Fairy Tale Fix - 79: The Snow Queen Pt. 1: Right In The Gut

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

We just can’t get enough of Hans Christian Andersen on this show and it’s freaking COLD out there anyway, so bundle up in your finest faux fur blankets, clutch a mug of something warm, and harken to this winter tale. That’s right, Abbie and Kelsey are finally tackling The Snow Queen.

1840. I know. Come on. Get with the times. Get with the times, Hans. Hello and Happy New Year, Fairytale Fix listeners! I'm Kelsey. And I'm Abby. Fairy Tale Fix listeners, I'm Kelsey. And I'm Abby.

And this is the What the Fuck Fairy Tale Podcast, where we read classic fairy and folk tales from around the world and fix them for a modern audience. Among a copious amount of inane chatter and much, much giggling. So much giggling. So much giggling, which is still by far my favorite review that we've ever gotten. I know, me too. I listened to our bonus bonus episode on like double speed because I wanted to finish it by the time I was done with my walk. Uh-huh. And the giggling was so funny because I've never listened to it on double speed before. And she's like, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Just like the best. Maybe that was the problem. Oh yeah. If you listen to it on double speed, the high pitch voices are going to be even higher, faster, stronger, better. So happy new year. Did you have a good new year's Eve? Happy new year. I did have a good new year's Eve. You messaged me and said you did shots. I did for the first time in so many years. I'm proud of you. Thank you.

I was weirdly, I was actually very proud of myself. Because the last good New Year's Eve I think I had was, it was that year that we all went to B Street, I think, and hung out at B Street until midnight. I miss doing New Year's with our group. It was fun. Me too. Good times. It was really good times. It was just exactly what New Year's is supposed to be.

It's why New Year's is my favorite holiday. Yeah. Is some kind of sparkling beverage in a fancy glass with friends and family. Yep. Thinking about our lives and stuff. And I just I love I love New Year's Eve. So I'm glad you went out and did something. Yeah, I went I went over to Nyla's house and we had champagne. And we played some board games and we made sugar cookies and then we have this really dorky street in our neighborhood it that's they do a big christmas thing every year where every house on the block goes ham and decorates really hard for christmas and we call it miracle on 34th street cute and it's a thing um people come from all over the greater baltimore area to

go look at miracle on 34th street man you've got the candy cane lane we've got the candy cane lane exactly in your neighborhood i love that in the neighborhood uh and then there's your house. Several blocks away. Okay. Not right there. That would be too much pressure. Many blocks away. Well, we almost bought a house on that street and our mortgage guy said, what street is this on? Are you really into Christmas decorations?

Amazing. That's so funny. maybe not maybe maybe not this house honestly that's good advice it was great like if you're not into christmas decorating and your whole neighborhood does it well because then they'll be mad at you for not doing it and or you get i don't decorate like that you made it yeah exactly make it a big chore every year but anyway um so they also on new year's eve they do like a really a really silly mini ball drop cute where they attach a sparkly ball to one of the to one of the lamp posts outside one of the houses. And then at midnight, they just slowly lower it down. And pretty much the whole neighborhood shows up. Like everybody leaves their bars and their homes and walks over to 34th Street

and watches the ball slowly come down. And so we did that and it was really fun. I think that's great. That's so much fun. And it's very cute obviously a million times better than like the new york the new york city ball drop where it's just super crowded and busy and yeah i think so stories i've heard horror stories i've heard that it's just you it's not fun you can't actually ever get anywhere oh yeah or like move because you're all packed in move because you're all packed in like because you're all packed in um no and and this felt like really it felt really neighborhood-y

and it's just kind of like yeah it's everybody who lives around here and this is just a little community thing for our little neighborhood on new year's eve and so fun it was very cute it was very cute although we also did we. Although we also did. We went out. We were like, yeah, let's go get shots. Let's go get shots at Frazier's before we go to the ball drop. And we went there. And Frazier's is like this shitty little dive bar place with cheap, very mediocre food and it's usually sounds pretty chill in there it's great i love it i think it's wonderful um and we went in there and like they were they had

turned up club music so loudly that we couldn't hear each other and there were a bunch of people that never go there but they're taking up all the space because it's new year's eve and so people were booking out tables at fucking frazier's and we walked in there because we were like yeah let's go to let's go to like our shitty little bar and get some cheap shots and then we walked in there and five minutes later we walked right back out because we're too old for this now. Yeah. Yeah. Bars on New Year's Eve.

I don't know if I can handle it now. Definitely not like that kind of bar. Like I could handle a what was that? What was that like classy place that was part of the Diamond Hotel? Johnny's. I could handle a Johnny's. Yeah. And you just get there a little early, get your table, hang out.

It's pretty fun. It is pretty fun. I do miss that. But anyway, we did do the shots and then left immediately. Oh, okay. So you did do the shots there. Yeah. It was crazy in there

good for you i love i love that for you yeah we were gonna do this recording yesterday on new year's day but i was far too hungover which is why tonight my beverage of choice is some nice hot tea i love that for i will be doing probably not dry January but certainly damp January damp January dry-ish dry-ish yeah it make it a little moist but it won't be it will not be like a wet January definitely how was your new year's eve what'd you do I did nothing really. I was going to go to a party and that fell through. And I'm kind of glad it did because I was actually hungover on New Year's Eve because I went to brunch with a friend on Saturday. And brunch turned into kind of an all day little bar hop, which was really fun. But I was in bed for most. And we were also supposed to

record that day. We were, we postponed this recording twice because each of us got far too drunk on different days. So yeah, for New Year's Eve, I was like, I'm starting dry January early and I played video games and fell asleep on the couch watching Bob's Burgers exactly how I would want to end my year honestly that sounds great and then I ended up like packing it up and going to actual bed like right at 11 50 and I just yelled at Adam to come give me a kiss in midnight because he was still up playing video games. That sounds perfect, though. You still got your New Year's kiss. And you played video games and hung out and got to do really chill stuff all day. Yeah, that's what I did.

That sounds lovely. Just chilled out. It was really nice. I mean, am I sad I didn't wear a sparkly dress? A little. But there's always next year. That's for next year. I also did not wear anything sparkly dress a little but there's always next year there's that's for next year I also did not wear anything sparkly I wore like leggings and I think this top that I'm currently wearing which is just like a stripy like long sleeve thing but next year sparkly dress it's happening maybe that's when I'll come visit you for new year's yes oh my gosh kelsey new year's eve heck yeah fuck yes do you have any new year's resolutions you said you said you listened to our last episode i don't even remember what our resolutions were last year um don't worry because i listened to um it was it

was like our third january episode last year no chicken for you no chicken for you that was the episode so we went over our resolutions uh for 2022 and whether or not we had accomplished them and then we made new ones for 2023 and I have written them down. What were they? Tell me, tell me, tell me. I resolved to visit a financial planner and get my

get my shit together with that. That's so smart. What do you think I did? I don't think you did that. I did not do that. You failed your resolution, Abby. You're a terrible person. I failed so hard. You should feel bad. In fact, I did the opposite of that, where I made a lot of very financially unwise decisions. that where I made a lot of very financially unwise decisions. You know what? It's fine.

It's fine. There's always something to strive toward, you know? Exactly. I'm re-upping. I'm re-upping because I should do it. I should do it. It's good to do. Did you re-up your garden? Do you want to guess if I did it or not? I'm guessing no. No, I did not. I did not do that. That's so funny. Wait, what about the pull-up one? Wasn't that a resolution or was that like the year before?

I marked that one accomplished because I made progress towards it. Yeah, that's right. Last year. And honestly, I don't know if I'll ever get there, but I am proud of myself. I did consistently go to the gym at least once a week for pretty much all of last year unless I was sick or out of town. And so I'm really proud of myself uh i'm i'm definitely gonna try to keep that going into 2024 you oh gosh said that you were going to run six miles last year oh that's a good i love i love running resolutions I never do them but I did run five

miles I didn't run the whole time nice um but it was it was a longer run than I usually do and it felt really good nice I mean I walked a lot but I feel like that's fine whatever you were still the point was the point of the resolution was to get outside and exercise and run more which you did so we're going to call that one resolved good job check check so kelsey was very good last year i will file my things under needs improvement just re-up them I'm just re-upping them and I did the cool stuff last year anyway like I traveled um and I got a new job yeah you did congratulations thank you what what hopefully uh this one will be where I stay for a little while. Uh-huh.

Or not. Whatever. I'm giving up on that. If I change jobs every two years, like... Whatever. Whatever. You know, actually, I don't think I mentioned it. Maybe I didn't mention it on the podcast, but I did want to get a new job last year.

And I did get a new job this year. And you did get a new job last year. And I did get a new job this year. And you did get a new job. So I do remember thinking that was a really big accomplishment. And I was really, really scared about it. It was. You landed kind of like a dream job. Or at least like a dream company. Yeah, yeah. I love it. It's so much fun. It's a lot of work, but it's really fun. I love it. It's so much fun. It's a lot of work, but it's really fun. Yeah. The amount of work you've been doing has like skyrocketed exponentially,

but at least it's work that you care about. Yes, definitely. It's way more fun. It's definitely at more my speed. Do you have anything you would like to resolve to do this year? I was thinking a lot about resolutions and I didn't really have any. I was like, what if I ran a mile every day? Again, like obviously I love running resolutions, but I know I'm not going to do it. Well, that's, you know, think smaller. Or don't, I don't know. You you don't you don't have to set any I kind of want to join like some class I want to do something fun that's like like a pickleball class or there's also like a belly dancing class that I've been looking at or Lyra. I'm scared of heights though, so I don't know if that's like the best idea,

but I know you start on the ground. Lyra is like the- What is Lyra? It's where you have like that big hoop. It looks like a big hula hoop and you do like acrobatics on it kind of. That sounds super cool, but you have trouble getting on a ladder.

It's true. But you start like on the ground and i don't really want to do it to like perform i just want to kind of do it because it looks cool okay but i don't know um there and there's a couple classes and chico that teach it so i love that i'll check it i don't know to take a class i feel like that's a good resolution right i think it's a great resolution take a class learn something new feel like that's a good resolution, right? I think it's a great resolution. Take a class, learn something new. I think that's a perfect,

that's a perfect one. And a laudable goal. Like, yeah, I think that's a great, like sort of like personal growth. Are you adding anything besides your re-ups? Um,

you know what? I'm not re-upping my yard. No. Fuck it. Fuck it. Uh, maybe if I, maybe if I don't put the pressure on it, it'll happen some other way. Or the drive to get it done just can't come from me because I don't actually care.

Yep. If it happens, it's going to be because Steven finally makes it happen. And not me. and not me. So yeah, I'm sticking with the financial planning one. And then my other resolution for this year is I want to reach out to people more. I feel like in the past year, I have been sort of in this place where like, I wait for people to make plans with me. I wait for people to make plans with me and then feel sad if they don't or resentful if they do, but the thing doesn't happen exactly the way I would have done it. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't know. I wouldn't have expected that from you, actually. You actually you're usually so like I mean our relationship is very different so it is very different and also like I don't know I

feel like this is one of the ways in which like I'm changing as I get older as I I am starting to feel a little more particular about how I want things to go but I'm also trying to be conscious of like the fact that that means that I need to do more planning of things. If things are going to happen the way I want them or according to my schedule, then that means I have to take a little more control over it. But and also like I just I just want to I just want to let people know that I love them and want to hang out with them more. Yeah. Because I feel like... That's a great resolution.

And also, I love that it's nebulous and very open to interpretation. So I'm sure I'll be able to market complete. Absolutely. I bet you will. In 2025. Because I just like... I really bummed myself out on my birthday. And that's why I was really thinking about doing this as a resolution because I had a kind of idea for what I wanted to do for

my birthday like I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and then go out to dinner someplace with like something bubbly on the like on the drinks menu um but one of my other friends beat me to inviting our group to a, for a pumpkin patch outing. And then we did something else. And then it was the outing I wanted, but not celebrating me, my birthday. Uh-huh.

Yeah. So you got to go, but it wasn't like your party. It wasn't like my party. And then we did some and then we and then we didn't do the thing i wanted to afterwards because it was like someone else had arranged the outing and i was stunned by how cranky that made me i feel like that's fair you know it was? It was your birthday. Thank you. They should have been like, Abby, what do you want to do?

That's what I would have done. Exactly. But it also was – it was weeks after my birthday. It was Halloween weekend because like I was sick for my birthday. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I was sick for my birthday and then Steven had a medical crisis. Yeah.

You had a rough October. I did. I did. And so then I was like, okay, I'm finally healthy. Steven's finally healthy. I want to do the pumpkin patch thing this weekend, but I still didn't plan anything. And so Nyla planned something instead. And I was resentful.

That's so funny. Oh, gosh. Well, you can do it. I believe in you. You can totally plan stuff. Thank you. We'll see what happens. Yeah.

But I was like, all right, Abby, you are in charge. You are in charge of your own resentment on this particular issue because it's really up to you if there's a specific way you wanted to do something anyway. I feel like that's so true for birthdays in general. I've always had that. Like, I've never really, like, because I love my birthday and I'm like, I don't really understand why other people don't because, like, I've always just planned my party the way I want it. And I don't really expect anybody else to do it because it's just unrealistic. Like unless it's, you know, like you and your partner talk about it or you know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You're going to have a great pumpkin patch birthday party this year. I believe it. I will next year. This year. It's this year. This year.

It's 2024. Woo woo. Anyway. Next year. This year. It's this year. It's 2024. Anyway, do you have any more New Year's thoughts or are you ready to get on to our story today? I am ready to continue our sad bisexual Victorian boy winter wonderland. Oh my God. I'm so excited we're finally doing this i know i said we're gonna keep the intro short too since there is so much story to get to oh well it's fine it's fine um we like each other and like talking to each other it's fine yeah so as kelsey mentioned we are continuing our sad bisexual boy winter.

Sad Victorian bisexual boy winter specifically. Yes. With a story that we have talked about doing forever and ever, but just couldn't quite figure out how to do it or honestly muster the energy to do it. But we are finally going to do the Snow Queen. Woo! Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Wait, are finally going to do the snow queen let it go let it go wait are we back no more we can't pay for that song we can't afford it definitely not but we've been talking about doing the snow queen forever yeah and it's a great story it is very long so we are gonna do it in two parts yep yes so we're gonna do the first half

of it hopefully uh today and then you will get the second half of it uh next episode. Yeah. I have never read it. I've never read this story. I have seen the movie Frozen, but I also know that that is not not super faithful to the story. No. I mostly read it.

I think I actually read it after I watched Frozen because I wanted to see what the similarities were because i mean this was way before the podcast frozen's pretty old now isn't it when did that come out we were still in high school i think frozen came out 2013 so we weren't in high school yeah that was right when we graduated 11 cool i feel less old actually I thought that oh really

well because I for whatever reason my brain was saying like yeah that came out when you were in high school god you're old and god you're old

yeah so I remember reading it after I watched it and it does have some similarities that I'm excited to talk about

okay because I was thinking I would I because I have skimmed that I'm excited to talk about. Okay. Because I was thinking I would, because I have skimmed the first half of it, but I was thinking that maybe I will read this and then I will make predictions about what I think happens in the second half. Oh, I love it.

Heck yeah. Let's do it. Do next episode. But yeah, I remember the story a little too much to make predictions so i will not be making any uh but i am very excited to sit this is exciting for me because i gotta just sit back and relax and listen yeah tell me a story you relax you enjoy and then we'll switch next time so we're going to start with, Oh, before we get started, I did look up the background. Yeah.

On this story. Very, it's a very short background. According to Wikipedia. The great Wikipedia. Please donate if you can. Keep Wikipedia alive. Hell yeah.

Don't let anybody buy Wikipedia. So the background of this story is a classic hca reason to write a story anderson yep you you guessed it anderson uh became infatuated with swedish opera singer jenny lind in 1840 she was not interested in him romantically, although the two of them did become friends. And Anderson was inspired to model the icy-hearted Snow Queen on Lind after she rejected him as a suitor. So icy. So icy. I'm looking at a picture of her right now.

She's so very classic Victorian sweetheart. Oh, yeah. Very pretty. She's got the classic hair back. She's got roses in her hair. No. Yeah. Like she's got the classic like hair back, but she's got like roses in her hair. Mm hmm. I wonder if there are any videos of her singing. Probably not videos.

Well, right. Yeah. Probably not recordings for 1840, but it is cool that we have like some photographs of her. He, I feel like Hans Christian Andersen did not have a type. He just.

Liked it all. He liked everyone. He liked like. Not famous people. But people. Like. Who were performers. Dancers.

And opera singers. And. He liked artists. Yes. Yeah. He had a thing for artists. Mm-hmm. Like who were performers, dancers and opera singers and princes. He liked artists. Yes. Yeah, definitely. He had a thing for artists. Mm-hmm.

And it's not her fault. She just wasn't that into HCA. You know what? He sounds like he was kind of weird. I'm sure she wasn't a snow queen. They became friends afterwards and everything. I'm sure it was fine. I love that.

Anyway. Gosh, I want to know what they – i would love to hear what they both think of frozen as a retelling i would be curious to know what jenny lynn thought of thought of the snow queen in the first place oh yeah i mean yeah that's true huh she's a different she's a very different character in the book so anyway i'm gonna shut up let's find out tell me okay story the first which describes a looking glass and the broken fragments you must attend to the commencement of this story for when we get to the end we shall know more than we do now about a very wicked hobgoblin. He was one of the very worst, for he was a real demon. One day, when he was in a merry mood, he made a looking glass which had the power of making everything good or beautiful that was reflected in it almost shrink to nothing, while everything that was worthless and bad looked increased in size and worse than ever.

What a metaphor for depression. Also, I don't know. I feel like this is Elsa's powers a little bit like, cause it's good at first and then it turns bad. That's really loose, but well, I know I can totally see it though.

It's like, cause it's also like, you know, in the movie like her perspective on her powers is what makes them bad like they respond to her emotions so you know she controls her powers at the end by thinking about it more in terms of like her love and less yeah fear fear exactly look at us analyzing frozen the most lovely landscapes appeared like boiled spinach and the people became hideous and looked as if they stood on their heads and had no bodies gross cool

their countenances were so distorted that no one could recognize them and even one freckle on the face appeared to spread over the whole of the nose and mouth so freckles are bad just everybody with freckles know that we are hideous beings oh that's rude it is rude i don't appreciate it as a freckled person, I'm upset. It's a bad take, HCA. Don't love that. Freckles are adorable. The demon said this was very amusing.

When a good or pious thought passed through the mind of anyone, it was misrepresented in the glass. And then how the demon laughed at his cunning invention. all who went to the demon school for he kept a school talked everywhere of the wonders they had seen and declared that people could now for the first time see what the world and mankind were really like what a bitter hobgoblin a bitter hobgoblin turning like turning people bitter i don't know something i like about this first half of the story and is is hca was such a great like observer of people and people's behavior and so I also just feel like this is still so true yeah about like people with just a certain mindset that like they can turn even happy things into yeah like this is why it's actually bad yeah we all know those people yeah I mean I mean, you know, I know,

I know that person for she is me and I have to stop her. I don't get that from you at all. It's because I don't let that bitch drive. Good. I'll make her sit in the backseat. They carried the glass about everywhere till at last there was not a land nor a people who had not been looked at through this distorted mirror they wanted even to fly with it up to heaven to see the angels but the higher they flew the more slippery the glass became and they could scarcely hold it till at last it slipped from their hands fell to the earth and was broken into millions of pieces but now the looking glass caused more unhappiness than ever for some of the fragments were not so large as a grain of sand and they flew about the world into every country and when one of these tiny atoms flew into a person's eye it stuck there unbeknown to him and from that moment he saw everything through a distorted medium or could see only the worst

side of what he looked at for even the smallest fragment retained the same power which had belonged to the whole mirror such a cool concept such a cool concept so creative i'm sad yeah i don't know i would love to see a movie that's like true to the story me too like i really i really would like to see yeah the snow queen done for real yeah it's so creative some few persons even got a fragment of the looking glass in their hearts, and this was very terrible, for their hearts became cold like a lump of ice. A few of the pieces were so large that they could be used as window panes. It would have been a sad thing to look at our friends through them. Other pieces were made into spectacles.

This was dreadful for those who wore them, for they could see nothing either rightly or justly. At all this, the wicked demon laughed till his sides shook. It tickled him so to see the mischief he had done. There were still a number of those little fragments of glass floating about in the air, and now you shall hear what happened with one of them. I love this as like an establishing story. Like this is, here is the world that I have created.

Like the world's building set up. It's a great little prologue. It is. Hans Christian Anderson is so magical. He had such a magical brain. He did. Yeah. He's such a good writer.

Just so he's so poetic. We always say that, but just so beautiful and poetics. And deep. So deep. I want to talk to him. So the second story is A Little Boy and a Little Girl.

In a large town full of houses and people, there is not room for everybody to have even a little garden. Therefore, they are obliged to be satisfied with a few flowers and flower pots. In one of these large towns lived two poor children who had a garden, something larger and better than a few flower pots. They were not brother and sister,

but they loved each other almost as much as if they had been. I don't know why in this story, they don't just make them brother and sister though. I also don't know why either. Like, yeah. Well, I think, you know, not to not to keep bringing up Frozen, but I think that's probably what some of the thinking was between. Yeah. Just going ahead and making the two central figures sisters.

Yeah. But it's still sweet to like have like two friends who were so close that one of them was brave such a journey. Yeah, that's true. Rescue them like it's still it such a journey. Yeah, that's true. To rescue them. Like, it's still, it's very sweet. Yeah. And I do like stories about bonds, about, like, the bonds of love that, like, aren't necessarily

between people who are related. Mm-hmm. Or in love. Like, but, like, there are so many different kinds of love in the world that are very strong and super profound. Yeah, that's very true.

Their parents lived opposite to each other in two garrets where the roof of neighboring houses projected out towards each other and the water pipe ran between them. In each house was a little window so that anyone could step across the gutter from one window to the other. The parents of these children had each a large wooden box in which they cultivated kitchen herbs for their own use and a little rose bush in each box, which grew splendidly. Now, after a while, the parents decided to place these two boxes across the water pipes so that they reached from one window to the other and looked like two banks of flowers. The boxes were very high, and the children knew they must not climb upon them without permission, but they were often, however, allowed to step out together and sit upon their little stools under the rose bushes or play quietly.

In winter, all this pleasure came to an end for the windows were sometimes quite frozen over, but then they would warm copper pennies on the stove and hold the warm pennies against the frozen pane. There would be very soon a little round hole through which they could peep and soft, bright eyes of the little boy and girl would beam through the hole at each window as they looked at each other. They love each other. It's so cute. Yeah. Such beautiful imagery too.

I know. I love this vision of like all those flowers covering the boxes and then like melting the frost on your windows so you can look at each other. It's very cute. These children's names were Kay and Gerda. In summer, they could be together with one jump from the window, but in winter, they had to go up and down the long staircase and out through the snow before they could meet. See, there are the white bees swarming,

said Kay's old grandmother one day when it was snowing. Have they a queen bee? Asked the little boy, for he knew that real bees had a queen. To be sure they have, said the grandmother. She is flying there where the swarm is thickest. She is the largest of them all and never remains on the earth but flies up to the dark clouds. Often at midnight she flies through the streets of the town and looks in at the windows, then ice freezes on the panes into wonderful shapes that look like flowers and castles. That's cute. Yes, I have seen them, said both the children, and they knew it must be true.

Can the Snow Queen come in here? asked the little girl. Only let her come, said the boy. I'll set her on the stove and then she'll melt. Then the grandmother smoothed his hair and told him some more tales. One evening when little Kay was at home, half undressed, he climbed on a chair by the window and peeped out through the little hole. A few flakes of snow were falling and one of them, rather larger than the rest, alighted on the edge of one of the flower boxes. This snowflake grew larger and larger till at last it became the figure of a woman dressed in garments of white gauze, which looked like millions of starry snowflakes linked together.

So pretty. So pretty. She was fair and beautiful, but made of ice shining and glittering ice. Still, she was alive and her eyes sparkled like bright stars, but there was neither peace nor rest in their glance. When I read this for the first time,

I was so stunned that this is how the snow queen first shows up. I was, I was expecting, I think I was expecting a literal queen with some magic like i don't know maybe oh maybe maybe the disney movie really just like took over my brain completely but i was expecting like i was expecting like a powerful evil enchantress from start to finish and not like a tiny lady made out of a snowflake. So there was neither peace nor rest in their glance. She nodded toward the window and waved her hand.

The little boy was frightened and sprang from the chair. At the same moment, it seemed as if a large bird flew by the window. On the following day, there was a clear frost and very soon came the spring. The sun shone, the young green leaves burst forth, the swallows built their nests, windows were opened, and the children sat once more in the garden on the roof, high above all the other rooms. The little girl had learned a hymn in which roses were spoken of. And then she thought of their own roses, and she sang the hymn to the little boy, and he sang too,

Roses bloom and cease to be, but we shall the Christ child see. Then the little ones held each other by the hand and kissed the roses and looked at the bright sunshine and spoke to it as if the Christ child were there. Great. Those were splendid summer days, how beautiful and fresh it was out among the rose bushes which seemed as if they would never leave off blooming one day k and gerda sat looking at a book full

of pictures of animals and birds and then just as the clock in the church tower struck 12 k said oh something has struck my heart and soon after there's something in my eye no i know it's very sad yeah it is god it is a good metaphor for depression it really is it's it's beautiful and genius i mean i definitely read the story before but i don't know i guess for some reason that never crossed my mind or I'm not remembering that. But oof. Oof. Yeah, that it hits your heart and your eye and affects what you see and what you feel.

Just stab me. Right in the gut. Stab me right in the gut, Hans. With an icicle. With an icicle. The little girl put her arm around his neck and looked into his eye but she could see nothing i think it's gone he said but it was not gone it was one of those little bits of the looking glass that magic mirror of which we have spoken the ugly glass which made everything great and good appears small and ugly while all that was wicked and bad became more visible, and every little fault could be plainly seen. Poor little Kay had also received a small grain in his heart, which very quickly turned to a lump of ice.

He felt no more pain, but the glass was there still. Why do you cry? said he at at last it makes you look ugly there's nothing the matter with me now oh see he cried suddenly that roses were beaten and that one is quite crooked after all they are ugly roses just like the box in which they stand then he kicked the boxes with his foot and pulled off the two roses. Damn. Damn. Ow. It affected him so quickly.

So quickly, like personality change, like a switch flipped on. Kay, what are you doing? Cried the little girl. And then when he saw how frightened she was, he tore off another rose and jumped through his own window away from little gerda when she afterwards brought out the picture book he said it was only fit for babies and long clothes and when grandmother told any stories he would interrupt her with but or when he could manage it he would get behind her chair put on a pair of spectacles and imitate her very cleverly to make people laugh.

Now he's a, now he's a naughty little boy. Yeah. Well now he's, but I, so I think this is also like, is a metaphor for like, honestly,

how puberty affects some kids maybe, or kids in general, where all of a sudden they're like, that's for babies. Then they get kind of mean because they want attention. Yeah. By and by, he began to mimic the speech and gait of persons in the street. All that was peculiar or disagreeable in a person, he would imitate directly. And people said, that boy will be very clever. He has a remarkable genius. But it was the piece of glass in his eye and the coldness in his heart that made him act

like this. He would even tease little Gerda, who loved him with all her heart. His games, too, were quite different. They were not so childish. One winter's day when it snowed, he brought out a burning glass. Then he held out the tail of his blue coat and let the snowflakes fall upon it. Look in the glass, Gerda said he, and she saw how every flake of snow was magnified and looked like a beautiful flower or a glittering star. Is it not clever said Kay and much more interesting than looking at real

flowers. There's not a single fault in it. And the snowflakes are quite perfect till they begin to melt. I mean that they are pretty cool. They are pretty cool. Like, that is cool. Nothing against flowers or anything, but, you know, snowflakes are pretty dope. Flowers are also nice, unless you're Caroline, in which case they smell like pee. soon after k made his appearance in large thick gloves and with his sledge at his back he called upstairs to gerda i've got to go into the great square where the other boys play and

ride and away he went in the great square the boldest among the boys would often tie their sledges to the country people's carts and go with them a good way. This was capital. It sounds fun. It does sound capital. But while they were all amusing themselves and Kay with them, a great sledge came by. It was painted white, and in it sat someone wrapped in a rough white fur and wearing a white cap. sat someone wrapped in a rough white fur and wearing a white cap. The sledge drove twice around the square and Kay fastened his own little sledge to it so that when it went away, he followed with it. It went faster and faster right through the next street.

And then the person who drove turned round and nodded pleasantly to Kay, just as if they were acquainted with each other. But whenever Kay wished to loosen his little sledge, the driver nodded again. So Kay sat still and they drove out through the town gate. Then the snow began to fall so heavily that the little boy could not see a hand's breath before him. And still they drove on.

Then he suddenly loosened the cords that the large sled might go on without him. But it was of no use. His little carriage held fast and away they went like the wind. Then he called out loudly, but nobody heard him. What'd you say? Bye. Bye. Say goodbye. Sorry. Every now and then it gave a jump as if it were going over hedges and ditches. The boy was frightened and tried to say a prayer, but he could remember nothing but the multiplication table. That's random.

Wait, wasn't he going to yell something, but no one could hear him? Sorry, yeah, he called out loudly, but nobody heard him while the snow beat upon him and the sledge flew onwards. Oh, gotcha, gotcha. I thought you were gonna tell me what he called out. Help me! Help me! Help me! He's screaming out, let it go!

Let it go! I can't let it go! Let me go! So, yeah, he could remember nothing but the multiple multiplication table nothing but the multiplication table i if i had to guess i think what hca is trying to say here is that like the ice in his heart keeps out the christ child like i get it he doesn't have any like soul anymore everything is just like like all all sort of like the rational things only things that can be like observed and nothing that can be truly felt um is that that's what i think the metaphor. I get it. Yeah.

Data and business analytics these days. Exactly. Data and business analytics, but no art or music or faith. No. Very sad. He's he's a left brain only. Person now. Yep. he's he's a left brain only person now yep the snowflakes became larger and larger until they appeared like great white chickens i'm so glad it literally does say chickens are you sure it does read it again nope it's my version it's it's chickens. Hans Christian Andersen knows what's up.

Chicken in Danish is kooling. Kooling? Kooling. Kooling? It's spelled like K-Y-L-L-I-N-G. Kooling. I think that's cute. That's great.

Yeah. Great white kooling. Cock is chef. In Danish. Sorry. Cool. Chef. Kalkin is the chef. Or is it the boss? I think it's the chef.

I haven't been doing my Danish lately, so. Gotta get back on that. You gotta get your streak. I know. Duolingo is really intense about it they're like you gotta you gotta do it every day uh-huh it's too much i can't do it learn yes okay all at once they sprang on one side the great sledge stopped and the person who had driven it rose up. The fur and the cap, which were made entirely of snow, fell off, and he saw a

lady, tall and white. It was the Snow Queen. He's been kidnapped. He has been! By a beautiful lady. No! Oh, no!

Which I know, like, uh, the snow queen definitely gives me like Tilda Swinton and the lion, the witch in the wardrobe. Oh yeah, for sure. Cause she,

as the white witch. That's totally who I'm picturing. Okay. Playing the snow queen. We have driven well, said she, but why do you tremble here? Creep into my warm fur. Okay. on the forehead. The kiss was colder than ice. It went quite through his heart, which was already almost a lump of ice. He felt as if he was going to die, but only for a moment.

He soon seemed quite well again and did not notice the cold around him. I kind of like the idea that she isn't really like evil or good. She's just sort of like, I don't think she realizes her effect on people too.

She's just a powerful like i don't think she realizes her effect on people too yeah she's just a powerful like she just is like she just is a powerful snow queen and kind of like a force of nature you know like a tidal wave yeah it is what it is. Oh, hey. She's the personification of a snowstorm. I love it. I think that's great. Like, I also really like the idea that it's like she's not doing any of this to be malicious. I mean, it's one of the reasons why you and I really like fairies in general is that like they're they just are what they are and they do what they do sometimes it's not it's not because they know it's bad for us they just don't understand yeah they're not human oh are you cold let me warm you up with my even colder arms

you'll feel warmer by just relativity. Here, let me just... Is that not working? I bet it is because now you feel warmer because I'm so cold. By comparison,

you're warmer. So she kisses him on the forehead and he feels better in the sense that he doesn't notice the cold anymore. And he says, my sledge, don't forget my sledge, was his first thought. And then he looked and saw that it was bound fast to one of the white chickens. Definitely chicken. Which flew behind with the sledge at its back. The snow queen kissed little K again. And by this time he had forgotten Gerda,

his grandmother and all at home. Now you must have no more kisses. She said, or I should kiss you to death. So she kind of knows. She kind of knows. Chaotic neutral. She knows what she's doing.

We take it back. She's kidnapping the child is what she's doing. How old do you think he is in this? They keep saying little Kay and little Gerda. So I'm thinking no older than 10 is where is what I'm thinking. Like that's how I imagine them.

Somewhere in between six and nine. But why are you kidnapping this child? Like I want to know. I don't think that ever comes up as like her motive for kidnapping Kay.

We'll see. I mean, I don't know. We'll find out. mean, I don't know. We'll find out. Sorry, spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. Jesus, Kelsey.

I forget. Kay looked at her and saw that she was so beautiful he couldn't imagine a more lovely and intelligent face. She did not now

seem to be made of ice as when he had seen her through his window and she nodded to him. In his eyes, she was perfect and he did not feel at all afraid. He told her he could do mental arithmetic as far as fractions and that he knew the number of square miles and the number of inhabitants in the country. Are you smarter than a fifth grader? I think he's, I think he's, he must be,

I'm thinking he's like seven. I feel like that's a very seven year old thing to do of, I know things that I'm going to tell you about all of the things that I know. Right. I'm just going to rattle off facts so you can be very impressed with how smart I am. You're really pretty. You're so pretty. His new favorite babysitter.

And she always smiled so that he thought he did not know enough yet. And she looked around the vast expanse as she flew higher and higher with him upon a black cloud while the storm blew and howled as if it was singing old songs. They flew over woods and lakes over sea and land and below them roared the wild wind the wolves howled and the snow crackled over them flew the black screaming crows and above all shone the moon clear and bright and so k passed through the long winter's night and by day he slept at the feet of the snow queen like a little pet like a little pet like a little pet sleeping yeah that's another theme we've seen from hda before yep in the little mermaid yeah that like the image is so gorgeous and like sinister but beautiful

Like the image is so gorgeous and like sinister, but beautiful. Yep. I love it. So that's the end of the second story. And so we're coming to the third story, the flower garden of the woman who could conjure, which is my favorite part of the first half of the story.

I remember really loving this part too. But how fared little Gerda during Kay's absence what had become of him no one knew nor could anyone give the slightest information excepting the boys who said that he had tied his sledge to another very large one which had driven through the street and out the town gate nobody knew where it went many tears were shed for him and little gerda wept bitterly for a long time she said she knew he must be dead that he drowned in the river which flowed close by the school oh indeed those long winter days were very dreary but at last spring came with warm sunshine k is dead and gone said little gerda i don't believe it said the sunshine he's dead and gone, said little Gerda. I don't believe it, said the sunshine. He's dead and gone, she said to the sparrows.

We don't believe it, they replied. And at last, little Gerda began to doubt it herself. I will put on my new red shoes, she said one morning. I guess Gerda's allowed to have red shoes. Don't do it, Gerda, no! Oh, God! Red shoes lead to sin, Gerda. Well, you might meet a handsome axe man in the woods, though, so.

She's too young for him. That's true. Just wait a few years. She's six or something. or something. This meet cute is, it needs 10 years. Okay,

fine. No red shoes until you're 16. That's fair. But she ignored us because she's going to wear her red shoes anyway. Yeah,

she is. She's got style. her red shoes anyway. Yeah, she is. Yeah. She's got style. She's got style. So I will put on my new red shoes, she said one morning, those that Kay has never seen. And then I will go down to the river and ask for him. It was quite early when she kissed her old grandmother, who was still asleep. Then she put on her red shoes and went alone out the town gates toward the river.

Is it true that you have taken my playmate away from me? said she to the river. I will give you my red shoes if you will give him back to me. Aww! That's so sweet! And it seemed as if the waves nodded to her in a strange manner. then she took off her red shoes

which she liked better than anything else and threw them both into the river it's just as well yeah if you wore those things to church you'd have to get your feet cut off everybody would be staring at you mm-hmm mm-hmm such beautiful shoes for dancing I love it so fucked up uh she threw them both into the river but they fell near the bank

and the little waves carried them back to land just as if the river would not take from her what she loved best because they could not give her back Kay aww

that's so sweet it is sweet and so sad but she thought the shoes had not been thrown out far enough then she crept into a boat that lay among the reeds and threw the shoes again from the farther end of the boat into the water but it was not fastened and her movement sent it gliding away from the land. When she saw this, she hastened to reach the end of the boat, but before she could do so, it was more than a yard from the bank and drifting away faster than ever.

Then little Gerda was very much frightened and began to cry, but no one heard her except the sparrows and they couldn't carry her to land, but they flew along by the shore and sang as if to comfort her. Here we are. Here we are. Oh, I know. Oh my God. It actually makes me tear up a little bit.

That's so sweet and so scary though. Poor little girl. The boat floated with the stream. Gerda sat quite still with only her stockings on her feet. The red shoes floated after her, but she could not reach them because the boat kept so much in advance.

Perhaps the river will carry me to K thought Gerda. And then she became more cheerful and raised her head and looked at the beautiful green banks. And so the boat sailed for hours. Bye. Like, yeah, Gerda is also piecing out of this town.

She's going to go get him. town she's gonna go get him she's gonna go get him i love this so much it was one of the only things that i knew about the story was that the story is about um one child's like lengthy quest to rescue another one from the snow queen and i oh i love an adventure story that takes you through all of these like strange places and i also love a rescue mission yeah it's like friendship and she wants to save him so badly and yeah but she'll risk all these trials for him it's also like a little like it's a little bit labyrinth it's a little bit yeah i mean she wasn't it didn't seem like she was really planning to go after him well she was planning on giving the river her shoes in exchange for him back yeah the river's like we've got other plans let's do this let's do this we'll

carry you a little bit of the way we'll give you a head start. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. At length, she came to a large cherry orchard in which stood a small red house with strange red and blue windows. It had also a thatched roof, and outside were two wooden soldiers that presented arms to her as she sailed past. Gerda called out to them, for she thought they were alive, but of course they did not answer, and as the boat drifted nearer to the shore, she saw what they really were. Then Gerda called still louder, and then came a very old woman

out of the house, leaning on a crutch. Mm. Amazing. We love a witch. Presumably. Yes, we do. She wore a large hat to shade her from the sun and on it was painted all sorts of pretty flowers. You poor little child, said the old woman. How did you manage to come all this distance into the wide world on such a rapid rolling stream. And then the old woman walked in the water,

seized the boat with her crutch and drew it to land and lifted Gerda out. Oh, thank God. Gerda's like, oh, thank God. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Gerda was glad to feel herself on dry ground, although she was rather afraid of the strange old woman.

You should be. You should be. You should be. Come and tell me who you are, said she, and how you came here. Then Gerda told her everything while the old woman shook her head and said, hmm, hmm. And when she had finished, Gerda asked if she had not seen little K, and the old woman told her he had not passed by that way, but that he very likely would come. Children are dumb. So she told Gerda not to be sorrowful,

but to taste the cherries and look at the flowers they were better than any picture book for each of them could tell a story literally literally this part always weirded me out I think it's it is weird but it's it's magical it's so so, yeah, so strange. Remember, what was the fairy tale where the grapes were screaming or grapes were giggling? Oh, that was the Malaysian fairy tale. It was like the Princess of Ledang Mountain, I think is the name of the story.

Yeah, that was the one where like, yeah, that like guy has to go find a fairy princess for his king to marry. And like, yeah, there's like flowers with teeth. The lemons were screaming. Same vibes. Very similar vibes. Okay, so she takes Gerda by the hand and leads her into the house and closes the door behind them. very similar vibes. Okay. So she takes Gerda by the hand and leads her into the house and closes the door behind them.

The windows are very high and the panes were red, blue, and yellow. The daylight shone through them and all sorts of singular colors on the table stood beautiful cherries and Gerda had permission to eat as many as she would, which is dangerous. I don't know. beautiful cherries and Gerda had permission to eat as many as she would. Which is dangerous.

I don't know. Cherries upset my tummy if I eat too many of them. Oh, they do. I love cherries. They're delicious. Don't they help you fall asleep? They've got like... Ooh, do they? Yeah. Cherries are high in melatonin. Anyway. That's actually really cool to know. I may eat more cherries.

But like not enough to make me sick. But not too many. Not too many cherries. Gerda shouldn't eat them either. Probably. While she was eating them, the old woman combed out her long flaxen ringlets with a golden comb

and the glossy curls hung down on either side of the little round pleasant face which looked fresh and blooming as a rose i have long been wishing for a dear little maiden like you said the old woman and now you must stay with me and see how happily we shall live together. Why do all these people, why do all these like random women want children? They're just like, yep, you're coming with me. Random ladies are out here in Denmark stealing little children. Stranger danger. And while she went on combing little Gerta's hair,

she thought less and less about her adopted brother Kay for the old woman could conjure. And although she was not a wicked witch, she conjured only a little for her own amusement. And now because she wanted to keep Gerta. And I guess that's not wicked. because she wanted to keep Gerda. And I guess that's not wicked.

I don't know. Well, I mean, I guess you find a little child in the woods and you're like, do you have a mommy and daddy? No, you can stay with me. Yeah, there's an argument to be made that she's miles and miles downstream. She's a random kid that doesn't have any adults around. And the old lady is like, I've always wanted a daughter. And I don't know.

Witches love to take kids from the forest. They do. And she's – Does it really make them evil or is it just other ways? She's not a wicked witch, so she's not going to eat them. She's not going to eat the kid. Probably. You sure? Probably.

Not yet. Not yet. She needs an apprentice. Ooh! Gerda should just stay. That's my fix. Yep. That's the end.

The end. Therefore, she went into the garden and stretched out her crutch toward all the rose trees, beautiful though they were, and they immediately sunk into the dark earth so that no one could tell where they had once stood. The old woman was afraid that if little Gerda saw roses, she would think of those at home and then remember little Kay and run away. Yeah. A little wicked. That's a little wicked. That. A little wicked. That's a little wicked. That's a little wicked. Then she took Gerda

into the flower garden. How fragrant and beautiful it was. Every flower that could be thought of for every season of the year was here in full bloom, except roses, I guess. No picture book could have more beautiful colors

gerda jumped for joy and played till the sun went down behind the tall cherry trees then she slept in an elegant bed with red silk pillows embroidered with colored violets and then she dreamed as pleasantly as a queen on her wedding day the next day and for gerda i feel like she really needed that she needed that little vacation little break k has already been missing for months and not an extra couple days are not going to hurt he's fine the next day and for many days after gerda played with the flowers in the warm sunshine she knew every flower and yet although there were so many of them, it seemed as if one was missing. But which it was, she could not tell.

One day, however, as she sat looking at the old woman's hat with the painted flowers on it, she saw that the prettiest of them all was a rose. The old woman had forgotten to take it from her hat when she made all the roses sink into the earth. But it's difficult to keep the thoughts together in everything. One little mistake upsets all arrangements. Yep, that's so true. Such good advice, HCA. Well put. Elegantly observed.

Yeah. What? Are there no roses here? Cried Gerda. And she ran out into the garden and examined all the beds and searched and searched. There was not one to be found. Then she sat down and wept, and her tears fell just on the place where one of the rose trees had sunk down. The warm tears moistened the earth, and the rose trees sprouted up at once, as blooming as when it had sunk,

and Gerda embraced it and kissed the roses and thought of the beautiful roses at home and with them of little k oh yeah i'm surprised they didn't add any rose imagery into frozen as me too because it's definitely a theme in this story. Roses everywhere. But like they, they're, they very specifically like just set it during winter. Like, and I, this was the other thing that surprised me.

I was surprised at how much of the snow queen takes place during, takes place in spring. Yeah. Right. Oh, how I have been detained. Said the little maiden. I wanted to seek little Kay. Do you know where he is? She asked the roses. Do you think he's dead? And the roses answered, no, he's not dead. We have been in the ground where all the dead lie,

but Kay is not there. Thank you, said little Gerda. And she went to the other flowers and looked into their little cups and asked, do you know where little K is? But each flower, as it stood in the sunshine, dreamed only of its little fairy tale of history, and no one knew anything of K. Gerda heard many stories from the flowers, and she asked them one after another about him. And what, said the tiger lily? Hark, do you hear the drum? Turn, turn. There are only two notes. Always turn, turn.

Listen to the women's song of mourning. Hear the cry of the priest in her long red robe stands the Hindu window stands the Hindu widow by the funeral pyre. The flames rise around her as she places herself on the dead body of her husband but the hindu woman is thinking of the living one in that circle of him her son who lighted those flames those shining eyes trouble her heart more painfully than the flames which will soon consume her body to ashes can the fire of the heart be extinguished in the flames of the funeral pyre i don't understand that at all said little gerda well that's my story said the tiger lily so such a weird such a weird story yeah um i might i don't know like i don't i remember

hearing this that like hindu women are expected to burn themselves on their husband's funeral pyres but i don't actually know if that's true yeah i'm not sure either flowers should shut up shut up flowers i don't like talking flowers what says the convolvulus near yonder narrow road stands an old knight's castle thick ivy creeps over the ruined walls leaf over leaf even to the balcony in which stands a beautiful maiden she bends over the balstrons and looks up the road no rose on its stem is fresher than she no apple blossom wafted by the wind floats more lightly than she moves her rich silk rustles as she bends over and exclaims will he not come is it k you mean askedda. I'm only speaking of a story in my dream, replied the flower. What then, says the little snowdrop. Between two trees,

a rope is hanging. There is a piece of board upon it. It's a swing. Two pretty little girls in dresses white as snow with long green ribbons fluttering from their hats are sitting upon it swinging. Their brother, who is taller thanCA fairy tale called The Snowdrop. I wonder if it's like a nod to one of his own stories. Ooh, maybe. I remember thinking this part was really weird. But, you know, it's not as weird as I remember, though. No.

Not yet, anyway. But it is like a strange little detour. Mm-hmm. But the imagery is gorgeous. The only one that's just kind of weird is the one is the weirdest one is the one like talking about like a Hindu woman throwing herself on a funeral pyre. Like it really stands out as like, yeah. Wow.

What? Yeah. What the fuck? What the fuck? Anyway, as the swing goes on, the bubbles fly upward, reflecting the most beautiful varying colors.

The last still hangs from the bowl of the pipe and sways in the wind. On goes the swing. And then a little black dog comes running up he's almost as light as the bubble and he raises himself on his hind legs and wants to be taken into the swing but it does not stop and the dog falls then he barks and gets angry the children stoop towards him and the bubble bursts a swinging plank a light sparkling foam picture. That is my story. Cool story, bro. Cool story, bro.

I mean, that's literally kind of what she says. She says, it may be all very pretty what you are telling me, said little Gerda. But you speak so mournfully and you don't mention little K at all. Everybody's like, why do you keep talking about K? Like, don't you want to stay here where we can tell you stories? you keep talking about k like don't you want to stay here where we can tell you stories so she asks the hyacinths who say there were three beautiful sisters fair and delicate the dress of one was red of the second blue and the third was pure white hands in hand they danced in the bright moonlight by the calm lake but but they were human beings, not fairy elves. The sweet fragrance attracted them, and they disappeared in the wood. Here,

the fragrance became stronger. Three coffins, in which lay the three beautiful maidens, glided from the thickest part of the forest across the lake. The fireflies flew lightly over them like little floating torches. Do the dancing maidens sleep, or are they dead? The scent of the flower says that they are corpses. The evening bell tolls their knell. over them like little floating torches do the dancing maidens sleep or are they dead the scent of the flower says that they are corpses the evening bell tolls their knell it's creepy you know what the more these go on the more i'm like damn these stories are like creepy and kind of dark creepy i wonder if they're oh now i really want to know if they're nods to other hca stories yeah me too you made me quite sorrowful said little gerda your perfume is so strong you make me think of the dead maidens is little k really dead then the roses have been in the earth and they say no

cling clang told the hyacinth bells we are not tolling for little k we do not know him we sing our song the only one we know then gerda went to the buttercups that were glittering among the bright green leaves you are bright little sun said gerda tell me if you know where i can find my playfellow and the buttercup sparkled gaily and looked again at gerda what song could the buttercup sing it wasn't about Kay. No. No. They're like,

please stop asking us about your friend. We don't know him. We don't know him. The bright warm sun shone on a little court on the first warm day of spring. His bright beams rested on the white walls

of the neighboring house and close by bloomed the first yellow flower of the season, glittering like gold in the sun's warm ray. An old woman sat in her armchair at the house door, and her granddaughter, a poor and pretty servant maid, came to see her for a short visit. When she kissed her grandmother, there was gold everywhere, the gold of the heart and that holy kiss. gold everywhere, the gold of the heart and that holy kiss. It was a golden morning. There was gold in the beaming sunlight, gold in the leaves of the lowly flower, and on the lips of the maiden. There, that's my story, said the buttercup. My poor old grandmother, sighed Gerda. She's longing to see me and grieving for me as she did for little Kay. But I shall soon go home now and

take little Kay with me. It's no use asking the flowers. They know only their own songs and can give me no information. Yep. Yep. That part reminds me, like, you've seen the last unicorn, right? Yes, but it's been ages. Do you remember the part in the very beginning

where the unicorn tries to get a butterfly to tell her tell her like what happened to all the other unicorns that sounds really familiar but i don't remember it specifically well he just sings um little bits of poetry uh little songs um makes like he makes up little rhymes uh and and doesn't really give her anything of substance. And she just eventually just kind of heaves a sigh and kind of walks away going, I don't know why I tried asking a butterfly. They only know snippets of poetry and songs and anything else they hear. Butterflies are the worst.

Yeah. Oh, goddammit. I shouldn't have asked a fucking butterfly. worst yeah oh god damn it i shouldn't have asked a fucking butterfly and he does eventually tell her like he gets it together and he does like repeat what he has heard um okay but like it takes a while so she decides to go home but like only after she's found k and then she tucks up her little dress that she might run faster but the narcissist caught her by the leg as she was jumping over it so she stopped and looked at the tall yellow flower and said perhaps you may know something i hate that i hate flowers grabbing

her that's i don't like it i know you know the tangling ones i don't like it. The tangling ones. I don't like it. Flowers should not talk and be scary and grab you. No, they should just be pretty. They should be pretty and smell nice. And that's it. And stay there. No surprises. No surprises.

I can see myself. I can see myself, said the narcissist. Oh, how sweet is my perfume. Up in a little room with a bow window stands a little dancing girl, half undressed. She stands sometimes on one leg and sometimes on both and looks as if she would tread the whole world under her feet. She's nothing but a delusion. world under her feet. She's nothing but a delusion. She's pouring water out of a teapot on a piece of stuff which she holds in her hand. It's her bodice. Cleanliness is a good thing, she says. Her white dress hangs on a peg. It has also been washed in the teapot and dried on the roof. She puts it on and ties a saffron-colored handkerchief around her neck, which makes the dress look whiter. See how she stretches out her legs as if she was showing off a stem? I can see myself.

I can see myself. I love the image of this flower reached out and tangled her up in its vines. I'm like, I want to tell you my story, too. Yep. You have to stay here and listen to my weird story wait you didn't ask me you didn't ask me and it's the narcissist flower so of course of course has to be the center of attention always what do i care for all that?

Said Gerda. You need not tell me such stuff. And then she ran to the other end of the garden. The door was fastened, but she pressed against the rusty latch and it gave way. The door sprang open and little Gerda ran out with bare feet into the wide world. She looked back three times,

but no one seemed to be following her. And at last she could run no longer. So she sat down to rest on a great stone, and when she looked round, she saw that the summer was over and autumn very far advanced. She had known nothing of this in the beautiful garden, where the sun shone and the flowers grew all year round. Oh, how I have wasted my time, said little Gerda. It's autumn. I must not rest any longer and she rose up to go but her little feet were wounded and sore and everything around her looked so cold and bleak the long willow leaves were quite yellow the dew drops fell like water leaf after leaf

dropped from the trees the slow thorn alone still bore fruit but the slows were sour and set the teeth on edge oh how dark and weary the whole world appeared oh oh poor gerda i love stories that play with time like that though we're like you know she spends a few days at the old woman's cottage it's very time though it's an illusion an illusion and when she breaks out breaks out it's autumn yeah that's cool it's crazy i love that yeah me too um that's the end of the flower garden all right should we call it and save the rest i think so because like we've been recording for an hour and 40 minutes and my voice is getting a little hoarse alright let's do it

but yeah that's the first three chapters of the Snow Queen I I don't really know what happens from here on out so my prediction for like the next chunk of the story

is um My prediction for like the next chunk of the story is. I don't know. I think that this I think of this journey is going to take longer than a year. I think it's going to take years, plural, for Gerda to find Kay. I'm going to write it down. Yeah. Do you want to make three predictions? Yeah, I'm going to make three.

What do you think is going to happen? On what I think is going to happen. Yeah, I think it's going to take Gerda multiple years to find Kay. I think that the one place that one of the places where this story is going to be

very similar to Frozen, the movie, is that it does it will still take an act of true love to melt the ice in Kay's heart. Mm hmm. Okay, what's your third prediction? okay what's your third prediction um my third prediction is that they escape the snow queen but don't kill her okay don't kill her i love it yeah you're gonna have to wait to find out i'm gonna have to wait like well because we're recording this more or less in real time at the moment so i'm going to have to i'm going to have to wait to find out. I'm going to have to wait. Like, well, because we're recording this more or less in real time at the moment. So I'm going to have to wait at least two weeks to find out what happens next. But so are the rest of you.

And that brings me great comfort. And don't go look it up. Don't spoil it for yourself. You better not look it. I'm not going to look it up. I won't. I will wait for you to tell me no i know i didn't mean you i meant i'm totally kidding well i mean this story's been around for a while so if you don't know already how much how much of that book does it take up because like the first half of this was like eight pages yeah it is pretty hefty i think it's around 20 pages that much damn it's a lot it goes from page let's see 178 to 198 so

yeah 20 pages so many it's a many. It's a great story. It's a great story. I love it. And I can't wait to tell you the next couple of chapters, if not all of them. We'll see how it goes. This might end up being a three-parter. This might end up being a three-parter for real. You know what?

That's okay. I'm done for a three-parter. I'm just glad we're finally doing The Snow Queen. Me too. I know. I do always feel bad when we do these like serious Hans Christian Andersen ones, though, because I feel like I don't have that much to like say or like banter about because it's like a serious story.

It's just pretty and I'm not like cracking jokes, you know? It's not funny because it's pretty and it's not like yeah it's cracking jokes you know it's not funny because it's pretty and it's not even that unhinged yeah it's a much more straightforward story yep but whatever i don't know i don't i don't know the story and we do this is for us this is our podcast we're doing it for us so that we can enjoy reading the story together. And talking about the Snow Queen. Talking about the Snow Queen. And I don't know, talking about like it's a good metaphor for a lot of different things.

Thank you so much for listening to Fairytale Fix. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe. You can also leave us a review on apple podcast or five stars on spotify you can also support us by going to our patreon at fairytalefix.cash we've got extra episodes there we've got merch we've got books we've got various rewards of various kinds. I just sent out the first half of the New Year cards, and it has some stickers in it. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I ended up getting a bunch of random tarot stickers. Oh, yeah.

Because I've been kind of getting into tarot. So I have been saying your name, our patron's name, out loud and putting my hand over the cards. And whenever I feel like a tingle on my middle left finger, that's when I pick your card. And I don't know what they all mean. So, I mean, I've been looking them up, but I don't know what they mean for you. So it's not my fault. It's not.

I'm not trying to insult you if I gave you the fool, which I heard is actually like one of the best cards or one of the most powerful cards. So definitely. Oh, I love that you're getting like more into tarot and doing that with it too. Yeah. I actually, I took a tarot class recently.

Oh, that's so cool. Um, where like the, our teacher told us that like, even the cards that seem to have negative meanings like you know said like she said like don't catastrophize um like it just it just it means it might it might mean something different for you or like an energy that you're supposed

to think about so even if you got like a quote-unquote bad card like it's not bad necessarily and some of these cards are more silly. They have like a random cartoon character called the fool. Actually, I have to tell you this. So when I was picking Caroline's card, I did the thing where I like put my hand over it and I felt like a tingle in my middle finger and I picked it up. It was literally the gorilla, which is the Bob's Burgers one. And I was like, oh, perfect. Perfect. Perfect for Caroline. the gorilla which is the bob's burgers one and i was like oh perfect perfect perfect perfect caroline i love that they're card that it's cartoon care there are cartoon characters in

this deck that's so yeah some of them are serious some of them aren't so i don't know let's just have some fun with it i thought it'd be a cute little addition so i hope you guys like them they better um if you want a tarot card sticker head on over to our patreon uh fairytalefix.cash so you can get that extremely cool reward i want one am i getting one heck yeah of course i'll send you one fuck yeah maybe i'll even draw three for you. Do it. Give me a, give me the full spread. Um, yeah. Uh,

you can also find us on social media, mostly at Instagram right now at fairytale fix pod. And as always, you can come hang out with us on our discord channel, uh, or send us your favorite fairytales, folklore, nursery rhymes,

et cetera, at info at fairytalefixpod.com. And we will find out if they all live happily ever after. Nice. To be continued.