Music Welcome to snoozecast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find us on snoozecast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share it with a friend.

If you'd like to get an email once a week with upcoming sleep stories and other news, subscribe to the snooze letter, gotsnewscast.com. This episode is brought to you by Frozen Flowers. Tonight, we'll read the first part of a three episode series to the fairy tale, The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson. The other two parts will air in the next two weeks. All three episodes first aired in January of 2021.

The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerta and her friend Kay.

The story is one of Anderson's longest and most highly acclaimed ones.

It was also the inspiration for the Disney movie Frozen.

Let's get cozy. Close your eyes.

Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths. Snow Queen, First Story. Now then, let us begin. When we're at the end of this story, we shall know more than we know now. But to begin. upon 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 recognized.

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 sprites 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. 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 fell to the earth where it was stashed in a hundred million and more pieces.

And now it worked much more evil than before. For some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they flew about in the wide world. and when they got into people's eyes, there they stayed. And then people saw everything strangely. Or only had an eye for that which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart became like a lump of ice. Some of the broken pieces were so large that they were used for windowpains, through which one could not see one's friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles, and that was a sad affair when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then, the wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked for all this tickled his fancy. The fine splinters still flew about in the air. And now, we shall hear what happened next. Second story, a little boy and a little girl. In a large town where there are so many houses and so many people that there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden. And where, on this account, most persons are obliged to content themselves with flowers in pots. lived two little children who had a garden, somewhat larger than a flower pot. They were not brother and sister, but they cared for each other as much as if they were. Their parents lived exactly opposite. inhabited two addicts and where the roof of the one house

joined that of the other and the gutter ran along the extreme end of it. There was to To each house, a small window, one needed only to step over the gutter to get from one window to the other. The children's parents had large wooden boxes there in which vegetables for the kitchen were planted and little rose trees besides. There was a rose in each box and they grew splendidly. They now thought of placing the boxes across the gutter so that they nearly reached from one window to the other, and looked just like two walls of flowers. The tendrils of the peas hung down over the boxes, and the rose trees shot up long branches, twined round the windows, and then bent towards each other. It was almost like a triumphant arch, a foliage, and flowers. The boxes were very high, and the children knew that they must not creep over them. So they often obtained permission to get out of the windows to each other and to sit on their little stalls among the roses, where they could play delightfully. In winter there was an end of this pleasure. The windows were often frozen over, but then they heated, copper farthings on the stove and laid the hot farthing on the window pane, and then they had a capital people quite nicely rounded, and out of each peeped a gentle friendly eye. It was the little boy and the little girl who were looking out. His name was Kay. Hers was Gerta. In summer, with one jump, they could get to each each other, but in winter they were obliged first to go down the long stairs, and then up the long stairs again. And out of doors, there was quite a snowstorm. It is the white bees that are swarming," said K's old grandmother. Do the white bees choose a queen? Ask the little boy for he knew that the honey bees always have one. Yes, said the grandmother. She flies where the swarm hangs in the thickest clusters. She's the largest of all, and she can never remain quietly on the earth. But goes up again into the black clouds. Many a winter's night she flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in at the windows, and they then freeze and so wondrous a manner that they look like flowers. Yes, I have seen it," said both the children, and so they knew that it was true. Can the snow queen come in? Said the little girl. The only letter her come in said the little boy, then I'd put her on the stove and she'd melt.

And then his grandmother padded his head and told him other stories. In the evening, when little Kay was at home and half undressed, he climbed up on the chair by the window and peeped out of the little hole. A few snowflakes were falling and one, the largest of all, remains lying on the edge of of a flower pot, the flake of snow grew larger and larger. And at last it was like a young lady dressed in the finest white gauze made of a million little flakes like stars. She was so beautiful and delicate, but she was of ice, of dazzling, sparkling ice, yet she lived. Her eyes gazed fixably like two stars, but there was neither quiet nor repose in them. She nodded towards the window and beckoned with her hand. The little boy was frightened and jumped down from the chair. It seemed to him as if at the same moment a large bird flew past the window. The next day, it was a sharp frost, and then the spring came, the sun shone, the green When leaves appeared. The swallows built their nests. The windows were opened, and the little children again sat in their pretty garden. High up on the weeds at the top of the house. That summer, the roses flowered in unwanted beauty. The little girl had learned a hymn in which there was something about roses, and then she thought of her own flowers, and she sang the verse to the little boy, who then sang it with her. The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, and angels descend there, the children too great. And the children held each other by the hand, kissed the roses, looked up at the clear sunshine, spoke as though they really saw angels there. What lovely summer days those were. How delightful to be out in the air near the fresh rose bushes that seem as if they would never finish blossoming. Kay and Gerta looked at the picture book full of beasts and birds, and it was then The clock in the church tower was just striking five. That K said, oh, I feel such a sharp pain in my heart. And now something has got into my eye. little girl put her arms around his neck. He winked his eyes. Now, there was nothing to be seen. I think it's out now, he said, but it was not. It was just one of those pieces of glass from the magic mirror that had got into his eye. And poor Kay had got another piece right in his heart. It will soon become like ice. It did not hurt any longer, but there it was. What are you crying for? Asked he, he looked so ugly. There's nothing to matter with me. He said he he at once. That rose is cancard. And look, this one is quite crooked. After all, these roses are very ugly. They're just like the box they're planted in. And then he gave the box a good kick with his foot and pulled both the roses up. What are you doing? Cryed the little girl, and as he perceived her fright, he pulled up another rose, caught in at the window, and hastened off from dear little girder. Afterwards, when she brought her picture book, he asked, what horrid beast have you there? And if his grandmother told them stories, he always interrupted her. Besides, if he could manage it, he would get behind her, put on her spectacles, and imitate her way of speaking. he copied all her ways, then everybody laughed at him. He was soon able to imitate the gate and manner of everyone in the street. Everything that was peculiar and displeasing in them. That Kay knew how to imitate. And at such times,

all the people said, the boy is certainly very clever. But it was the glass he had gotten his eye.

The glass that was sticking in his heart, which made him tease even little Gerta, whose whole soul was devoted to him. His games now were quite different to what they had formerly been. They were so very knowing. One winter's day, when the flakes of snow were flying about, he spread the skirts of his blue coat and caught the snow So as it fell, look through this glass, Gerta, said he, and every flake seemed larger, and appeared like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star. It was splendid to look at. Look how clever, said Kay.

That's much more interesting than real flowers. There is exact as possible. There's not a fault in them if they did not melt. It was not long after this, that Kay came one day with large gloves on and his little sledge at his back and balled right into Gurd as ears. I have permission to go out into the square where the others are playing, and off he was in a moment. There, in the marketplace, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie their sludges to the the cart says they passed by, and so they were pulled along,

and got a good ride. It was so capital. Just as they were in the very height of their amusement. A large sled passed by.

It was painted quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head. the sledge, drove round the square twice, and K tied on his sledge as quickly as he could, and off he drove with it. On they went quicker and quicker into the next street, and the person who drove turned round to Kay and nodded to him in a friendly manner just as if they knew each other. Every time he was going to untie his sledge, the person nodded to him, and then case that quiet, and so on, as they went outside the gates of town. Then the snow began to fall so thickly that the little boy could not see an arm's length before him, but still on he went. When suddenly he let go the string he held in his hand in order to get loose from the the sledge, but it was of no use. Still, the little vehicle rushed on with the quickness of the wind. He then cried as loud as he could, but no one heard him. The snow drifted and the sledge flew on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges and ditches. He was growing frightened, and he tried to repeat the Lord's prayer, but all he could do, he was only able to remember the multiplication table. The snowflakes grew larger and larger till it last.

They look just like great white fowls. Suddenly they flew on one side. The large sleds stopped and the person who drove rose up. It was a lady. Her cloak and cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure and of a dazzling whiteness. It was the snow-quain. We have traveled fast," said she, but it is freezingly cold. Come under my bare skin. And she put him in the sledge beside her, wrapped the fur around him, and he felt as though he was sinking in a snow-reath. Are you still cold? Asked she, And then she kissed his forehead. Ah, it was colder than ice. It penetrated to his very heart, which was already almost a frozen lump. It seemed to him as if something may happen, but a moment more, and it was quite friendly to him, and he did not remark the cold that was around him. My sledge, don't forget my sledge. It was the first thing he thought of. It was there tied to one of the white chickens who flew along with it on his back behind the large sled. The snow-queen kissed K once more, and then he forgot Little Gurdah, grandmother, and all whom he had left at his home. Now, you will have no more kisses," said she, or else I should kiss you to death. Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful. A more clever or a more lovely countenance, he could not fancy to himself and she no longer appeared of ice as before. When she sat outside the window and back into him, in his eyes, she was perfect. He did not fear her at all. And told her that he could calculate in his head and with fractions even, that he knew the number of square miles There were in the different countries. How many inhabitants they contained, and she smiled while he spoke. It then seemed to him as if what he knew was not enough, and he looked upwards in the large, huge, empty space above him, and on she flew with him. too high over the black clouds, while the storm moaned and whistled, as though it were singing some old tune. On they flew over woods and lakes, overseas and many lands, and beneath them the chilling storm rushed fast. The wolves howled, the snow crackled, above them flew large crows cawing. But higher up appeared the moon. quite large and bright. K gaced at that large bright moon during the long, long winter's night. While by day he slept at the feet of the snow-queen. story of the flower garden at the old woman's who understood witchcraft. But what became of little Gurdah when Kay did not return. Where could he be? Nobody knew. Nobody could give any intelligence. All the boys knew was that they had seen him tie his sledge to another large and splendid one,

which drove down the street and out of the town.

Nobody knew where he was. Many sad tears were shed and little Gerda wept long and bitterly. At last, she said, he must have disappeared, perhaps into the river which flowed close to the town.

Oh, those were very long winter evenings indeed.

At last spring came with its warm sunshine.

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