There stood poor Gerda,without shoes,without gloves,in the midst of cold,dreary,icebound Finland.She ran forwards as quickly as she could,when a whole regiment of snow-flakes came round her;they did not,however,fall from the sky,which was quite clear and glittering with the northern lights.The snow-flakes ran along the ground,and the nearer they came to her,the larger they appeared.Gerda remembered how large and beautiful they looked through the burning-glass.But these were really larger,and much more terrible,for they were alive,and were the guards of the Snow Queen,and had the strangest shapes.Some were like great porcupines,others like twisted serpents with their heads stretching out,and some few were like little fat bears with their hair bristled;but all were dazzlingly white,and all were living snow-flakes.Then little Gerda repeated the Lord's Prayer,and the cold was so great that she could see her own breath come out of her mouth like steam as she uttered the words.The steam appeared to increase,as she continued her prayer,till it took the shape of little angels who grew larger the moment they touched the earth.They all wore helmets on their heads,and carried spears and shields.Their number continued to increase more and more;and by the time Gerda had finished her prayers,a whole legion stood round her.They thrust their spears into the terrible snow-flakes,so that they shivered into a hundred pieces,and little Gerda could go forward with courage and safety.The angels stroked her hands and feet,so that she felt the cold less,and she hastened on to the Snow Queen's castle.
But now we must see what Kay is doing.In truth he thought not of little Gerda,and never supposed she could be standing in the front of the palace.
Seventh StoryOf the Palace of the Snow
Queen and What Happened There At Last
The walls of the palace were formed of drifted snow,and the windows and doors of the cutting winds.There were more than a hundred rooms in it,all as if they had been formed with snow blown together.The largest of them extended for several miles;they were all lighted up by the vivid light of the aurora,and they were so large and empty,so icy cold and glittering!There were no amusements here,not even a little bear's ball,when the storm might have been the music,and the bears could have danced on their hind legs,and shown their good manners.There were no pleasant games of snap-dragon,or touch,or even a gossip over the tea-table,for the young-lady foxes.Empty,vast,and cold were the halls of the Snow Queen.The flickering flame of the northern lights could be plainly seen,whether they rose high or low in the heavens,from every part of the castle.In the midst of its empty,endless hall of snow was a frozen lake,broken on its surface into a thousand forms;each piece resembled another,from being in itself perfect as a work of art,and in the centre of this lake sat the Snow Queen,when she was at home.She called the lake “The Mirror of Reason,”and said that it was the best,and indeed the only one in the world.
Little Kay was quite blue with cold,indeed almost black,but he did not feel it;for the Snow Queen had kissed away the icy shiverings,and his heart was already a lump of ice.He dragged some sharp,flat pieces of ice to and fro,and placed them together in all kinds of positions,as if he wished to make something out of them;just as we try to form various figures with little tablets of wood which we call “a Chinese puzzle.”Kay's fingers were very artistic;it was the icy game of reason at which he played,and in his eyes the figures were very remarkable,and of the highest importance;this opinion was owing to the piece of glass still sticking in his eye.He composed many complete figures,forming different words,but there was one word he never could manage to form,although he wished it very much.It was the word “Eternity.”The Snow Queen had said to him,“When you can find out this,you shall be your own master,and I will give you the whole world and a new pair of skates.”But he could not accomplish it.
“Now I must hasten away to warmer countries,”said the Snow Queen.“I will go and look into the black craters of the tops of the burning mountains,Etna and Vesuvius,as they are called,—I shall make them look white,which will be good for them,and for the lemons and the grapes.”And away flew the Snow Queen,leaving little Kay quite alone in the great hall which was so many miles in length;so he sat and looked at his pieces of ice,and was thinking so deeply,and sat so still,that any one might have supposed he was frozen.