Looking at the Context for "Travels with the Snow Queen"

Long before Link, Hans Christen Anderson published a story called "The Snow Queen" in 1845. Compared with Anderson's other work, this one is the most highly recognized by scholars for its literary merit. The story focuses on a girl and boy - Gerda and Kay - who take on the challenge between good and evil.

Anderson's "The Snow Queen" is a tale told in seven "stories":

About the Mirror and its Pieces
A Little Boy and a Little Girl
The
Flower Garden of the Woman Who Knew Magic
The Prince and Princess
The
Little Robber Girl
The Lapp Woman and the Finn Woman
What Happened at
the Snow Queen's Palace and What Happened Afterward

The cover of Anderson's "The Snow Queen." I think the colors of this cover are quite deceiving considering the nature of the image.

The Characters of the Anderson's "The Snow Queen":

• The Snow Queen, queen of the snowflakes or "snow bees", who travels throughout the world with the snow. Her palace and gardens are in the lands of permafrost. She is successful in abducting Kay after he has fallen victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror. She promises to free Kay if he can spell "eternity" with the pieces of ice in her palace.


• The troll or the devil, who makes an evil mirror that distorts reality and later shatters to infect people on earth with its splinters that distort sight and freeze hearts. Some English translations of "The Snow Queen" denote this character as a hobgoblin.
  


• Kay, a little boy who lives in a large city in the garret of a building across the street from Gerda, his playmate, whom he loves like a sister. He falls victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror and the Snow Queen.
  


• Gerda, the heroine of this tale, who succeeds in finding and saving Kay from the Snow Queen.
  


• Grandmother of Kay, who tells him and Gerda about the Snow Queen. Some of Grandmother's actions are essential points of the story.
  


• An old woman sorceress, who maintains a cottage on the river, with a garden that is permanently in summer. She seeks to keep Gerda with her, but Gerda's thought of roses awakens her from the old woman's enchantment.
  


• A field Crow or Raven, who thinks that Kay is the new prince of his land.
  


• A tame Crow or Raven, who is the mate of the field Crow/Raven and has the run of the princess's palace. She lets Gerda into the royal bedchamber in her search for Kay.
  


• A princess, who desires a prince-consort as intelligent as she, who finds herself at home in her palace. She helps Gerda in her search for Kay by giving her warm, rich clothing, servants, and a golden coach.
  


• Her prince, formerly a poor young man, who comes to the palace and passes the test set by the princess to become prince.
  


• A robber hag, the only woman among the robbers who capture Gerda as she travels through their region in a golden coach.
  


• The robber girl, daughter of the robber hag. Her captive doves and reindeer, Bae, tell Gerda that Kay is with the Snow Queen. She helps Gerda on her way to Kay.
  


• Bae, the reindeer, who carries Gerda to the Snow Queen's palace.
  


• The Lapp woman, who provides shelter to Gerda and Bae, and writes a message on a cod fish to the Finn woman further on the way to the Snow Queen's gardens.
  


• The Finn woman, who lives just 2 miles away from the Snow Queen's gardens and palace. She knows the secret of Gerda's power to save Kay

Link's story, then, is a very modernized conceptualization of the work Anderson created in the nineteenth century. If you'd like to know more about the original work, there is a link to the e-text below, as well as other relevant links.

Click here for the e-text of Hans Christen Anderson's "The Snow Queen."

And here is an annotated version of Anderson's story.

Check out the many film adaptations of "The Snow Queen."

Go here for more information on the Vladyslav Yerko edition of "The Snow Queen.". Copies are available for purchase!

-- Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/