"Roses growing in the dale
Where the Holy Child we hail"
In the Seventh tale, the rescue, the children go through their final transformation. Though it starts out with them still as children, they end as adults, yet still children, in some sort of Peter Pan Syndrome turn of events. They come back home adults – but forever children – and this is their prize, because they can enter Heaven pure and innocent and free of the sin and phoniness and hypocrisy of the nonsense adult world. What’s interesting is that it ends in a way that many famous children epics end, with the children either forever changed, or returning back to the exact way they were before their adventure. It’s almost as if they have to come back unchanged, exactly as innocent as they were before their calamity, or the “child” part of the story will die; if they come back too mature, the story must be ruined.
When Gerda rescues Kay, she embraces him like a lover, kissing him all over his body to warm him up from being frozen - quite possibly, metaphoric. What becomes clear is that the children are far more mature than they should be, anyway. The children have a more idealized version of love than adults do – their love is uncontaminated, and completely unconditional. The way that Gerda goes after Kay is something the adults would probably never understand; they can never understand that kind of loyalty, that kind of commitment, and the young don’t have anything to dilute themselves from their idealized interpretation of the world. When they fall on each other crying, it moves the reader more than many adult stories of love do, as we find ourselves wishing we can love like they love, without the knowledge that the World is meant to destroy the purity of it, and it is inevitable that in the real world, it is bound to be spoiled by the adult life. The adult world destroys everything. This is why it is so important to keep them as children – they can return, physically adults, so they can love as lovers, physically perhaps, but they forever remain children, emphasizing the fact their love will last, and not be shattered by growth.
The grandmother remarks to them that to enter Heaven must remain like little children – and they will.
When Gerda cries tears onto the frozen Kay, she murmurs the hymn,
"Roses growing in the dale
Where the Holy Child we hail"
The children hear it amidst the rescue, and the embracing of their love.
At the end of the story they say that they understand what it means. To me, it identifies the fact that it was that moment when they were changed, the roses began to grow in the valley, just like the children would start growing physically, but they will remain Holy because they will still heretofore remain innocent children, and free from the entropy of adults.
I think your response to the whole conclusion of the "Snow Queen" was thoughtful and insightful as well. You touched on one of the more important aspects of the tale, the one that I also was baffled by--how they emerge back into reality not as children as when they left but as adults. I believe many of the questions that I has regarding Andersen's decision was answered when I read your piece. I believe you are right in saying that they had to come back as adults because they have matured to a point where they are no longer children. But, I believe what was important was not their physical growth, but the fact that they remained children at heart. These few lines that I am going to recite from your response I believe hit the head on the question of why Andersen wanted them to remain children at heart:
ReplyDelete"When they fall on each other crying, it moves the reader more than many adult stories of love do, as we find ourselves wishing we can love like they love, without the knowledge that the World is meant to destroy the purity of it, and it is inevitable that in the real world, it is bound to be spoiled by the adult life. The adult world destroys everything. This is why it is so important to keep them as children – they can return, physically adults, so they can love as lovers, physically perhaps, but they forever remain children, emphasizing the fact their love will last, and not be shattered by growth." It is interesting that he makes them grow in maturity and in size, but makes them children at heart, to symbolize their unconditional love and the innocence of that love.