Story the Fifth

The Little Robber Girl

They were driving through the dark forest, but the carriage shone so brightly, it attracted the robbers. “It’s gold, it’s gold!” they shouted, and attacked the carriage. They took the horses, killed the servants and the coachman, and dragged little Gerda out of the carriage.

“She’s fat, she’s been fed up with nut kernels,” said the old robber woman; “she’s as good as a little lamb; aha, how good she’ll taste!” With that she took her bright knife, and it shone frightfully.

“Ow!” suddenly said the old hag. She’d been bitten in the ear by her own little daughter, who was hanging on her back, and was wild and rough.

“She shall play with me,” said the little robber girl, “she will give me her muff and her nice coat and sleep with me in my bed.” And she gave her mother another bite.

“I’m going to go in the carriage,” said the little robber girl. She and Gerda sat in it and drove over stumps and bushes, deep into the forest. The little robber girl was as big as Gerda, but stronger, broader in the shoulders and dark-skinned. Her eyes were quite black. She put her arm about little Gerda and said: “They won’t kill you as long as you don’t make me angry: are you a Princess?”

“No,” said little Gerda, and told her everything that had happened to her. The robber girl looked at her very gravely and nodded and said: “They won’t kill you even if you do make me angry; I’ll do it myself.” And she dried Gerda’s eyes and put both her hands into the pretty muff that was so soft and warm.

The carriage stopped. They were in the court of a robber’s castle. Ravens and crows flew out of the holes in the walls, and big dogs, each of which looked as if it could swallow a man, leapt high in the air. They didn’t bark, for they weren’t allowed to. In the great hall a large fire was burning in the middle of the stone floor. A large pot was on the boil, with soup, and nearby hares and rabbits were roasting on the fire.

“You will sleep tonight with me and my pets,” said the robber girl. They had something to eat and drink, and then went off into a corner where straw and blankets were lying. Above the straw were about a hundred pigeons. They were perched on poles. They seemed to be all asleep, but they stirred a little when the girls came there.

“Those are all mine,” said the little robber girl. She took one and held it by the legs and shook it till it flapped its wings. “And there’s my own old sweetheart.” She pulled out a reindeer by the horn: he had a bright copper ring on its neck and was tied to a wall. “We have to keep him tied, else he’d run away. Every night I tickle his neck with my sharp knife, and it frightens him a lot,” and the girl pulled a long knife out of a crack in the wall and slid it along the reindeer’s neck. The poor deer kicked out with his legs and the robber girl laughed.

“Do you want the knife with you when you go to sleep?” Gerda asked, looking at it rather nervously.

“I always sleep with my knife by me,” said the little robber girl, “you never know what may happen. But now tell me again what you told me about little Kay, and why you’re so far from home.” So Gerda told the story again from the beginning. Then they went to sleep. The little robber girl put her arm round Gerda’s neck, and held her knife in her other hand, and slept, but Gerda couldn’t even shut her eyes. She was very afraid. The robbers sat round the fire and sang and drank. It was a frightful sight for the little girl to see.

Then the pigeons said: “Coo, Coo! We have seen little Kay. He was sitting in the Snow Queen’s carriage which was flying low above the forest where we lay in the nest. Coo! Coo!”

“Where did the Snow Queen drive to? Do you know anything about it?” cried Gerda.

“She drove to Lapland, for there’s always snow and ice there. Just ask the reindeer that’s tied by the rope there.”

“There is ice and snow, it’s lovely and pleasant there,” said the reindeer. “There you can run about free. The Snow Queen has her summer house there, but her strong castle is up by the North Pole, on the island that’s called Spitzbergen.”

“Oh, Kay, dear little Kay!” sighed Gerda.

In the morning Gerda told the robber girl everything the pigeons had said. The girl looked very grave, but nodded and said: “Alright. Do you know where Lapland is?” she asked the reindeer.

“Who should know better than I?” said the beast. “I was born there.”

“Look here,” said the robber girl to Gerda, “all of our men are out, but mother’s still here. Later in the morning she’ll drink out of the big bottle and have a little nap; and then I’ll do something for you.”

Well, when her mother had had a drink out of the bottle and was taking a little nap, the robber girl went to the reindeer and said: “I’m going to free you, so that you can run to Lapland. But you must put your best foot foremost and take the little girl to the Snow Queen’s palace. You’ve heard what she told me, for she talked loud enough, and you were listening.”

The reindeer was excited. The robber girl lifted little Gerda up tied her to the deer’s back. She even gave her a little pad to sit on. “Here are your fur boots, for it’ll be cold. But I will keep your muff, it’s too pretty. You won’t be frozen, here are my mother’s big mittens, put them on.”

Gerda cried with joy.

“Here are two loaves for you, and a ham, so you won’t starve.” Both these were tied to the reindeer’s back. The little robber girl opened the door and cut the rope with her knife and said to the reindeer: “Off you go, but take good care of the little girl.” Gerda stretched out her hands to the robber girl, and said “Good-bye”, and then the reindeer started running over bushes and stumps through the great forest, as fast as he could. The wolves howled and the ravens screamed. Faster and faster he ran, through day and night alike. The loaves were eaten up and the ham too, and then—they were in Lapland.

Story the Sixth

The Lapp Woman and the Finn Woman

They stopped at a small house. Its roof reached down to the ground, and the door was so low that the family had to crawl on their stomachs when they wanted to get in or out. There was an old Lapp woman inside who stood roasting fish at an oil lamp. And the reindeer told her his and Gerda’s story; and Gerda was so exhausted with the cold that she couldn’t speak.

“Dear me, you poor dear creature!” said the Lapp woman. “You’ve got a long way to run yet! You must travel more than four hundred miles, into Finmark, for that’s where the Snow Queen has her house. I’ll write a word or two on a dry cod, for I haven’t any paper, and give it you to take to the Finn woman up there: she can tell you more than I can.” So as soon as Gerda had got warm and had something to eat and drink, the Lapp woman gave her the message for the Finn woman, tied her fast on the reindeer again, and off they went.

When they got to Finmark, they knocked at the Finn woman’s chimney, for she didn’t have a door. It was very warm inside her home. The Finn woman was stout and very thick; she helped to undo little Gerda’s clothes and took off her mittens and boots, otherwise she would have been too hot. She laid a piece of ice on the reindeer’s head, and then read what was written on the cod. Three times over she read it, and then she put the fish into the cooking pot.

Then the reindeer told their story; and the Finn woman blinked her wise eyes, but didn’t say anything.

“You are so clever,” said the reindeer, “I know you can bind all the winds of the world in a single thread. Can you give the little girl a drink, so she can get the strength of twelve men and get the better of the Snow Queen?”

“Strength of twelve men!” said the Finn woman. “That would be just the thing, to be sure!” She went over to a shelf and took out a large rolled-up skin; strange letters were written on it, and the Finn woman read in it till the water trickled down her brow. The reindeer pleaded again for little Gerda. The Finn woman drew the reindeer into a corner, where she whispered to him, at the same time laying fresh ice on his head.

“Little Kay is with the Snow Queen, and he believes that it is the best place in the world: but that’s because he has a splinter of glass in his heart and a little grain of glass in his eye. They must come out, or he will never become human again, and the Snow Queen will keep her power over him.”

“But can’t you give little Gerda something to help?”

“I can give her no greater power than she has already! Don’t you see how great it is? How men and beasts alike are bound to serve her, and how she has made her way so wonderfully in the world on her bare feet? It lies in her heart, it lies in her being a dear innocent child. If she cannot rid little Kay of the glass, we cannot be of any help. Ten miles from here begins the Snow Queen’s garden. You can carry the little girl as far as that. Put her down by the large bush with red berries on it. Then run back.” Then the Finn woman lifted little Gerda up on to the reindeer, and he ran off as fast as he could.

Once they were out in the cold, Gerda noticed that she forgot her boots and mittens. But the reindeer did not stop, and he ran till he came to the large bush with the red berries, and then he put little Gerda down, and then ran back again as hard as he could. There stood poor Gerda, without shoes or mittens, in the middle of ice-cold Finmark.

She ran on as quick as she could, and then there appeared a whole regiment of snowflakes. They had not fallen from the sky, for it was quite clear and shining with the Northern Lights. These snowflakes ran along the ground, and the nearer they came the larger they grew. They were the Snow Queen’s sentinels. Some looked like great ugly hedgehogs, others like knots of snakes. All of them were glittering white, and all were alive.

Little Gerda was scared and began to say a prayer. It was so cold that she could see her own breath coming out of her mouth like a cloud of smoke. Thicker and thicker it grew, until it became little bright angels who grew larger and larger when they touched the ground. They all had helmets and spears and shields, and more and more of them came. When Gerda finished, there was a whole legion of them around her. They struck the ugly snowflakes with their spears and broke them into little pieces, and little Gerda went safely onwards. The angels warmed up her hands and feet, so she didn’t feel the cold anymore and went quickly towards the Snow Queen’s palace.

But now we must see how little Kay’s getting on. He certainly wasn’t thinking about little Gerda, and least of all that she was just outside the palace.