Crows

The Crows are vital helpers in Gerda’s search for Kay: the Forest crow offers companionship, information, and a way into the palace, while the Tame crow supplies the connection that makes that aid possible. Their part in the story is brief but consequential. They translate a chance meeting into an attempted reunion, and their later fate marks how much time has passed since Gerda left them behind.

Encounter and Recognition

Gerda meets the Forest crow while resting, exhausted and alone on an autumn journey. Her feet are wounded, the willow leaves have turned yellow, and the landscape seems cold and bleak. The crow approaches across the snow, watches her, and makes an effort to greet her plainly and kindly. His question about where she is going alone gives her the opening to tell the story of her life and adventures and ask whether he has seen Kay. The crow’s attention matters before he can offer any reliable answer: he recognizes the loneliness in her situation and stays to hear her.

At first his knowledge is tentative. He nods gravely and suggests that he may have seen Kay; then he warns Gerda that the boy may have forgotten her for the Princess. Gerda asks whether Kay lives with a Princess. The Forest crow says he can explain the matter better in the crows’ language, but Gerda has never learned it. She recalls that her Grandmother understands that language and used to speak it to her, a detail that emphasizes how much useful knowledge Gerda wishes she had acquired before setting out. The crow proceeds in human speech anyway, acknowledging the difficulty and imperfection of his account rather than leaving her without help.

Palace News and the Crow Network

The Forest crow’s report comes through his Tame crow sweetheart, who moves freely about the palace. Through her, he has heard of the Princess’s search for a husband. The Princess is described as exceptionally clever: she has read all the newspapers in the world and forgotten them. She decides that she wants a husband who can answer when spoken to, rather than someone who merely looks grand. Her court ladies welcome the plan, and newspapers announce that handsome young men may visit the castle and speak with her; the suitor who speaks best will be chosen.

The account also explains why the crow believes he can be trusted. He appeals to his sweetheart’s access to the palace as the source of what he knows, and the narration confirms that she is a crow as well. Their relationship is not merely incidental background: it forms an information route between the palace and Gerda. The Forest crow can relay what the Tame crow learns inside, turning the Crows’ familiarity with palace life into a practical resource for a traveler who cannot enter by ordinary means.

Helping Gerda Reach the Palace

Gerda believes Kay will come out to fetch her as soon as he hears she is there. The Forest crow leaves her by the palings and returns late in the evening with a greeting from the Tame crow and bread taken from the kitchen, anticipating that Gerda must be hungry. He explains that the front entrance is not an option: the silver-uniformed guards and gold-liveried servants would not let her through. Instead, the Tame crow knows a back staircase leading to the sleeping apartments and knows where its key can be found. This specific knowledge converts the Crows’ palace access into a route for Gerda’s search.

The Forest crow then leads Gerda through the garden and toward a back door left ajar. The scene is charged by Gerda’s anxiety and longing: she imagines Kay’s clear eyes and long hair, and pictures him smiling as he did at home among the roses. She fears that entering secretly might be wrong, but her purpose is simply to discover where he is. At the top of the stairs, the Tame crow waits in a small closet, watching Gerda as she curtseys as her Grandmother taught her. The Crows have brought her to the threshold of the sleeping quarters, though the hope of finding Kay there is not fulfilled as she had imagined.

Their assistance is generous but not limitless. The Princess later offers the two Crows either freedom or a secure position as court crows, with food left over from the kitchen. They ask for fixed appointments, explaining that provision in old age would make them comfortable. The episode gives their help a material context: they are palace-connected animals with their own concerns about security, not simply instruments without needs. The Prince gives up his bed for Gerda, and she falls asleep thinking of the kindness shown by people and animals alike; in a dream, Kay appears on a little sledge, but the vision vanishes when she wakes.

Departure and Later Fate

The next day, Gerda declines the offer to stay and enjoy herself at the palace. She asks instead for boots, a muff, a carriage, and a horse so she can continue looking for Kay. The Prince and Princess provide a golden coach, provisions, and an escort. By then the Forest crow and the Tame crow have married. The Forest crow accompanies Gerda for the first three miles, sitting beside her because he cannot bear to ride backwards. The Tame crow remains in the doorway, unable to travel because she has been suffering from a headache since receiving her new appointment.

The departure makes the Forest crow’s companionship tangible: he and Gerda weep as they say farewell, and after a few miles he leaves the coach, flies to a tree, and flaps his black wings as long as he can still see it glittering in the sunshine. His help has carried Gerda to the next leg of her quest, but he cannot go all the way with her. Much later, the Robber-girl tells Gerda that the Forest crow is dead and that the Tame crow is a widow who wears a bit of black worsted around her leg. The report supplies no cause or circumstances for his death. It does, however, return the Crows to the story after their departure, measuring the passage of Gerda’s journey through the changed lives of the companions she left behind.