Gerda Drives Back the Snow Queen's Guards with Prayer

Gerda Drives Back the Snow Queen's Guards with Prayer is the moment when Gerda’s passage through the frozen north is cleared not by a weapon or a gift of supernatural power, but by prayer. Alone and inadequately clothed before the Palace of the Snow Queen, she faces living snowflakes that attack as guards; as she prays, her breath becomes Angels, who scatter the hostile shapes and let her continue.

The Approach to the Palace

The Reindeer carries Gerda to a bush covered with red berries, two miles from the beginning of the Snow Queen’s garden. He cannot stop when she realizes she has forgotten her boots and mittens. At the bush he sets her down, kisses her, and leaves; tears run down his cheeks as he turns back. Gerda is left barefoot and without gloves in the cold of Finland, facing the last stretch of her search for Kay.

The sky is clear and glittering with the northern lights, but the danger comes along the ground. A regiment of snowflakes gathers around her. Gerda recalls how large and beautiful snowflakes had looked through a burning-glass, yet these are larger still and terrifying because they are alive. Their forms include great porcupines, twisted serpents stretching out their heads, and small, bristling bears. All are dazzlingly white: the Snow Queen’s Living Snowflake Sentries.

Prayer and the Counterattack

Gerda repeats the Lord’s Prayer. In the severe cold, she can see her breath emerge like steam as she speaks. The steam grows, takes the shape of little Angels, and enlarges as soon as it touches the earth. They wear helmets and carry spears and shields; their numbers keep increasing until, as Gerda finishes praying, a whole legion stands around her.

The Angels attack the snowflakes with their spears. The guards shiver into a hundred pieces, opening a safe path through the threat. The Angels then stroke Gerda’s hands and feet, and she feels the cold less. The prayer therefore changes the scene in two connected ways: it brings armed defenders against the Snow Queen’s forces and gives physical relief to the unprotected traveler.

Power, Innocence, and the Story’s Reversal

The Finland woman has already refused to give Gerda any greater power, explaining that the strength she has is her own purity and innocence of heart. She has also directed the Reindeer to carry Gerda to the bush with red berries, but the final approach is Gerda’s to make. The encounter with the guards gives that guidance a concrete narrative form: when she reaches an obstacle no helper can remove for her, her prayer is followed by the protection she needs to go on.

The scene also turns the book’s imagery of distorted vision toward a different outcome. The tiny shards of the Demon’s Magic Mirror retain their power to make the beautiful seem diminished and the bad seem worse; here, by contrast, the snowflakes that recall the magnified forms seen through a burning-glass are not merely frightening appearances. They are real, living opponents. Gerda does not defeat them by correcting the mirror or matching their force herself; the Angels summoned through her prayer break their assault and make passage possible.

The Way Forward

Once the guards have been shattered and her hands and feet warmed by the Angels, Gerda hastens on toward the Palace of the Snow Queen. The victory is local: it removes the immediate barrier, but it does not yet reunite her with Kay or end the journey. The narrative then turns to Kay, who is at the palace and does not think of Gerda or imagine that she is standing outside. That contrast keeps the rescue unresolved even as Gerda’s approach becomes safe: she has crossed the guarded threshold, while the person she seeks remains unaware of her presence.