- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Thistledown Press; 1 edition (April 20 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1894345142
- ISBN-13: 978-1894345149
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 15.3 x 1.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 91 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #70,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Gerda is a sheltered daughter of Victorian-era Denmark's middle class; Ritva is the savage daughter of a Lapp shaman and a Swedish bandit chief. Christian and pagan, city girl and wildwood outlaw, their paths should never have crossed. But Lady Aurore, a mysterious noblewoman, bears away Gerda's beloved, Kai, and Gerda steals away from home to rescue him, though she knows she has little hope of success. Even that slim hope is dashed, it seems, when she is captured by the robber-maiden Ritva. Yet they will find themselves traveling together beyond the Cave of the North Wind, to the end of the earth--and the Snow Queen's perilous palace.
In The Snow Queen, Eileen Kernaghan has respectfully combined elements of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale with Saami shamanic lore and the Finnish epic, The Kalevala, to create a powerful, enchanting, and gracefully written novel with intelligent, well-drawn characters and with unexpected plot turns that will surprise you right up to the end. --Cynthia Ward
Product Description
Winner of the 2001 Aurora Award for Best Long Form Work in English!
In this reworking of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the magical worlds of Saami shamanism and the Kalevala coexist with the polite Victorian society of nineteenth-century Scandanavia. At a time when traditional faith is challenged by modern science, the old pagan gods still haunt the northern forests. Kernaghan blends fantasy and historical realism to create an enchanting, provocative story that will inspire readers of all ages.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun and charming female adventure!,
By "kandladin" (Castle) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Snow Queen (Paperback)
Gerda, a naive though endearing teenage girl living in nineteenth century Denmark, could never be called the adventurous type. And yet, when her dear friend Kai is stolen by a mysterious woman known as the Snow Queen, she knows that there is nothing she can do besides follow him to the ends of the earth to rescue him! And this she does, until she is captured by the warrior robber-maid Ritva...This truly was an entertaining story; with two interesting and unusual heroines, who are sure to win the heart of anyone who reads this book. The plot was fast paced enough so I didn't get bored, but not so unbearably tense (at least not til the end) that I couldn't relax while I was reading it. I adore fantasy stories, and yet I'm also completely sick of the repetative rendition of the young boy hero rescuing the girl from evil. This refreshing, unusual tale is a real gem, completely turning things around, which I greatly enjoyed. Good for anyone twelve or older.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A unique blend of fantasy and historical realism,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Snow Queen (Paperback)
The Kalevala, Saami shamanism, Arctic exploration and Victorian lady travellers all play a part in this imaginative reworking of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. Kernaghan's version of The Snow Queen won an Aurora (Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy) Award in 2001. The story begins in the real world of mid-Victorian Scandinavia, and moves across the polar ice to the Snow Queen's fantastic country "beyond the Cave of the North Wind where earth and day end". Carefully researched, and with a surprising twist at the end, the novel will appeal to both young adults and older readers.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A midwinter night's entertainment,
By Kelly (Fantasy Literature) (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Snow Queen (Paperback)
My copy of _The Snow Queen_ was in my mailbox when I came home from work on one of the coldest nights of the winter. (Here in Missouri, the fact that it was technically March and not January didn't necessarily mean anything.) I curled up in my favorite chair with a blanket, and read the book in a matter of a few hours. _The Snow Queen_ is a short novel, a single-sitting book, and more enchanting than many longer works. Nothing in this book is superfluous; Kernaghan tells the story she has come to tell--a reworking of Andersen's fairy tale of the same name--and that's it. The enchantment begins with the cover, graced with a lovely illustration drawn from a 1913 book of fairy tales. Then, in the first paragraph, I was taken back to my childhood storybooks as Gerda and Kay sat among the flowerboxes, conversing across the narrow space between their townhouses. The setting is homey, but all is not well--Kai has grown snobbish and callous, insulting Gerda's poetry as "childish". He has set aside poetry and dreams for the coldly logical world of mathematics. And now a stranger, the mysterious Baroness Aurore, has come to town. Kai is quite taken with her, and she takes him on a long journey. He does not return. Gerda, worried, sets off to find him--but the journey proves much longer and more difficult than expected. Along the way she is robbed, and taken in by the robber-girl, Ritva, who has a story of her own. Ritva is a shaman-in-training who isn't so sure she wants those talents, and longs to run away from her family. When Gerda resumes her adventure, Ritva goes with her--both as an excuse to run away, and because of the girls' budding friendship. Ritva is as street-smart and cynical as Gerda is trusting and naive, and they [but] heads at first, but in the end they forge a wonderful bond. Neither of them could accomplish this mission without the other, and together they face the Snow Queen. I long for a sequel--the ending leaves me wondering what happens next--what Gerda and Ritva do with their lives, and whether Kai ever grows up. All in all, a lovely book, which makes me want to go and read the Kalevala, not to mention the original fairy tale. Well done. The obscurity of this book belies its quality.
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