Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen
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Thinking about The Queen of the North and how the story is turning out - next thing I am remembering fairy stories, goes to show you ...
Two by Hans Christian Andersen: The Ice Maiden, and The Snow Queen.
What I wanted to get at was the mythology of ice-in-the-eye and ice-in-the heart which is the centre of the Snow Queen stories (there are seven), and also at the heart, or close to it, of what seems to me to have gone wrong with a lot of things; spending 50 billion dollars on new nuclear power stations, running ferry boats into the rocks, and the like.
I mentioned this once before in relation to false stories, Bogus Newfoundland! Hans Christian Andersen has come up before too, when i was thinking about the Danish Cartoon embroglio (Hans Christian Andersen one little feather may easily grow into five hens). I didn't get the Danish connection at the time.
There are some interesting questions around Andersen's portrayal of women and men (in this case the reversed phrase seems to me 'appropriate'). He seems to have had more sympathy for the feminine side - whatever. The story would work as well for me with the ice in Gerda as it does with the ice in Kay.
C.S. Lewis' The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has an ice queen too doesn't it? Yeah, The Chronicles of Narnia, also in seven parts, in which the White Witch seduces Edmund to bring him to her frozen castle - some several points of comparison with The Snow Queen here.
In the image to the right, look at how her toes are separated and pushing onto the ice - I can imagine this having run about barefoot in the snow from time to time, delicious.
The Snow Queen:
I was going to do a synopsis, but on second thoughts I would do no better certainly, and not much quicker, than pointing you at the tale itself. This Internet thing has a twisted heart too eh? Maybe there is a bit of the goblin's mirror embedded there as well. It is sooo difficult to slow down enough to actually read anything and take it up. There it is. Do it or don't.
Quite a sexy tale after all; Gerda in bed with the Robber Maiden, the naked Finland woman; and though I have not shown any, there were many images I looked at that included geese and swans with long phallic necks - reminded me of Leda and the Swan - but that is for another time (O my Best Beloved).
Images by the mexican photographer Flor Garduño (she has some books out and a website: http://www.florgarduno.com/):
A swan (Mito); roses (Vestido eterno; and a crow/raven (Cuervo).
Unhappily (and gratuitously it seems to me) the only independent male in the tale gets the axe at the end!
Thinking about The Queen of the North and how the story is turning out - next thing I am remembering fairy stories, goes to show you ...Two by Hans Christian Andersen: The Ice Maiden, and The Snow Queen.
What I wanted to get at was the mythology of ice-in-the-eye and ice-in-the heart which is the centre of the Snow Queen stories (there are seven), and also at the heart, or close to it, of what seems to me to have gone wrong with a lot of things; spending 50 billion dollars on new nuclear power stations, running ferry boats into the rocks, and the like.
I mentioned this once before in relation to false stories, Bogus Newfoundland! Hans Christian Andersen has come up before too, when i was thinking about the Danish Cartoon embroglio (Hans Christian Andersen one little feather may easily grow into five hens). I didn't get the Danish connection at the time.
There are some interesting questions around Andersen's portrayal of women and men (in this case the reversed phrase seems to me 'appropriate'). He seems to have had more sympathy for the feminine side - whatever. The story would work as well for me with the ice in Gerda as it does with the ice in Kay.
C.S. Lewis' The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has an ice queen too doesn't it? Yeah, The Chronicles of Narnia, also in seven parts, in which the White Witch seduces Edmund to bring him to her frozen castle - some several points of comparison with The Snow Queen here.In the image to the right, look at how her toes are separated and pushing onto the ice - I can imagine this having run about barefoot in the snow from time to time, delicious.
The Snow Queen:
I was going to do a synopsis, but on second thoughts I would do no better certainly, and not much quicker, than pointing you at the tale itself. This Internet thing has a twisted heart too eh? Maybe there is a bit of the goblin's mirror embedded there as well. It is sooo difficult to slow down enough to actually read anything and take it up. There it is. Do it or don't.
Quite a sexy tale after all; Gerda in bed with the Robber Maiden, the naked Finland woman; and though I have not shown any, there were many images I looked at that included geese and swans with long phallic necks - reminded me of Leda and the Swan - but that is for another time (O my Best Beloved).
Images by the mexican photographer Flor Garduño (she has some books out and a website: http://www.florgarduno.com/):
A swan (Mito); roses (Vestido eterno; and a crow/raven (Cuervo).
Unhappily (and gratuitously it seems to me) the only independent male in the tale gets the axe at the end!
