SNOW QUEEN - THE MIDNIGHT ARCHIVES

 Our favourite Christmas fairytale by Andersen as a NOVEL-LENGTH, TWO-HOUR podcast. Tells the story with many details, but shortening the Prince and Princess subplot in Story the Fourth to a few sentences - I tell it in the comments:

 

MY COMMENTS:

You could have done the Princess subplot in all details - how she reads all newspapers in the world, but is bored and lonely, and issues an engagement challenge in search of a kindred spirit, how on the first and second day the suitors are all struck with Stendhal syndrome in the throne room, how on the third day the Prince, Kai's equal but somewhat older, salutes the guards and nods at the servants, and is unfazed by all that splendour, in spite of his Wellington boots squaking loudly - and he is not only young and clever, but also afraid of boredom and looking for someone. The icing on the cake is when he addresses her as a friend, full of confidence: "He was dashing and charming, and had not come to woo the princess but to hear her wisdom, and he liked it, he liked her, and she liked him in return." This is my favourite part of the fairytale, and because I identify with the prince and princess, my favourite characters - young and intelligent, multilingual, but bored and lonely, always in need of company. And also, when Gerda and Kai are returning home, the Robber Maiden tells them that the prince and princess "are travelling through foreign lands," surely on honeymoon! Why didn''t you tell that whole story??

 I also say that there are longer Andersen stories than The Snow Queen, and that the Snow Queen's palace is in the Finmark (Norwegian Arctic), not in Finland where there is a warmer climate:

Love that you said "Finmark" in the original while most translations have "Finland" - the Finmark is the Norwegian Arctic, a place with an Arctic climate and permafrost, where the Snow Queen's Palace is most likely to be located; Finland has a warmer climate.

And the Snow Queen is not Andersen's longest story. Check out "the Galoshes of Fortune," about a pair of Wellington boots that grant wishes at a price, and "the Swamp King's Daughter," about a half-human girl who is an evil human by day and a kind frog by night (somewhat like Fiona in Shrek) during the times of the Vikings. Those stories are even far longer, and they deal with equally interesting themes!