Fairy tale The Snow Queen. Read online

The fairy tale “The Snow Queen” is an extraordinary story about a boy Kai and a girl Gerda. They were separated by a piece of broken mirror. The main theme of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" is the struggle between good and evil.

Background

So, let's start retelling the summary of "The Snow Queen". One day, an evil troll created a mirror, looking into which all good things decreased and disappeared, while evil, on the contrary, increased. But, unfortunately, the troll's students broke the mirror in an argument, and all its fragments scattered throughout the world. And if even one tiny piece fell into the human heart, then it froze and became a piece of ice. And if it got into the eye, then the person stopped seeing good, and in any action he felt only evil intent.

Kai and Gerda

The summary of “The Snow Queen” should be continued with the information that in one small town there lived friends: a boy and a girl, Kai and Gerda. They were each other's brother and sister, but only until the moment when shrapnel got into the boy's eye and heart. After the accident, the boy became embittered, began to be rude and lost his brotherly feelings for Gerda. In addition, he stopped seeing good. He began to think that no one loved him and everyone wished him harm.

And then one not very good day, Kai went sledding. He clung to a sleigh passing near him. But they belonged to the Snow Queen. She kissed the boy, thereby making his heart even colder. The queen took him to her ice palace.

Gerda's journey

Gerda was very sad for the boy for the rest of the winter and waited for his return, and, without waiting, she went in search of her brother as soon as spring came.

The first woman Gerda met on her way was a witch. She cast a spell on the girl that deprived her of her memory. But, seeing the roses, Gerda remembered everything and ran away from her.

After that, on her way she met a raven, who told her that a prince very similar to Kai had wooed the princess of his kingdom. But it turned out to be not him. The princess and the prince turned out to be very kind people, they gave her clothes and a carriage made of gold.

The girl’s path lay through a terrible and dark forest, where she was attacked by a gang of robbers. Among them was a little girl. She turned out to be kind and gave Gerda a deer. On it, the heroine went further and soon, having met pigeons, she found out where her sworn brother was.

On the way she met two more kind women - a Laplander and a Finnish woman. Each helped the girl in her search for Kai.

Domain of the Snow Queen

And so, having reached the possessions of the Snow Queen, she gathered the remnants of her strength and went through a severe snowstorm and the royal army. Gerda prayed all the way, and angels came to her aid. They helped her get to the ice castle.

Kai was there, but the queen was not there. The boy was like a statue, all frozen and cold. He didn't even pay attention to Gerda and continued playing the puzzle. Then the girl, unable to cope with her emotions, began to cry bitterly. Tears thawed Kai's heart. He also began to cry, and the fragment fell out along with the tear.

The main characters of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen". Gerda

There are many heroes in the fairy tale, but they are all minor. There are only three main ones: Gerda, Kai, and the queen. But still, the only truly main character of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” is only one - little Gerda.

Yes, she is very small, but she is also selfless and brave. In the fairy tale, all her strength is concentrated in her kind heart, which attracts sympathetic people to the girl, without whom she would not have reached the ice castle. It is kindness that helps Gerda defeat the queen and unfreeze her sworn brother.

Gerda is ready to do anything for her loved ones and is confident in the decisions she makes. She does not doubt for a second and helps everyone who needs it, without counting on help. In the fairy tale, the girl shows only the best character traits, and she is the embodiment of justice and goodness.

Kai's image

Kai is a very controversial hero. On the one hand, he is kind and sensitive, but on the other, he is frivolous and stubborn. Even before the fragments hit the eye and heart. After the incident, Kai is completely under the influence of the Snow Queen and carries out her orders without saying a word against it. But after Gerda frees him, everything is fine again.

Yes, on the one hand, Kai is a positive character, but his inaction and passivity prevent the reader from falling in love with him.

The image of the Snow Queen

The Snow Queen is the embodiment of winter and cold. Her home is an endless expanse of ice. Just like ice, she is very beautiful in appearance and also smart. But her heart doesn't know feelings. That is why she is the prototype of evil in Andersen's fairy tale.

History of creation

It's time to tell the story of the creation of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It was first published in 1844. The tale is the longest in the author’s bibliography, and Andersen claimed that it is connected with the story of his life.

Andersen said that “The Snow Queen,” a summary of which is contained in the article, appeared in his head when he was little and played with his friend and neighbor, the white-headed Lisbeth. To him, she was practically a sister. The girl was always next to Hans, supported him in all his games and listened to his first fairy tales. Many researchers claim that she became the prototype of Gerda.

But not only Gerda had a prototype. Singer Jenny Lind has become the living embodiment of the queen. The author was in love with her, but the girl did not share his feelings, and Andersen made her cold heart the embodiment of the beauty and soullessness of the Snow Queen.

In addition, Andersen was fascinated by Scandinavian myths, and there death was called the ice maiden. Before his death, his father said that the maiden had come for him. Perhaps the Snow Queen has the same prototype as the Scandinavian winter and death. She also has no feelings, and the kiss of death can freeze her forever.

The image of a girl made of ice attracted the storyteller, and in his heritage there is another fairy tale about the Snow Queen, who stole her lover from his bride.

Andersen wrote the fairy tale in a very difficult time, when religion and science were in conflict. Therefore, there is an opinion that the confrontation between Gerda and the queen describes the events that took place.

In the USSR, the fairy tale was remade, since censorship did not allow the mention of Christ and the reading of the Gospel at night.

"The Snow Queen": analysis of the work

Andersen in his fairy tales creates an opposition - the opposition of good and evil, summer and winter, external and internal, death and life.

Thus, the Snow Queen has become a classic character in folklore. Dark and cold mistress of winter and death. She is contrasted with the warm and kind Gerda, the embodiment of life and summer.

Kai and Gerda, according to Schelling’s natural philosophy, are androgynous, that is, the opposition of death and life, summer and winter. Children are together in the summer, but suffer separation in the winter.

The first half of the tale talks about the creation of a magic mirror that can distort good, turning it into evil. A person traumatized by its fragment acts as an opponent of culture. On the one hand, this is a myth that affects culture and breaks the connection between man and nature. So Kai becomes soulless and rejects his love for summer and the beauty of nature. But he begins to love the creations of the mind with all his heart.

The fragment that ended up in the boy's eye allows him to think rationally, cynically, and show interest in the geometric structure of snowflakes.

As we know, a fairy tale cannot have a bad ending, so Andersen contrasted Christian values ​​with the world of technology. That is why the children in the fairy tale sing psalms to the rose. Although the rose fades, the memory of it remains. Thus, memory is a mediator between the world of the living and the dead. This is exactly how Gerda, once in the witch’s garden, forgets Kai, and then her memory returns again and she runs away. It is roses that help her in this.

The scene in the castle with the false prince and princess is very symbolic. In this dark moment, Gerda is helped by ravens, symbolizing the powers of the night and wisdom. Climbing the stairs is a tribute to Plato's myth of the cave, in which non-existent shadows create the idea of ​​a false reality. It takes a lot of strength for Gerda to distinguish between lies and truth.

The further the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” advances, the summary of which you already know, the more often peasant symbolism appears. Gerda, with the help of prayer, copes with the storm and ends up in the queen's domain. The atmosphere of the castle was created by the author himself. It highlights all the complexes and failures of the poor writer. According to biographers, the Andresen family had some mental disorders.

So the queen's powers can symbolize actions that can drive you crazy. The castle is motionless and cold, crystalline.

Thus, Kai’s injury leads to his seriousness and intellectual development, and his attitude towards his loved ones changes dramatically. Soon he is completely alone in the icy halls. These signs characterize schizophrenia.

Kai meditates over the ice, showing his loneliness. Gerda's arrival to Kai suggests his salvation from the world of the dead, from the world of madness. He returns to the world of love and kindness, eternal summer. The couple reunites again, and the person gains integrity thanks to a difficult path and overcoming himself.

The writer Hans Christian Andersen did not position himself as a children's storyteller, because his stories often contain philosophical motives. Therefore, the literary genius declared that he writes not for little boys and girls, but for adults.

The manuscripts of this talented man are known by heart almost all over the world, because it was he who came up with “,” “,” “,” “Wild Swans” and “The Princess and the Pea.” And the tale about the cold-hearted ruler, about the brave one, and about Kai, who found himself in the palace, became the writer’s longest work.

History of creation

The work appeared in bookstores in the winter of December 21, 1844 and was included in the collection “New Fairy Tales. Volume one." Anderson's creation instantly became popular among lovers of book pages, but few knew that the writer put into the plot far from joyful motives stemming from his personal experience. As the biographers of the storyteller say, Andersen never knew love in his life: he did not propose marriage to the lady he liked and was not even in a romantic relationship.

A spark flared up in the heart of the literary genius when he was in love with the opera singer Jenny Lind, who accepted the writer's gifts and courtship, but gave her heart to another person. Jenny was 14 years younger than her admirer, but still addressed him as “brother” or “child.” Andersen understood that a relationship like a brother and sister was still better than nothing.

This woman, who gave Andersen unrequited love, became the prototype of the cold and callous Snow Queen. The singer received a fiery confession of her feelings from Hans, but never responded to the letter from the lover, who could not find a place for himself as a writer.

When Lind became engaged to the young pianist Otto Holschmidt, the author of fairy tales had the courage to look his rival in the eyes. After this incident, Andersen no longer met with Jenny, but he felt like Kai, associating the city of Copenhagen, where the ill-fated acquaintance with the artist took place, with a boundless cold kingdom.

The tale of the Snow Queen is popular among adults and young readers. But the guys who grew up in the Soviet Union saw the abridged manuscript because Andersen’s story contains religious motives: due to the politics of those years, mentioning biblical stories was considered unacceptable.

Therefore, Soviet editors removed from the story the scene where Gerda reads the Lord's Prayer to save herself from the icy winds. There was also a mention in the original fairy tale. Some researchers believe that with the help of the Snow Queen and Gerda, Andersen wanted to show the struggle between science and the Christian faith.

It is noteworthy that, despite censorship, the fairy tale gained crowds of fans, and famous directors borrowed the plot to create films that pleased film fans with the actors and their roles. In the 1966 film of the same name, Vyacheslav Tsyupa also played the roles, and in the film “Secrets of the Snow Queen” (1986), Nina Gomiashvili and Yan Puzyrevsky played the main characters.

Biography and plot

Kai is the main character in the fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. Thanks to this character, the plot of the work develops. Kai grew up in a big city, where there are many houses and people (the author does not indicate where exactly Kai and Gerda lived). The boy grew up and was brought up in a poor family. Kai's mom and dad loved to garden, so in their attic there was a wooden box in which onions, peas, and rose bushes grew. The boy adored these beautiful but prickly flowers.

However, it was not only the plants that brought joy: next door, in another attic, lived the girl Gerda, whom Kai loved like his own sister. The children often visited each other and watered the roses together. And in winter, when the plants went into hibernation, the children sat at home and listened to the tales of their old grandmother. Sometimes Kai and Gerda heated up iron coins and placed them on a window decorated with winter patterns.

Kai had good character traits and was a sympathetic boy, always ready to lend a helping hand. But, unfortunately, one day he became a victim of witchcraft. The fact is that an evil troll made a devilish mirror that distorts reality. Thanks to this magical object, everything good seemed evil, and everything evil acquired new frightening colors.

The mountain troll's disciples decided to play around with the mirror, and eventually their fun went to extremes: they took to the skies "to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself." But the magical attribute could not control itself, so it escaped from the hands of the kidnappers and fell to the ground.

The mirror broke into millions of pieces, and the wind carried these small diamonds all over the world. Those unfortunate people who got hit by a shrapnel in the eye saw the bad sides of life. If a piece of the mirror rushes into the very heart, it will turn into a piece of ice.

Little Kai was the least fortunate of all: when he was sitting near the bushes with roses, something got into his eye and stabbed him in the heart. Since then, the boy's character has undergone changes: he begins to laugh at his grandmother and mock Gerda. The main character no longer admires flowers, but is attracted by the beauty of snowflakes, which have an ideal geometric shape.

One winter, Kai went to the square to go sledding. Suddenly the main character saw a beauty in a snow-white suit - the Snow Queen, who chose the boy because the fragments had bewitched his heart. Kai was fascinated by the stranger and clung to her sleigh, and the queen wrapped the child in a fur coat, then kissed him and disappeared. While in the arms of the owner of the ice throne, the child forgot about his parents and Gerda, who believed that her friend was alive and went in search.

The girl had to go through fire, water and copper pipes to find Kai. Meanwhile, Kai, blue from the cold, who did not feel the frost due to the kiss of the Snow Queen, folded various figures from ice floes. The boy wanted to form the word “eternity”, then the kidnapper would give him gifts. The girl melted the ice in Kai's soul with the help of tears and her favorite psalm: the boy began to cry and a fragment fell out of his eye. When Kai and Gerda returned home, it turned out that the main characters had noticeably matured.

• The fact that book characters are used as psychological types is no longer news. For example, there is a psychotype in the works of researchers, and even Kai has become the center of scientific works. It is said that a person who has the type of boy from a fairy tale is afraid of feelings and does not believe in his own happiness.
• In the animated Soviet film, which was released in 1957, the drawing of the Snow Queen is different from other characters. This feature is explained by the fact that the heroine was created using the “rotoscoping” technique, which in Russia was called “eclair”.

• The musical “The Snow Queen” delighted the audience on December 31, 2003. The main roles went to Quotes

  “A tiny fragment hit Kai right in the heart. Now it was supposed to turn into a piece of ice. The pain went away, but the fragment remained.”

  “The Snow Queen kissed Kai again, and he forgot Gerda, his grandmother, and everyone at home.”

  “This rose is being eaten away by a worm!”

  “Look at the glass, Gerda,” he said.
  Each snowflake seemed much larger under the glass than it actually was, and looked like a luxurious flower or a decagonal star. It was so beautiful!
  - See how cleverly it’s done! - Kai said. - Much more interesting than real flowers! And what accuracy! Not a single wrong line! Oh, if only they didn’t melt!”

Many people write that Hayao Miyazaki chose a creative path thanks to the cartoon by Lev Atamanov "The Snow Queen". Yes, it seems true:

“I started working as a new animator for Toei Animation in 1963, but I frankly didn’t enjoy my job at all. I felt ill at ease every day I couldn't understand the works we were producing, or even the proposals we were working on Had I not one day seen Snedronningen (The Snow Queen) during a film screening hosted by the company labor union, I honestly doubt that I would have continued working as an animator."

The animation is really high-quality, smooth, with well-developed details of the characters and background. And this was in 1957. I was surprised to discover that the same director directed another popular mini-series, “A Kitten Named Woof.”

The plot of the cartoon and the original fairy tale uses the template "A Lady in Distress"(Damsel in distress). Only the roles of the characters are reversed. For example, a similar pattern can be found in the game “Super Mario Bros.” (1985). Mario completes the level, but instead of a reward he receives a message: “Thank you, Mario! But our princess is in another castle! Mario goes through the next level, and the same thing happens there. And so on again and again until he reaches his goal.

Why are the roles reversed? In the original fairy tale, Kai gets hit in the eye by a fragment of a mirror: “Some fragments, the size of a grain of sand, scattered throughout the world, fell into people’s eyes, and remained there. And a person with such a splinter in his eye began to see everything inside out or notice only the bad in every thing, since each splinter retained the properties of the entire mirror.”. That is, the author of the fairy tale simply inverted the plot of the original template, obtaining a new template.

From the biography Hans Christian Andersen you can find out that he had problems in relationships with women. Maybe that's why women in his fairy tales run and save men, and not vice versa.

When I watched a cartoon as a child, I paid attention to the adventure and the story. But after reading the fairy tale to adults, I unexpectedly discovered completely different things: “The snowflake grew and grew until, finally, it turned into a tall woman, wrapped in the thinnest white blanket; it seemed to be woven from millions of snow stars. This woman, so beautiful and majestic, was all made of ice, made of dazzling, sparkling ice, and yet alive; her eyes shone like two clear stars, but there was neither warmth nor peace in them. She leaned towards the window, nodded to the boy and beckoned him with her hand.”

It is difficult to understand what kind of image this is, attraction to an older woman or a psychological term "mother refrigerator"" It is not the mother's fault, but the child's perception of the mother. Previously, it was believed that a refrigerator mother could be one of the reasons for the development of autism. But rather on the contrary, in order to reach autistic people you need to express emotions more intensely. The usual emotional expression will be too faded and cold. The same can be said for sensory perception, if there are problems with its scarcity, it should be more intense and full.

The Snow Queen is a fairy tale about friendship, love and faith, which you can read on this page. This is a story about the unbroken spirit of one little girl who goes a very long way. The path seems not only endless, but also hopeless for the sake of saving the person dear to her heart. She meets different people and characters, discovers a huge and sometimes very dangerous world, but she always finds help and support along her path, and despite any obstacles, she does not give up.

Fairy tale Snow Queen is like a labyrinth, which the more you read, the more ornate it becomes. You can break it up into several stories and each one will become a special lesson for your child.

Life romanticism in a fairy tale.

Faith can move mountains, hope dies last, and love allows you to create real miracles, even melt icy hearts and tears. In the image of Gerda, a little girl, the author invested the power of these three postulates, fearless character, will - what a modern woman should have in order to gain and maintain her happiness. And then no Snow Queen will destroy it.

The children's storyteller knew how to intrigue both children and their parents, although it is worth noting that he positioned himself as an adult writer. His fantastic fairy tale “The Snow Queen” makes you empathize with every hero, because initially it is unknown whether the girl will find her friend and whether she will be able to free her friend from the icy palaces of the mistress of winter.

Surprisingly, Andersen put philosophical motives into his magical stories, and many of the characters have real prototypes. For example, the Snow Queen is Hans's lover, opera singer Jenny Lind.

History of creation

The tale of the Snow Queen was published in the winter of December 21, 1844; it was included in the collection “New Fairy Tales. Volume one." The non-trivial story about a woman with an icy heart began to be popular among bookstore regulars, and parents read lines from Andersen’s work to their children before bed. However, few people realized that the plot was not based on a joyful motive, which stemmed from the writer’s personal experience.

If we look at the biography of Hans Christian Andersen, there was nothing remarkable in his life, unlike other writers. For example, he managed to play the role of a gold digger and have an affair with more than one woman. The same can be said about the adventurous one, which was popular among representatives of the fair half of humanity.

But the storyteller, who came up with stories about and, never managed to experience carnal love; researchers believe that Andersen did not have serious relationships with either women or men. Contemporaries testified that sometimes the literary genius appeared in the “red light district,” but instead of coming to that seedy place for his intended purpose, the writer had long small conversations with young ladies of easy virtue.

Once the author of the stories managed to truly fall in love, but this experience turned out to be sad. A spark flashed in his heart when Hans saw the young opera singer Jenny Lind. The girl, known for her soprano solo performances throughout Europe, was 14 years younger than Andersen, but still addressed him as “brother” or “child.” Jenny accepted gifts and courtship from Andersen, but her heart belonged to another person. Therefore, the writer had to be content with the relationship of “brother and sister.”

Andersen was a modest man, but still dared to send a fiery message to the object of his desire. The writer's letter remained unanswered. Therefore, the woman who doomed Hans to suffering became the prototype of the cold Snow Queen. And the writer himself felt like Kai, who had found himself in an icy kingdom - the city of Copenhagen, where the ill-fated acquaintance took place.

The master of the pen decided to put a story from his own life on book pages, seasoning the plot with fantasy and magical characters. By the way, “The Snow Queen” broke the author’s personal record and became his longest fairy tale.

Image and plot

The main character of the work appears in the plot less often than Gerda, but plays a significant role in the plot. The story begins with a certain evil troll who made a mirror where everything good seemed bad, and everything bad seemed even worse.

The creator of the magical attribute liked to play with the mirror, and his students ran everywhere with this object. At one point, the little trolls climbed up to the very sky with a mirror in order to laugh at the Creator. The higher the pranksters climbed, the more the mirror tried to escape from their hands.

Ultimately, it slipped out and broke on the ground into small fragments that scattered throughout the world. Small, sharp diamonds hit people in the eyes or chest. In the first case, the person saw all the worst, and in the second his heart became cold as ice.

The boy Kai was the least fortunate of all, because by coincidence, the fragments hit the boy both in the eye and in the heart: the hero of the work immediately began to be rude to adults and imitate his own friend Gerda.

When winter came, Kai went sledding. Then the boy met a dazzling woman in a white robe riding on a large sleigh. She charmed Kai with just one look, so, without realizing it, the young man found himself in the arms of the Snow Queen and in the icy kingdom. The Snow Queen taught the boy that the world is ruled by selfishness. However, Gerda's love helped the prisoner overcome obstacles.

Film adaptations

The work, invented by Hans Christian Andersen, migrated to cinema. Directors and animators presented quite a lot of works, so let’s look at the most popular ones.

"The Snow Queen" (cartoon, 1957)

This cartoon was probably seen by all Soviet children, because “The Snow Queen” is one of the most famous animated films created in those years. Little spectators learned from the dwarf wizard about the mistress of winter, the kidnapped Kaya and the brave Gerda.

It is worth saying that the main character is different from other drawn characters. The fact is that the Snow Queen was created using rotoscoping techniques. And the ice maiden was voiced by actress Maria Babanova.

"The Snow Queen" (film, 1966)

In 1966, Gennady Kazansky presented to television viewers a color film with animation elements. It is noteworthy that the script was written by a writer who came up with his own story, based on Andersen's original motives.

In the story, the Snow Queen kidnaps Kai, takes him to the winter kingdom and turns the boy’s heart into a piece of ice. The role of the insidious beauty went to, who worked on the same set with, Vyacheslav Tsyupa and.

"The Secret of the Snow Queen" (1986)

Filmmaker Nikolai Alexandrovich pleased those who spend their leisure time watching TV screens with his own vision of a fairy tale. The film takes place much later than the events described in the original text. Kai and Gerda have already grown up, so the characters talk about how hard it is to say goodbye to childhood.

The Snow Queen again lures the young man into her own kingdom, and the devoted Gerda goes on a search. It is noteworthy that the director shrouded the film in a certain mystery, which is hidden by the mistress of the ice throne. The main roles were played by Yan Puzyrevsky, Nina Gomiashvili and.

"The Snow Queen" (2002)

David Wu presented avid film fans with a fantasy fairy tale with a dash of action, where he meticulously worked out the characterization of the characters. Andersen's original fairy tale appears only fleetingly in the film, because the director invented a new concept that develops in the modern world.

Thus, Gerda appears as the daughter of the owner of the Polar Bear hostel, Kai acts as a messenger, and the castle of the Snow Queen, which she played, is strikingly similar to a hotel shrouded in frost and snow.

"The Snow Queen" (cartoon, 2012)

Russian animators surprised viewers with an unusual concept, because according to the plot, the Snow Queen rids the world of representatives of creative professions, be it an artist or a musician.

Brave Gerda, the daughter of a mirror maker, sets off on a journey to find her friend Kai, but getting to the winter castle is not so easy. The roles were duplicated by Russian cinema stars, which included, and.

"Frozen" (cartoon, 2015)

This time, leisure lovers were pleased by the Disney company, which released the animated film “Frozen”. The plot revolves around a young princess with magical powers: the heroine can summon snow and turn objects into ice.

This girl becomes the cause of the eternal winter that reigns in the kingdom. To bring back spring and summer, Princess Anna, Kristoff and the reindeer Sven go to the mountains to find the sorceress. The main characters were voiced by: Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff and other Hollywood stars.

• Soviet readers read and loved the abridged version of The Snow Queen because censorship removed Christian motifs from the fairy tale. So, in the original source there are mentions and prayers of “Our Father”.
• Andersen was far from the first to come up with the image of the ruler of the ice throne. Hans probably turned to Scandinavian folklore, which talks about the personification of winter and death - the Ice Maiden. However, the writer’s track record includes a work of the same name, where this heroine is mentioned. Andersen's The Ice Maiden, which was published in 1861, can be called a later variation of The Snow Queen, but in a more realistic manner.