The Snow Queen
Country of Origin: Denmark

he Snow Queen was brought to life in Hans Christian Anderson’s 1845 book The Snow Queen, the tale of the little boy Kay, who is stolen away by The Snow Queen to her ice castle.

Her castle is large and beautiful and illuminated by The Northern Lights, but without toys or entertainments for the hypnotized Kay. She puts him to work piecing together the word “Eternity” in ice fragments before she will let him return home.

Kay’s friend Gerda goes through many adventures to find Kay, and releases him from his spell while The Snow Queen is away dispersing snow on mountaintops.

Famous for writing The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, Anderson was a prolific Danish writer, having penned 175 tales and fairy tales, 800 poems, 6 novels, autobiographies, innumerable travel descriptions, and many plays before his death in 1875.

Sources for the History of the Snow Queen:

http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/general/exhibits/andersen.htm