The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales
'The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales' Summary
In "The Ice-Maiden", written towards the end of his career, Hans Christian Andersen tells the tale of Rudy, a boy who lost both his parents and goes to live with his uncle. The reader is first introduced to Rudy as he sells toy houses made by his grandfather. Rudy grows up to become a skilled mountain climber and huntsman.
He has fallen in love with the miller's daughter, Babette; however, the miller does not approve of the union and gives Rudy the impossible task of climbing to the top of a dangerous mountain and bringing back a live baby eaglet. While Babette was off visiting her godmother, she caught the attention of her cousin and flirted with him, which reveals in Rudy a growing jealousy. When Rudy finds the cousin climbing up a tree into Babette's window, Babette is enraged that Rudy is yelling at her cousin and tells him to leave.
On his way home, Rudy comes across a beautiful maiden who has appeared in his life before. It's the Ice Maiden, who killed his mother and marked him as her own when he was a baby. He is angry at Babette and soon finds himself kissing the Ice Maiden. Rudy goes back to Babette and begs for her forgiveness. Their wedding day is near and they travel to the godmother's house to be wed at a church nearby.
The night after their arrival Babette has an awful dream that she cheats on Rudy with her cousin. One night before the wedding, Babette decides she wants to go to a small island with just enough room for the two of them to dance. As they sit and talk together, Babette notices the boat is slipping away. Rudy dives into the water after it but the Ice Maiden kisses him one last time and he drowns. Babette is left alone on the island crying over the death of her loved one, but nobody can hear her over the storm.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
DanishPublished In
1861Author
Hans Christian Andersen
Denmark
Andersen's fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes and translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily acces...
More on Hans Christian AndersenDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
The Age of Chivalry by Thomas Bulfinch
Thomas Bulfinch explains the his work is "an attempt to tell the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement. We have...
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book III by Francois Rabelais
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais,a telling the adventures of two gian...
The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 03 by Richard Francis Burton
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in Englis...
Valda berättelser by Selma Lagerlof
Dyk ner i Selma Lagerlöfs fascinerande värld av berättelser, där det övernaturliga möter mänsklig värme och djup. "Valda berättelser" är en mästerlig...
Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston
This book deals mainly with some aspects of what may be termed the psychical life of the inhabitants of the Madras Presidency, and the Native States o...
The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 02 by Richard Francis Burton
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in Englis...
Nibelungenlied by Anonymous
The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the...
The Junior Classics Volume 5: Stories That Never Grow Old by William Patten
A selection of famous tales selected and re-worked for a junior audience. Stories are taken from Arabian Nights, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels,...
Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch
Bulfinch's Mythology is a collection of general audience works by American Latinist and banker Thomas Bulfinch, named after him and published after hi...
Las aventuras de Pinoquio by Carlo Collodi
Adéntrate en un mundo de fantasía y aprendizaje con "Las aventuras de Pinoquio" de Carlo Collodi, magistralmente traducido por Antonio José Restrepo....
Reviews for The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales
No reviews posted or approved, yet...