TSQ-IV: SARAH LOWES AT LAST!!

Miss Clara's illustration of the damsel (la Damoiselle) in Marie Diaz's retelling.
The author made her a daughter of the landed gentry because she dislikes the baroque / rococo style.
She appears poised and mature, learned on account of the books, globe, and spectacles,
and dark-haired to appear mature as well. A truly beautiful figurine in an equally beautiful diorama.

(Background music: Già nella notte densa, Otello, Verdi. 

Just because I adore that duet and it fits my Snow Queen OTP)

Marie Diaz

QUATRIÈME HISTOIRE

Le Chevalier et la Damoiselle

In the heart of this shire, there is a wooden fortress, where the menu is most exquisite! In the highest story of the fortress, in the tower of the keep, there lives a damsel: she is charming, and so clever that she's read all the books in the world, but she was bored to death and she didn't even have a single friend. She's so learned that no one knew what to say to her in conversation. Thus, the damsel decided to wed the first man who would talk to her about something else than her beauty.

Her parents, the lord and lady of the shire, organized an audience for all the young men in the land. The best eligible bachelors presented themselves, even woodcutters and farmers, since everyone would have a chance.

The dashing suitors crowded the staircase, cheerfully talking to each other. They spoke eloquently, yet none of them passed the test. Upon entering the damsel's bedchamber, as they saw her before her rows of ornate picture books, the young men were seized by some kind of trance: they turned pale, they stuttered, and they could hardly recitate a single poem in praise of the damsel's fair visage, or of her beautiful complexion.

On the third day in the evening, a young knight without entourage or carriage presented himself, and he marched confidently up the staircase: he kept his hair long, and his eyes sparkled. He was carrying a knapsack...

The stranger passed beneath the brocades and the golden dragons of the great hall without even flinching; he saluted, with a smile, the lord and his vassals with their shining swords; and then, he greeted the lady and her maids, who were looking with scorn at his torn garments. His boots creaked and clinked in the silent room...

He passed before the armed and breastplated guards, and he finally arrived in the presence of the damsel, who was reading, sitting by the music stand she used to hold her books: she was reading a thousand-page book, as eagerly as if she were relishing the most delicious among desserts. She was so tired of listening to so much foolishness in a row that she didn't hear him come, nor notice that he had arrived.

All those who have seen the damsel dream of wedding her!

The strangest thing by far was that the young knight hadn't come to court her: he only felt curious about her knowledge. He asked her a question in some unknown foreign language, and the damsel replied immediately, looking rather pleased. That overjoyed her. She liked the knight so much, and he liked the damsel as well! She was overjoyed with him, and he was overjoyed with her too!

The fortress, which towered in the middle of the heath, was surrounded by a high palisade. Beyond the fence, the streets were deserted that night. In the tavern, the suitors that the damsel had scorned were drowning their sorrows in tankards of hot chocolate.

The bedchamber was sumptous: there were two wooden beds with golden carvings, covered in velvet brocade. Under the white canopy slept the damsel, and under the crimson one slept the knight. The young man was dashing.

In the stables, there were the best steeds, brought over from all corners of the world. 

Later on, when autumn had given way to winter and winter had changed into spring, the knight and the damsel took a trip abroad. They loved to speak Double Dutch.

At last the Fourth Story retold for the Miss Clara illustrated, but told in English (different from the original French, which was the one I posted)... the retelling by Sarah Lowes... is within my reach!!! But at least only the first snippet. One day, I promise you readers, you will have the full story at your disposal!!

So what else could I do but post it here, as I flush red as a strawberry and hot as the sun?

Sarah Lowes

CHAPTER FOUR

The Prince and the Princess

"[···] he, is about to marry a princess, and she is as clever as she is beautiful.

[···] to the royal bedchamber via a back staircase that is rarely guarded.

[···] about the princess and how unusual she was. She loved learning, spending her time in the royal library among thousands of books. She was interested in marriage only if she found a  man who equalled her in wit. Many suitors tried to court her, but none had been successful. None, that is, until one day a fair-haired boy had walked straight past all the guards and courtiers, and announced: "I have not come to woo the princess, but to learn from her wisdom."

[···] "He is always so brave and clever."

At last a grand building appeared in the distance. When they reached it, they found a half-open door at the back and not a guard in sight. [···] as they tiptoed inside. At the top of the stairs [···] As they passed through large rooms hung with silks and satins in every hue, [···] huge black shadows rustling and whispering along the walls. They were knights and ladies, horses and castles, and other shapes and figures, too many to count and constantly changing.

"They are dreams," [···] "they are here to entertain the lords and ladies while they sleep."

Then they came to the very last room, in which stood a great golden pillar. Looking up, [···] it was the trunk of a huge tree, with shining branches stretching up to form the ceiling and the facets of graceful glass leaves twinkling in the lamplight. From the tree hung two beds in the shape of lilies, one white and one red. In the white bed slept the princess and in the red one slept the boy.

[···] up to the boy's bed and shone the lamp on his hair. [···] and he awoke. [···]

The princess had woken up too, by this time, and she and the prince listened intently [···] They were impressed by [···] and persuaded [···] to stay the night.

In return for all the help [···], the princess offered [···] positions at court with the right to [···]. The prince and princess begged [···] to stay awhile at the palace, but all [···] asked for was a horse so that [···] could be on [···] way. "Of course!" declared the princess. She provided [···] with an immaculate riding coat, trimmed with fur and with velvet buttons. "Now," she said, "let us find you a mount."

They walked over to the stables, the princess inviting [···] to choose from a range of magnificent horses from every corner of the globe. [···]

Then they came to a stall where a handsome reindeer was waiting. [···] "Climb on my back; I will help you."

One of the palace grooms saddled and bridled the reindeer, hanging sacks of delicious food and wine along his flanks. "Goodbye and good luck!" cried the prince and princess. [···]

CHAPTER FIVE

The Outlaw Girl

 

Before long, they entered a dark forest where the heavily laden reindeer drew the eyes of the forest outlaws, who sprang out of the undergrowth and seized him by the bridle. The bags of provisions were taken [···]

"No!" shouted a clear, commanding voice. "[···] give me [···]  fine clothes [···]." 

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Snow Queen's Palace

[···] asked for news of the prince and princess. "Their royal highnesses are travelling in foreign lands, [···]"

THE AETERNAL SWIRLING FIGHT - CRITIQUE OF THE CLEVER PRINCESS

The Spanish English-language blog The Aeternal Swirling Fight just critiqued my favourite character in The Snow Queen (using Naomi Lewis' translation as the basis) and I feel a mix of helium and arsenic in my insides. The bold fonts are Marta Lúthien's in The Aeternal Swirling Fight, the underlinings are mine.

... a lot of women along the way, so that was nice. But many of these women aren't painted in a very good light either. 

-The princess is initially depicted as smart and knowing her own mind, and she has to get married, but is looking for an intelligent man who can be her intellectual equal. Still, she finishes in a pretty minimal role in the story alongside a handsome youth (who Gerda mistakes for Kai) - A creepy implication that either the princess married super young, or, worse still, that she's into minors, (given that Gerda and Kai are very young teenagers at the most ):S

 And finally, the IG storytime with more or less the same text content, but also including direct quotes and a bit more specifics:

Now Alexandre Dumas in his retelling La Reine des Neiges says the princess is 18 (dix-huit ans) and the prince is between 20 and 25.  Standard marriageable age for female and male, respectively, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. 

Most illustrators, character designers, and film cast directors choose to portray both of these characters as young adults in their twenties, or at the least in their late teens.

Also, Sansa Stark and Caterina de' Medici and so forth prove that princesses did marry (and princes did too) super young in a certain historical epoch.

That was all in my rebuttal. I still agree with and adore the positive things she says about the depiction of this fascinating female character (smart, knowing her own mind, looking for an intelligent man who can be her intellectual equal and finding him in this handsome youth), however.

Märchensammler - Vierte Geschichte: Prinz und Prinzessin

Und morgen im Märchensammler die vierte Geschichte oder: ???

Schneekönigin
Vierte Geschichte
Prinz und Prinzessin

In diesem Königreiche, in welchem wir jetzt sitzen, wohnt eine Prinzessin, die ist so unbändig klug, aber sie hat auch alle Zeitungen, die es in der Welt giebt, gelesen und wieder vergessen, so klug ist sie. Neulich saß sie auf dem Throne, und das ist doch nicht so angenehm, sagt man, da fängt sie an ein Lied zu singen und das war gerade dieses: „„weshalb sollt’ ich mich nicht verheirathen!““ „„Höre, da ist etwas daran,““ sagte sie, und so wollte sie sich verheirathen, aber sie wollte einen Mann haben, der zu antworten verstand, wenn man mit ihm sprach, einen, der nicht nur stand und vornehm aussah, denn das ist so langweilig. Nun ließ sie alle Hofdamen zusammentrommeln, und als diese hörten, was sie wollte, wurden sie sehr vergnügt; „„das mag ich leiden!““ sagten sie, „„daran dachte ich neulich auch!““

Die Zeitungen kamen sogleich mit einem Rande von Herzen und der Prinzessin Namenszug heraus; man konnte darin lesen, daß es einem jeden jungen Manne, der gut aussah, frei stehe, auf das Schloß zu kommen und mit der Prinzessin zu sprechen, und derjenige, welcher rede, daß man hören könne, er sei dort zu Hause, und der am besten spräche, den wolle die Prinzessin zum Manne nehmen. — Ja, ja!“ sagte die Krähe „du kannst es mir glauben, es ist so gewiß wahr, als ich hier sitze; die Leute strömten herzu, es war ein Gedränge und ein Laufen, aber es glückte nicht, weder den ersten noch den zweiten Tag. Sie konnten Alle gut sprechen, wenn sie draußen auf der Straße waren, aber wenn sie in das Schloßthor traten und die Gardisten in Silber sahen und die Treppe hinauf die Lakaien in Gold und die großen erleuchteten Säle, dann wurden sie verwirrt; und standen sie gar vor dem Throne, wo die Prinzessin saß, dann wußten sie nichts zu sagen als das letzte Wort, was sie gesprochen hatte, und das noch einmal zu hören, dazu hatte sie keine Lust. Es war gerade, als ob die Leute drinnen Schnupftabak auf den Magen bekommen hätten und in den Schlaf gefallen wären, bis sie wieder auf die Straße kamen, denn dann konnten sie sprechen. Da stand eine Reihe vom Stadtthore an bis zum Schlosse. Sie wurden sowohl hungrig als durstig, aber auf dem Schlosse erhielten sie nicht einmal ein Glas laues Wasser. Zwar hatten Einige der Klügsten Butterbrot mitgenommen, aber sie theilten nicht mit ihrem Nachbar, sie dachten so: laß ihn nur hungrig aussehen, dann nimmt die Prinzessin ihn nicht! 

So war es unter der Menge.

Es war am dritten Tage, da kam eine kleine Person, ohne Pferd oder Wagen, ganz fröhlich gerade auf das Schloß marschirt; seine Augen glänzten, er hatte schöne lange Haare, aber sonst ärmliche Kleider.

Er hatte ein kleines Ränzel auf dem Rücken!

Wie er in das Schloßthor kam und die Leibgardisten in Silber sah und die Treppe hinauf die Lakaien in Gold, er nicht im mindesten verlegen wurde; er nickte und sagte zu ihnen: „das muß langweilig sein, auf der Treppe zu stehen, ich gehe lieber hinein!“ Da glänzten die Säle von Lichtern; Geheimeräthe und Excellenzen gingen auf bloßen Füßen und trugen Goldgefäße; man konnte wohl andächtig werden! Seine Stiefeln knarrten so gewaltig laut, aber ihm wurde doch nicht bange.

Ja freilich knarrten sie! und frischen Muths ging er gerade zur Prinzessin hinein, die auf einer großen Perle saß, welche so groß wie ein Spinnrad war; und alle Hofdamen mit ihren Jungfern und den Jungfern der Jungfern, und alle Cavaliere mit ihren Dienern und den Dienern der Diener, die wieder einen Burschen hielten, standen rings herum aufgestellt; und je näher sie der Thür standen, desto stolzer sahen sie aus. Des Dieners Dieners Burschen, der immer in Pantoffeln geht, darf man kaum anzusehen wagen, so stolz steht er in der Thür!

Daß muß gräulich sein! Und er hat doch die Prinzessin erhalten?

Er soll eben so gut gesprochen haben. Er war fröhlich und niedlich; er war gar nicht gekommen zum Freien, sondern nur gekommen, um der Prinzessin Klugheit zu hören, und die fand er gut, und sie fand ihn wieder gut.

„Erwarte mich dort am Gitter!“

Erst als es spät Abend war, ... Es ist nicht möglich, daß du in das Schloß hinein kommen kannst; die Gardisten in Silber und die Lakaien in Gold würden es nicht erlauben; aber weine nicht, du sollst schon hinauf kommen. Meine Geliebte kennt eine kleine Hintertreppe, die zum Schlafgemache führt, und sie weiß, wo sie den Schlüssel erhalten kann.

Und sie gingen in den Garten hinein, in die große Allee, wo ein Blatt nach dem andern abfiel, und als auf dem Schlosse die Lichter ausgelöscht wurden, das eine nach dem andern, führte ... zu einer Hinterthür, die nur angelehnt war.

Nun waren sie auf der Treppe; da brannte eine kleine Lampe auf einem Schranke;

„Es ist mir, als käme Jemand hinter uns,“ und es sauste an ihr vorbei; es war wie Schatten an der Wand entlang, Pferde mit fliegenden Mähnen und dünnen Beinen, Jägerburschen, Herren und Damen zu Pferde.

„Das sind nur Träume, die kommen und holen der hohen Herrschaft Gedanken zur Jagd ab, das ist recht gut, dann können Sie sie besser im Bette betrachten. Aber ich hoffe, wenn Sie zu Ehren und Würden gelangen, Sie werden ein dankbares Herz zeigen.“

Nun kamen sie in den ersten Saal, der war von rosenrothem Atlas mit künstlichen Blumen an den Wänden hinauf, hier sausten an ihnen schon die Träume vorbei, aber sie fuhren so schnell, daß man die hohen Herrschaften nicht zu sehen bekam. Ein Saal war immer prächtiger als der andere; ja, man konnte wohl verdutzt werden, und nun waren sie im Schlafgemach. Die Decke hier glich einer großen Palme mit Blättern von Glas, kostbarem Glase, und mitten auf dem Fußboden hingen an einem dicken Stengel von Gold zwei Betten, von denen jedes wie eine Lilie aussah: die eine war weiß, in der lag die Prinzessin; die andere war roth, und in dieser, wenn man bog eines der rothen Blätter zur Seite und da sah man einen braunen Nacken.

— die Träume sausten zu Pferde wieder in die Stube hinein — er erwachte, wendete das Haupt und —

Der Prinz ..., aber jung und hübsch war er. Und aus dem weißen Lilienblatte blinzelte die Prinzessin hervor, und fragte, was das wäre. 

„Du armes Kind!“ sagten der Prinz und die Prinzessin, und sie belobten die ... und sagten, daß sie gar nicht böse auf sie seien, aber sie sollten es doch nicht öfter thun. Uebrigens sollten sie eine Belohnung erhalten.

„Wollt ihr frei fliegen?“ fragte die Prinzessin, 

Und der Prinz stand aus seinem Bette auf und ließ ...  darin schlafen, und mehr konnte er nicht thun. ... und dachte: „wie gut sind nicht die Menschen ...!“

Am nächsten Tage wurde sie von Kopf bis zu Fuß in Seide und Sammet gekleidet; es wurde ihr angeboten, auf dem Schlosse zu bleiben und gute Tage zu genießen, aber sie bat nur um einen kleinen Wagen mit einem Pferde davor und ein Paar kleine Stiefeln, dann wolle sie wieder in die weite Welt hinaus fahren ... .

Und sie erhielt sowohl Stiefeln als Muff, sie wurde niedlich gekleidet, und als sie fort wollte, hielt vor der Thür eine neue Kutsche von reinem Golde; des Prinzen und der Prinzessin Wappen glänzte an derselben wie ein Stern; Kutscher, Diener und Vorreiter, denn es waren auch Vorreiter da, saßen mit Goldkronen auf. Der Prinz und die Prinzessin halfen ihr selbst in den Wagen und wünschten ihr alles Glück.  Inwendig war die Kutsche mit Zuckerbretzeln gefüttert, und im Sitze waren Früchte und Pfeffernüsse.

„Lebewohl! Lebewohl!“ riefen der Prinz und die Prinzessin, ... 

 so lange sie den Wagen, welcher wie der helle Sonnenschein glänzte, erblicken konnte.

Textquelle: Hans Christian Andersen’s Gesammelte Werke. Vom Verfasser selbst besorgte Ausgabe. Zwölfter Band: Gesammelte Märchen, Erster Theil. Leipzig: Verlag von Carl B. Lorck 1847, S. 90-99.

*******

Es ist schon genial, wie Hr. Andersen hier ein Märchen im Märchen mit Träumen auf rasenden Pferden erzählt und dabei sämtliche Märchenklischees aufmischt. Wenn nicht der König die Aufgabe an den Bewerber stellt, sondern die scheinbar emanzipierte und noch hochgebildete Prinzessin selbst und der Held dann auch nicht schön – na gut, schon schön – und mutig sein soll, sondern vor allem klug und schlagfertig. Und nicht langweilig.

Und nahtlos geht es weiter mit…

Schneekönigin
Fünfte Geschichte
Das kleine Räubermädchen

Sie fuhren durch den dunklen Wald, aber die Kutsche leuchtete gleich einer Fackel; das stach den Räubern in die Augen, das konnten sie nicht ertragen.

„Das ist Gold, das ist Gold!“ riefen sie, stürzten hervor, ergriffen die Pferde, schlugen die kleinen Jockeys, den Kutscher und die Diener todt,  ...

Textquelle: Hans Christian Andersen’s Gesammelte Werke. Vom Verfasser selbst besorgte Ausgabe. Zwölfter Band: Gesammelte Märchen, Erster Theil. Leipzig: Verlag von Carl B. Lorck 1847, S. 100-106.

*******

Okay, diese Geschichte ist mehr skuriler Alptraum, der – wie die es ja gelegentlich tun – auf dem vermeidlichen Horrorhöhepunkt kippt. Und dazu nach der ‚emanzipierten‘ Prinzessin nun die forsche Räubertochter ist ja auch nicht übel…

Das ging schnell…

Schneekönigin
Siebente Geschichte
Von ... was sich später darin zutrug

und fragte nach dem Prinzen und der Prinzessin.

„Die sind nach fremden Ländern gereist!“ sagte das Räubermädchen.

Textquelle: Hans Christian Andersen’s Gesammelte Werke. Vom Verfasser selbst besorgte Ausgabe. Zwölfter Band: Gesammelte Märchen, Erster Theil. Leipzig: Verlag von Carl B. Lorck 1847, S. 111-117.

*******

Irgendwie hatte ich das etwas dramatischer in Erinnerung… nicht, dass ... alles ist super. Hmmm… 

CRYSTALCOCOON: THE SNOW QUEEN

More Persinette, aka crystalcocoon, on The Snow Queen (seriously, I just could not only post about the Princess and the Prince in Story the Fourth being her Andersen OTP, but also a lot of many other things she's told about this Andersenian tale, which happens to be her favourite --here be adaptation reviews, headcanons, and the reveal of her straight and queer OTPs in this tale!):


ON WIZART'S SNOW QUEEN

I wanted to get my thoughts down on the trailer for the Snow Queen from the Russian studio Wizart Animation (not Disney’s Frozen). It turned into my thoughts on Hans Christian Andersen’s story as well.

I initially thought that that it looked too slapsticky for my taste, but that’s probably just the marketing. I’m not sure how I feel about the Snow Queen being a threat to the world rather than a personal threat to Kai. However, one aspect of Andersen’s story that I’m not keen on is the Snow Queen and the mirror shards representing ‘cold reason’. It’s just too much of the 'scientists can’t appreciate beauty and wonder’ trope, which couldn’t be further from the truth. (It does make me giggle to think of Gerda going 'Fuckin’ magnets, how do they work?’) So I can’t say I’m surprised at the film-makers choosing a different interpretation.

I do hope that the Snow Queen does actually affect Kai’s heart/mind and doesn’t just turn him into ice, though. I love the part in the story where Gerda melts Kai’s frozen heart. No doubt they will need a final confrontation with the Snow Queen as well.

Honestly, it bothers me that the Snow Queen just disappears from the story and there’s no final meeting with her. My vision for the 'personal threat’ version of the confrontation: Gerda makes it to the Snow Queen’s castle, meets the Queen, and says she’s there to take Kai home. The Snow Queen says she’s welcome to speak to Kai, but he’s there of his own free will, and she cannot take him if he does not wish to leave. Gerda melts Kai’s heart and the ice shards form 'eternity’. The Snow Queen must honour her promise and give Kai his freedom (and the new pair of skates helps them leave the icy castle more easily).

Kai and Gerda being siblings (by blood): I like it. I appreciate that their relationship in the story is ambiguous, rather than clearly romantic, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing for adaptors to decide they want to take the focus off romance. (Plus if Kai’s out of the running as a potential love interest, it’s easier to ship Gerda with the Robber Girl!)

The troll (Orm): I don’t like him. The Snow Queen is Gerda’s journey that she travels alone. She finds friends, advice, and assistance along the way, but in the end she has to do it herself. Even the reindeer leaves her, and she’s left without boots or gloves in the Snow Queen’s domain, with nothing but her faith and love for Kai to keep her going. The trailer implies that this is the troll’s journey as much as Gerda’s, and he needs to find the courage to stand up for himself to the Snow Queen or some such. In fact, the trailer focuses on him even more than Gerda, but I suppose we can’t possibly expect people to come and see a movie if they think it’s about a girrrrl.

Hopefully the major episodes will all appear: the old woman with the flowery garden, the Princess, the Robber Girl, and the Finnmark Woman. Certainly the flowery garden seems the be there, but the old woman seems rather more violent than in the story! There also seems to be a castle and knights involved, so hopefully that means the Princess will be there. The Robber Girl seems to have become a pirate (captain's daughter). She still has her reindeer, so no objections here. The 'About’ page on the website has a picture of what appears to be the Finn Woman. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them combined into one, no point in Gerda having two near-identical encounters at that point.

Overall, I’m looking forward to it. They’ve made some interesting choices and it’ll be great to see how their interpretation works out (I can’t see myself ever liking Orm, though). I’m pleased to see the story getting some attention after Disney decided they didn’t want to bother with an adaption after all.

FROZEN VS. THE SNOW QUEEN

So the main characters of Disney’s Frozen should be white because they’re based on a Danish fairy tale, Andersen’s The Snow Queen. They’re just being ‘true to the story’.

What this means, then, is that (going by the information we have on the movie thus far) the following are not important aspects of the Snow Queen story:

• Gerda’s name and age
• Kai’s existence
• the purpose of Gerda’s quest (getting Kai back from the Snow Queen)
• the Snow Queen’s nature
• the Snow Queen’s relationship with Kai
• Gerda’s relationship with animals and nature
• the magic mirror
• the 'reason vs emotion’ themes
• the fact that Gerda is helped or hindered by powerful women on every step of her journey
• the fact that Gerda spends much of her journey either alone or accompanied only by animals

None of that is significant. But the fact that Gerda is white (Caucasian)? Absolutely vital, how could you even think of changing it!

MORE ON THE WIZART FILM

Aside from Disney’s Frozen, there’s another CGI film based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Snow Queen. It’s a Russian pic called, simply, The Snow Queen. This is the second time the fairytale has been made as an animated feature in Russia; the first time was Lev Atamanov’s 1957 feature of the same name. This new CG version, which sticks more faithfully to Andersen’s original story than the upcoming Disney version, was produced by Voronezh, Russia-based Wizart Animation. It looks fairly cheap, but keep in mind its budget was $7 million (or somewhere in the ballpark of 1/25th the cost of Frozen). Directed by Vladlen Barbe and Maksim Sveshnikov, it has grossed over $10 million worldwide including $7.5M from Russia (where it was released in 2012), $1.5M from South Korea, and $1M from Brazil. 

Want to see an animated film that actually does adapt The Snow Queen?

I wrote about the trailer earlier (see before). It seems there are some differences to Andersen’s story, most notably that Gerda and Kai are now brother and sister by blood (fraternal twins), and that the Snow Queen has become a threat to the world. However, the basic story appears to remain the same: actual heroine Gerda goes on a quest to rescue actual dude-in-distress Kai.

Fairy Tale Challenge | Day One → Favourite Fairy Tale

The Snow Queen – Hans Christian Andersen

“She is flying there where the swarm is thickest. She is the largest of them all, and never remains on the earth, but flies up to the dark clouds. Often at midnight she flies through the streets of the town, and looks in at the windows, then the ice freezes on the panes into wonderful shapes, that look like flowers and castles.” [x]

I wrote about this tale in another post, but let’s just say that one of the main reasons why I love this story is because, in general, it holds up quite well, in comparison to most of its contemporary tales. Most of the fairy tales have a very heavy imprint of the time in which they were written or adapted, so we are clearly aware of how different times were in comparison to ours: damsels in distress, instant marriage, beauty and virtue above other values, anthropophagy, etc. Here we have a story in which a little girl makes a complicated journey to save the life of her best friend, sorting obstacles using her determination and help from others who, after listening to her story, resolve to assist her (or not). The Snow Queen is a tale that, in contrast to many others of its time, doesn’t necessarily shove moral values at your face, but provides more freedom to the reader and presents many possible themes: the power of friendship, not giving up, learning through the way, asking help when you need it, seeing things from other’s perspective, and I could go on because it’s in how you read it and interpret it where you get the message, if you want one. 

In addition, The Snow Queen has some of the strongest female characters I’ve read in these kinds of stories and in this time period: from Gerda, the little girl who saves the boy and not the other way around, to the Princess, who is looking for a husband who can intellectually satisfy her (and of whom I’ll talk more about in the next question), to the little Robber Girl, who is feared by all despite her young age but who understands empathy when meeting Gerda and hearing her story. And that leads me to the actual Snow Queen, who doesn’t show up as much as other characters and which makes you consider: is she really the villain of this story or are the obstacles in Gerda’s way more important than the actual Queen? Is there really a villain in the terms of other stories’ villains or is it more about a quest and not giving up despite all? 

To conclude (for now) let me point out that this is a story in which there isn’t an explicit romance between the main characters, which makes it all the more valuable. Many interpretations and adaptations have been made in which not only Gerda gets paired up with Kai (like the Hallmark one) but others in which she also has a relationship with the Robber Girl (Catherine Breillat‘s Sleeping Beauty/La belle endormie) and others in which it remains uncertain (like Lev Atamanov’s 1957 animated version). But the actual story isn’t entirely explicit in whether there is romance or not and it is OK. I don’t think romance is necessary here, Gerda risked her life for Kai and that is more than enough. Friendship wasn’t explored that much in fairy tales, especially not when the friends were a girl and a boy, but here there’s no promise of marriage at the end of the road (save for the Dumas version!) and it’s refreshing and interesting. All in all, The Snow Queen is a story that works today much easily than other stories of the time, that has interesting characters who aren’t necessarily completely good or completely bad, and that lets you gather from it whatever message you want, instead of giving you an explicit moral like Perrault’s or Grimm’s stories did. All in all, I consider this story a masterpiece of literature. 

Fairy Tale Challenge | Day Two → Favourite Character of Royalty

The Princess and Prince (The Snow Queen) – Hans Christian Andersen

“He was quite free and agreeable and said he had not come to woo the princess, but to hear her wisdom; and he was as pleased with her as she was with him.” 

First of all, I promise there are more fairy tales in this challenge, but these two questions were one after the next and it was a coincidence. Now, I have to pick these two characters together because I think they’re both great and their love story is probably one of the most romantic ones I’ve read in fairy tales. 

Here we have a Princess, described as “wonderfully clever”, who one day decides that she wants to get married, because she’s bored and doesn’t have anyone to talk to or who can challenge her or interest her.  She decides that she wants to get married, she isn’t forced, she isn’t rushed, and she isn’t looking for a hero who can save her but a man who can talk to her. So, she sets the rules for her courtship: her husband to be will be the man who can speak the best, who can converse with her as equals. 

After many rich and gorgeous men that are unable to say something interesting meet the princess, a young man who is very poor, looks nothing like the rest, and who, listen to this: “(did) not come to the palace to woo the princess but to hear her wisdom” turns out to be the one. That’s right, that’s what he wanted, to talk. He supposed he didn’t have a chance but he wasn’t embarrassed by his appearance or poverty, he just wanted to talk to the woman that everyone admired for her vast knowledge. Needless to say, they got along quite well and eventually got married. 

Isn’t this fantastic? We not only have the courtship organized by a woman, a Princess, but it is based in common interests, in conversation and not in a ball or a parade of contestants who have to prove their value by beauty, titles, or irrational life-risking tasks. Not only that, but they both decide they’re pleased with each other, it’s a common understanding and not a decision only made by the Princess. The young man doesn’t think that he’s less than her for being poor, he accepts her as much as she accepts him for what she knows, how she speaks, and how they get along. If these two aren’t the most capable pair of rulers a tale can have, I don’t know who they are.

ON THE CLASSIC ATAMANOV FILM:

 

 

What movie is this? Looks amazing!

It’s the 1957 Snow Queen movie animated in Russia, and my favourite Snow Queen adaptation of all time. You can easily find the full movie with subs on youtube. 

If I could say one thing about this movie that sets it apart from the rest, it’s the portrayal of the Snow Queen herself. (It’s slightly spoilery from here on, so watch the movie first, if you want to see it for yourself.)

It’s established very early on in the book that the Queen is a personification of a force of nature, a fey, maybe. She’s not a person, she has no emotions, no way of understanding love, and no real motive for her actions. She basically kidnaps Kai because, well, she felt like it. This is important. A lot of other adaptations (like the Hallmark channel one, and the 1995 UK-animated one) make her rationalize her actions - she’s evil because she needs her mirror fixed, she wants eternal winter, yadda yadda. Basically, they make her have a reason for her villainy. Here? Nah, they don’t ever explain why she does what she does - the writers are fully aware that they’re dealing with winter itself - winter makes no distinction between right and wrong, it freezes to death innocent people and horrible ones without distinction. This woman is not human, and she shouldn’t, by right, act like one.

That sense that you couldn’t reason with her, topped off by her sheer unpredictability was TERRIFYING to watch as a kid. No other Snow Queen has been this menacing. 

Secondly, the Snow Queen in the climax was incredible! She appears as a giantess, a jötunn, in front of Gerda, several stories tall with a blank emotionless mask for a face. Gerda, our heroine, has grown into an independent woman by now - she’s walked across the earth BAREFOOT for her best friend Kai and now she’s found him and isn’t about to let him go - she screams to the Snow Queen to leave them alone, that Kai is no longer her’s to control. The tension builds, the standstill continues, and just as the climax gets unbearable, the Snow Queen on her throne… slowly vanishes. 

She disappears. The strangest western standoff you’ll ever see has come to it’s anticlimactic end. It’s important to remember Gerda didn’t defeat her, she didn’t vanquish her, the Snow Queen is still out there. The Queen disappears and in her place is a sunny warm landscape - she’s conceded to Gerda “You’ve won this battle, have your warmth, but you can never defeat me,” I think that’s the perfect way for her to go. There are PLENTY of adaptations that strive to give us a traditional happy ending, some have the Snow Queen ‘cured’ and turned into a human being (I’m looking at you, Egmont’s Fairytaler and Hallmark!) but that defeats the purpose of the original story. The Snow Queen is winter itself, and no one man (or girl!) can truly defeat winter, no matter how much magic you have on your hands. Nature itself is greater than any human power. 

The Snow Queen is a story of the power of faith and love, and how those will help you succeed. And by ‘succeed’, I don’t mean ‘defeat the personification of all that is wintry and cold and merciless’. It’s not about the triumph of humankind over the elements, it’s just a simple story about keeping love and innocent faith in your heart until you reach your goals, and and no movie has ever stuck more true to that than this one. 

IS THE SPRINGTIME WITCH THUMBELINA'S MUM? (HEADCANON)

Suppose the old woman with the garden of eternal springtime in The Snow Queen and Thumbelina’s mother are the same person?

Imagine it: Thumbelina disappears. Her mother searches, but never finds her. She knows Thumbelina is a magical being - if she learns magic, perhaps she’ll find a way! And she came from a flower - if she builds a garden with every kind of flower that’s always blooming, maybe she’ll come back!

But the years go by, and Thumbelina never comes back. And suddenly, here’s this little girl. Maybe she looks like Thumbelina. And she loves flowers too! So the woman keeps her. She’s been waiting for so long, and at last she has her daughter again. She even gives Gerda a pillow with violets embroidered on it, like the violets Thumbelina slept on.

But once again, her daughter disappears, and she is left alone.

WHY DID THE SNOW QUEEN WHISK KAI AWAY? (HEADCANON)

In Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, why does the Snow Queen take Kai away with her? The story is vague, and there are as many interpretations as there are readers. This is mine.

I believe that the Snow Queen appears to people who call out to her in some way. Even before the mirror shards, Kai was interested in her - when he first hears the story from his grandmother, ‘Let her come! I’ll throw her into the fire! I'll melt her!’ he says, though he runs from her when she appears. After he gets the mirror shards he becomes fascinated by snowflakes and frost, and considers ice crystals more perfect than anything else in the natural world. While the Snow Queen doesn’t go around kidnapping people who aren’t drawn to her in the first place, she’s not very interested in informed consent. What’s it to her that Kai is only receptive to her because he has the shards of an evil mirror in his left eye and his heart? She didn’t put them there. It’s not her responsibility to make sure his true self wants to go with her. The Snow Queen’s morality is that of a snowstorm - not evil, but incredibly dangerous and implacable. 

So why does the Snow Queen take people away in the first place? Well, she isn’t the only snow entity that appears in the story. When she is driving away with Kai, they are surrounded by huge snowflakes that look like ‘great white chickens’ and appear to be under her control. When Gerda arrives in the Snow Queen’s domain, she encounters snowflakes in various monstrous animal shapes which are stated to be alive, and the Snow Queen’s guards. I think that the snowflakes had once been human, and if Kai had stayed in the Snow Queen’s domain long enough he would have become one of them.

What’s up with ‘Eternity’? The Snow Queen tells Kai that if he can make the word ‘Eternity’ out of some pieces of ice, she will give him ‘the whole world and a brand new pair of skates’. I think that in this story there are two types of eternity: the physical and the spiritual. If Gerda had never come and Kay remained in the Snow Queen’s domain, he would have become a living snowflake and gained physical eternity. He would gain ‘the whole world’ because he could go anywhere (anywhere cold at least) and live for as long as the world existed - but he would lose his soul. But when Gerda came and helped Kai to remember his feelings of love, he gained spiritual eternity. He would remain human in body, but his soul would be immortal.

THE SNOW QUEEN - NOT A VILLAINOUS ANTAGONIST?

I’m not sure she’s an antagonist at all. She’s a force of nature.

It’s such a spiritually rooted story. The fights are intellect vs. emotion, faith vs. reason, good vs. evil. And the queen isn’t evil. She’s just a step on Kai’s journey. You can say the demons who made the mirror at the beginning are evil, but I think that’s about as far as you can go. The Snow Queen didn’t lodge the glass in his heart and his eye. She didn’t kidnap him. She wasn’t even exactly holding him there. She’s got about the moral standing of a strong gust of wind, blowing Kai far, far away so Gerda could go out and save him from himself. Not from her. From the shards of a demon-mirror stuck inside him.

You are absolutely correct!

The snow queen was not an antagonist; she was more so a plot element for the theme of the story that good does not always have to overcome evil for goodness to prevail. Hence why at the ending of the story, Gerda does not fight the Snow Queen to save her precious Kai. In addition to this, the Snow Queen is the embodiment of the winter; there is no way anyone cannot stop the winter, it comes and goes just like every other season. So, when the Snow Queen left at the end of the story, winter had came to an end. The Snow Queen is just part of life. She is temptation to Kai when he is memorized by her beauty and her healing kisses. She is the final step on Gerda’s journey to save Kai. She is the end of the life cycle when she comes in and the beginning of the life cycle when she leaves. The Snow Queen is the character that makes the fairy tale very compelling! She is a complex character that seems to be an antagonist is truly not. It is kind of a shame that most of the adaption of this fairy tale portrays the Snow Queen as an antagonist when she truly is not one. She never kidnap Kai; Kai was memorized by her beauty and agreed to come with her because she heal his frozen heart with her kisses to a certain extent and being in her palace help him alive. If it was not for her, Kai would have been dead a little after the glass entered his eye and made his way to his heart. Even though the Snow Queen kept Kai alive, she could not take away the glass shard because she did not posses the one thing that Kai needed, which was love. As the embodiment of winter, she can only make things cold and die, which is why she could not kiss him a third time because he would die. She let Kai know that! So, when she leaves Kai alone at the end and Gerda comes to Kai, crying and kissing his body to make it warm again with the love of her innocent heart, Kai is healed because of the love Gerda has shown, which marks the beginning of spring!

AFTERWORD ON THE LITTLE MERMAID (HER BOY'S CLOTHES/MANDSDRAGT)

Next, he has some boys’ clothes made for her so they can ride horses together.

Is she his pet? Is she his little brother? I have no idea. When I told my mum the story, she said, “So basically what he wants is a pet friend.” I think that sums up the situation pretty nicely.

... Why? Because this guy’s a loser.

You give a girl ... You treat her like a boy. ... You tell her you love someone else. And what do you do next? You kiss her.

This is not Prince Eric. This is not Disney. Reading this story, I don’t want her to end up with this prince. That’s not a happy ending at all. He doesn’t even treat her like a person, and she deserves so much better.

Noticeably, Crystalcocoon AKA Persinette gives "en mandsdragt" as "some boy's clothes" and explains that maybe the prince sees her as "his little brother" and "treats her like a boy"  (note the masculine terms) - plus, her mother explains the prince's opinion and intentions with the epicene expression "pet friend."