The final part of the story begins by taking us back to Kai, who we haven’t seen in four sections. He’s in the Snow Queen’s palace, which is all made of snow, consisting of one hundred rooms, all of them empty.
The Snow Queen sits at the center of a frozen lake called the Mirror of Reason. We find Kai blue, nearly black, with cold, but the Snow Queen’s kisses prevent him from feeling it. He’s building shapes from fragments of ice, which seems to him, due to the glass in his heart and eye, to be very important. He’s made many impressive figures, shapes, and words, but his goal is to form the word eternity—the Snow Queen has told him that if he does, he will be his own master, and she will give him the whole world and a new pair of skates.
The Snow Queen tells him that she must go spread snow in the warmer countries, and leaves Kai in the Mirror of Reason alone, still working on his puzzle.
Gerda finds him here. She never actually encounters the Snow Queen, which is one of the things I’ve done differently for my retelling.
Gerda’s prayers calm the icy winds, and she runs to Kai and hugs him. He doesn’t react, and she begins to cry, her hot tears melting his frozen heart and washing away the piece of glass. She sings the hymn that they learned in part two, and Kai cries as well, dislodging the glass from his eye.
He recognizes Gerda, and realizes how cold it is. Their reunion is so joyous that the ice shards get up and dance, then lay themselves out spelling the word eternity. Gerda kisses Kai, as the Snow Queen kissed him, warming him where she froze him. They walk out of the palace together, and the winds still, and the sun shines, and the reindeer is waiting for them with a friend who feeds them fresh milk before they return to the Finland woman.
The Finland woman gives them directions home, and the Lapland woman gives them new clothes. They leave the reindeer in Lapland, and continue on foot. They meet the robber girl, who’s set off on her own, and she tells them that the prince and princess are travelling, the crow has died, and his wife is in mourning. She promises to visit Kai and Gerda if she’s ever in the area, and rides away.
Kai and Gerda return home to their grandmother, where they find that they’ve both grown up while they were away. The Snow Queen’s palace fades from their memories like a bad dream, and they sit among the roses like they did when they were children. Their grandmother reads a verse about becoming as little children, and they think of their hymn, and it is summer.
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