What does Gerda from the fairy tale the Snow Queen look like? "The Snow Queen", Gerda and Kai: characteristics and history of images
Girls There are different ones: there are capricious people, there are chatterboxes, there are sneaks and mischief-makers. But, fortunately, there are also people like the little heroine of X.K.’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen.” Gerda is a reliable and faithful friend. She is not even aware of the terrible magic fragments that fell into the eye and heart of her sworn brother Kai, and yet, when he turns from a cheerful, kind and caring boy into a cruel, angry and mocking one, Gerda does not turn away from him. And when the Snow Queen takes Kai away in her snow-white sleigh, the girl, without a moment’s hesitation, goes in search of him.
During his long Gerda's wanderings show only her best side. She is sweet, friendly, kind and this attracts not only different people to her, but also animals and birds. She is brave, patient, persistent, and this helps her not to be discouraged by failures and not to lose faith that she will find Kai. She is faithful, loving, reliable, and this helps her cope with the charms of the Snow Queen herself and melt the ice in the boy’s heart. If Gerda were a real girl and not a fairy-tale girl, she would have a lot of friends. I don't doubt this one bit.
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The fairy tale “The Snow Queen” is an extraordinary story about a boy Kai and a girl Gerda. They were separated by a piece of broken mirror. The main theme of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" is the struggle between good and evil.
Background
So let's start retelling summary"The Snow Queen". One day, an evil troll created a mirror, looking into which all good things decreased and disappeared, while evil, on the contrary, increased. But, unfortunately, the troll's students broke the mirror in an argument, and all its fragments scattered throughout the world. And if even one tiny piece fell into the human heart, then it froze and became a piece of ice. And if it got into the eye, then the person stopped seeing good, and in any action he felt only evil intent.
Kai and Gerda
The summary of “The Snow Queen” should be continued with the information that in one small town there lived friends: a boy and a girl, Kai and Gerda. They were each other's brother and sister, but only until the moment when shrapnel got into the boy's eye and heart. After the accident, the boy became embittered, began to be rude and lost his brotherly feelings for Gerda. In addition, he stopped seeing good. He began to think that no one loved him and everyone wished him harm.
And then one not very good day, Kai went sledding. He clung to a sleigh passing near him. But they belonged to the Snow Queen. She kissed the boy, thereby making his heart even colder. The queen took him to her ice palace.
Gerda's journey
Gerda was very sad for the boy for the rest of the winter and waited for his return, and, without waiting, she went in search of her brother as soon as spring came.
The first woman Gerda met on her way was a witch. She cast a spell on the girl that deprived her of her memory. But, seeing the roses, Gerda remembered everything and ran away from her.
After that, on her way she met a raven, who told her that a prince very similar to Kai had wooed the princess of his kingdom. But it turned out to be not him. The princess and prince turned out to be very kind people, they gave her clothes and a carriage made of gold.
The girl’s path lay through a terrible and dark forest, where she was attacked by a gang of robbers. Among them was a little girl. She turned out to be kind and gave Gerda a deer. On it, the heroine went further and soon, having met pigeons, she found out where her sworn brother was.
On the way she met two more kind women - a Laplander and a Finnish woman. Each helped the girl in her search for Kai.
Domain of the Snow Queen
And so, having reached the possessions of the Snow Queen, she gathered the remnants of her strength and went through a severe snowstorm and the royal army. Gerda prayed all the way, and angels came to her aid. They helped her get to the ice castle.
Kai was there, but the queen was not there. The boy was like a statue, all frozen and cold. He didn't even pay attention to Gerda and continued playing the puzzle. Then the girl, unable to cope with her emotions, began to cry bitterly. Tears thawed Kai's heart. He also began to cry, and the fragment fell out along with the tear.
The main characters of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen". Gerda
There are many heroes in the fairy tale, but they are all minor. There are only three main ones: Gerda, Kai, and the queen. But still, the only truly main character of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” is only one - little Gerda.
Yes, she is very small, but she is also selfless and brave. In the fairy tale, all her strength is concentrated in her kind heart, which attracts sympathetic people to the girl, without whom she would not have reached the ice castle. It is kindness that helps Gerda defeat the queen and unfreeze her sworn brother.
Gerda is ready to do anything for her loved ones and is confident in the decisions she makes. She does not doubt for a second and helps everyone who needs it, without counting on help. In the fairy tale, the girl shows only the best character traits, and she is the embodiment of justice and goodness.
Kai's image
Kai is a very controversial hero. On the one hand, he is kind and sensitive, but on the other, he is frivolous and stubborn. Even before the fragments hit the eye and heart. After the incident, Kai is completely under the influence of the Snow Queen and carries out her orders without saying a word against. But after Gerda frees him, everything is fine again.
Yes, on the one hand, Kai is a positive character, but his inaction and passivity prevent the reader from falling in love with him.
The image of the Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is the embodiment of winter and cold. Her home is an endless expanse of ice. Just like ice, she is very beautiful in appearance and also smart. But her heart doesn't know feelings. That is why she is the prototype of evil in Andersen's fairy tale.
History of creation
It's time to tell the story of the creation of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It was first published in 1844. The tale is the longest in the author’s bibliography, and Andersen claimed that it is connected with the story of his life.
Andersen said that “The Snow Queen,” a summary of which is contained in the article, appeared in his head when he was little and played with his friend and neighbor, the white-headed Lisbeth. To him, she was practically a sister. The girl was always next to Hans, supported him in all his games and listened to his first fairy tales. Many researchers claim that she became the prototype of Gerda.
But not only Gerda had a prototype. Singer Jenny Lind has become the living embodiment of the queen. The author was in love with her, but the girl did not share his feelings, and Andersen made her cold heart the embodiment of the beauty and soullessness of the Snow Queen.
In addition, Andersen was fascinated by Scandinavian myths, and there death was called the ice maiden. Before his death, his father said that the maiden had come for him. Perhaps the Snow Queen has the same prototype as the Scandinavian winter and death. She also has no feelings, and the kiss of death can freeze her forever.
The image of a girl made of ice attracted the storyteller, and in his heritage there is another fairy tale about the Snow Queen, who stole her lover from his bride.
Andersen wrote the fairy tale in a very difficult time, when religion and science were in conflict. Therefore, there is an opinion that the confrontation between Gerda and the queen describes the events that took place.
In the USSR, the fairy tale was remade, since censorship did not allow the mention of Christ and the reading of the Gospel at night.
"The Snow Queen": analysis of the work
Andersen in his fairy tales creates an opposition - the opposition of good and evil, summer and winter, external and internal, death and life.
Thus, the Snow Queen has become a classic character in folklore. Dark and cold mistress of winter and death. She is contrasted with the warm and kind Gerda, the embodiment of life and summer.
Kai and Gerda, according to Schelling’s natural philosophy, are androgynous, that is, the opposition of death and life, summer and winter. Children are together in the summer, but suffer separation in the winter.
The first half of the tale talks about the creation of a magic mirror that can distort good, turning it into evil. A person traumatized by its fragment acts as an opponent of culture. On the one hand, this is a myth that affects culture and breaks the connection between man and nature. So Kai becomes soulless and rejects his love for summer and the beauty of nature. But he begins to love the creations of the mind with all his heart.
The fragment that ended up in the boy's eye allows him to think rationally, cynically, and show interest in the geometric structure of snowflakes.
As we know, a fairy tale cannot have a bad ending, so Andersen contrasted Christian values with the world of technology. That is why the children in the fairy tale sing psalms to the rose. Although the rose fades, the memory of it remains. Thus, memory is a mediator between the world of the living and the dead. This is exactly how Gerda, once in the witch’s garden, forgets Kai, and then her memory returns again and she runs away. It is roses that help her in this.
The scene in the castle with the false prince and princess is very symbolic. In this dark moment, Gerda is helped by ravens, symbolizing the powers of the night and wisdom. Climbing the stairs is a tribute to Plato's myth of the cave, in which non-existent shadows create the idea of a false reality. It takes a lot of strength for Gerda to distinguish between lies and truth.
The further the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” advances, the summary of which you already know, the more often peasant symbolism appears. Gerda, with the help of prayer, copes with the storm and ends up in the queen's domain. The atmosphere of the castle was created by the author himself. It highlights all the complexes and failures of the poor writer. According to biographers, the Andresen family had some mental disorders.
So the queen's powers can symbolize actions that can drive you crazy. The castle is motionless and cold, crystalline.
Thus, Kai’s injury leads to his seriousness and intellectual development, and his attitude towards his loved ones changes dramatically. Soon he is completely alone in the icy halls. These signs characterize schizophrenia.
Kai meditates over the ice, showing his loneliness. Gerda's arrival to Kai suggests his salvation from the world of the dead, from the world of madness. He returns to the world of love and kindness, eternal summer. The couple reunites again, and the person gains integrity thanks to a difficult path and overcoming himself.
Girls are different: there are capricious girls, there are chatterboxes, there are sneakers and mischief-makers. But, fortunately, there are also people like the little heroine of H. C. Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen.” Gerda is a reliable and faithful friend. She is not even aware of the terrible magic fragments that fell into the eye and heart of her sworn brother Kai, and yet, when he turns from a cheerful, kind and caring boy into a cruel, angry and mocking one, Gerda does not turn away from him. And when the Snow Queen takes Kai away in her snow-white sleigh, the girl, without a moment’s hesitation, goes in search of him.
During her long wanderings, Gerda shows only her best side. She is sweet, friendly, kind and this attracts not only different people to her, but also animals and birds. She is brave, patient, persistent, and this helps her not to be discouraged by failures and not to lose faith that she will find Kai. She is faithful, loving, reliable, and this helps her cope with the charms of the Snow Queen herself and melt the ice in the boy’s heart. If Gerda were a real girl and not a fairy-tale girl, she would have a lot of friends. I don't doubt this one bit.
The fairy tale by H.H. Andersen is dedicated to Jenny Lind, a very famous opera actress in the 18th century. She had phenomenal range. She was applauded by Berlin, Paris, London and Vienna. Her voice was admired, and her performances were sold out.
Andersen was captivated to the depths of his soul by her beautiful voice. Lindh and the writer met in Copenhagen. Literally at first sight, he fell in love with the singer. Whether this feeling was mutual is unknown. But she really appreciated his writing talent.
Andersen couldn’t speak beautifully about his love, so he decided to write about it and confess his feelings. Having sent a letter with Lind's confession, he did not wait for a response. This is how the famous fairy tale was born, telling about the touching love that Gerda and Kai felt for each other.
Prototypes of heroes in a fairy tale
Two years later, Lind and Andersen met. The actress invited Andersen to become her brother. He agreed (since it was better than being a nobody), thinking that Gerda and Kai were also like brother and sister.
Perhaps in search of a real feeling, Andersen spent a lot of time traveling, trying to escape from the kingdom of the Snow Queen, which was Copenhagen for him. In life, everything is not like in a fairy tale. The image of Kai and Gerda, invented by Andersen and personifying him and Lind, was just as pure. In his life, Kai was never able to make Gerda fall in love with him and escape from the kingdom of the Snow Queen. 
Brief analysis of the tale
G. H. Andersen is the first Danish writer whose works were included in world literature. The most famous fairy tales are “The Little Mermaid” and “The Snow Queen”. They are familiar to almost all of us. The fairy tale “The Snow Queen” tells about good and evil, love and oblivion. It also talks about devotion and betrayal.
The image of the Snow Queen in the fairy tale was taken for a reason. Before his death, Andersen's father told him that the Ice Maiden had come for him. In his fairy tale, the writer personified the Snow Queen precisely with the Ice Maiden, who took his dying father with her.
At first glance, the tale is simple and does not contain any deep meaning. Delving deeper into the process of analysis, you realize that the plot raises some of the most important aspects life is love, devotion, determination, kindness, the fight against evil, religious motives.
The story of Kai and Gerda
This is a story of touching friendship and love between two fairy-tale characters from Andersen's fairy tale. Gerda and Kai had known each other since childhood and spent a lot of time together. In the fairy tale, it is Gerda who has to prove the strength of friendship, who went on a long and difficult journey after the boy who became a prisoner of the Snow Queen herself. Having charmed Kai with a piece of ice, she turned him into a callous, spoiled and arrogant boy. At the same time, Kai was not aware of his changes. Having managed to go through many difficulties, Gerda managed to find Kai and melt his icy heart. Kindness and faith in her friend’s salvation gave the girl strength and confidence. The fairy tale teaches you to be faithful to your feelings, not to leave a loved one in trouble, to be kind and, despite difficulties, to strive to achieve your goal. 
Characteristics of Kai and Gerda
Andersen's fairy tale describes to us a kind, attentive and sympathetic Kai. But after challenging the Snow Queen herself, he turns into a rude and angry boy, capable of offending anyone, even Gerda and his grandmother, whose fairy tales he loved to listen to. One of Kai's pranks ended with him being captured by the Snow Queen.
In the palace of the evil queen, he became a boy with an icy heart. Kai kept trying to make the word “eternity” out of ice floes, but he couldn’t. Then she promised to give him skates and the whole world. Kai's desire to comprehend eternity indicates his lack of understanding that this cannot be done without true feelings, without love, having only a cold mind and an icy heart. 
Having lost all human feelings, Kai, in fear, wanted to read a prayer, but could not. All he could think about in his head was the multiplication table. Frozen figures of regular geometric shapes were the only thing that delighted him. Kai tramples his once-beloved roses and examines snowflakes with interest through a magnifying glass.
The image of Gerda is a contrast to the character of the Snow Queen. To find Kai and rescue him from the ice castle, the girl sets off on a long and difficult journey. In the name of her love, a brave little girl sets off into the unknown. The obstacles encountered along this path did not make Gerda angry and did not force her to turn back towards home and abandon her friend in captivity of the Snow Queen. She remained friendly, kind and sweet throughout the entire fairy tale. Bravery, perseverance and patience help her not to become discouraged, but to humbly overcome all failures. Thanks to this character, she managed to find Kai. And love for him was able to melt his icy heart and cope with the spell of the evil queen.
The description of Gerda and Kai may be a prototype of real people and similar stories in real life. You just need to take a closer look around.
Characteristics of the Snow Queen
The Snow Queen, Blizzard Witch, Ice Maiden is a classic character in Scandinavian folklore. Lifeless and cold space, snow and eternal ice- this is the Kingdom of the Snow Queen. A tall, beautiful ruler on a throne located on a lake called the “Mirror of the Mind”, she is the embodiment of cold reason and beauty, devoid of feelings. 
Growing up of fairy tale heroes
Having visited the kingdom of the Snow Queen, the heroes become adults. The motive of growing up takes on moral meaning. Children grow older when they face harsh life trials, overcoming which Gerda managed to save her loved one, resisting the difficult quests and intrigues that the Snow Queen arranged for them. Kai and Gerda, despite growing up, retain their childlike spiritual purity. It’s as if they were born again for the purpose of a new adult existence.
Christian motives in a fairy tale
Andersen's tale is imbued with Christian motifs. This is rarely seen in Russian publications. In the episode, when Gerda tries to enter the Snow Queen's castle, the guards do not let her in. She was able to get into it thanks to the fact that she began to read the “Our Father” prayer. After which the guards, turning into angels, paved the way for the girl.
While Gerda and Kai return to their home, the grandmother reads the Gospel. After the meeting, the children all begin to dance around the rose bush and sing a Christmas carol, which is how the instructive tale ends.
And this mysterious journey from the world of good to the land of evil began with a fragment of a broken mirror that fell into Kai’s eye. The mirror broke because trolls (that is, demons) reflected everything in the world in a distorted form. Andersen explains this by saying that the demons in the lying mirror wanted to reflect the Creator. God, not allowing this, made the mirror escape from the hands of the demons and break.
The image of Hell is reflected in the word “eternity”, which the Snow Queen instructed Kai to compose. Icy eternity, not created by the Creator, is an image of hell. 
In the episode where the deer asks the sorceress to help Gerda and give her the strength of twelve heroes (twelve apostles), she replies that she cannot make the girl stronger than she is. Her strength is her small loving heart. And God helps her anyway.
Contrast between cold and heat
From the prologue of the fairy tale, Andersen begins to write that for some people, shards of ice fall into the heart, which freezes, becomes cold and insensitive. And at the end of the tale he describes how Gerda’s hot tears fall onto Kai’s chest and the shard of ice in his heart melts.
Cold in a fairy tale is the personification of evil, everything bad on earth, and warmth is love.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Snow Queen, Andersen sees the absence of warmth, the presence of coldness and insensibility.
Travel almost the entire Earth in search of best friend? For the heroine of a fairy tale, this is not at all difficult. Brave and courageous Gerda will overcome any challenge to save a loved one. And what obstacles can we talk about if a sincere belief in good lives in the heart.
History of creation
In 1844, the collection “New Fairy Tales. Volume one." The book includes a story about the adventures of a girl named Gerda, who was desperately searching for her missing friend.
Scientists claim that “The Snow Queen” is the writer’s longest fairy tale. Hans Christian Andersen himself called the work “the fairy tale of my life.” There is some basis for such a statement. Most of the characters in this fascinating story are not made up - they are real people who accompanied Andersen on his life's journey.
The prototype of the brave Gerda was a girl named Lisbeth. The future heroine of the fairy tale lived not far from little Hans and often came to visit. Over time, the children became so friendly that they began to call each other “sister” and “brother.” Lisbeta is the first listener of the still unsure, but already interesting stories Andersen.
There is a theory that in the confrontation between Gerda and the Danish writer he reflected the struggle between religion and science. This idea did not take root in the Soviet Union. It’s not surprising, since the fairy tale reached the USSR in a stripped-down version. Mandatory censorship, through which foreign works passed, erased religious motifs from the fairy tale - in the original version, memories of .
Biography
Gerda was born into a poor family. Despite the difficult financial situation, the parents and grandmother tried to give the child a happy childhood. The family lives under the very roof of an apartment building. The young heroine has an attractive appearance:
“The hair curled and the curls surrounded the girl’s fresh, round, rose-like face with a golden glow.”
Mom and dad built a flower garden for Gerda, which the girl looked after together with the neighbor boy Kai. The guys had been friends since childhood and spent a lot of time together.
The relationship changed when Kai became hostage to the fragments of a magic mirror, distorting the perception of the world. Having hit the boy in the eye and heart, the fragments turned Kai against Gerda.
The girl's best friend goes missing, and the adults decide that the boy is dead. Only Gerda does not accept this truth and, with the onset of spring, goes on a search. The first person the girl turns to is the local river. Gerda offers the elements an exchange: the river returns Kaya to her, and the heroine gives away the only thing of value - new red shoes. The river does not help the girl, but carries her to the house of the old witch.
Naive Gerda allows herself to be bewitched and blithely lives in the old woman’s house through the end of spring and all summer. Chance reminds the girl of the purpose of her journey. After consulting with local flowers and finding out that Kai is not buried in the ground, Gerda returns to the search.
The road leads a brave girl to a beautiful castle. Questions from the talking raven confirm the guess - Kai lives in the palace and is quite happy with the local princess. The girl persuades the raven to take her inside. Alas, the princess's groom turns out to be another boy.
Good rulers listen to the sad story and present the girl with warm clothes and a golden carriage. The gifts could not have come at a better time. Gerda again sets out on a difficult journey. In the nearby forest, an expensive carriage is attacked by bandits.
Gerda is saved from death by a little robber who decides to take the girl into her collection of curiosities. At night, when the robber falls asleep, the white doves tell the girl where to look for Kai. Delighted Gerda shares what she has learned with the jailer. Despite the surroundings, the heart of the young robber has not yet hardened. The thief lets Gerda go, giving her a reindeer to accompany her.
So, on the back of a mighty animal, the heroine gets to Lapland. The duo makes their first stop at the house of an old Laplander. The woman, having learned the fate of the deer and Gerda, gives the heroes a strange message on the road, written on dried cod. The old woman asks to convey a message to a Finnish friend.
Having reached Finnmark, Gerda finds the old woman's home. While the heroes are warming up after a long journey, the Finnish woman carefully examines the incomprehensible writings. The reindeer, who has developed a liking for his companion during the trip, begs his new acquaintance to help Gerda. But the Finnish woman, seeing the girl’s character traits, has a different opinion on this matter:
“Don’t you see how great her power is? Don't you see that both people and animals serve her? After all, she walked around half the world barefoot! It’s not up to us to borrow her power! The strength is in her sweet, innocent childish heart. If she herself cannot penetrate the palace of the Snow Queen and remove the fragments from Kai’s heart, then we will certainly not help her!”
Having reached the entrance to the Snow Queen's garden, Gerda is left alone - a reindeer is waiting for her at the entrance. Prayers help the girl get to the castle. The angels who came to the rescue drive the Snow Queen's guards away from the heroine and do not allow them to harm Gerda.
The house of the evil mistress of the snow fascinates the girl, although during the journey the castles ceased to amaze Gerda. Seeing Kai, the heroine throws herself on her friend’s chest. Warm tears rolling from the girl’s eyes melt the ice in the boy’s heart, and the mention of Christ in his favorite psalm makes Kai himself cry. This is how the fragments of the cursed mirror came out of the young man’s body.
The happy heroes set off on their way back and, having reached their home, realize that they have matured a lot during the journey. Only their hearts remained as kind and pure.
Film adaptations
The first cartoon about the adventures of a brave girl was filmed in the USSR in 1957. The cartoon "The Snow Queen" was awarded international awards and translated into six foreign languages. The actress became the voice of Gerda.
In 1967, the Lenfilm film studio released the fairy tale film The Snow Queen. In addition to living people, the film features dolls and cartoon elements. The role of Gerda was played by.
The premiere of the New Year's musical of the same name took place on December 31, 2003. Performed the role of Gerda. In addition to the original plot, the musical film also contains other Andersen stories.
Inspired by the fairy tale of the Danish writer, Osamu Dezaki created an anime dedicated to the adventures of a brave girl. The cartoon hardly deviates from the original source. The image of Gerda was created by Akio Sugino, and the voice was given by Ayako Kawasumi.
In 2012, a new animated film “The Snow Queen” was released. Later, the fairy tale was continued - “The Snow Queen 2: Refreeze” (2015) and “The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice”. In the first and second parts, Gerda was voiced by a singer (Anna Shurochkina), in the third - Natalia Bystrova.
- The name "Gerda" comes from Scandinavia, the meaning of the name is the protector of people.
- Lives in the Novosibirsk Zoo polar bear named Gerda. In August, the animal was suffering from the heat, and the servants brought real snow into the enclosure. A video of Gerda enjoying the snow spread all over the world.
- Poet Stefania Danilova dedicated a poem to Gerda in which the heroine enters the halls of winter. The work ends unexpectedly: Gerda confesses her love not to Kai, but to the Snow Queen.
