The Snow Queen: An Early Reader Version Adapted from Hans Christian Andersen.
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| The Snow Queen By Елена Ринго - www.elena-ringo.com, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28303832 |
The Wizard’s Mirror
Once there was an evil wizard who made a mirror that had a special dark magic. Anything good or beautiful, when reflected back in this evil mirror, only looked rotten and gray.
The wizard was very pleased with his evil mirror! He laughed and laughed, and wanted to show it to the whole world. So he flew up high into the sky, but the mirror started to shake. It shook so much that the wizard could no longer hold on to it, and it dropped down to earth. The mirror smashed into millions, billions, trillions of tiny sharp bits of glass that flew all over the place.
If a tiny sharp bit of that evil glass landed in anyone’s eye, from that time on, the person would see only the bad and dark in people and things, and no more see the light and good. So it was in this land for hundreds of years.
Years later, a boy named Kai and a girl named Gerda lived next door to each other. When they opened their bedroom windows, they could easily talk to each other. What’s more, there was a roof gutter that ran between the two attic windows. Inside the gutter their families had planted a garden where vegetables and roses grew. Kai and Gerda’s families were poor and they had no toys to play with, but they did not mind. That garden was where the two friends played, and they were happy.
When their bedroom windows were open, they were so close they could easily talk to each other.
One day, Gerda and Kai were reading a book in the garden. All of a sudden, a gust of wind blew a bit of that sharp evil glass into Kai’s eye. Kai threw down the book, right on top of the roses. He yelled that he did not want to read any more. Gerda picked up the book and set the broken roses up again. She asked if he wanted to play a clapping game instead? But Kai cried out “No!” He said he never wanted to play with Gerda, ever again!
The Snow Queen
The next day, Kai pulled his sled to town. He wished his sled would go faster! Then he saw a big white sleigh coming up the road. As it passed, Kai quickly tied his sled’s rope to the back of the sleigh. Now he could ride very fast behind the sleigh! But what Kai did not know is that one driving the sleigh was the Snow Queen herself.
The Snow Queen, in her white fur coat, had known that Kai was up ahead on the road. She had slowed down her sleigh when she got closer to Kai, giving him a chance to tie his rope to her sleigh. Then she had ridden off very fast, with Kai speeding behind her.
The one driving the sleigh was the Snow Queen herself.
