’Little Kay is certainly with the Snow Queen, and he is delighted with everything there.  He thinks it is the best place in the world, but that is because he has got a splinter of glass in his heart and a grain of glass in his eye.  They will have to come out first, or he will never be human again, and the Snow Queen will keep him in her power!’

’But can’t you give little Gerda something to take which will give her power to conquer it all?’

’I can’t give her greater power than she already has.  Don’t you see how great it is?  Don’t you see how both man and beast have to serve her?  How she has got on as well as she has on her bare feet?  We must not tell her what power she has; it is in her heart, because she is such a sweet innocent child.  If she can’t reach the Snow Queen herself, then we can’t help her.  The Snow Queen’s gardens begin just two miles from here; you can carry the little girl as far as that.  Put her down by the big bush standing there in the snow covered with red berries.  Don’t stand gossiping, but hurry back to me!’ Then the Finn woman lifted Gerda on the reindeer’s back, and it rushed off as hard as it could.

‘Oh, I have not got my boots, and I have not got my mittens!’ cried little Gerda.

She soon felt the want of them in that cutting wind, but the reindeer did not dare to stop.  It ran on till it came to the bush with the red berries.  There it put Gerda down, and kissed her on the mouth, while big shining tears trickled down its face.  Then it ran back again as fast as ever it could.  There stood poor little Gerda, without shoes or gloves, in the middle of freezing icebound Finmark.

She ran forward as quickly as she could.  A whole regiment of snow-flakes came towards her; they did not fall from the sky, for it was quite clear, with the northern lights shining brightly.  No; these snow-flakes ran along the ground, and the nearer they came the bigger they grew.  Gerda remembered well how big and ingenious they looked under the magnifying glass.  But the size of these was monstrous.  They were alive; they were the Snow Queen’s advanced guard, and they took the most curious shapes.  Some looked like big, horrid porcupines, some like bundles of knotted snakes with their heads sticking out.  Others, again, were like fat little bears with bristling hair, but all were dazzling white and living snow-flakes.

Then little Gerda said the Lord’s Prayer, and the cold was so great that her breath froze as it came out of her mouth, and she could see it like a cloud of smoke in front of her.  It grew thicker and thicker, till it formed itself into bright little angels, who grew bigger and bigger when they touched the ground.  They all wore helmets, and carried shields and spears in their hands.  More and more of them appeared, and when Gerda had finished her prayer she was surrounded by a whole legion.  They pierced the snow-flakes with their spears and shivered them into a hundred pieces, and little Gerda walked fearlessly and undauntedly through them.  The angels touched her hands and her feet, and then she hardly felt how cold it was, but walked quickly on towards the Palace of the Snow Queen.