Snow Maiden and Snow Queen

Post date: Jun 22, 2016 9:38:25 AM

☞ Public‐domain character. Literary, possibly folkloric. First appearance, possibly The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 84, no. 3, Mar. 1814. (But see also Chione, Miöll.)

The Snow Maiden or Snow‐Maiden is a girl who is made from snow or who serves as a personification of snow and who, by many accounts, melts away upon exposure to warmth, although she nevertheless appears repeatedly in subsequent works. Some texts indicate that her parents are normal mortal human beings, usually said to be childless commoners or peasants, but other texts instead give her a more mythological pedigree, depicting her parents as themselves personifications of one thing or another. Different sources in English variously give her name as Sally Snow, Snow‐Image, Betty Snow, Snow‐Child, Niègette, Snyegurka, Miss Snowdrop, Old Sis Snow, Snow‐White, Miss Snow and Princess Snowbound among others.

A man witnessing her apparition in 1814 says that “Pale as a snow‐ball was its face, / Like icicles its hair ; / For mantle, it appeared to me, / A sheet of ice to wear” (“Apparition”). According to the 1864 poem “The Snow Maiden,” “Her shoulders bare, gleamed white, / And were bright, but cold to see; / The curve of her shape was wavy / As snow‐wreaths curling free. // Icicles were her eyes, / And her body glittered fair; / What, but wreaths on the frosted pane, / Could gleam as gleamed her hair?” The 1877 poem of the same title describes her as “A dainty maid … / All in a feathery robe of white, / Decked o’er with green and berries bright; / And round about her braided hair / A wreath of myrtle doth she wear.” The 1921 poem “The Fir Tree and the Snow” describes her as the tree’s “fair white bride” wearing a “fleecy gown,” and that “Her robe was white as the folds of a shroud.”

A number of sources describe her as singing: In 1861, by singing about how her girlfriends had tried to destroy her, Snyezhevinochka is able to alert her family to her continued existence and thus return to life (“Wondrous Pipe”). An 1877 poem states that the Snow‐Maiden “sings a song for men to hear, / Of purity and purpose high, / And deeds of unknown chivalry” (“Snow‐Maiden”). In 1922, Snow sings an air to the melody of “Sweet and Low” (Queen Christmas).

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Antiquity. Chione. Miöll.

In 1590, book three of the epic poem The Faerie Queene describes …. False Florimell.

In The Gentleman’s Magazine for March 1814, Sally Snow says of her parents, “My Father is the Northern wind, / My Mother’s name was Water” (“Apparition”).

According to a source from 1861, Snyezhevinochka is brought to life when an old man puts a lump of snow on the stove under a fur coat and she thereby comes to live with him and his wife (“Wondrous Pipe”). According to a source in Russian from 1862 or earlier, the Snow Maiden is born from snow placed in a pot by a childless old couple after they wish they had a child as white and plump as a snowball. This version of the Snow Maiden lives through a number of summers and is in no danger of melting; in fact, the snow wherefrom she is formed is placed on a windowsill in springtime and the sunlight even contributes to her coming to life (“Little Snow Girl”).

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In 1590, The Faerie Queene recounts a past adventure wherein ….

In 1596, The Faerie Queene recounts a series of past adventures ….

In March 1814, The Gentleman’s Magazine records what is apparently a wintertime occurrence wherein a man witnesses Sally Snow and even interacts with her before she melts away (“Apparition”).

In 1840, … (“Snyegurka”).

A text from 1849 describes the death of a woman named Ebba by saying that “she had melted away like the snow‐maiden in the first rays of the sun,” but it is possible this is merely a reference to the feminine equivalent of a snowman rather than to any supernatural being (Evelyn).

In 1850 … (“Snow‐Image”).

In a text from 1853, … (“Maiden Who Was Swifter than the Horse”). In December 1853, Moskvityanin recapitulates in verse the Snow Maiden’s 1840 origin story, but asserts that she melts away after merely leaving her house in springtime, omitting any mention of her attempting to leap over a fire with her friends (“Snyegurka”).

In 1858, the book Jack Frost and Betty Snow, with Other Tales for Wintry Nights and Rainy Days is published but, as of this writing, does not seem to available online to be read; however, the 1863 text “Jack Frost and Betty Snow” may perhaps be a reprint of the relevant adventure therein.

A text from 1860 records an adventure of a girl named Снѣгурушка (Snyegurushka) who becomes lost after getting separated from her friends and then is subsequently approached by a series of different wild animals that try to trick her into believing that they will escort her home before she is eventually taken safely home by a kind and trustworthy fox (“Snyegurushka and the Fox”). Snyegurushka is apparently an ordinary mortal girl whose name, although etymologically referring to snow, does not indicate her origin but rather, like Sneewittchen (Snow White), her snowy complexion, and so would not logically be the same being as the Snow Maiden. However, another text (of uncertain date but likely from the 1860s) attributes a nearly identical adventure to a girl explicitly said to be crafted from snow, the only significant difference being that it is her family dog that finds her, scares off the other animals and brings her home (“Little Snow Girl”).

In a text from 1861, the Snow Maiden, this time called Снѣжевиночка (Snyezhevinochka), goes out with girlfriends to pick berries but they jealously kill and bury her when she picks the most. Some workers later make a pipe from a reed that has grown on her burial site and then coincidentally play for Snyezhevinochka’s parents, but a voice emanating from the pipe sings the story of how she was killed. Snyezhevinochka then miraculously emerges from the pipe when it is broken in two and so resumes living with her family (“Wondrous Pipe”).

In a text from 1862, … (Snyegurushka).

In “The Little People of the Snow,” the Snow Maiden is a fairy character who befriends a mortal girl named Eva in 1863 and guides her through the snow; however, the Snow Maiden forgets that a mortal cannot withstand the low temperatures in which she thrives and is horrified when Eva unexpectedly perishes. This is a reversal of the usual storyline, one in which the Snow Maiden survives and her loved one dies.

In September 1876, a man hiking in the French Alps meets and falls in love with the Snow‐Maiden, who introduces herself as Niègette. When he attempts to carry her from her snowy mountainous home to wed her, she gradually melts into nothingness (Guernsey Magazine, “Snow‐Maiden”).

In 1886, a man has obsessive visions of the Snow‐Maiden and sets off to find her, but when he finally meets her, her gaze freezes and kills him (“Secret”).

In a text from 1891, … (“Snow‐Daughter and the Fire‐Son”). This text marks the last time, other than in retellings of earlier adventures, that the Snow Maiden melts away.

In a number of poems and plays, the Snow Maiden is little more than an allegorical personification of snow, like the character of Miss Snow in The Christmas Chain, and of Snow in Queen Christmas.

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Public‐domain bibliography

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— “The History of the Snow‐Maiden,” by John Count Mailáth, Spirit of the English Magazines, vol. 4 (new ser.), no. 11, 1 Mar. 1826, HathiTrust, is actually about Snow White/Sneewittchen. The girl repeatedly called “Daughter of the Snows” in “The Cross on the Snow Mountains,” The Dublin University Magazine, vol. 33, no. 194, Feb. 1849, HathiTrust, is also a different character. In The Faerie Queene, the false Florimell, made primarily from snow and animated by a sprite, might be considered a precursor character if it is to be considered a character at all.

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Snow Queen

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Of Yuki‐Onna (a.k.a. Woman of the Snow, O‐Yuki, Snow‐Woman, Snow‐Spectre, Snow Ghost, Oyasu)

The Japanese version of the character is the snow spirit Yuki‐Onna, who can kill mortals by breathing on them.

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In some public domain translations, the Snow Maiden has been called Snow‐White and Snowwhite. She is of course not to be confused with Snow White (originally Sneewittchen) the princess who lives with dwarfs, or with the Snow‐White (originally Schneeweißchen) who is the sister of Rose‐Red.

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Of the Frost Maiden

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Of a girl that is a symbol of Christmas (a.k.a. Little Miss Christmas, Mary Christmas)