The Snow Queen | hiddenfrozen

The Snow Queen - The Insperation behind Frozen

Following in the footsteps of many successful Disney movies, the inspiration for Frozen comes from the Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen. Though the two stories have some significant plot changes, it is still important to mention where the story of Frozen originally came from since The Snow Queen does have significant Christian messages throughout.

The Snow Queen tells the story of a woman who has been infected by evil and sin. The devil made a magic mirror that only shows the evil, sin and desire in people. This mirror breaks and infects the snow queen, in return making her act like the mirror, only letting her see the evil in the world around her. Gerda, the protagonist of the story, sets out to find the Snow Queen who has captured her friend. When Gerda reaches the Snow Queen's palace, she cannot enter because of an ice barrier. She prays the Lord's Prayer, causing the ice to melt and let her enter the palace – showing the power of faith in god and love. Similarly, when she finds her captured friend, his heart is frozen solid and can only be unfrozen by an act of love, reinforcing the power of love and kindness that can be found all throughout Christian theology.

Andersen, Hans Christian. The snow queen. Courier Corporation, 2013. Print.

In his book The Kiss of the snow queen: Hans Christian Andersen and man's redemption by woman, Wolfgang Lederer takes a psychological look into Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen and suggests that it’s an example of adolescent psychological development. Lederer discusses topics such as mythology, Christianity, the tradition, culture and legend and points out how there are common themes Anderson used throughout his fairytales. The following are a religious symbols and examples of “Christian themed” excerpts from The Snow Queen:

Angels : Gerda's pure and strong faith serves as a source of power and life. It strong faith is brought to life her army of angels that help Gerda find Kay.

“It was so cold that, as little Gerda said the Lord's Prayer, she could see her breath freezing in front of her mouth, like a cloud of smoke. It grew thicker and thicker, and took the shape of little angels that grew bigger and bigger the moment they touched the ground. All of them had helmets on their heads and they carried shields and lances in their hands. Rank upon rank, they increased, and when Gerda had finished her prayer she was surrounded by a legion of angels. They struck the dread snowflakes with their lances and shivered them into a thousand pieces. Little Gerda walked on, unmolested and cheerful. The angels rubbed her hands and feet to make them warmer, and she trotted briskly along to the Snow Queen's palace.”

“Then they wanted to fly up to heaven itself, to scoff at the angels, and our Lord. The higher they flew with the mirror, the wider it grinned. They could hardly manage to hold it. Higher they flew, and higher still, nearer to heaven and the angels. Then the grinning mirror trembled with such violence that it slipped from their hands and fell to the earth (...)”

*This quote also represents the motif of prayer. The lord’s prayer itself symbolizes Christianity, faith, love and redemption in Christian religion.

Satan: Satan represents evil, hell and sin. The following quote is significant because it demonstrates how evil and sin can find its way into every aspect of life, no matter how beautiful or pure it appears to be.

“He was a terribly bad hobgoblin, a goblin of the very wickedest sort and, in fact, he was the devil himself. One day the devil was in a very good humor because he had just finished a mirror which had this peculiar power: everything good and beautiful that was reflected in it seemed to dwindle to almost nothing at all, while everything that was worthless and ugly became most conspicuous and even uglier than ever. In this mirror the loveliest landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the very best people became hideous, or stood on their heads and had no stomachs. Their faces were distorted beyond any recognition, and if a person had a freckle it was sure to spread until it covered both nose and mouth.

"That's very funny!" said the devil. If a good, pious thought passed through anyone's mind, it showed in the mirror as a carnal grin, and the devil laughed aloud at his ingenious invention.

All those who went to the hobgoblin's school-for he had a school of his own-told everyone that a miracle had come to pass. Now, they asserted, for the very first time you could see how the world and its people really looked.”

God/Christ: God throughout this story represents Christianity and everything that is good and pure.

“Kay and Gerda sat down on them, and held each other by the hand. Both of them had forgotten the icy, empty splendor of the Snow Queen's palace as completely as if it were some bad dream. Grandmother sat in God's good sunshine, reading to them from her Bible:

"Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

Kay and Gerda looked into each other's eyes, and at last they understood the meaning of their old hymn:

"Where roses bloom so sweetly in the vale,

There shall you find the Christ Child, without fail."

The children held each other by the hand, kissed the roses, looked up at the Lord's clear sunshine, and spoke to it as if the Christ Child were there.”

Andersen, Hans Christian. The Snow Queen. Courier Corporation, 2013. Print.

Lederer, Wolfgang. The Kiss of the snow queen: Hans Christian Andersen and man's redemption by woman. Univ of California Press, 1986. Print.

Karla Bom, Anne, and Anya Aarenstrup. "Registered Religious Motifs in HCA : The SnowQueen (1844)." Andersen. University of Southern Denmark, 28 Mar. 2013. Web.05 Feb. 2015.