A long, long time ago, devils lived together in the same place. One day, the devils made a magic mirror. It changed beautiful faces to ugly faces and smiling faces to crying faces. "How will God look in this mirror?"

Evil went up to the clouds right away, but God was already aware of the devil's wicked plan. "Such monstrous¹ creatures! How dare you try to put me to the test!" When God beat dazzling² and bright light down on the mirror and devils, the mirror broke into pieces, and the devils became blind and fell down to hell.

The broken pieces of the mirror fell down to the world of mortals³. One of the pieces got into a boy's eyes. His name was Kai, and he was living in a small town. "Ouch, it hurts!" Kai was close to a girl named Gelda, but he began to behave very odd as if he never knew her before.

Even when autumn passed into winter, Kai went through the whole season as a bad boy. One day, a white-horse carriage appeared in front of Kai. "Little boy with a cold heart, why don't we go to an Ice Castle where it is colder than your heart?" A beautiful woman inside the carriage asked the boy.

"A cold Ice Castle? That will be great." When Kai boarded the carriage, the woman kissed him on his cheek. At that moment, Kai forgot everything. The woman was the Queen of Snow. The carriage soared⁴ into the north sky.

Because Kai did not come back, Gelda searched everywhere in town, but she could not find him. Time went by, and when winter passed into spring, Gelda started on a journey to search for Kai. A small boat arrived at a big flower garden next to a riverside. "Oh, what a beautiful garden."

There was a small hut in the middle of the garden, and there lived an old lady who could use magic. "Old lady, Have you seen Kai?" "Yes, I have. I will tell you where he is, so let's go inside my house."

The old lady gave her delicious food and asked Gelda to live with her. Gelda was enchanted⁵ by her magic and lived with the old lady. Time went by, and winter came back again. Gelda suddenly was reminded of Kai when she was exposed to the cold wind.

"I have to search for Kai, why am I here?" Gelda escaped while the old magician⁶ lady went out. Gelda met a crow, while walking north. The Crow said something to Gelda after it listened to her. "Maybe you are searching for a boy who is now the Prince of a Castle in a forest." Gelda could walk into the castle with the help of the crow.

Gelda shouted when she stepped in to the Prince's room. "Kai, wake up! I came here to find you." "Who is so loud at midnight?" The prince woke up, but he was not Kai. "I am sorry, Prince. I thought you were my friend, Kai."

The Prince listened to what Gelda said, and let her sleep in a comfortable bed. The next day, he gave a great carriage to Gelda and said, "With this carriage, you will find the boy named Kai easily." Gelda thanked him for his kindness and left for the north again.

While traveling north, her carriage was taken away by bandits⁸, but she saved her life with the help of the daughter of a bandit⁷. And she heard from a pigeon that Kai had flown to Lapland in a carriage of the Queen of snow. She took a reindeer⁹ from the daughter of a bandit, and arrived at Lapland.

There was a house in the middle of a field. Gelda warmed herself up in an old lady's house. The old lady knew about Kai. "Kai is living in the Castle of Snow, but you cannot step in the castle because there is a frightening ice monster in front of the gate."

"Old lady, I have to save Kai." The old lady gave a yellow golden cross to Gelda and said, "When you are in danger, pray to God sincerely. Then he will save you." Gelda rode the reindeer and went to the Castle of Snow.

The ice monster tried to attack Gelda, but she prayed to God holding her cross in her hand. Then, angels appeared, and made the monster motionless. Gelda found Kai playing with a cold piece of ice.

"Kai, it's me, Gelda. I came here to search for you." But Kai just fingered the ice piece with an unemotional face. When Gelda hugged him and cried, her tears ran down to Kai's face. Then, the color in his face started to come back.

"Gelda, why are we in such a place like this?" Kai looked around there. "Now you are yourself, but you cannot escape from here." The Queen of Snow said. "Let me go home." At that moment Kai shed tears, and the broken piece of the magic mirror came out of his eyes.

"Ah, I cannot win the warm heart and tears of humans. Okay. Now you can go back home and live a happy life." As the Queen of Snow flourished her ice stick, the castle disappeared.

Gelda told Kai all the stories about what had happened to her. Kai was grateful to Gelda. They got back home safely with the reindeer and lived happily ever after.