Snow Queen

I discovered amongst my parents’ books The World’s 50 Best Fairy Tales. Much as I’d like to I’m not going to comment on that word Best, though I will note that this Reader’s Digest Mothercare Anthology has some pretty rough bits left from the murder-and-violence of old fairy tales considering the note in the front suggests I was 5 when it was given as a Christmas Present.

I’m just going to look at the opening of The Snow Queen which is excellent.

There was once a dreadfully wicked hobgoblin. One day he was in high good spirits because he had made a mirror which reflected everything that was good and beautiful in such a way that it dwindled almost to nothing, while anything that was bad and ugly stood out very clearly and appeared much worse. The most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach. The nicest people looked repulsive or seemed to stand on their heads or had no middles, and their faces were so distorted that they could not be recognised. And if anyone had a single freckle, you could be sure it would look as if it had spread over his whole nose and mouth. That’s the funniest thing about it, thought the hobgoblin.

One day the hobgoblin was flying high among the clouds, maliciously flashing his mirror on the countries below. Suddenly it slipped from his hands and crashed to the earth, shattering into a millions and billions of pieces.

And now came the greatest misfortune of all, for each of the pieces was hardly as large as a grain of sand and they flew about all over the world. If anyone got a speck of mirror in his eye there it stayed. From then on, he would see everything crooked, or else would only see only the ugly side of things. For every tiny splinter of the glass possessed the same power that the whole mirror.

Some people got a splinter in their hearts, and that was dreadful, for then the heart would turn into a lump of ice. A few of the fragments were large enough to be used as windowpanes, but how terrible it would be to look out at one’s friends and neighbours through such a window!

The hobgoblin was so pleased he laughed till his sides ached, as the tiny bits of glass continued to whirl about in the air.

And now we will hear what happened.

Let’s not. This is an ace concept and the story cannot possibly live up to it, and of course it doesn’t. Someone should go back to the original and write a book, or maybe make a film.