Reindeer

The Reindeer is first encountered as a captive in the Robber Castle and becomes Gerda’s guide, transport, and advocate on the northern leg of her search for Kay. He knows the snow country from his own life there, carries Gerda toward the Snow Queen, and asks others to help her; yet the story’s decisive account of her strength insists that it comes from her own heart, not from any power he can obtain for her.

Identity and Captivity

At the Robber Castle, the Reindeer is tethered and wears a bright copper ring around his neck. The Robber-girl calls him her old sweetheart Ba, but her fondness does not make his situation safe: she says she tickles his neck with a sharp knife, and demonstrates the threat by sliding the blade along it. He kicks as she laughs. Gerda, frightened by the knife, asks whether the Robber-girl keeps it with her while sleeping; the answer is that she always does. In this first appearance the Reindeer is both an object of the girl’s rough play and a captive who might run away if he were not held fast.

The Robber-girl changes that situation when her mother has fallen asleep. She first says she would like to tickle his neck again, then chooses to untie him and set him free to run to Lapland. His freedom comes with a task: he must carry Gerda to the Snow Queen’s castle, where her playfellow is. The Reindeer has heard Gerda’s account and understands why she is making the journey. His release thus becomes the means by which her search can continue.

Knowledge of the Northern Country

The Reindeer’s authority as a guide rests on personal experience. When asked about the destination, he says he was born and brought up in Lapland and used to run over its snow-covered plains. He describes the place as one where snow and ice are always present, but also as a glorious country of sparkling ice plains on which an animal can leap and run freely. He distinguishes the Snow Queen’s summer tent there from her strong castle at the North Pole, on an island called Spitzbergen. His account gives Gerda a route and a clearer picture of the land toward which she is travelling.

That knowledge also makes him a witness to Kay’s passage. The Wood Pigeons report that a white fowl carried Kay’s sledge and that he rode in the Snow Queen’s carriage through the wood. They suggest that the Reindeer can be asked where she was going. He confirms the northern destination, linking the birds’ glimpse of the carriage to the places he knows. When Gerda hears the news, she sighs for Kay; the Reindeer’s practical knowledge has turned a frightening uncertainty into a direction she can follow.

Escort and Advocacy

Once freed, the Reindeer carries Gerda through the forest and onward at speed. The Robber-girl ties Gerda securely onto his back, gives her food for the journey, and entrusts him with taking care of her. He runs over stumps and stones, through forest and marshland, while wolves howl and ravens cry overhead. The northern lights flicker in the sky; he recognizes them as his old northern lights. The food is gone by the time they reach Lapland, but he has brought Gerda safely to the first northern refuge.

At the hut of the Lapland woman, the Reindeer tells his own story before Gerda’s, which the narration notes seemed to him the more important one. Gerda is too pinched with cold to speak. The woman directs them onward to Finland and writes instructions on a dried stock-fish for the Finland woman. After Gerda has warmed and eaten, the Reindeer carries her onward again, through the night beneath blue northern lights, to the Finland woman’s hut.

There he becomes more than a bearer of messages. He recounts his own story and Gerda’s, then asks the Finland woman to give Gerda strength equal to twelve men so she can overcome the Snow Queen. He praises the woman’s reputed command of the winds, imagining the power she might provide. The request exposes his protective urgency, but the answer redirects the meaning of the journey: the Finland woman says no external power can add to what Gerda already has. Her strength, she explains, is her purity and innocence of heart. The Reindeer has pleaded for help, but the counsel he receives makes Gerda’s own capacity—not a gift from him or the woman—the decisive force.

The Berry Bush and the Return Journey

The Finland woman sends the Reindeer to carry Gerda as far as a large bush covered with red berries, two miles from the beginning of the Snow Queen’s garden. Gerda realizes she has forgotten her boots and mittens, but he does not dare stop in the cutting cold. At the bush he sets her down, kisses her, and leaves with great tears running over his cheeks, hurrying back as instructed. His departure is a painful limit to his aid: he can bring Gerda to the threshold of the final danger, but cannot accompany her into the castle.

After Gerda has rescued Kay, the Reindeer is waiting at the same red-berried bush. He has brought another young Reindeer with him, whose full udders provide warm milk for the children. The pair then accompany Kay and Gerda to the Finland woman, where they warm themselves and receive directions, and onward to the Lapland woman, who has made them new clothes and put their sleighs in order. Both Reindeer run beside the children as far as the country’s boundaries, where the first green leaves are budding. There the children take leave of the animals and the Lapland woman.

Narrative Role

The Reindeer’s part in the story is defined by movement between places and by attention to what Gerda needs at each stage. He supplies firsthand knowledge of the northern geography, verifies the direction of Kay’s journey, carries Gerda across difficult terrain, and asks for help when her safety is at stake. His work is substantial but bounded: he cannot remove the glass fragments from Kay or enter the Snow Queen’s castle with Gerda, and the Finland woman refuses his hope that someone else can simply confer enough force to win the struggle. Instead, his actions bring Gerda to the point where her own courage and innocence can act. His return at the red-berried bush then completes the practical arc he began at the Robber Castle, carrying the reunited children away from the ice country toward home.