The Snow Queen - Danish

My name is Gerda, and my best friend in the whole world was a boy named Kai. We lived in cozy attic rooms right next to each other, so close that our windows felt like doors between our houses. We planted a beautiful garden of roses in a box that stretched between our homes, and it was our own little green kingdom floating above the city streets. But one bitter winter day, a terrible magic changed everything, forcing me to begin a long and perilous journey to find my friend. This is the story of how I faced the Snow Queen. It all started with a wicked troll who crafted a magical mirror. This was no ordinary mirror; it had a nasty trick. It twisted everything good and beautiful until it looked horrid and ugly, while making bad things seem delightful. The troll and his students flew this mirror all over the world, cackling as it distorted reality. But when they tried to fly it to the heavens, it slipped and shattered into billions of tiny, invisible shards of glass. These shards blew on the wind across the entire globe. If a tiny piece landed in a person's eye, they saw the world with the same cruelty as the mirror. If a sliver pierced their heart, their heart would turn into a cold, hard lump of ice.

One afternoon, as Kai and I were admiring a picture book, he suddenly cried out in pain. "Ouch. Something pricked my heart, and something flew into my eye." A minuscule shard of the troll's mirror had found its way into his eye, and another had lodged itself deep in his heart. Instantly, Kai changed. He became grumpy and critical, making fun of our perfect roses and scoffing at the stories I loved. He only saw the flaws in the world, his kindness frozen over. That winter, as children played in the great square, a magnificent sleigh made of pure white snow appeared, pulled by swift horses. In it sat a woman so beautiful but so cold, her skin like fresh snow and her eyes like two glittering, sharp stars. It was the Snow Queen. She beckoned to Kai, and his heart, already turning to ice, felt an irresistible pull toward her frosty perfection. He tied his little sled to her sleigh without a second thought, and she whisked him away into a blizzard. When Kai never returned, everyone believed he was lost, but I couldn't accept it. As soon as spring melted the snow, I packed a small bag and set off to find him. Can you imagine setting out on such a journey all alone? My quest was filled with peculiar adventures. I met a kind old sorceress whose enchanted garden almost made me forget Kai, but the sight of a single rose sparked my memory. A helpful crow led me to a kind prince and princess who gave me a golden carriage and warm clothes. I was even captured by robbers, but the fierce little robber girl took pity on me and gave me her precious reindeer, Bae, to ride north into the endless winter of Lapland.

After what felt like a lifetime of traveling through biting winds and deep snow, Bae the reindeer brought me to the Snow Queen's palace. It was a breathtaking but terrifying place, a colossal castle built from shimmering, clear ice. The halls were vast, empty, and silent, lit only by the eerie glow of the northern lights. There, in the middle of a frozen lake, I found Kai. He was pale and blue with cold, almost frozen solid. He was trying to arrange sharp pieces of ice into patterns, a puzzle the Snow Queen had given him. If he could spell the word 'eternity,' she promised him the whole world. He was so absorbed he didn't even see me. "Kai." I whispered, but he didn't look up. I ran to him, threw my arms around his neck, and began to cry. My hot tears fell onto his chest and streamed down to his heart, melting the lump of ice and washing away the mirror's shard. Suddenly, Kai burst into tears too, and the shard in his eye washed out. He was himself again. "Gerda." he cried, hugging me back. Together, we left that cold palace and began our long journey home, finding all our kind friends along the way. When we finally saw our little attic rooms and our rose garden, we realized we were no longer children. We were grown, but we carried the warmth of summer in our hearts forever. This story, first written by a man named Hans Christian Andersen on December 21st, 1844, teaches us a powerful lesson. It shows that no matter how cold or cruel the world may seem, the warmth of love and the courage of true friendship can melt even the iciest of hearts.