THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

Andersen may have drawn upon this passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 13) for his Snow Queen, a coming of age philosophical story to reflect upon. The main theme in the story is the endurance of true love through fire and ice, through joys and sorrows, to the ends of the Earth and till the end of time:

If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing. 
If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing.

The kindness in the gifts of the freethinking Clever Princess, who can read all newspapers in the world but appears self-absorbed and detached until she meets her equal (she, like Gerda and Kai, is transformed by love).
And the infinite magical powers of good witches (the gardener and the Sami), that do not serve to free Kai from the Snow Queen's love. The Finmark shaman offers the heroine no potion that may give her powers: for Gerda has made it to the ends of the earth, subjugating plants, animals, and humans superior to her (in strength, wealth, power, knowledge) with her unyielding love.
While a captive Kai was, while frozen-hearted, given the offer to rule together with the Snow Queen and become her consort, which he doubtlessly accepted. 
Only because he was completely rational and bereft of altruism did he yield to her offer to conquer the whole world and rule it together, the two of them. 
Yet he feels empty within: all that power and knowledge mean nothing to him, there must be something more to life...
The character arc of the Clever Princess is also that of a powerful intellectual leaving her ivory tower thanks to the power of love. She is rescued from the dragon of ennui by a clever and cheerful, modest young man who loved her selflessly, without greed or lust for power. And thus, she feels compelled to do acts of kindness and respond to Gerda's plight.
Their story of self-discovery runs parallel with that of our heroes.

Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 

"Don't you see how far she's come in her worn wooden shoes? How other people, like animals and plants as well, have to serve her on their knees?", says the wise healer shaman. Gerda doesn't give up, she doesn't fight when provoked, she hopes that Kai will change for better and that the Robber Maiden will reform. 
In the magical garden and at the royal court, she is offered to stay and "lead a happy life", but she denies and asks only for provisions and a steed to carry on her quest, without wavering. She even rejects the Robber Maiden's offer to become her playmate. Kai's life is more important to her than her own pleasure. 
She even takes on an army of ice monsters on her own: the warmth of her heart thaws them. Gerda never gives up hope, and she's ready to die for him (when attacked by robbers or by ice monsters, she stands her ground).
In the end, the unyielding power of love triumphs when her childhood songs and tears of joy warm Kai's heart, expelling the mirror shard from his heart and from his system inside a teardrop. Which sets him finally free. 
On the other hand, a captive Kai was, while frozen-hearted, given the offer to rule together with the Snow Queen and become her consort, which he doubtlessly accepted. 
Only because he was completely rational and bereft of altruism did he yield to her offer to conquer the whole world and rule it together, the two of them. 
His acceptance of power and pleasure for the self is opposed to Gerda's rejection of the same offers on altruistic grounds.
The Clever Princess is also a powerful intellectual who leaves her ivory tower thanks to the power of love. She is rescued from the dragon of ennui by a clever and cheerful, modest young man who loved her selflessly, without greed or lust for power.
And thus, she feels compelled to do acts of kindness, instead of being detached before a suffering commoner. Like Mary Lamb said, "goodness directed by knowledge, in bestowing benefits upon mankind, approaches to the nature of the gods."


But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.

The garden of the Springtime Witch remains static, while the seasons change in the outside world, yet one has to leave it and confront that there is change, that another season is going on and about to change.
The lavish gifts of the royals are stolen, and their loyal entourage is slain, by vicious highwaymen. At the end of the day, the Clever Princess and her spouse have left their land for foreign regions, being absent. They're on their honeymoon, having already completed their quest of love.



When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become an adult, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

These are the words that Kai could have spoken upon being set free. The mirror shard inside him (a Cupid's arrow, but of rationality), and the fact that he started to reject fairytales and prefer science upon coming of age, are related to each other. 
The Mirror of Reason, shattered long ago, was being reconstructed by Kai and the Queen before her now empty throne (she has left for more southern lands, to bring the winter). He had been hitherto unaware of the paradox that the only missing shard was inside his own heart (Like Dorothy with her ruby slippers). Only by expelling it inside a teardrop could the looking-glass be restored and its recreator be freed.  
When the last shard leaves his body and falls into place, he comes to and finds out that he is sitting before the one he loves, looking into the completed mirror, but face to face with the only one whose love can set him free. Thus, he now knows the mysteries of existence, but not all of them. 
The mirror is reconstructed as an eternally shining sun. He has become aware of eternity through his own life-death-rebirth. He was delivered by another heart full of faith, hope, and love... and love is the greatest of the three, the great Secret of Life.