The Snow Queen

It's winter time here in fairy tale land so put away your sunglasses and grab your cozy blanket. We are journeying to Lapland to learn all about Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen. Join us and learn how this fairytale inspired Disney's Frozen!

Sources

When Opera Star Jenny Lind Came to America, She Witnessed a Nation Torn Apart Over Slavery | History| Smithsonian Magazine

Frozen's original storyline and ending were VERY different with an evil Elsa and snow monster army - Mirror Online

Frozen was our most important feminist film but the sequel won't have the same impact (theconversation.com)

Frozen Was VERY Different To The Snow Queen: Everything Disney Changed (screenrant.com)

Has anyone else read The Snow Queen? (SPOILERS IN THE LAST PARAGRAPH) : r/fairytales (reddit.com)

A Summary and Analysis of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Snow Queen’ Fairy Tale – Interesting Literature

“The Snow Queen”, analysis of the tale by Hans Christian Andersen | LitHelper

The Snow Queen Summary and Analysis – Litbug

Spelling ETERNITY: The Alchemy of “The Snow Queen” – Painted Blind Publishing

Innocence and Eternity in "The Snow Queen" — CenterForLit

The Snow Queen | Hans Christian Andersen | Lit2Go ETC (usf.edu) (actual story)

Frozen in Time: Disney's Adaptation of a Literary Classic - Rotoscopers

screenrant.com

Transcript

Welcome back to myths in movies. I’m Erin and Sarah couldn’t be here today. 

Thank you for joining us as we dive into our favorite movies and learn about fairies, trolls, mythical monsters, and folklore.

Today I thought I would cover a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. This one inspired the wonderful movie, Frozen. Frozen came out about ten years ago and is still wildly popular- I see kids still wearing those costumes. 

I mean my favorite Disney is Beauty and the Beast. I think it’s a masterpiece but you can’t keep coming out with a new edition every year. No matter how much Disney tries. 

So Disney took a risk. They made a film based around familial love, rather than romantic. It’s very different for a Disney movie and I like that they took a risk. And I really like that they deal with themes like isolation and repression. It’s never too early to encourage people to be themselves and surround themselves with people who love them just the way they are. 

Now that we’ve praised the movie to high heaven, let’s learn more about it shall we? 

I think most people know that Frozen has been adapted from Andersen’s Snow Queen. But what you might not know, or perhaps what I didn’t know, is what the Snow Queen is about. I know it’s really popular but I’m not a huge Andersen fan. So I did a little research and now I’m going to tell you all about it.

So let’s start with a little background- when Disney was adapting fairy tales like crazy after the remarkable success of Snow White, the Snow Queen was a favorite. They really wanted to adapt this story but it was very difficult. It’s hard to adapt because the central villain is not human. She dresses in “garments of white gauze, which looked like millions of starry snow-flakes linked together. She was fair and beautiful, but made of ice — shining and glittering ice. Still she was alive and her eyes sparkled like bright stars.”

I mean how do you animate ice?

Also, she has no personality or ambitions which would make a very dull villain. She’s more symbolic than anything.  

It went through decades of changes and adaptations. Eventually it was turned into Frozen. Now I’m going to assume that most people know the plot of Frozen- basically the story of two sisters, who are emotionally distant, and eventually reconcile. 

But the original plot was not like that at all. It opens with a prophecy about a leader with a frozen heart who brings the downfall of the town. Then Elsa is stood up at the altar so she pulls a Miss Haversham and freezes her heart. Then she freezes Arendelle so that no one would ever be happy again.

Elsa was very much the villain while Anna represented good. And both summoned snow armies to fight each other. Hans triggers an avalanche, endangering Anna; he is the leader with the frozen heart. Anna realizes Elsa is their only chance to survive, elsa helps and her heart is thawed.

But when Let it Go was written, they were inspired to rewrite the film so she would be more sympathetic.

I think either version would have been fine. My main gripe is Hans. He should not be in the film; the main villain should be the Weasel guy. Disney wanted to make a Pixar movie complete with twist villain but I think it fell completely flat. Hans lacks any sort of punch, I really didn’t care about him at all. I would prefer a straight forward villain who is well rounded, like Gaston or Ursula. Give him a strong personality and his own song, I’m in. 

So before we get into the differences and similarities of each story, I should probably tell you Andersen’s version. That way we are all on the same page and we can eliminate confusion. And just to be extra clear- I’m seriously condensing the tale. It’s not long, about forty pages but I’m going to make it even shorter. If you want to read the whole thing, I have a link to a webpage that has all of it including an audio book version.

And here we go-

Once upon a time, there was a malicious sprite who built a mirror. This mirror was evil as looking in its reflection would magnify the flaws it saw. Eventually it was broken into many pieces and small pieces flew to every corner of the earth.

Several pieces traveled an overcrowded town. Space was so precious there that there wasn’t a lick of grass to be found, except for a single rooftop garden. Two children, Kay and Gerda, occupied two sides of the apartment and their rose garden bloomed in the middle. They would spend hours sitting by the roses and playing.

One day, Kay felt something prick his eye. As he tried to blink it away, he felt another prick by this time in his heart. He shrugged it off but soon his behavior began to change. Instead of listening to his grandmother, he made fun of her. Instead of admiring the roses, he picked out flaws and crushed the flowers under his shoe. Days later, a snowflake shimmered in his window and grew into a queen. She was lovely as the snowflakes that adorned her dress shimmered like a halo, but the woman was made entirely of ice. Her eyes twinkled and beckoned for Kay to join her in her winter wonderland.

When Gerda found Kay missing, she made her mission to find him. She visited an eternal garden, met several criminals who ended up helping, and eventually a loyal reindeer brought her to Kay. The queen left Kay in an enchanted state, frozen on a lake. She recited their favorite prayer and her hot tears thawed his frozen heart. The two returned to their home, hand in hand, and discovered that time had passed and they were now quite grown up.

The end. 

So that’s the plot in a nutshell. Different versions tell it differently, so I tried to merge those differences. The point I found very interesting is the whole splinter thing. There’s a sprite or a demon, people are undecided, and he creates this terrible mirror. It distorts things and magnifies people’s worst qualities. And of course he runs a school and his pupils love the mirror. They try to carry it to the heavens so they can find God’s faults but the mirror shatters and the pieces are carried by the wind and scatter to the four corners of the earth. Kay gets one of these pieces in his eye. It’s so small he can’t see it, but he can feel it and it shapes how he sees the world.

 Most of the story is focused on Gerda’s journey to rescue Kay. She meets a handful of characters who try to help, including a little robber girl, who try to help. You know, after she threatens to kill Gerda and then steals her clothes. But she does help and frees a captive reindeer who takes her to Greenland. The reindeer not only talks but is quite wise, he tells Gerda that she is the only one who can help Kay because of her sweet and innocent heart. 

She gets to the palace but is halted by the snowflakes guarding it. She prays the Lord's Prayer, which causes her breath to take the shape of angels, who resist the snowflakes and allow Gerda to enter the palace. She finds Kai alone and almost immobile on a frozen lake, which the Snow Queen calls the "Mirror of Reason", on which her throne sits.

Kai doesn’t recognize her until her warm tears spill onto his chest. They melt the ice in his heart and he bursts into tears, which dislodges the splinter from his eye. Gerda recites a line about roses from their favorite home and they walk home together, hand in hand. 

So that’s the basic story. It’s more religious than I expected, mostly because most of the Grimm brothers tales are totally non religious. 

And of course Disney takes out those religious parts. And anything offensive like some brief mentions of cannibalism and nudity. But they keep the overall structure, setting, and characters. 

The setting is the same. In Frozen, it’s never mentioned but it resembles Scandinavia. The snow queen actually mentions a place by name. Andersen specifically identifies the queen dragging Kay across Lapland which is the northern part of Finland. And both have an eternal winter vibe, including fjords and mountains. 

The structure is practically very similar. Two characters that share an eternal bond are separated. Both separated by choice- both choose to leave. And then the “good” character spends most of the story trying to reach the character that left. Of course the part about the snowman is different, which is why Frozen made so much money at the box office. Who doesn’t want to see a snowman do a vaudeville esque musical number complete with boater hat?

Now for the characters- this is where it gets more complicated. It’s sort of an adaptation similar to the 90’s movies in which teen movies were made using Shakespearian plots. See 10 things I hate about you, she’s the man, etc.

Let’s start with Kay and Gerda. This couple is the center of the plot- without their friendship, there would be no story. Same with Anna and Elsa. Their relationship too is what the movie is based around. Anna is Gerda as she is the “good” one and she is the one who attempts to rescue Elsa. Even though she has the ice splinter, it does not affect her personality, unlike Kay. 

Elsa is a bit tricky. Technically she is the Snow Queen because she is a queen and she has the power of winter? Her powers are a bit confusing but I think we can agree that they are winter related. Anyway- while she does have these powers, she behaves like Kay. She is the one who leaves and thus ignites the series of events that is the plot. Furthermore, she cannot be the snow queen because she has a personality and depth, unlike the original villain. 

Don’t worry- I haven’t forgotten about the secondary characters. Kristoff, who seems to be a fan favorite, is a reinterpretation of LRG. The LRG is unpalatable for a Disney movie because, despite her size, she is a violent criminal. She threatens to murder Gerda and she kidnaps and holds a sentient reindeer at knifepoint. But she redeems herself but helping Gerda on her mission, which is exactly what Kristoff does.

The reindeer that LRG kidnaps and later helps Gerda reach the ice palace is also in the movie. And you guessed it, he is still a reindeer. Although in the movie, he is less wise because he can’t talk. And he sort of turns into what one critic called, a Nordic golden retriever.  

I mean, true. Disney turns every animal character into a golden retriever. I’m thinking of the horse in Tangled that pursues Flynn Rider. He behaves much like a dog. And I’m all for it.

And last but not- the villain. The villain in the snow queen is of course the titular character. She is what the animators really struggled with because her characterization is so vague. She has no personality and barely any motivations. Andersen wrote her like a force of nature- something indifferent, destructive, yet achingly beautiful. So for Frozen, she was rewritten into Hans, Anna’s love interest. And I already talked about how he is a terrible villain so I won’t repeat that. But he is similar to the Snow Queen in that he too has little characterization and feels rather flat.

So that’s how Snow Queen transformed into Frozen, the third highest grossing animated movie of all time. 

Now that we’ve covered the broad strokes, let’s get into the background of the tale. We know that Andersen wrote the ugly duckling based on himself. So it would make sense that he would inject his own life into this story too and he did!

The story goes that he was very good friends with a very famous opera singer named Jenny Lind. She performed in New York to huge crowds and was a very big deal. She and Hans were quite good friends. He confessed his love to her and she politely declined. Hans did not take it well, which is no surprise if you know anything about this guy.  

It is believed that he wrote the snow queen character about her. Hans turned himself into Kay, an innocent boy who is seduced by a woman only for her to abandon him.

Which is so typical of Hans. Nothing is ever his fault. And I think Lind made it very clear she was not interested in him. If you read their correspondence, she refers to him repeatedly as a brother. How much clearer can you get?

It’s also been speculated that the relationship between Gerda and Kay is representative of the relationship they had. It’s full of love and kindness, but it is in no way romantic. It’s the platonic ideal. 

Which is Andersen’s thing. He might have been a romantic, but he was no lothario. He was a guy who liked to live in fairyland where romance was all stolen glances and flowery letters, but he never wanted to be touched. In fact, he went to several brothels and just watched the sex worker undress. Then he would pay her and dash out the door. 

You would think a man who loudly proclaimed that no one who had sex could enter the kingdom of heaven would steer clear of brothels. It is has been speculated that Andersen was gay and so maybe he was trying to convince himself he was straight by visiting brothels? But according to his private correspondence, he pursued women and men equally. 

He might have been so weird about sex because it is speculated his mother and sister were sex workers. Or he was just not into it. Which is fine.

I want to be clear- I’m not judging people who were asexual. I’m judging Andersen because he was such a judgmental prick about it. 

I’m not a huge Andersen fan if you can tell.

Now that we’ve talked about the main relationship in the story, I want to talk about the setting.  I talked earlier about its Scandinavian setting but I also want to mention the depiction of the natural world and the meaning behind that.

At the time the tale was written, industrialization was sweeping the western world. Before this, people generally lived in very rural areas where there were lots of farms. But as machines were invented, jobs were created and people were paid well. Working at a factory was a way to escape poverty and many people flooded major cities.

Well Andersen hated this trend. I told you he was a romantic. He was all about the poetry of nature and he thought large cities were not only oppressive but sinful. He thought it was a rejection of God’s creation. This is the same guy that pretended he was a secret prince as a child and would try to get kids to do favors for him and he would promise that he would reward them when his real father the king came to rescue him. This did not endear him to his schoolmates or the girl he had a crush on. 

When he visited Dickens and became an unwanted house guest, he was terrified of visiting London. He would make the cabbies take circuitous routes through the city so you wouldn’t be robbed. Once, when he was positive he was going to be murdered- he stuffed all his belongings out the window including his boots, pen knife, and books. And then walked home. So the city really wasn’t for him. 

And we see this attitude reflected in the snow queen when he describes the town they live in as a place where nothing green can grow because buildings and houses are just stacked on top of each other. And then the rest of the story takes place in a fanciful land that contains the idealized version of nature. Gerda goes to a garden of eternal summer that is stuffed with flowers. Kay lives at a palace made of ice yet he never gets cold because of the queen’s magic. In real life, flowers wilt, bugs eat your garden, and ice hurts. Or it melts all at once and floods your home. Nature is beautiful but it’s also ugly and brutal. Not in an Andersen tale. 

Andersen uses nature to tell the story. For instance- the palace where Kay lives with the snow queen. That palace is essentially a physical manifestation of winter- the guards are snowflakes, there’s a frozen lake inside the palace, etc. The snow queen is often thought to be a manifestation of nature or at least winter. Even the metaphors and similes used as nature related. Gerda’s face is compared to a rose, her dress compared to snow. Etc.

So now we’re kinda veering into literary analysis. So let’s dive all the way in! 

So Andersen goes heavy on the religious themes. There’s good triumphing over evil, the evils of separating man from nature, and of course, transforming your sinful heart into one like a child. And of course there are umpteen references to the Bible or Christ.

Some are subtle and some are overt. The overt references would be the actual verses included in the story. The subtler reference is the actual structure of the story. It’s split into seven stories and the very first story is essentially the birth of evil, much like the bible. This is the story in which the mirror is created, shattered, and then spread around the world. Then the second story is about evil entering the human heart, specifically Kay. And then the rest of the stories are about fighting evil and eventually triumphing over it.

The subtle references continue as the story goes on. First up is the verdant garden that flourishes on the kids’ roof. Sounds a lot like the garden of Eden. This is where Kay is struck by the glass shard which is comparable to original sin. Kay didn’t commit the first sin, but he is plagued by it and suffers the consequences of it. Once infected with the sin, Kay turns from God. He forgets how to say his prayers and he becomes obsessed with cold, hard reason. He doesn’t see snowflakes as a glorious tribute to God’s creation but rather he is astonished by the math in the flakes. He completely rejects anything he can’t prove. In fact, when he is scared and is desperately crying out for help- he recites multiplication tables. He can’t remember the prayers so he can’t pray to God. Instead of turning to God, he begs science to save him. 

While Kay is the human that has committed sin, Gerda is more of the Christ like figure. She always sees the best in Kay, no matter what he does, and she never doubts him. She sees Kay much like Christ sees us. She has boundless affection for her friend, despite the fact that he has rejected her over and over again. 

This where the religious references get a little more overt. Gerda recites the Lord’s prayer and legions of angels fight for her and triumph over the queen. Finally when she gets to Kay, he recognizes Christ when Gerda mentions the subject, before he even recognizes her. The precious words of the bible cause his tears which wash away his cynicism and replace it with hope.  

And finally, the story ends with the grandmother reciting a verse. And this verse really encapsulates the entire story. 

It’s Matthew 18:3, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This is really the thesis of the story- Andersen wants to highlight the value of innocence. Gerda’s only valuable trait is her innocence. We learn from the reindeer that she is the only who can save Kay because she is the only one with a pure heart. Throughout the story, Andersen sprinkles in verses that advocate for adults to embody the souls of children. 

Which is interesting because of what we know about Andersen. I believe this story represents his romantic life. It is a response to Jenny Lind rejecting him. He is showing her the value of a platonic relationship and how worldliness or sexuality corrupts. Like I said earlier, he thought that anyone who laid together would not enter the kingdom of heaven. Yet, he visits brothels and then runs out after they take their clothes off. He’s clearly conflicted between his innate sexual desire and the desire to remain pure and innocent in God’s eyes. And that conflict is then played out in the story. 

It's also possible that Andersen is not referring to sexuality but perhaps championing children’s ability to forgive. Kay brutally rejects Gerda but she shrugs it off and chases after him to rescue him. In fact, the whole story is propelled by Gerda’s love for her friend as she rescues him from certain death. Gerda is presented as the perfect hero. She never makes mistakes or is tempted by any vice. She effortlessly resists worldly pleasures and never gives up on her quest. Kai is rude to her, rude to her grandmother, ditches her constantly and yet she holds steadfast to their friendship. Her love for him never dims and even when she finally rescues him, she never chastises him. Anyone might be tempted to reprimand him for this terrible journey she went on, but all she cares about is her friend. 

I still think the story is about Andersen rejecting sexuality in favor of platonic friendships but I thought I would offer another explanation.

Now that we’ve covered the religious aspects, I thought we might discuss mirrors. The story starts with a bit about a magical mirror that amplifies every flaw. There is some debate about what the mirror represents. I have seen people suggest that it is cynicism or self consciousness. 

I’m not sure where I stand. The garden that the two play in all the time is represented as Eden. And we know from Genesis that Adam and Eve felt self conscious after they bit into the apple. So Hans could be saying that Kay’s splinter is the equivalent of biting the apple and now he is infected with self consciousness as a part of growing up. 

Plus his actions suggest that too. He no longer plays with Gerda. He ditches her in favor of playing with boys. Which is a very typical part of puberty- you become very aware of the opposite sex. And he does- he falls for the snow queen. He sees her as beautiful and he is desperate to be near her. Again, serious marker of puberty.

However, I think it’s more likely that the splinter represents cynicism. And I think that based on the setting.

When he gets that splinter in his eye, he casts a more critical eye on the garden he loved so much. He ignores the beauty of the rose and instead looks at the flaw. He complains that the roses are crooked and ugly. So that’s cynicism- inability to see the good.

Kay rejects roses in favor of snowflakes. And you might think that he is still enchanted with beauty. But that’s not it. Kay is rejecting nature which Hans sees as wholly perfect and replaces it with math. The only reason he likes snowflakes is because he likes the repeating pattern within them. Numbers are interesting to him- not beauty.

That could be self consciousness- Kay rejecting the things he likes for what the world likes instead. He’s embarrassed that he liked flowers so he deliberately finds their faults. But I think that ignores the setting. Kay is taken to a snow palace, in Lapland. Lapland is a cold and wintry place with no flowers, only pine trees. The warmest it ever gets is about fifty while the winter season lasts above seven months. And for the purposes of our story, it is basically eternal winter. No color except for white, no beauty except for snowflakes which we know to be not beautiful, but numerical. Kay agrees to go to this place so we can surmise it reflects his own attitude. He no longer wants beauty, he wants cold hard reason. Which is reflected in the stark setting. His heart literally becomes as cold as the snow surrounding him.

Then, when Gerda finds him, he is sitting on a lake. The frozen lake represents his heart as they were both blocks of ice. And the lake is called the mirror of understanding. It’s built by the queen who is literally the embodiment of ice cold reason. The lake is not so named because it reveals universal truths but because everything but reason is stripped away. All the green of the world is gone and all is left is the brutal winter. I think Hans is attempting to associate the original mirror with the lake. I think that the splinter in his heart grew and sought out its counterpart. Not only do they look identical, but they bookend the story. The mirror is introduced as a foe at the beginning and then at the end, it is conquered by Gerda’s innocent heart. 

Therefore the splinter must be cynicism, not self consciousness. 

While researching this, I found a lot of different interpretations. Like one explained how the story is actually an allegory for the discovery of alchemy. Which I’m not sure I believe, however it does share a lot of the same symbols. Like queens and roses.

But one interpretation talked about sexuality in the tale. Which you might think is a little much considering Kay and Gerda are both children. However, at the end of the story when they return from their journey, Kay and Gerda are both adults. This means that their journey is literally one of maturation. And one by product of maturation is sexuality. We see that exploration in Kay as he falls hard for the ice queen. He literally sleeps at her feet like a pet. 

And that’s when he gets into trouble, like original sin. Gerda’s sexuality is a little different and I do wonder if it conflicts with Hans’ message of keeping your innocent heart. She never specifically falls for anyone or casts any side long glances at princes. However, her relationship with the LRG is a bit more complicated. LRG is immediately besotted with Gerda and desires to posses her. She wants her clothes, demands Gerda sleeps in her bed, and is determined to impress her. LRG is so effusive about how beautiful Gerda is and how she looks like an exquisite doll. And of course we have the infamous line, LRG dried Gerda’s tears and stuck her hands in Gerda’s muff, which was so soft and warm.

That’s a sexual line if I’ve ever heard one. But perhaps it wasn’t meant to be- perhaps it didn’t mean that nearly two hundred years ago. 

And they do lie together. And I know someone people will say that doesn’t matter- she needed a place to sleep and I’m reading too much into it. And perhaps they are right. However, every line of a book is significant because the author spent time thinking about it and then wrote it. If he had said nothing about their sleeping arrangements, we probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But he did include it. 

However, Hans seems to place a high value on sexual purity. And Gerda never succumbs to any vice or temptation. She remains as virtuous as she did at the beginning of the story. So either she didn’t lie with LRG or Hans realized that sex is a normal part of human relationships. Not a deviance.

So I think I talked about the literary angles I wanted to discuss. This story is incredibly popular and doubtless influenced many stories. In fact, it’s believed that the white witch in CS Lewis’s Chronices of Narnia was inspired by the snow queen. There are countless more stories in almost every medium- books, movies, tv, video games, comic books, etc.

But what inspired Hans? Well, I’m not sure if he was inspired by this but I wanted to talk about it.

There was a real life ice palace. It was built in Russia, no surprise there. And it was built by a queen. It’s really quite a story.

First a little backstory. Anna ruled as the empress of Russia in 1730. She was the daughter of Ivan, a emperor but he was an exceptionally weak one. He had serious mental issues and his cabinet made up of Russian nobles who ruled the country. Anna was married off to a nobody aristocrat and no one would have heard of her again, except, in a surprise move, she was made empress. Ivan died and the nobles wanted another puppet ruler. Except Anna was nobody’s puppet. She did exactly as she liked. And as a child, she had a real mean streak that only got worse when she had unchecked power. And that mean streak led to an amazing achievement.

Anna commissioned an ice palace. And I don’t mean a cute little igloo. I mean a full palace that was about ten thousand square feet. They went big too- the rooms were taller than the rooms at Buckingham palace. Which seems insane. And they really constructed it well- the walls were about three feet thick. 

Even the outside was decorated, they painted ice bushes green to look real and even made ice birds to perch on ice trees. And just in case they weren’t extra enough- they made decorative ice dolphins that blew fire. They even made a life sized ice elephant and its trunk worked as a fountain during the day and a torch at night. 

Inside was just as detailed. Anna wanted everything to be made of ice, including tables, doors, furniture, and even playing cards. Which is a little detail I’m obsessed with. Does it mean that the cards were strewn on the table or were they chiseled and then put into a little deck? 

While I’m obsessed with the playing cards- Anna was obsessed with the bedroom. Artisans were hired to create an exact replica of the empress’s bedroom. We’re talking ice furniture, including pillows and sheets made of ice. 

Why was this room so important? Well it all fed anna’s cruel streak. She liked to play incredibly mean spirited pranks. And her favorite target was a minor prince. He had married a catholic and apparently that was the worst thing he could ever do. The wife later died and Anna decided to punish him by making him a jester. Anna forced him to perform in not just silly ways, like a clown, but wanted to make him an object of humiliation. For instance, once at Easter, she made him dress like a chicken and had him sit on a basket of eggs.

I think maybe she had a little crush on him. Because no one spends that much effort on someone they are indifferent to. And we know there is a thin line between love and hate.

Anyway- the ice palace.

Anna decided that the ice palace would be the site of this poor prince’s honeymoon. Anna grabbed a female servant who was apparently quite unattractive and hosted a wedding. Then they rode an elephant through the streets while so called circus freaks and animals followed them. The jester couple was then locked in the ice castle, completely naked and forced to spend the night. It was supposed to be some sort of mock honeymoon. 

Now what happened to the couple? Luckily they survived. The servant traded a necklace to a guard for a sheepskin coat and the couple was able to shelter under that. Which is surprising. The usual temperature for that area was about -40 degrees plus all the ice? And no clothes? I feel like I would never feel warm again. 

What happened after?

Well, Anna, the empress, died the following year. Which I’m sure was a relief to the prince. 

The prince actually did pretty well for himself. He had two children with the other jester so I guess they really were married. Unfortunately, she died while giving birth to their second child. The prince married again and had three more children. So bit of a mixed bag there. I’m mostly impressed that they lived at all after that horrific honeymoon. 

So that’s it guys! I told you all about the snow queen- probably more than you wanted to know. And gave you a fun little historical fact, so I hope you enjoyed it!

We’ll see you next week.