Hans Christian Andersen didn’t write for Disney. Honestly, if you go back and read the original 1844 version of The Snow Queen, it’s a lot weirder—and significantly darker—than the blockbuster movies we see today. People often get confused between the Snow Queen and the princess characters because modern adaptations have mashed them together into a single family tree. In the actual fairy tale, they aren't sisters. They aren't even related.
The story is actually a sprawling, seven-part epic. It follows a young girl named Gerda on a quest to save her friend Kai. Kai has been abducted by the Snow Queen after shards of a cursed troll-mirror got stuck in his eye and his heart. This mirror was nasty business; it made everything beautiful look ugly and everything evil look great. When Kai gets whisked away to the frozen north, Gerda sets off on a journey that feels more like a fever dream than a bedtime story.
Along the way, she meets a very specific Princess. Not Elsa. Not Anna. Just "The Princess."
Why the Princess and the Snow Queen are Polar Opposites
In the original text, the Princess represents the pinnacle of human intellect and earthly comfort, while the Snow Queen represents the cold, sterile void of logic without emotion. It's a massive distinction.
The Princess is introduced in the third and fourth "stories" of the book. She is famously brilliant. She’s so smart that she’s read every newspaper in the world and forgotten them again—that’s how Andersen describes her wit. She decides she wants to marry, but only to a man who can hold a conversation, not just a man who looks good in a crown. This leads to a hilarious scene where hundreds of suitors try to impress her, only to become tongue-tied the moment they enter the palace.
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Then there’s the Snow Queen. She lives in a palace of "dry, cold, and shining" snow. She doesn't have a heart. She doesn't have a personality. She is a force of nature. When she finds Kai, she kisses him twice—once to make him go numb to the cold, and a second time to make him forget Gerda. A third kiss, Andersen notes, would kill him.
The Encounter at the Palace
When Gerda is looking for Kai, she hears about this brilliant Princess and the mysterious "clumping" young man who married her. Gerda thinks, "That must be Kai!"
She sneaks into the palace with the help of some talking crows. Side note: Andersen loved talking animals. It's a bit of a trip. She finds the Princess and her new Prince in a bedroom where the beds are shaped like lilies. One is white (for the Princess), and one is red (for the Prince). It’s an incredible visual. But when the Prince turns around, it isn’t Kai.
Gerda bursts into tears.
What happens next is where the "Princess" character really shines. Instead of being angry that a random girl broke into her bedroom at night, she and the Prince listen to Gerda’s story. They are moved. They don't just give her a snack and send her home; they give her fur boots, a muff, and a golden coach. They equip her for the tundra.
The Disconnect Between the Original Tale and Frozen
If you're looking for the Snow Queen and the princess because of the movie Frozen, you’ve basically seen a complete deconstruction of the source material. Disney spent decades—literally since the 1930s—trying to figure out how to adapt this story.
The problem was always the Snow Queen herself.
In the book, she isn't a villain you can "defeat" in a sword fight. She's more like a personification of winter and death. She just... leaves. She tells Kai she has to go whiten the "black kettles" (volcanoes) in Italy, leaving him alone to play with ice puzzles in her palace. He’s trying to spell the word "Eternity" with shards of ice, but he can’t do it because his heart is frozen.
Disney’s breakthrough was realizing that if the Snow Queen and the Princess were sisters, the stakes became emotional rather than just a travelogue. Elsa is the Snow Queen. Anna is a mix of Gerda and the Princess. By making them family, the "coldness" of the Queen becomes a relatable metaphor for anxiety and isolation rather than a literal troll-curse.
Fact-Checking the Mythology
- The Mirror: Created by a "troll-goblin." It shattered and its dust infected humanity.
- The Flowers: Gerda meets a sorceress with a garden where it's always summer. The sorceress hides her roses so Gerda won't remember her home.
- The Robber Girl: One of the most "human" characters. She’s violent, keeps a reindeer as a prisoner, and sleeps with a knife. She eventually lets Gerda go, showing a complex moral gray area that was rare in 1840s children's books.
- The Ending: Gerda finds Kai, her tears melt his heart, and he cries out the glass shard from his eye. They walk home and realize they’ve grown up.
The Symbolism of the Golden Coach
The Princess’s gift—the golden coach—is actually a bit of a disaster for Gerda. Because it's so shiny and expensive, it attracts the attention of a band of robbers. This leads to the "Robber Girl" segment.
It's a classic Andersen trope: an act of kindness leading to a new, terrifying trial. The Princess gave Gerda the best she had, but in the wild world of the fairy tale, "the best" makes you a target.
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Gerda eventually has to abandon all the finery. She loses the coach. She loses the boots. By the time she reaches the Snow Queen’s palace, she is barefoot in the snow, praying. This is the "E-E-A-T" (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) of the story’s internal logic: Gerda’s power isn't in her gear; it's in her innocence. A "Finnish Woman" Gerda meets later explains this explicitly. She says she can't give Gerda any more power than she already has, which is the power of a "sweet, innocent child."
What Most People Get Wrong About the Snow Queen
You'll often hear people call the Snow Queen "evil."
That’s not really right.
She's indifferent. That is way scarier. She sees Kai as a curiosity, a little toy to keep in her vast, empty halls. She represents the danger of pure intellect without the "warmth" of the heart. In the 19th century, this was a huge debate—faith and emotion versus the cold, hard logic of the industrial revolution.
The Princess, on the other hand, is the "ideal" version of intellect. She is smart, yes, but she uses her mind to choose a partner who can challenge her, and she uses her wealth to help a girl she doesn't even know. She is the bridge between the mundane world and the magical north.
Practical Insights for Storytellers and Fans
If you're analyzing these characters for a project or just a deep-seated curiosity, keep these points in mind:
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- Differentiate the Source: Always specify if you're talking about Andersen’s 1844 text or the 2013 Disney film. They are fundamentally different stories about different things.
- Look at the Secondary Characters: The Princess and the Robber Girl provide the most interesting character arcs. They are women with agency, which was pretty radical for the time.
- The Role of Nature: The Snow Queen isn't "defeated" by magic; she simply isn't there when Gerda arrives. The "victory" is internal—Kai's heart melting.
- Read the Original: It's public domain. You can find it on Project Gutenberg. It’s worth it just for the weird descriptions of the crows.
The connection between the Snow Queen and the princess is a legacy of transformation. We’ve turned a story about a lonely girl’s religious pilgrimage into a story about sisterhood and self-acceptance. Both are valid, but knowing where the pieces actually came from makes the modern versions much more interesting to watch.
To really understand the narrative weight here, look at how Gerda and the Princess interact. The Princess doesn't solve Gerda's problem. She gives her the tools to go solve it herself. In the world of fairy tales, that's the highest form of help you can get.
What to do next
If you want to explore this further, start by reading the "Fourth Story" of Andersen's The Snow Queen. It's specifically where the Princess and the Prince appear. Pay attention to how the Princess is described as "extraordinarily clever." Compare that to the Snow Queen’s "perfection" in the second and seventh stories. You’ll see that the Princess is the person the Snow Queen could have been if she had a soul.
Next, check out the 1957 Soviet animation Snezhnaya Koroleva. It is widely considered the most faithful adaptation ever made and was a huge influence on Hayao Miyazaki. Seeing the Princess and the Snow Queen in that specific visual style helps clarify the contrast between the warm, golden palace of the humans and the blue, silent void of the Queen's domain.