The Transformation of the Snow Queen

From Hans Christian Andersen's beloved fairytale to the White Witch of Narnia and Disney's Elsa, the Queen of Winter prevails.

The Snow Queen illustration. Elena Ringo, ca. 1998. Via Wikimedia Commons.

I was eighteen years old when I first witnessed the magic of snowfall.

It was my freshman year at my university, and after growing up in a seasonless paradise, I would get to experience my first real winter. I had been trapped indoors all evening in a dark theater, rehearsing for a play, and had little indication of the transformation taking place on the other side of the thick, concrete walls. By the time I was finally free to walk back to my dorm, the campus was shrouded in a blanket of snow.

I vividly recall opening the front door of the theater and feeling my breath leave my body; like Lucy pushing past the fur coats and stepping gingerly into Narnia, I had found myself in a foreign land. The snow descended silently, and on my black coat, I could make out every groove and crystal formation of each individual flake. I just couldn’t believe that such delicate beauty existed in the world, and that I would have t…