The Snow Queen
The shining ruler of Andersen’s winter realm
A tall, dazzling-white woman who carries Kay into the far north, kisses away his memory and cold, and leaves him solving ice puzzles in her enormous frozen palace.
Quick answer
Andersen’s Snow Queen is a supernatural woman of snow and ice who takes Kay to her northern palace. Her kisses numb him, make him forget home, and would kill him if repeated again. Gerda reaches Kay while the Queen is away and restores him through tears, memory, and love.
Quick facts
| Tradition | Danish literary fairy tale in English translation |
|---|---|
| Book | Hans Christian Andersen, “The Snow Queen” |
| Source realm | Lapland, Spitzbergen, and the palace at the North Pole |
| Creature type | Supernatural winter queen |
| Appearance | A tall, upright lady shining white, in a coat and cap covered with snow [1] |
| Transport | Flies in a great sledge among living snowflakes |
| Effect on Kay | Kisses away his cold and his memories of home |
| Palace seat | A frozen lake she calls the Mirror of Reason |
What the source book says
After splinters from a distorting mirror enter Kay’s eye and heart, he becomes cruel and cold. He ties his small sledge to a magnificent one driven by a white-clad woman. The Snow Queen wraps him in her bearskin coat and kisses him: one kiss numbs the cold, another makes him forget Gerda, his grandmother, and home. She says another kiss would kill him.[1]
The Queen takes Kay north and keeps him in a palace of snow, wind, ice, and northern lights. She promises freedom, the world, and new skates if he can arrange pieces of ice to spell “Eternity.” While she flies south to cool Etna and Vesuvius, Gerda enters the palace. Her tears melt the ice in Kay’s heart, and the freed children leave before the Queen returns.[1]
Description and abilities
The Snow Queen can appear first as a snowflake seen through glass and later as a tall woman whose beauty is made of ice. She travels through the sky, traces frost patterns on windows, and is surrounded by snowflakes that resemble white chickens. Near her gardens, her living advance guard takes monstrous animal shapes before Gerda’s prayer-born angels break it apart.[1]
- Flies with snow and drives a great sledge
- Creates frost-flower patterns on windowpanes
- Uses kisses to numb, enchant, and erase memory
- Is guarded by living snowflakes in changing forms
- Moves between the far north and southern volcanoes
Source realm: the Snow Queen’s palace
The reindeer places the Queen’s summer tent in Lapland and her permanent castle at the North Pole on Spitzbergen. The palace has more than a hundred rooms, walls of drifted snow, doors and windows made of biting winds, and halls lit by the northern lights. Its centre is a shattered-looking frozen lake whose pieces form a perfect pattern.
Major themes
Cold without pain
The Snow Queen does not merely expose Kay to winter; she removes his awareness of it. Numbness makes the dangerous palace seem splendid and conceals how close he is to freezing.
Reason without affection
Kay treats the ice puzzles as supremely important while unable to remember Gerda. The precise Mirror of Reason is impressive, vast, and entirely joyless.
Rescue through restored feeling
Gerda does not defeat the Queen’s power with a stronger spell. Her tears and familiar song thaw Kay’s heart, wash the glass from his eye, and return his memory.
Book and reference
- 1Stories from Hans Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen; illustrated by Edmund Dulac. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1911. See “The Snow Queen,” stories one through seven. The volume does not identify its English translator.
Project Gutenberg edition ↗