TSQ-IV: FEARFUL SYMMETRY

This retelling is a fragment from the Snow Queen version retold in the Myths and Legends Podcast episode 21, Fearful Symmetry. (As an aside, I've linked both Savitri and the Princess in the Fourth Story with Portia on my FutureLearn Shakespeare course and argued that the title of the play should rather be The Heiress of Belmont...)
PS. The question mark is left there until someone can clarify which word the narrator said. The question is currently on in this podcast's Facebook...

This week, on the Myths and Legends Podcast, it's the story of the Snow Queen, the fairytale that very loosely inspired Disney's Frozen. You'll see how children's entertainment has changed over 170 years...
This is the Myths and Legends Podcast, episode 21: Fearful Symmetry. 
The fun thing about the stories of Hans Christian Andersen is that they aren't technically folktales. They're absolutely fairytales, due to their inclusion of fantastical, supernatural elements.
I'll jump right into the story. You don't need any background, other than the fact that it takes place in the 1800s in a Scandinavian country. And that's about it. 
(Skip right to the Fourth Story, at minute 17!!)
[···] ...a human male. 
[···] ...the human boy, [···] ...a lot of Kais, or human boys, [···] ...finally gets to the relevant part.
So, as an aside, the story's kind of getting into the weeds here. [···]
Basically, there's a super-smart princess, who decides that she'd like to get married. She doesn't want to get married to just anyone, but she wants her intellectual equal. She issues a challenge for all the young men in the realm to come and have a conversation. The one who can hold his own (?) will be her husband.
The young men come, but they are so intimidated by the princess that they can hardly say a word. Enter a young man with shabby clothes and a pack... or sled... slung off his back. He's wearing nice boots, and goes up and talks to the princess. And she... likes him. 
The young poor boy married the princess, and he's currently in the palace with her. 
[···] ...to the palace up a back hallway. [···] in, [···] the prince and princess's bedroom, where they're sleeping, [···]  Instead of being incredibly angry about an intruder in their chamber, the prince and princess get up, and let (Gerda) have their bed. (She) sleeps there, and stays in the castle for a few days. The three get along well, and they wanna help her find Kai, if he's still alive. They give her a carriage, horses, drivers, servants, and everything. And (Gerda) rides off, waving goodbye to the prince and princess, ...
(Segue into the Fifth Story, at minute 19)
[···] ...down the road in the carriage, happy and comfortable. [···] Then, she saw the blood.
(Ominous background music)
An arrow went through the driver, then stuck into the wall of the carriage. Blood poured in the hall, and that's when she heard the screams, all around. (She) could hear more arrows that hit into the driver, and ducked and cowered in a dark corner of the carriage. People climbed aboard. [···] ...could hear the screams, weeping, and pleading of the servants that had left the castle [···], before the sounds of daggers, and silence.
[···]  and they (tall, ugly men) were dragging the bodies from the carriage, and going through the pockets of the dead men for any valuables. They were bandits.
(In the Seventh Story, at minute 34)
She (the robber girl) said that the prince and princess are in a foreign land, [···]