The Snow Queen and Other Stories

MP3 Audio CD. The Snow Queen and Other Stories

THE SNOW QUEEN

FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters

Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall
know more than we know now: but to begin.

Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most
mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for
he had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and
beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but
that which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified
and increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes
looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into
frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so
distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole,
you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose
and mouth.

“That's glorious fun!” said the sprite. If a good thought passed through
a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed
heartily at his clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his
school--for he kept a sprite school--told each other that a miracle had
happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be possible to
see how the world really looked. They ran about with the mirror; and at
last there was not a land or a person who was not represented distorted
in the mirror. So then they thought they would fly up to the sky,
and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the mirror, the more
terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher
still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when suddenly the
mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of their hands
and f