Spitzbergen is the remote island at the North Pole where the Snow Queen’s strong castle stands. In the account given to Gerda, it is distinguished from Lapland, the place of the Snow Queen’s summer tent, making Spitzbergen the location associated with her more formidable stronghold.

Setting and Associations

The reindeer describes Lapland as a place of perpetual snow and ice, with sparkling plains where it can leap and run freely. It then locates the Snow Queen’s summer tent there, while identifying her strong castle as being on Spitzbergen, an island at the North Pole. The account presents the two places as separate settings associated with different dwellings of the Snow Queen.

Discovery and Narrative Role

Gerda learns about Spitzbergen when she asks where the Snow Queen may have gone. The information comes from the reindeer, which answers her question by distinguishing the Queen’s summer destination from the site of her strong castle. Spitzbergen enters the story through this brief exchange as a concrete destination connected to the search for Kay and as the far-northern setting of the Snow Queen’s principal stronghold.