end of our story, we will know more than we do now. So, once upon a time there was a troll, feisty, contemptuous; it was the devil himself. Once he was in a particularly good mood: he made such a mirror in which everything good and beautiful was diminished to the utmost, yet the useless and ugly, on the contrary, stood out even brighter, it seemed even worse. The most charming landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the best of people - ugly or seemed to be standing upside down and without bellies! The faces were distorted to the point that it was impossible to recognize them; if someone had a freckle or a mole on his face, it would spread all over his face. The devil was terribly amused by all this. A kind, pious human thought was reflected in the mirror with an unimaginable grimace, so that the troll could not help laughing, rejoicing in his invention. All the students of the troll - he had his own school - talked about the mirror as about some kind of miracle.

Now only, - they said, - you can see the whole world and people in their real light!

And they ran with the mirror everywhere; soon there was not a single country, not a single person who would not be reflected in it in a distorted form. Finally, they wanted to get to heaven in order to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself. The higher they climbed, the more the mirror grimaced and writhed; they barely held him in their hands. But then they got up still, and suddenly the mirror was so distorted that it tore out of their hands, flew to the ground and shattered into smithereens. Millions, billions of its fragments have done, however, even more troubles than the mirror itself. Some of them were no more than a grain of sand, scattered around the world, hit, it happened, people in the eyes and so they stayed there. A person with such a splinter in his eye began to see everything reversed or to notice only its bad sides in every thing, because each splinter retained a property that distinguished the mirror itself. For some people, shrapnel fell right into the heart, and this was the worst of all: the heart turned into a piece of ice. There were also large fragments between these fragments, such that they could be inserted into the window frames, but it was not worth looking at your good friends through these windows. Finally, there were also such fragments that went to glasses, only the trouble was if people put them on in order to look at things and judge them more accurately! And the evil troll laughed to the point of colic: the success of his invention tickled him so pleasantly. But many more fragments of the mirror were flying around the world. Let's listen!

BOY AND GIRL

Second story

V big city, where there are so many houses and people that not everyone and everyone manages to fence off at least a small place for a garden, and where therefore most residents have to be content with indoor flowers in pots, two poor children lived, but they had a garden larger than a flowerpot. They were not related, but they loved each other like brother and sister. Their parents lived in the attics of adjacent houses. The roofs of the houses almost converged, and under the ledges of the roofs there was a gutter that fell just under the window of each attic. It was worth, therefore, to step out of some window onto the gutter and one could find himself at the window of the neighbors.

The parents each had a large wooden box; in them grew roots and small bushes of roses (one in each), showered with wonderful flowers. It occurred to the parents to put these boxes across the gutters - thus, like two rows of flowers stretched from one window to another. Peas descended from boxes in green garlands, rose bushes peered into the windows and intertwined with branches; something like a triumphal gate of greenery and flowers was formed. Since the boxes were very high and the children firmly knew that they could not climb on them, the parents often allowed the boy and the girl to walk to each other on the roof to visit and sit on a bench under the roses. And what fun games they played here!

In winter, this pleasure ceased: the windows were often covered with ice patterns. But the children heated copper coins on the stove and applied them to the frozen glass - right away a wonderful round hole thawed out, and a cheerful, affectionate peephole looked out of it - each boy and girl looked out of their window: Kai and Gerda. In the summer they could find themselves visiting each other in one jump, and in the winter they had to first go down many, many steps, and then climb the same amount up. A snowball was flitting in the yard.

It's white bees swarming! - said the grandmother.

Do they also have a queen? the boy asked; he knew real bees had one.

There is! - answered the grandmother. - Snowflakes surround her with a dense swarm, but she is larger than all of them and never remains on earth - she always rushes on a black cloud. Often at night she flies through the city streets and looks through the windows; that's why they are covered with ice patterns, like flowers!

We saw, we saw! - said the children and believed that all this is true.

Can't the Snow Queen come in here? the girl asked.

Let him try! the boy said. - I'll put her on a warm stove, so she will melt!

But the grandmother stroked him on the head and started talking about something else.

In the evening, when Kai was already at home and almost completely undressed, about to go to bed, he climbed onto a chair by the window and looked into a small circle thawed on the window pane. Snowflakes fluttered outside the window; one of them, a larger one, fell on the edge of the flower box and began to grow, grow, until, finally, it turned into a woman, wrapped in the finest white tulle, woven, it seemed, from millions of snow stars. She was so lovely, so tender - all of dazzling white ice and yet alive! Her eyes sparkled like stars, but there was neither warmth nor meekness in them. She nodded to the boy and beckoned him with her hand. The boy got scared and jumped off the chair; something like a big bird flashed past the window.

The next day there was a glorious frost, but then there was a thaw, and then spring-red came. The sun was shining, the flower boxes were all green again, the swallows were nesting under the roof, the windows were opened, and the children could again sit in their little roof garden.

The roses bloomed delightfully all summer. The girl learned a psalm, which also spoke of roses; the girl sang it to the boy, thinking about her roses, and he sang along to her:

Already roses bloom in the valleys,

The Christ Child is here with us!

The children sang hand in hand, kissed the roses, looked at the clear sun and talked to him: it seemed to them that the Christ child himself was looking at them from him. What a wonderful summer it was, and how good it was under the bushes of fragrant roses, which, it seemed, should bloom forever!

Kai and Gerda sat and looked at a book with pictures of animals and birds; the big tower clock struck five.

Ay! the boy suddenly cried out. - I got a stab in the heart, and something got in the eye!

The girl threw her hand around his neck, he blinked his eyes, but nothing was visible in either one.

Must have popped out! - he said.

But the fact of the matter is that no. Two shards of the devil's mirror hit his heart and eyes, in which, as we, of course, remember, everything great and good seemed insignificant and disgusting, and evil and bad were reflected even more vividly, the bad sides of each thing stood out even more sharply. Poor Kai! Now his heart had to turn into a piece of ice! The pain in the eye and in the heart has already passed, but the very fragments remained in them.

What are you crying about? he asked Gerda. - Uh! How ugly you are now! It doesn't hurt at all! Ugh! he shouted then. - This rose is sharpened by a worm! And that one is quite crooked! What ugly roses! No better than the boxes they stick in!

And he, pushing the box with his foot, plucked two roses.

Kai, what are you doing? - the girl cried, and he, seeing her fright, tore out another one and ran away from pretty little Gerda out his window.

Did the girl bring him a picture book after that, he said that these pictures are good only for babies; Whether grandmother had said anything, he found fault with the words. Yes, even that one! Otherwise he went so far as to imitate her walk, put on her glasses and imitate her voice! It turned out very similar and made people laugh. Soon the boy learned to imitate all the neighbors - he was perfectly able to flaunt all their oddities and shortcomings, and people said:

What a head this little boy has!

And the reason for everything was the fragments of the mirror that hit him in the eye and in the heart. That is why he mimicked even dear little Gerda, who loved him with all her heart.

And his amusements were now completely different, so sophisticated. Once in the winter, when the snow was flailing, he showed up with a large incendiary glass and put the floor of his blue jacket under the snow.

Look into the glass, Gerda! - he said.

Each snowflake seemed much larger under the glass than it actually was, and resembled a luxurious flower or a decagonal star. What a miracle!

You see how skillfully done! - said Kai. - This is much more interesting than real flowers! And what precision! Not a single wrong line! Oh, if only they hadn't melted!

A little later, Kai appeared in large mittens, with a sled behind his back, shouted to Gerda in the very ear: “I was allowed to ride large area with other boys! " - And running.

Many children rode in the square. Those who were bolder tied their sleds to the peasant sleds and rolled in this way quite far. The fun was in full swing. In the midst of it, large white-painted sleighs appeared on the square. A man was sitting in them, all dressed in a white fur coat and the same hat. The sledges drove around the square twice; Kai quickly tied his sled to them and rolled. The large sled rushed faster and then turned off the square into an alley. The man sitting in them turned around and nodded to Kai, as if he were a friend. Kai tried several times to untie his sled, but the man in the fur coat nodded to him, and he continued to ride. So they drove out of the city gates. Snow fell suddenly in flakes, it got so dark that you could not see a single zigzag around. The boy hastened to let go of the rope, with which he had caught on to the large sled, but his sled seemed to be rooted to the large sled and continued to rush in a whirlwind. Kai screamed loudly - no one heard him! Snow fell, sledges raced, diving in the snowdrifts, jumping over hedges and ditches. Kai was trembling all over, he wanted to read Our Father, but one multiplication table was spinning in his mind.

The snowflakes kept growing and finally turned into large white chickens. Suddenly they scattered to the sides, the large sleigh stopped, and the man sitting in them stood up. It was a tall, slender, dazzling white woman - the Snow Queen; both the fur coat and the hat on it were made of snow.

Nice ride! - she said. - But you are completely frozen. Get into my fur coat!

And, having put the boy in her sleigh, she wrapped him in her fur coat; Kai seemed to have sunk into a snowdrift.

Are you still freezing? she asked and kissed his forehead.

Uh! Kiss her was colder than ice, pierced him through and through with cold and reached the very heart, and it was already half ice cold anyway. For one minute it seemed to Kai that he was about to die, but, on the contrary, it became easier, he even completely stopped chilling.

My sleigh! Don't forget my sleigh! - he remembered first of all about the sled.

And the sled was tied to the back of one of the white hens, which flew with them after the large sled. The Snow Queen kissed Kai again, and he forgot both Gerda, and grandmother, and all the family.

I won't kiss you anymore! - she said. - Otherwise I'll kiss you to death!

Kai looked at her - she was so good! He could not even imagine a smarter, more charming face. Now she did not seem icy to him, as she did when she sat outside the window and nodded her head to him; now she seemed perfect to him. He was not at all afraid of her and told her that he knew all four operations of arithmetic, and even with fractions, he knew how many square miles and inhabitants there were in each country, and she only smiled back. And then it seemed to him that he really knew little, and he fixed his gaze into the endless airspace. At the same moment, the Snow Queen soared with him into a dark leaden cloud, and they rushed. The storm howled and groaned, as if singing old songs; they flew over forests and lakes, over seas and solid land; cold winds blew beneath them, wolves howled, snow glittered, black crows flew screaming, and above them a great clear moon shone. Kai watched him all long, long winter night - during the day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.

FLOWER OF A WOMAN WHO KNOWLEDGE

Third story

And what happened to Gerda when Kai did not return? And where did he go? No one knew this, no one could report anything about him. The boys only said that they saw him tie his sled to a large splendid sled, which then turned into an alley and drove out of the city gates. Nobody knew where he had gone. Many tears were shed for him; Gerda cried bitterly and for a long time. Finally it was decided that he was dead, drowned in the river that flowed outside the city. The gloomy winter days dragged on for a long time.

But then spring came, the sun came out.

Kai is dead and will never return! - said Gerda.

I do not believe! - answered the sunlight.

He died and will never return! she repeated to the swallows.

We do not believe! they answered.

In the end, Gerda herself stopped believing it.

I’ll put on my new red shoes: Kai has never seen them yet, ”she said one morning,“ but I’ll go to the river to ask about him.

It was still very early; she kissed the sleeping grandmother, put on her red shoes and ran alone out of town, straight to the river.

Is it true that you took my named brother? I'll give you my red shoes if you give it back to me!

And the girl fancied that the waves were nodding to her in a strange way; then she took off her red shoes, her first jewel, and threw them into the river. But they fell just near the shore, and the waves immediately carried them to land - the river seemed to refuse to take her best jewel from the girl, since it could not return Kai to her. The little girl thought that she had not thrown her shoes very far, climbed into the boat, swaying in the reeds, stood on the very edge of the stern, and again threw the shoes into the water. The boat was not tied and pushed off the shore. The girl wanted to jump out onto land as soon as possible, but while she was making her way from stern to bow, the boat had already moved a whole yard away from the shore and quickly rushed downstream.

Gerda was terribly frightened and began to cry and scream, but no one except the sparrows heard her screams; The sparrows, however, could not carry her to land and only flew after her along the coast and chirped, as if wanting to console her: “We are here! We are here!"

The banks of the river were very beautiful - everywhere you could see the most wonderful flowers, tall, spreading trees, meadows on which sheep and cows grazed, but nowhere was not a human soul to be seen.

"Maybe the river carries me to Kai!" - thought Gerda, cheered up, got to her feet and admired the beautiful green shores for a long, long time. But then she sailed to a large cherry orchard, in which a house with colored glass in the windows and a thatched roof nestled. Two wooden soldiers stood at the door and saluted everyone who sailed by with their guns.

Gerda shouted to them: she took them for living, but they, of course, did not answer her. So she swam closer to them, the boat came almost to the very shore, and the girl screamed even louder. An old-aged old woman in a large straw hat painted with wonderful flowers came out of the house, leaning on a stick.

Oh, you poor baby! - said the old woman. - How did you get on such a big, fast river and get so far?

With these words, the old woman entered the water, hooked the boat with her hook, pulled her to the shore and dropped Gerda.

Gerda was glad to be on land at last, although she was afraid of someone else's old woman.

Well, come on, tell me who you are and how you got here? - said the old woman.

Gerda began to tell her everything, while the old woman shook her head and repeated: “Hm! hm! " But then the girl finished and asked the old woman if she had seen Kai. She replied that he hadn’t been through here yet, but surely it would, so the girl had nothing to grieve about yet - let it be better to try the cherries and admire the flowers that grow in the garden: they are more beautiful than those drawn in any picture book and know how to tell everything fairy tales! Then the old woman took Gerda by the hand, took her to her house and locked the door with a key.

The windows were high from the floor, and they were all multi-colored - red, blue, and yellow - glass; accordingly, the room itself was illuminated by some amazingly bright, iridescent light. There was a basket with wonderful cherries on the table, and Gerda could eat them as much as she wanted; while she ate, the old woman combed her hair with a golden comb. Hair curled in curls and surrounded the girl's fresh, round, like a rose, face of the girl with a golden glow.

I have long wanted to have such a cute little girl! - said the old woman. - You will see how well we will live with you!

And she continued to comb the girl's curls, and the longer she scratched, the more Gerda forgot her named brother Kai: the old woman knew how to conjure. She was not an evil sorceress and only occasionally performed magic, for her own pleasure; now she really wanted to keep Gerda with her. And so she went into the garden, touched all the rose bushes with her stick, and those, as they stood in full bloom, so they all went deep, deep into the ground, and there was no trace of them left. The old woman was afraid that Gerda, at the sight of the roses, would remember her own people, and then about Kai, and even run away from her.

Having done her job, the old woman took Gerda to the flower garden. The girl's eyes flickered: there were flowers of all kinds and all seasons. What a beauty, what a fragrance! In the whole world there was no more colorful picture book, more beautiful than this flower garden. Gerda jumped for joy and played among the flowers until the sun went down behind the tall cherry trees. Then they put her in a wonderful bed with red silk feather beds stuffed with blue violets; the girl fell asleep, and she dreamed such dreams as the queen sees on her wedding day.

The next day Gerda was again allowed to play in the sun. Many days passed in this way. Gerda knew every flower in the garden, but no matter how many there were, it still seemed to her that one was missing, but which one? Once she sat and looked at the old lady's straw hat, painted with flowers; The most beautiful of them was just a rose - the old woman forgot to erase it. That's what absent-mindedness means!

How! There are no roses here? - said Gerda and immediately ran to look for them all over the garden - there is not one!

Then the girl sank to the ground and began to cry. Warm tears fell just on the spot where one of the rose bushes had stood before, and as soon as they wet the ground, the bush instantly grew out of it, just as fresh and blooming as before. Gerda threw her arms around him, began to kiss the roses and remembered those wonderful roses that bloomed in her house, and at the same time about Kai.

How I hesitated! - said the girl. - I have to look for Kai! .. Do you know where he is? she asked the roses. - Do you believe that he died and will not return any more?

He's not dead! - said the roses. - We were underground, where all the dead, but Kai was not between them.

Thank you! - said Gerda and went to other flowers, looked into their cups and asked: "Do you know where Kai is?"

But each flower basked in the sun and thought only about its own fairy tale or story; Gerda heard a lot of them, but not one of the flowers said a word about Kai.

What did the fire lily tell her?

Can you hear the drum beat? Boom! boom! The sounds are very monotonous: boom! boom! Hear the mournful singing of women! Hear the cries of the priests! .. A Hindu widow is standing at the stake in a long red robe. The flame covers her and the body of her deceased husband, but she thinks about him alive - about him, whose eyes burned her heart more than the flame that will now incinerate her body. Can the flame of the heart be extinguished in a fire?

I don’t understand anything! - said Gerda.

This is my fairy tale! - answered the fire lily. What did the bindweed tell?

A narrow mountain path leads to the old knight's castle, which stands proudly on the cliff. The old brick walls are thickly covered with ivy. Its leaves cling to the balcony, and on the balcony there is a lovely girl; she is leaning over the railing and is looking at the road. The girl is fresher than a rose, more airy than an apple-tree flower swayed by the wind. How her silk dress rustles! Will he not come?

Are you talking about Kai? - asked Gerda.

I am telling my tale, my dreams! - answered the bindweed. What did the little snowdrop tell?

A long board is swinging between the trees - this is a swing. There are two nice little girls sitting on the board; their dresses are white as snow, and long green silk ribbons flutter on their hats. A brother, older than them, stands behind the sisters, holding onto the ropes with the bends of the elbows; in his hands: in one - a small cup of soapy water, in the other - a clay tube. He blows bubbles, the board sways, the bubbles fly through the air, shimmering in the sun with all the colors of the rainbow. Here is one hanging at the end of a tube and swaying from the wind. The little black dog, as light as a soap bubble, stands on its hind legs, and puts the front legs on the board, but the board flies up, the little dog falls, puffs and gets angry. Children tease her, bubbles burst ... A swinging board, foam flying through the air - this is my song!

She may be good, but you say all this in such a sad tone! And again, not a word about Kai!

What will hyacinths say?

Once upon a time there were three slender, airy beauties sisters. One was wearing red, the other was blue, and the third was completely white. They danced hand in hand in the clear moonlight by a quiet lake. They weren't elves, but real girls. A sweet scent spread in the air, and the girls disappeared into the forest. Here the aroma became even stronger, even sweeter - three coffins emerged from the thicket of the forest; in them lay beautiful sisters, and around them fluttered like living lights, glowing bugs. Are the girls sleeping or dead? The scent of the flowers says they are dead. The evening bell is ringing for the dead!

You made me sad! - said Gerda. - Your bells also smell so strong! .. Now the dead girls do not go out of my head! Oh, really, and Kai died? But the roses were underground and they say that he is not there!

Ding Dang! - the bells of the hyacinths rang. - We're not calling over Kai! We don't even know him! We call our own song; we don't know the other!

And Gerda went to the golden dandelion, shining in the shiny green grass.

You little clear sun! - Gerda told him. - Tell me, do you know where to look for my named brother?

The dandelion shone even brighter and looked at the girl. What song did he sing to her? Alas! And in this song not a word was said about Kai!

It's early spring, the bright sun of God is shining on the small courtyard. Swallows curl near a white wall adjoining the neighbors' courtyard. The first yellow flowers peep out of the green grass, sparkling in the sun, like golden ones. An old grandmother came out to sit in the yard; her granddaughter, a poor maid, came from among the guests and kissed the old woman tightly. A girl's kiss is more expensive than gold - it comes straight from the heart. Gold on her lips, gold in her heart, gold and in the sky in the morning hour! That's all! - said the dandelion.

Poor my grandmother! - sighed Gerda. - How she misses me, how she grieves! No less than grieving for Kai! But I'll be back soon and bring him with me. There is nothing more to ask the flowers: you will not achieve anything with them, they only know their songs!

And she tied her skirt higher to make it easier to run, but when she wanted to jump over the yellow lily, she whipped her legs. Gerda stopped, looked at the long flower and asked:

Maybe you know something? And she leaned over to him, waiting for an answer. What did the yellow lily say?

I see myself! I see myself! Oh, how fragrant I am! .. High, high in a small closet, under the very roof, there is a half-dressed dancer. She then balances on one leg, then again stands firmly on both and tramples on them all the light, because she is a deception of the eyes. Here she pours water from a teapot onto some white piece of cloth that she is holding in her hands. This is her bodice. Cleanliness is the best beauty! The white skirt hangs from a nail driven into the wall; the skirt was also washed with water from the kettle and dried on the roof! Here is a girl dressing and tying a bright yellow kerchief around her neck, which even more sharply sets off the whiteness of her dress. Again, one leg soars into the air! Look how straight it stands on the other, like a flower on its stalk! I see myself, I see myself!

Yes, this is not enough for me! - said Gerda. - I have nothing to tell about it!

And she ran out of the garden.

The door was only bolted; Gerda pulled the rusty bolt, it gave in, the door opened, and the girl, so barefoot, started to run along the road! She looked back three times, but no one chased her. Finally she got tired, sat down on a stone and looked around: the summer had already passed, it was late autumn in the yard, and in the wonderful old woman's garden, where the sun was always shining and flowers of all seasons were blooming, this was not noticeable!

God! How I hesitated! After all, autumn is already in the yard! There is no time for rest! - said Gerda and again set off.

Oh, how her poor, tired legs ached! How cold and damp the air was! The leaves on the willows turned completely yellow, the fog settled on them in large drops and ran down to the ground; the leaves were falling. One blackthorn was all covered with astringent, tart berries. What a gray, gloomy world the whole world looked like!

PRINCE AND PRINCESS

Fourth story

Gerda had to sit down again to rest. A large raven was jumping in the snow right in front of her; he looked at the girl for a long, long time, nodding his head to her, and finally spoke:

Kar-kar! Hello!

He couldn’t articulate this in a human way, but, apparently, he wished the girl well and asked her where she was wandering around the world all alone? Gerda understood the words “alone and alone” perfectly and immediately felt their full meaning. Having told the crow her whole life, the girl asked if he had seen Kai?

The raven shook his head thoughtfully and said:

May be!

How? Truth? - exclaimed the girl and almost strangled the crow with kisses.

Hush, hush! - said the raven. - I think it was your Kai! But now he must have forgotten you and his princess!

Does he live with the princess? - asked Gerda.

But listen! - said the raven. - Only it is terribly difficult for me to speak your way! Now, if you understood in a crow, I would tell you about everything much better.

No, I was not taught that! - said Gerda. - Grandma, she understands! It would be nice for me to be able to!

Well nothing! - said the raven. - I'll tell you how I can, albeit badly. And he told about everything that only he himself knew.

In the kingdom where you and I are, there is a princess, so clever that you can't say! She had read all the newspapers in the world and had already forgotten everything that she had read — what a clever girl! Once she was sitting on the throne — and there’s little fun in that, as people say — and sang a song: "Why shouldn't I get married?" "But in fact!" - she thought, and she wanted to get married. But as her husband, she wanted to choose such a person who would be able to answer when they spoke to him, and not someone who could only be proud: it’s so boring! And so they called all the ladies of the court with a drumbeat and announced the will of the princess. They were all very happy and said: “We like this! We ourselves have recently thought about it! " All this is true! added the raven. - I have a bride at court, she is tame - from her, I know all this.

His bride was a crow.

The next day, all the newspapers came out with a border of hearts and with the princess's monograms. It was announced in the newspapers that any young man of pleasant appearance could come to the palace and converse with the princess; the one who will behave quite freely, like at home, and prove to be the most eloquent of all, the princess will choose as her husband! Yes Yes! repeated the raven. - All this is as true as the fact that I am sitting here in front of you! The people poured into the palace in a rampart, there was a hustle and bustle, but no sense came out either on the first or on the second day. On the street, all the suitors spoke perfectly, but as soon as they crossed the palace threshold, saw the guards, all in silver, and the lackeys in gold, and entered the huge halls flooded with light, they were taken aback. They will approach the throne where the princess is sitting, and they only repeat her last words, but she did not need this at all! Really, they were all drugged! And leaving the gate, they again acquired the gift of speech. From the very gates to the doors of the palace stretched a long, long tail of suitors. I myself was there and saw! The grooms were hungry and thirsty, but they were not even given a glass of water from the palace. True, whoever was smarter, stocked up on sandwiches, but the thrifty did not share with the neighbors, thinking to themselves: "Let them starve, grow thin - the princess will not take them!"

Well, what about Kai, Kai? - asked Gerda. - When did he come? And he came to woo?

Wait! Wait! Now we have just reached it! On the third day, a small man appeared, neither in a carriage, nor on horseback, but simply on foot, and entered the palace directly. His eyes shone like yours; his hair was long, but he was poorly dressed.

It's Kai! - Gerda was delighted. - So I found him! And she clapped her hands.

He had a knapsack behind him! - continued the raven.

No, it must have been his sleigh! - said Gerda. - He left the house with a sled!

It is very possible! - said the raven. - I didn't get a good look. So, my fiancee told me that when he entered the palace gates and saw the guards in silver, and on the stairs of the lackeys in gold, he was not a bit embarrassed, nodded his head and said: “It must be boring to stand here on the stairs, I I'd rather go into the rooms! " The halls were all flooded with light; the nobles walked about without boots, serving golden dishes: it could not have been more solemn! And his boots creaked, but he was not embarrassed by that either.

This is probably Kai! - exclaimed Gerda. “I know he was wearing new boots!” I myself heard how they creaked when he came to his grandmother!

Yes, they still creaked in order! - continued the raven. - But he boldly approached the princess; she sat on a pearl the size of a spindle, while the ladies and gentlemen of the court stood around with their maids, maid servants, valets, valet servants, and valet attendants. The farther someone stood from the princess and closer to the door, the more important and arrogant they behaved. One could not even look at the servant of the valet servants, who stood in the very doorway, without fear - he was so important!

What a fear! - said Gerda. - Did Kai still marry the princess?

If I had not been a raven, I would have married her myself, even though I am engaged. He entered into a conversation with the princess and spoke as well as I do when I speak the crow, - so, at least, my fiancee told me. In general, he behaved very freely and sweetly and said that he had not come to woo, but only to listen to the clever speeches of the princess. Well, now, he liked her, she too!

Yes, yes, it's Kai! - said Gerda. - He's so smart! He knew all four operations of arithmetic, and even with fractions! Oh, take me to the palace!

It is easy to say, - answered the raven, - but how to do it? Wait, I'll talk to my bride - she will think of something and advise us. Do you think that they will let you into the palace just like that? Why, they don't really let such girls in!

They'll let me in! - said Gerda. - If only Kai heard that I was here, now he would come running after me!

Wait for me here by the bars! - said the raven, shook his head and flew away.

He returned quite late in the evening and croaked:

Kar, Kar! My fiancee sends you a thousand bows and this little loaf. She stole it in the kitchen - there are many of them, and you are probably hungry! .. Well, you cannot get into the palace: you are barefoot - the guards in silver and the footmen in gold will never let you in. But don't cry, you will still get there. My bride knows how to get to the princess's bedroom from the back door, and knows where to get the key.

And so they entered the garden, walked along the long alleys, strewn with yellowed autumn leaves, and when all the lights in the palace windows went out one by one, the raven led the girl through a small half-open door.

Oh, how Gerda's heart beat with fear and joyful impatience! She was definitely going to do something bad, but she just wanted to find out if her Kai was here! Yes, yes, he's right here! She so vividly imagined his clever eyes, long hair, a smile ... How he smiled at her when they used to sit side by side under the rose bushes! And how glad he will be now, when he sees her, hears how long she has decided on for him, learns how all the household grieved for him! Ah, she was just beside herself with fear and joy.

But here they are on the landing of the stairs; a light was on on the cabinet, and a tame crow sat on the floor and looked around. Gerda sat down and bowed, as her grandmother had taught her.

My fiance has told me so many good things about you, young lady! said the tame crow. “The Story of Your Life,” as they say, is also very touching! Would you like to take the lamp, and I will go ahead. We will go the straight path - we will not meet anyone here!

And it seems to me that someone is following us! - said Gerda, and at the same moment some shadows rushed past her with a slight noise: horses with fluttering manes and thin legs, hunters, ladies and gentlemen on horseback.

These are dreams! said the tame crow. - They are to carry away the thoughts of the dignitaries on the hunt. So much the better for us: it will be more convenient to see the sleeping! I hope, however, that by entering the honor, you will show that you have a grateful heart!

There is something to talk about! It goes without saying! - said the forest raven.

Then they entered the first room, all covered with pink satin, woven with flowers. Dreams flashed past the girl again, but so quickly that she did not even have time to consider the riders. One hall was more magnificent than the other - it was simply dumbfounded. Finally they reached the bedroom: the ceiling resembled the top of a huge palm tree with precious crystal leaves; from the middle of it descended a thick golden stem, on which hung two beds in the form of lilies. One was white, the princess was sleeping in it, the other was red, and in it Gerda hoped to find Kai. The girl slightly peeled back one of the red petals and saw a dark blond nape. It's Kai! She called him loudly by name and brought the lamp to his very face. Dreams rushed away with a noise; the prince woke up and turned his head ... Ah, it was not Kai!

The prince looked like him only from the back of his head, but he was just as young and handsome. The princess looked out of the white lily and asked what had happened. Gerda burst into tears and told her whole story, mentioning what the crows had done for her ...

Oh, you poor thing! - said the prince and princess, praised the crows, announced that they were not at all angry with them - just let them not do this in the future - and even wanted to reward them.

Do you want to be free birds? the princess asked. - Or do you want to take the position of court crows on full maintenance from the kitchen leftovers?

The raven and the raven bowed down and asked for positions at court - they thought about old age - and said:

It is good to have a faithful piece of bread in old age!

The prince got up and gave up his bed to Gerda; there was nothing more he could do for her yet. And she folded her hands and thought: "How kind all people and animals are!" - closed her eyes and fell asleep sweetly. Dreams flew into the bedroom again, but now they looked like God's angels and carried Kai on a small sleigh, who was nodding his head to Gerda. Alas! All this was only in a dream and disappeared as soon as the girl woke up.

The next day she was dressed from head to toe in silk and velvet and allowed to remain in the palace as long as she wished. The girl could live and live happily here, but she only stayed for a few days and began to ask to be given a cart with a horse and a pair of shoes - she again wanted to set off to look for her named brother around the world.

She was given shoes, a muff, and a wonderful dress, and when she said goodbye to everyone, a golden carriage drove up to the gate with the coats of arms of the prince and the princess shining like stars; the coachman, footmen, and posters — she was given posters — had little golden crowns on their heads. The prince and princess themselves put Gerda in the carriage and wished her a happy journey. The forest raven, who had already married, accompanied the girl for the first three miles and sat in the carriage next to her - he could not ride his back to the horses. The tame crow sat on the gate and flapped its wings. She did not go to see Gerda off because she suffered from headaches ever since she took office at court and ate too much. The carriage was jam-packed with sugar pretzels, and the box under the seat was packed with fruit and gingerbread.

Goodbye! Goodbye! cried the prince and princess.

Gerda cried, and so did the crow. So they rode the first three miles. Then the raven said goodbye to the girl. It was a hard parting! The raven flew up a tree and flapped its black wings until the carriage, shining like the sun, was out of sight.

LITTLE ROUGH

Fifth story

Here Gerda drove into a dark forest, but the carriage shone like the sun, and immediately caught the eyes of the robbers. They could not stand it and ran into her shouting: “Gold! Gold!" - they seized the horses by the bridle, killed the little jockeys, the coachman and the servants, and pulled Gerda out of the carriage.

Look how nice and fat she is! Fattened with nuts! - said the old robber with a long, hard beard and shaggy overhanging eyebrows. - Fat, what is your lamb! Well, what will it taste like?

And she pulled out a sharp, glittering knife. What a horror!

Hey! - She cried suddenly: she was bitten in the ear by her own daughter, who was sitting behind her and was so unbridled and self-willed that she liked it!

You mean girl! - shouted the mother, but did not manage to kill Gerda.

She will play with me! - said the little robber. “She will give me her muff, her pretty dress, and she will sleep with me in my bed.

And the girl again bit her mother so that she jumped and spun in one place. The robbers laughed.

Look how she rides with her girl!

I want to get in the carriage! - cried the little robber and insisted on her own: she was terribly spoiled and stubborn.

They sat down with Gerda in the carriage and rushed over the stumps and bumps into the thicket of the forest. The little robber was as tall as Gerda, but stronger, broader in the shoulders and much darker. Her eyes were completely black, but somehow sad. She hugged Gerda and said:

They won't kill you until I get mad at you! Are you a princess, right?

Not! - answered the girl and told what she had to experience and how she loves Kai.

The little robber looked at her seriously, nodded slightly and said:

They won't kill you, even if I get angry with you - I'd rather kill you myself!

And she wiped away Gerda's tears, and then hid both hands in her pretty, soft and warm muff.

Here the carriage stopped; they drove into the courtyard of the robber's castle. He was covered in huge cracks; ravens and ravens flew out of them; huge bulldogs jumped out from somewhere and looked so fiercely, as if they wanted to eat everyone, but they did not bark - it was forbidden.

A fire blazed in the middle of a huge room with crumbling, soot-covered walls and stone floors; the smoke rose to the ceiling and itself had to look for a way out; soup boiled over the fire in a huge cauldron, and hares and rabbits were roasting on spits.

You will sleep with me here, near my little menagerie! - said the little robber to Gerda.

The girls were fed and watered, and they went to their corner, where the straw was laid, covered with carpets. More than a hundred pigeons perched on perches higher up; they all seemed to be asleep, but when the girls approached, they stirred slightly.

All mine! - said the little robber, grabbed one pigeon by the legs and shook it so that it beat its wings. - On, kiss him! she shouted, poking the dove in Gerda's face. - And here are the forest crooks! she continued, pointing to two pigeons sitting in a small depression in the wall, behind a wooden grate. - These two are forest rogues! They must be kept locked up, or they will fly away quickly! And here is my dear old fellow! And the girl pulled at the antlers of a reindeer tied to the wall in a shiny brass collar. - He also needs to be kept on a leash, otherwise he will run away! Every evening I tickle him under the neck with my sharp knife - he is afraid of death!

With these words, the little robber pulled out a long knife from a crevice in the wall and ran it over the deer's neck. The poor animal snapped, and the girl burst out laughing and dragged Gerda to the bed.

Do you sleep with a knife? - Gerda asked her, glancing sideways at the sharp knife.

Is always! - answered the little robber. - Who knows what might happen! But tell me again about Kai and how you started to wander around the world!

Gerda told. The forest pigeons in the cage cooed softly; the other pigeons were already asleep; the little robber put one hand around Gerda's neck - she had a knife in the other - and began to snore, but Gerda could not close her eyes, not knowing whether they would kill her or let her live. The robbers sat around the fire, sang songs and drank, and the old robber tumbled. The poor girl was scared to look at this.

Suddenly the forest pigeons cooed:

Curr! Curr! We saw Kai! A white hen carried a sled on his back, and he sat in the Snow Queen's sleigh. They flew over the forest when we chicks were still in the nest; she died on us, and everyone died, except for the two of us! Curr! Curr!

What do you say! - exclaimed Gerda. - Where did the Snow Queen flew to? Do you know?

She probably flew to Lapland, because there is eternal snow and ice! Ask the reindeer what's on the leash!

Yes, there is eternal snow and ice: a miracle, how good! said the reindeer. - There you jump free on the huge glittering ice plains! There will be the summer tent of the Snow Queen, and her permanent palaces at the North Pole, on the island of Spitsbergen!

Oh Kai, my dear Kai! - sighed Gerda.

Lie still! - said the little robber. - Or I'll stab you with a knife!

In the morning Gerda told her what she had heard from forest pigeons. The little robber looked at Gerda seriously, nodded her head and said:

Well, so be it! .. Do you know where Lapland is? she then asked the reindeer.

Who knows, if not me? - answered the deer, and his eyes sparkled. - There I was born and raised, there I jumped on the snowy plains!

So listen! - said the little robber to Gerda. - You see, all of our people are gone; one mother at home; a little later she will take a sip from a large bottle and take a nap - then I will do something for you!

Then the girl jumped out of bed, hugged her mother, pulled her beard and said:

Hello, my dear little goat!

And the mother gave her clicks on the nose, so that the girl's nose turned red and blue, but all this was done lovingly.

Then, when the old woman took a sip from her bottle and began to snore, the little robber went up to the reindeer and said:

For a long, long time, it would be possible to make fun of you! It hurts you to be hilarious when you are tickled with a sharp knife! Well, so be it! I will untie you and set you free. You can run away to your Lapland, but for this you must take this girl to the palace of the Snow Queen - there is her named brother. Surely you heard what she was talking about? She spoke quite loudly, and you always have ears on the top of your head

The reindeer jumped for joy. The little robber put Gerda on him, tied her tightly for the sake of caution, and slipped a soft pillow under her to make it more comfortable for her to sit.

So be it, - she said then, - take back your fur boots - it will be cold! And I'll keep the muff for myself, it hurts too good! But I won't let you freeze: here are mother's huge mittens, they will reach your very elbows! Put your hands in them! Well, now with your hands you look like my ugly mother!

Gerda cried with joy.

I hate it when they whine! - said the little robber. - Now you have to look merrily! Here's two more bread and a ham! What? Probably you won't starve!

Both were tied to the deer. Then the little robber opened the door, lured the dogs into the house, cut the rope with which the deer was tied with her sharp knife, and said to him:

Well, live! Take care, look, girl.

Gerda stretched out both hands in huge mittens to the little robber and said goodbye to her. The reindeer set off at full speed over stumps and hummocks, through the forest, through swamps and steppes. Wolves howled, crows croaked, and the sky suddenly fumbled and threw out columns of fire.

Here is my native northern lights! - said the deer. - Look how it burns!

LAPLANDCA AND FINNCA

Sixth story

The deer stopped at a pitiful hut; the roof went down to the ground, and the door was so low that people had to crawl through it on all fours. At home there was an old Lapland woman who was frying fish in the light of a fat lamp. The reindeer told the Lapland woman the whole story of Gerda, but at first he told his own - it seemed to him much more important. Gerda was so numb from the cold that she could not even speak.

Oh, you poor fellows! - said the Lapland woman. - You still have a long way to go! You have to go a hundred miles too until you get to Finland, where the Snow Queen lives in her country house and lights blue sparklers every evening. I’ll write a few words on dried cod - I don’t have paper, and you will take it down to a date that lives in those places and is better than mine to teach you what to do.

When Gerda warmed up, ate and drank, the Lapland woman wrote a few words on the dried cod, told Gerda to take good care of her, then tied the girl to the back of the deer, and he rushed off again. The sky was again fucking and throwing out columns of wonderful blue flame. So the deer ran to Finland with Gerda and knocked on the chimney of a date - she had no doors either.

Well, the heat was in her house! The date itself, a short, dirty woman, walked half naked. She quickly pulled off Gerda's entire dress, mittens and boots, otherwise the girl would have been too hot, put a piece of ice on the deer's head and then began to read what was written on the dried cod. She read everything from word to word three times, until she memorized it, and then put the cod into the soup pot, because the fish was still good for food, and nothing was wasted from the date.

Here the deer told first his story, and then the story of Gerda. Date blinked with her intelligent eyes, but did not say a word.

You are such a wise woman! - said the deer. “I know that you can tie all four winds with one thread; when the skipper unties one, a fair wind blows, unties the other - the weather will play out, and unties the third and fourth - such a storm will rise that the trees will be smashed to pieces. Would you prepare a drink for the girl that would give her the strength of twelve heroes? Then she would have defeated the Snow Queen!

The strength of twelve heroes! - said the date. - But is there a lot of sense in this!

With these words, she took a large leather scroll from the shelf and unfolded it: there were some amazing letters on it; the date began to read them and read them to the point that her sweat broke out.

The deer again began to ask for Gerda, and Gerda herself looked at the date with such pleading eyes full of tears that she blinked again, took the deer aside and, changing the ice on his head, whispered:

Kai really is with the Snow Queen, but he is quite pleased and thinks that he cannot be better anywhere. The reason for everything is the fragments of the mirror that sit in his heart and in the eye. They must be removed, otherwise he will never be human and the Snow Queen will retain her power over him.

But won't you help Gerda somehow destroy this power?

Stronger than it is, I cannot make it. Can't you see how great her strength is? Can't you see that both people and animals are serving her? After all, she walked around half the world barefoot! It is not for us to borrow her strength! Strength is in her sweet innocent childish heart. If she herself cannot enter the palaces of the Snow Queen and extract the fragments from Kai's heart, then we will not help her even more! The Snow Queen's Garden begins two miles away. Take the girl there, lower it by the big bush covered with red berries, and come back without hesitation!

With these words, the date put Gerda on the back of the deer, and he started to run as fast as he could.

Ay, I'm without warm boots! Ay, I'm without mittens! - shouted Gerda, finding herself in the cold.

But the deer did not dare to stop until he reached a bush with red berries; then he let the girl down, kissed her on the very lips, and large, shiny tears rolled from his eyes. Then he shot back like an arrow. The poor girl was left alone in the bitter frost, without shoes, without mittens.

She ran ahead as best she could; a whole regiment of snow flakes rushed towards her, but they did not fall from the sky - the sky was completely clear, and the northern lights blazed on it - no, they ran along the ground directly to Gerda and, as they approached, they became larger and larger. Gerda remembered large, beautiful flakes under the incendiary glass, but these were much larger, scarier, of the most amazing species and forms, and all alive. These were the vanguard of the Snow Queen's army. Some resembled large ugly hedgehogs, others - hundred-headed snakes, and others - fat bears with tousled hair. But they were all equally sparkling with whiteness, all were living snowflakes.

Gerda began to read Our Father; it was so cold that the girl's breath immediately turned into a thick fog. This fog was thickening and thickening, but small bright angels began to stand out from it, who, having stepped on the ground, grew into large formidable angels with helmets on their heads and spears and shields in their hands. Their number kept increasing, and when Gerda finished her prayer, a whole legion had already formed around her. The angels took the snow monsters for spears, and they crumbled into a thousand pieces. Gerda could now boldly walk forward: the angels stroked her hands and feet, and she was no longer so cold. Finally, the girl reached the palaces of the Snow Queen.

Let's see what happened to Kai at that time. He did not even think of Gerda, and least of all that she was ready to enter him.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE HALLS OF THE SNOW QUEEN AND WHAT HAPPENED THEN

Seventh story

The walls of the Snow Queen's palaces were created by a blizzard, windows and doors were blown by violent winds. Hundreds of huge halls lit by the northern lights stretched one after another; the largest stretched for many, many miles. How cold, how deserted it was in those white, brightly sparkling halls! The fun never came in here! If only for a rare time there was a bear party, with dances to the music of the storm, in which polar bears could have distinguished themselves with grace and the ability to walk on their hind legs, or there was a game of cards, with quarrels and fights, or, finally, they got together for a conversation over a cup of coffee little white gossip chanterelles - no, never and nothing! Cold, deserted, dead! The aurora borealis flashed and burned so correctly that it was possible to calculate with precision at what minute the light would intensify and at what moment it would weaken. In the middle of the largest deserted snow hall was a frozen lake. The ice cracked on it into thousands of pieces, into wonderful and regular ones: one like the other. In the middle of the lake stood the throne of the Snow Queen; she sat on it when she was at home, saying that she was sitting on the mirror of the mind; in her opinion, it was the only and best mirror in the light.

Kai turned completely blue, almost blackened from the cold, but did not notice this: the kisses of the Snow Queen made him insensitive to the cold, and his very heart was a piece of ice. Kai fiddled with flat, pointed ice floes, laying them in all sorts of ways. There is such a game - folding figures from wooden planks, which is called a Chinese puzzle. Kai also put together various intricate figures, but from ice floes, and this was called an icy mind game. In his eyes, these figures were a miracle of art, and folding them was the first priority. This was because there was a shard of a magic mirror in his eye! He put together whole words from ice floes, but he could not put together what he especially wanted: the words "eternity." The Snow Queen told him: "If you put this word together, you will be your own master, and I will give you all the light and a pair of new skates." But he couldn’t fold it.

Now I will fly to warm lands! - said the Snow Queen. - I'll look into the black cauldrons!

She called cauldrons the craters of the fire-breathing mountains - Vesuvius and Etna.

I'll whitewash them a little! This is good after lemons and grapes! And she flew away, and Kai was left alone in the boundless deserted hall, looking at the ice floes and kept thinking, thinking, so that his head was cracking. He sat in one place, so pale, motionless, as if lifeless. You might have thought he was cold.

At that time, Gerda entered the huge gate, made by violent winds. She said the evening prayer, and the winds subsided as if they had fallen asleep. She freely entered the huge deserted ice hall and saw Kai. The girl immediately recognized him, threw herself on his neck, hugged him tightly and exclaimed:

Kai, my dear Kai! Finally I found you!

But he sat still as motionless and cold. Then Gerda wept; her hot tears fell on his chest, penetrated into his heart, melted his ice crust and melted the shard. Kai looked at Gerda, and she sang:

Already roses bloom in the valleys,

The Christ Child is with us here!

Kai suddenly burst into tears and cried for so long and so hard that a shard flowed out of his eye along with tears. Then he recognized Gerda and was delighted.

Gerda! My dear Gerda! .. Where have you been for so long? Where was I myself? And he looked around. - How cold, deserted here!

And he pressed tightly to Gerda. She laughed and cried with joy. Yes, there was such joy that even the ice floes began to dance, and when they got tired, they settled down and made up the very word that the Snow Queen asked Kai to lay down; folding it, he could become his own master, and even receive from her as a gift all the light and a pair of new skates.

Gerda kissed Kai on both cheeks, and they again bloomed with roses, kissed his eyes, and they shone like hers; kissed his hands and feet, and he again became vigorous and healthy. The Snow Queen could return at any time: his vacation card lay here, written in glittering ice letters.

Kai and Gerda left the deserted ice halls hand in hand; they walked and talked about their grandmother, about their roses, and on their way the violent winds died down, the sun peeped through. When they reached a bush with red berries, a reindeer was already waiting for them. He brought with him a young queen deer; her udder was full of milk; she gave them drink to Kai and Gerda and kissed them right on the lips. Then Kai and Gerda went first to the date, warmed up with her and learned the way home, and then - to the Lapland woman; she made them a new dress, repaired her sleigh and went to see them off.

A couple of reindeer also saw off the young travelers right up to the border of Lapland, where the first greens were already breaking through. Here Kai and Gerda said goodbye to the deer and the Lapland woman.

Here is the forest in front of them. The first birds began to sing, the trees were covered with green buds. A young girl in a bright red cap and with pistols in her belt rode out of the forest to meet the travelers on a magnificent horse. Gerda immediately recognized both the horse - it was once harnessed to a golden carriage - and the girl. She was a little robber: she was bored with living at home, and she wanted to visit the north, and if she didn’t like it, she wanted to go to other parts of the world. She also recognized Gerda. What a joy it was!

Look, you tramp! she said to Kai. “I’d like to know if you’re worth it to be followed to the ends of the world!”

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

They went to foreign lands! - answered the young robber.

And the raven and the raven? - asked Gerda.

The forest raven died, the tame crow was left a widow, walks with black hair on its leg and complains about fate. But all this is nonsense, but you better tell me what happened to you and how you found him.

Gerda and Kai told her everything.

Well, that's the end of the fairy tale! - said the young robber, shook their hands and promised to visit them if she ever came to their city. Then she went on her way, and Kai and Gerda on her own. They walked, and along the way, spring flowers bloomed, the grass turned green. Then the bells rang out, and they recognized the bell towers of their hometown. They climbed the familiar stairs and entered a room where everything was as before: the clock ticked in the same way, hour hand... But, passing through the low door, they noticed that during this time they had become adults. Blooming rose bushes peered from the roof into the open window; there were their highchairs. Kai and Gerda each sat down on their own and took each other's hands. The cold desolate splendor of the Snow Queen's palaces was forgotten by them like a heavy dream. Grandmother sat in the sun and loudly read the Gospel: "If you do not, like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven!"

An evil troll makes a mirror in which everything good seems evil, and evil only strikes the eye more clearly. Once the troll's disciples took this mirror and ran with it everywhere, for the sake of fun pointing it at people, and finally decided to reach the sky, “to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself”.

The higher they climbed, the more the mirror grimaced and writhed; they barely held him in their hands. But then they got up again, and suddenly the mirror was so distorted that it tore out of their hands, flew to the ground and shattered to smithereens. Millions, billions of its fragments have done, however, even more troubles than the mirror itself. Some of them were no more than a grain of sand, scattered around the world, hit, it happened, people in the eyes and so they stayed there. A person with such a splinter in his eye began to see everything inside out or to notice only bad sides in every thing - after all, every splinter retained a property that distinguished the mirror itself. For some people, shrapnel hit right in the heart, and this was the worst of all: the heart turned into a piece of ice. There were also large fragments between these fragments, such that they could be inserted into the window frames, but it was not worth looking at your good friends through these windows. Finally, there were also such fragments that went to glasses, only the trouble was if people put them on in order to look at things and judge them more accurately! And the evil troll laughed until colic, so pleasantly tickled his success with this invention.

Original text (Danish)

Jo høiere de fløi med Speilet, des stærkere grinede det, de kunde neppe holde fast paa det; høiere og høiere fløi de, nærmere Gud og Englene; da zittrede Speilet saa frygteligt i sit Griin, at det foer dem ud af Hænderne og styrtede ned mod Jorden, hvor det gik i hundrede Millioner, Billioner og endnu flere Stykker, og da just gjorde det megen større Ulykke end f thi nogle Stykker vare knap saa store som et Sandkorn, og disse fløi rundt om i den vide Verden, og hvor de kom Folk i Øinene, der bleve de siddende, og da saae de Mennesker Alting forkeert, eller havde kun Øine for hvad der var galt ved en Ting, thi hvert lille Speilgran havde beholdt samme Kræfter, som det hele Speil havde; nogle Mennesker fik endogsaa en lille Speilstump ind i Hjertet, og saa var det ganske grueligt, det Hjerte blev ligesom en Klump Iis. Nogle Speilstykker vare saa store, at de bleve brugte til Rudeglas, men gjennem den Rude var det ikke værd at see sine Venner; andre Stykker kom i Briller, og saa gik det daarligt, naar Folk toge de Briller paa for ret at see og være retfærdige; den Onde loe, saa hans Mave revnede, og det kildede ham saa deiligt.

Second story. Boy and girl

Kai and Gerda, a boy and a girl from poor families, are not relatives, but love each other like brother and sister. Under the roof they have their own garden "bigger than a flowerpot" where they plant roses. True, you can't play in the kindergarten in winter, so they visit each other.

In the summer they could find themselves visiting each other in one jump, and in the winter they had to first go down many, many steps, and then climb the same amount up. A snowball was flitting in the yard.
- It's the white bees swarming! - said the old grandmother.
- Do they also have a queen? the boy asked; he knew real bees had one.
- There is! - answered the grandmother. - Snowflakes surround her with a dense swarm, but she is larger than all of them and never remains on the ground - she always rushes on a black cloud. Often at night she flies through the city streets and looks through the windows; that's why they are covered with ice patterns, like flowers.

Original text (Danish)

Om Sommeren kunde de i eet Spring komme til hinanden, om Vinteren maatte de først de mange Trapper ned og de mange Trapper op; ude fygede Sneen.
“Det er de hvide Bier, som sværme,” sagde den gamle Bedstemoder.
"Har de ogsaa en Bidronning?" spurgte den lille Dreng, for han vidste, at imellem de virkelige Bier er der saadan een.
"Det har de!" sagde Bedstemoderen. “Hun flyver der, hvor de sværme tættest! hun er størst af dem alle, og aldrig bliver hun stille paa Jorden, hun flyver op igjen i den sorte Sky. Mangen Vinternat flyver hun gjennem Byens Gader og kiger ind af Vinduerne, og da fryse de saa underligt, ligesom med Blomster. "

Some time passes. In the summer, Kai and Gerda are sitting in their garden among the roses - and then a fragment of the devil's mirror falls into Kai's eye. His heart becomes callous and "icy": he laughs at his grandmother and mocks Gerda. The beauty of flowers no longer touches him, but he admires snowflakes with their mathematically ideal forms ("not a single wrong line"). One day he goes sledding and out of self-indulgence ties his children’s sleds to the luxuriously decorated “adult” sleds. Suddenly they accelerate - faster than he could have imagined, soar into the air and rush away: the Snow Queen took him with her.

Third story. Flower garden of a woman who knew how to conjure

Gerda goes in search of Kai. In her wanderings, she meets a sorceress who lets her in to spend the night and ultimately decides to keep her in order to make her her adopted daughter. She puts a spell on Gerda, because of which the latter forgets about her named brother, and by magic hides all the roses in her garden under the ground so that they do not inadvertently remind the heroine of the roof garden that belongs to her and Kai. But she forgets to remove the roses from her hat.

Once this hat catches the eye of Gerda. The latter remembers everything and begins to cry. Where her tears flow, roses hidden by the sorceress bloom. Gerda asks them:

Having received a negative answer, she realizes that Kai can still be saved, and sets out on a journey.

Fourth story. Prince and Princess

Leaving the garden of the sorceress, where eternal summer reigns, Gerda sees that in fact autumn has long come, and decides to hurry up. On the way, she meets a crow who lives with his bride at the court of the local king. From a conversation with him, she concludes that the princess's groom, who came from unknown lands, is Kai, and persuades the crow to take her to the palace to look at him. It becomes clear that she was wrong; but the princess and her fiancé, after hearing Gerda's story about her misadventures, pity her and give her “shoes, a muff, and a wonderful dress,” and a golden carriage so that she can quickly find Kai.

Fifth story. Little robber

On the way, robbers attack the carriage. They kill posters, coachmen and servants, and also take away Gerda's carriage, horses and expensive clothes. Gerda herself goes as a friend to a little robber, the daughter of the leader of a local gang - ill-mannered, greedy and stubborn, but in fact - lonely. She arranges her in her menagerie; the girl tells her story to the mistress, and the latter penetrates and introduces her to the reindeer - the pride of the menagerie. He tells Gerda about his distant homeland, where the Snow Queen rules:

There you jump free on the endless glittering ice plains! There will be a summer tent of the Snow Queen, and her permanent palaces - at the North Pole, on the island of Spitsbergen!

Original text (Danish)

Der springer man frit om i de store skinnende Dale! Der har Sneedronningen sit Sommertelt, men hendes faste Slot er oppe mod Nordpolen, paa den Ø, som kaldes Spitsberg!

Gerda realizes that it is the Snow Queen who keeps Kai with her and, with the permission of the little robber, sets out on a journey on a reindeer.

Sixth story. Lapland and Finca

On the way, Gerda and the reindeer spend the night with a hospitable Lapland woman, who, after listening to their story, advises travelers to visit the Finnish witch. The deer, following her words, goes with Gerda to the Finnish woman and asks her for a drink for the girl, which would give her the strength of twelve heroes. In response, the Finnish woman says that Gerda will not need such a drink: "strength is in her sweet, innocent childish heart." Having said goodbye to the Finnish woman, Gerda and the deer arrive at the kingdom of the Snow Queen. There they part - then the girl must go on her own.

Seventh story. What happened in the palaces of the Snow Queen and what happened next

Despite all the obstacles, Gerda gets to the palace of the Snow Queen and finds Kai alone: ​​he is trying to put together the word "eternity" from the fragments of ice - such a task was offered to him by the queen before leaving (according to her, if he manages to do this, he will yourself a master ", and she will give him" the whole world and a pair of new skates "). At first he cannot understand who she is, but then Gerda sings to him their favorite psalm:

Roses are blooming ... Beauty, beauty!
We will soon see the baby Christ.

Original text (Danish)

Roserne voxe i Dale,
Der faae vi Barn-Jesus i Tale!

Kai remembers her, and the pieces of ice of joy automatically add up to the right word. Now Kai is his own master. The named brother and sister return home, and it turns out that they are already adults.

07.01.2016

Many of us have read the fairy tale "The Snow Queen" by the famous children's writer Hans Christian Andersen at least once. Better story about the triumph of good over evil and the value of true friendship, probably, can not be found. In this tale, so many characters, emotions and feelings are intertwined that it may well become a good textbook that will tell about human values ​​and shortcomings with examples. So what is the story of the Snow Queen that prompted the writer to come up with such an instructive tale?

The Snow Queen: creation story and autobiographical moments

The fairy tale "The Snow Queen" was written more than 170 years ago and first saw the light of day back in 1844. This is the longest tale of Hans Christian Andersen, which, moreover, is very closely related to the life of the writer.


Andersen himself once admitted that he considers the "Snow Queen" a fairy tale of his life. She lived in it since the time when the little boy Hans Christian played with his neighbor, the blonde Lisbeth, whom he called his sister. She accompanied Hans Christian in all games and undertakings, and was also the first listener of his fairy tales. It is very possible that this particular girl from the childhood of the famous writer became the prototype of little Gerda.


Not only Gerda actually existed. Andersen's biographers state that The Snow Queen was inspired by Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, with which the writer was in love.


The girl's cold heart and unrequited love prompted him to write the story of the Snow Queen - a beauty who is alien human feelings and emotions.
You can also find information that Andersen was familiar with the image of the Snow Queen from early childhood. In Danish folk legends, death is often called the Ice Maiden. When the boy's father was dying, he said that his time had come and the Ice Maiden came for him. Perhaps Andersen's Snow Queen has a lot in common with the Scandinavian image of winter and death. Just as cold, just as insensitive. Her kiss alone can freeze the heart of any person.

The story of the Snow Queen: interesting facts

In addition to Scandinavian mythology, the image of the Ice Maiden is also present in other countries. In Japan it is Yuki-onna, and in Russia it is Mara-Morena.
Andersen really liked the image of the Ice Maiden. In his creative heritage there is also the fairy tale "The Maiden of Ice", and the prosaic "Snow Queen" in seven chapters was narrated by the fairy tale of the same name in verse about the mysterious Snow Queen who stole the groom from a young girl.
The tale was written in a difficult year for history. There is an opinion that Andersen wanted to show the struggle between science and Christianity in the image of the Snow Queen and Gerda.
They say that H.-G. Andersen wrote the tale with many grammatical errors. When pointed out by the editors, he pretended that it was his idea.

It was the Snow Queen Andersen who inspired the writer Tove Jansson to create The Magic Winter.
It should be mentioned that in the Soviet Union this story came under censorship. There was no mention of Christ, the Lord's Prayer and the psalm sung by Kai and Gerda. It was also not mentioned that the grandmother read the Gospel to the children; this moment was replaced with an ordinary fairy tale.


Andersen's tale has gained immense popularity. She was translated into languages different countries so that the story of the Snow Queen is known to children all over the world. In addition, there are multiple film adaptations and dramatizations, the most famous of which are the film "The Mystery of the Snow Queen" and the cartoon "Frozen". The story of Kai and Gerda became the basis for the opera of the same name.
Be sure to read The Snow Queen again. Now, knowing the history of the creation of this tale, you will definitely discover something new for yourself and understand it in a different way.

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