The Snow Queen

The story’s narrator invites the reader to listen well because the following tale involves the devil and is very important. One day, the devil makes a mirror that magnifies the worst qualities of anything reflected in it. On his way up to heaven to mock the angels, he drops it, and it falls to Earth, where it shatters. Pieces of the mirror scatter across the globe, lodging in people’s eyes, hearts, windows, or glasses, making them see only the worst in the world. The devil finds this amusing, and the story’s narrator ends the chapter by announcing, “[N]ow we’ll hear what happened next!” (11).

A boy named Kai and a girl named Gerda live in adjacent buildings and can visit one another via their bedroom windows. In the spring, each window has a flowerpot, which makes it almost like a garden. In the winter, though, the windows are closed so the children can only look at each other. One night, while the children are spending time together, Gerda asks if the evil Snow Queen can get to them while they are inside their homes. Kai says that if she tries, “[he’ll] set her on the hot stove, and then she’ll melt” (17).