The Snow Queen

Chapter 6 firmly grounds “The Snow Queen” in Scandinavia—Andersen’s native region. The Sami are an Indigenous people who live throughout northern Scandinavia. Lapland (named in Chapter 5) is a part of Finland that is also called Sápmi, the Sami’s preferred name for the region. The woman’s use of fish as both food and paper represents the culture of the region. Andersen’s depiction of the Finnish woman is likewise drawn from real life; she eats the fish despite it being a message from her neighbor, reflecting the waste-free lifestyle of the story’s setting.

Together, these two women represent the encounters Gerda has on the next step of her journey. The Sami woman can only offer information about who can give Gerda more help, but in doing so, she plays her part and reinforces how Gerda’s kindness inspires people to help her. The Finnish woman knows more about Kai and the Snow Queen, making her the final and most important stop before the Snow Queen’s palace.

The Snow Queen’s guards and the battle at the end of Chapter 6 harken back to the devil and heaven in Chapter 1. The snowflake creatures are twisted and ugly, much like both conventional depictions of the devil and the distorted images that appear in the mirror. Likewise, the mirror and Snow Queen both have the power to freeze someone’s heart, suggesting a relationship between the Snow Queen and the devil. Gerda’s inability to best the creatures by herself likewise speaks to the story’s Christian underpinnings. When the creatures become too much, she turns to prayer, and an army of angels comes to her aid. This moment is the culmination of the story’s exploration of The Innocence of Childhood. Gerda’s goodness even wins her help from heaven itself, anticipating Andersen’s quotation of Matthew 18:3 in the story’s closing lines: “Unless you become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (86). The story thus uses its child protagonists to underscore the importance of childlike faith, purity, and hope.

The final chapter shows Gerda finding and rescuing Kai, bringing her heroic arc to a close. Kai starts Chapter 7 as an emotionless, dead version of himself, suggesting that the Snow Queen has symbolically killed him and that Gerda’s quest brings him back to life. This furthers the story’s religious symbolism, framing Gerda as a kind of Christ figure, but it also speaks to Andersen’s interest in Romantic themes. Romanticism was a late 18th- and early 19th-century literary movement that privileged nature, emotion, and imagination over rationality, society, and industry. Kai has lost the ability to feel due to the combined influence of the mirror and the Snow Queen, who calls her frozen lake the “mirror of reason” (80), and the story suggests that this state represents a form of death.

The reciprocal tears Gerda and Kai cry in Chapter 7 represent the healing power of love and friendship. When Kai doesn’t remember Gerda, her tears force him to see her and realize how much she cares for him. These realizations restore Kai’s ability to feel, and he then cries, dislodging the mirror’s final hold over him and returning his own innocence and goodness. Gerda’s undying care and dedication save Kai in the end, underscoring Love as a Source of Bravery.

“The Snow Queen” diverges from other popular fairy tales in a few key ways. First, unlike stories such as “Sleeping Beauty” or “Cinderella,” “The Snow Queen” features a female protagonist rescuing a male victim. Also unlike these stories, “The Snow Queen” emphasizes the power of familial love and friendship instead of romantic love—still imparting the message that love wins but emphasizing that goodness and kindness are essential. In addition, “The Snow Queen” sees the villain avoid any kind of recompense. Neither the Snow Queen nor the devil are taken to task for the crimes they perpetrate against humankind or Kai. This type of ending is typical of Andersen’s work and represents a partial departure from the happily-ever-after format in other fairy tales. “The Snow Queen” sees Gerda and Kai restored to their innocent happy selves in a world full of dangers and obstacles.

In another sense, however, Andersen suggests that Gerda has decisively defeated the Snow Queen. During Kai’s captivity, the Snow Queen tells him that she will free him if he can arrange the blocks of ice in her palace to spell the word “eternity.” When Gerda rescues him, the ice arranges itself into this pattern, which Andersen says would have ensured his release even if the Snow Queen had returned. This again speaks to the work’s Christian symbolism; like Jesus, Gerda has saved Kai’s soul and freed him from the devilish Snow Queen. Ultimately, the story suggests that evil has power over people only when they allow it to, which is the narrative’s most fundamental example of The Power of Perspective.