He tried to say his prayers, but all he could remember were his multiplication tables.

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen


The Snow Queen seems to occupy an unusual position in the pantheon of fairy tales. It doesn't quite have the ubiquity and instant familiarity of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, or The Ugly Duckling. If you ask someone to summarize the plot for you, they might have only a vague idea. At the same time, the story has stayed very much alive - CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Disney's Frozen, and other fictional works (like this boardgame I just got) all show the influence of the fairytale's themes and imagery.

The childhood friends Kai and Gerda are torn apart when splinters from an enchanted mirror fall into Kai's heart, making it hard and cold, and his eyes, making him see the worst of everything. Kai vanishes in pursuit of a mysterious Snow Queen and Gerda sets out to find him. Her adventures are told over the course of seven stories within the fairytale (and some of those stories have other fairytales nested within them - everyone in here has their own tale to tell). Gerda's position is difficult because she doesn't have the benefit of a fairy godmother, and she's also not really being pit against a villain. The person that she's working against, Kai, is also the person that she's trying to help.

I think the story captured beautifully something that most people have been through or seen at some point - the process of becoming jaded and calculating, and chasing worldly ephemera instead of cherishing the goodness close at hand. But the story shows that it's not an irreversible journey, even if it takes some effort to see things clearly again. Also, I loved how Gerda found her way through the world using both empathy and self-reliance - she's her own hero, and she doesn't rely on a prince to shape her story for her.

"Cannot you give this little maiden something which will make her as strong as twelve men, to overcome the Snow Queen?”

“The Power of twelve men!” said the Finnish woman; “that would be of very little use.”

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