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40Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 1 (2015 8) 149-174
УДК 304.444
"The Oera Linda Book" and "The Snow Queen": Two Destinies of One Myth
Ksenia V. Reznikova*
Siberian Federal University 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041, Russia
Received 12.08.2014, received in revised form 04.11.2014, accepted 11.12.2014
This article features globalization in its two forms: natural globalization and artificial globalization. The need of natural globalization becomes more obvious taking into account the growth of challenge to the humankind. Artificial globalization nowadays is provided by westernization. Influence of globalization is more obvious at the mental than at the physical level, construction of the historical past and its mythologization played major roles in the course of globalization. Different relations between ideology and myth can be traced on the example of the destinies of two works, in which almost the same idea of the world order is represented. These are "The Oera Linda Book" and "The Snow Queen". As a part of the study, seven invariants of the fairy tale by H.C. Andersen were analyzed. The carried-out analysis is based on a hypothesis that artificial globalization influences mythology of certain cultures, distorting it for own needs, resorting to different methods for different forms of the myth representation. So, myths in their pure form, demanded by the adult representatives of culture, are subjected to criticism, they are charged offalsification. The ultimate goal of such an influence is to bury the myth in oblivion as false. The myth that is represented in the reduced art form for children's audience has the changed plot basis and in this new form it is subjected to maximum replication to substitute the original version in a period of time.
Keywords: constructivism, globalization, myth, H.F. Wirth, "The Snow Queen". Research area: culture studies.
During the history of the humankind presence of two different tendencies can be traced: on the one hand - the tendency to combination, unification and homogenization into the integrated system, on the other hand -nursing of uniqueness and individuality. An example of the first tendency is formation of the Roman Empire by combining different tribes and absorbing their cultures, "the Roman church policy consistently supported its uniformity: as becoming a part of the Empire, the conquered
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* Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected]
peoples had their own religions and cults. They were subjected to reinforced latinization: i.e. cults, alien to the Roman were syncretically reinterpreted and were joined in with the Roman state religion" (Wirth, 2007: 282). For centuries other cultures seeking to prove their eligibility to Rome and thus demonstrating the existence of the basis for empire formation were subjected to the similar rethinking. Nevertheless, there is another, democratic tendency that implied unification of equal nations with the authentic past, present and
future, as reflected, inter alia, in their legends and mythology. There is one thing common to both tendencies - the desire for unification. Depending on the basis of this desire (the unification as equals or subordinates), the unification (now the term which is used for it is globalization) can be represented as natural or forced.
The need for natural globalization becomes obvious with the growth of challenges to the humankind, including creation of weapons of mass destruction, both biological and chemical; political, economic and ideological confrontations that evolve into acts of terrorism and military conflicts. Individual nations, individual states or even their unions cannot deal individually with the threat to all the humankind. M.P. Yatsenko rightly believes that "the processes of globalization with their successful theoretical and practical development can contribute to disclosure of the positive historic potential, strengthen the stability of their development, reduce the dangers of war, terrorism and other dangerous threats and challenges to humankind, adjustment of social experience of the traditional historical consciousness to the new conditions of social life, development of productive forces and production relations, etc." (Yatsenko, 2010: 9).
Nowadays forced globalization is represented by Westernization, although in the past century it had different names depending on the ideals and values which were postulated as true and combined, depending on what state pursued a policy of expansion, unifying and homogenizing cultures that surrender over the influence. Without a doubt, in the 20th century, these were the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. But under the patronage of whatever country forced globalization takes place, it is carried out by the similar means, one of which is falsification of history, i.e. construction of the past in accordance with the axiological needs of the dominant country with a concomitant suppression of the minority
people identities, "the processes of globalization, based on falsification of history of the peoples' past, form the historical picture of the past in the interest of the certain subjects of globalization, which provide the basis for pressure on the self-sufficient cultures and the peoples, until the loss of their national, religious and socio-cultural identity" (Yatsenko , 2010: 9). Taking into account what globalization influences the mental, rather than the physical level (expansion of values and ideals is held not by force aimed at a person as a part of the biosphere, but by the massive influence on a person's consciousness as a part of society), the construction of the historic past and its mythologizing were given the major roles in the process of globalization.
The tendency to the increased constructivism and mythologization can also be traced on the example of the relationships between the actors of globalization. In particular, in the previous historical periods the relationships between the ideologists of globalization and books - the material carriers of the mainstream ideas or, on the contrary, alien to the dominant ideology - can be described as subject-object: the undesirable works could have been criticized, burnt, banned; the authors were branded and publicly condemned. Over time, the situation has changed, the role and the impact of books on society was no longer underestimated, books became its integral part, in this regard insufficiency of material objects destruction became apparent (in fiction, for example, it is confirmed in Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451"), and it was more effective to change their content, to distort their meaning to the opposite. Different relationships between ideology and myth can be traced on the example of destinies of the two works that have almost the same idea of the world order - "The Oera Linda Book" and "The Snow Queen".
"The Oera Linda Book. The Ancient History of Europe" was published by Herman
Felix Wirth in 1933 as an ancient Frisian family chronicle, which is the authentic mythology of the Atlantic-Nordic race and the ancient history of Europe. According to A. Kondratiev, "Wirth introduces "The Oera Linda Book" as "The Ancient Legacy of the North", which is different from the legacies of the Middle East, which, in his opinion, are essentially alien to the traditions of the Germans and Atlantic-Nordic ancestry heritage" (Wirth, 2007: 85). According to the beliefs of the ancient Frisians represented in "The Oera Linda Book", the Supreme Spirit Vralda embodied into the three Goddesses - Lyda, Fynda and Freya, who became the ancestresses of the three major races, "Lyda was black and curly, like a sheep. ... Fynda was yellow, and her hair was like a horse's mane. ... Freya was white, like the morning snow, and the blue of her eyes was superior to the blue of the rainbow. Her hair, which was as thin as spider's web shined like the rays of the midday sun" (Wirth, 2007: 99-100). Descendants of Lyda did not know the laws, their lives were driven exclusively by passions; Fy nda's children only made laws, but did not follow them; while the children of Freya lived in harmony, harmonizing their life with internal divinity and legitimacy.
The harmonious existence of Freya's children implied understanding of the importance of women in general, as well as the separate female characters: goddess Freya, folk mothers, Frana and women who guided towns and cities. At that, the men's role was not depreciated, rather, men could show their best only thanks to women. Matriarchy as a form of social organization was the most harmonious and the children of Lyda, Fynda and those Frisians that were the exception to the rule and too ambitious, who found recognition among the Finns (the descendants of Fynda) as a special stratum - sorcerers, wanted to follow it. The Frisian lands (the Far North that was fertile at that period of time) were pursued by misfortunes,
because of catastrophic disasters their ancestral lands started to submerge and the Frisians had to move south, mingling with the local people, losing purity and divinity of their race. The basis of the Nordic culture was matriarchy, which was gradually, from the north, south and east, replaced by patriarchy, that became "the cause of the fundamental space disaster" (Wirth, 2007: 38). Folk mothers were killed, but the last one, Frana, before her death prophesied: "In ... two thousand years, the sons will rise in rebellion and overthrow the power of princes and priests. For... a thousand years Yule radiation sector will go down, more and more plunging into darkness and the blood that is shed because of princes' and priests' intrigues. And then a New Dawn will come" (Wirth, 2007: 155). Even earlier, in the early 20th century H.F. Wirth created a work dedicated to one of the female characters - the Mother of Light, Holda, a white woman who is coming into our world, to fill it with the morning light of Divine Freedom and "sacred loyalty to the old days" (Wirth, 2007: 14 ).
In general, A.G. Dugin says that among Germanic peoples the question of gender was spiritualized and associated with hierogamy (the divine marriage): "in the Nordic tradition gender was a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual sacred structure of the divine world that is why it have never been self-sufficient or naturalistic content of cults and rituals. Priestly function of woman sacralized and spiritualized the issues of gender and gave them deliberately hierogamic ("sacred marriage") tone. Gender symbolism with phallic dominance was the evidence of the Nordic race decline and the result of its medley with the lower, animals, local Eurasian races whose naturalistic impulses and instincts dominated over the pure intellect and light nature" (Dugin, 2008: 76-77). In the Nordic tradition every marriage between a man and a woman considered as hierogamy, the union of
"the Spiritual Light" and "Creative Potential", "their mutual functions were fully determined by the symbolism of the arctic year, and the aim of their union was revival of the pure race - the race of Solar People whose supreme doctrines were The Divine Justice, Absolute Harmony and the Law of Eternity" (Dugin, 2008: 77).
The destiny of "The Oera Linda Book" as well as H.F. Wirth's destiny is very complicated: after its publication, "the Book" run the gantlets of criticism from the scientific community, which accused Wirth of falsifying the historical document. H.F. Wirth was criticized not only for fraud, but also for the attempts to create a new religion (he was accused in it on the basis of his commitment to the idea that the original religion of the Atlantic-Nordic peoples was sunny, polar monotheism, which he supposedly invented himself), for unscientific ideas, for racism (the history of the races appearance, its intermingling, the prophecies about revival of the pure race), for the proximity to the government of Nazi Germany, although Hitler himself believed that "professors and bigots" only spoil everything establishing this new Nordic religion. H.F. Wirth was criticized so strongly that despite the fact that they could not completely remove his name out of the world's scientific annals of the early 21st century, he is little known in Europe and in Russia.
H.C. Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" (1844) was not obliviated, although the major storylines quite fully coincided with "The Oera Linda Book". Thus, the troll, who had magical abilities (according to "The Oera Linda Book", Fynda's children and ambitious Frisians who turned their backs on the primordial religion, voluntary left the north and mingled with other peoples, had such abilities) created a mirror that reflected negative characteristics of everything. When the mirror was broken, its pieces wounded many people, making them see
only evil even in the good and do only evil. Thus, people who were wounded by the pieces of the mirror lost their good nature; here we may draw an analogy with the fact that the purity of the race of Freya's descendants was also blurred in course of time and with the expansion to the south from the north. Two of these pieces wounded Kai, who was later carried away by the Snow Queen to the North. It was in the North where later the release of Kai from the pieces of the mirror and revival of the former Kai took place. And this release was made possible only thanks to Gerda, who risked going to a distant cold country on a journey full of difficulties.
We should give detailed characteristics of the separate characters of "The Snow Queen", drawing an analogy with the mythological material set out in "The Oera Linda Book". The good and beautiful was lost both in the fairy tale, and in "The Oera Linda Book" under the influence of the magic powers of the representatives of not pure chosen race (the troll can be likened to the children of Fynda, who knew how to cast spells, as well as to the ambitious children of Freya, who gained fame among the Finns). Kai, who was also wounded by the pieces of the mirror, became angry, he was proud of his ability to count in head, the knowledge of fractions and information about areas and number of residents in different countries. Only in the process of communication with the Snow Queen he realizes that this knowledge is insignificant. It turned out that prayers and psalms were of real importance but Kai, wounded by the pieces of the mirror, could not resort to their help, but they helped Gerda to overcome the difficulties. Here we can draw an analogy with "The Oera Linda Book" in the sense that the descendants of Freya, according to this document, lived in conformity with the internal law, intuitively and harmoniously, while Fynda's descendants called for rationality, decrees and laws, although they
had never followed them. Consequently, Gerda, in this case, may be perceived as a representative of the Frisian people, who preserved its purity, while Kai as a Frisian affected by the damaging influence of other nations.
In "The Snow Queen" there are also characters, whose ethnicity is mentioned -these are a Finn girl and a Laplander girl. The description of their way of life may be compared with the indication about decadence of Fynda's children existence in "The Oera Linda Book": they both lived in poor shacks, the Finn girl's shack did not even have a roof and the Laplander girl didn't have paper, so she had to write a letter on the dry cod. Applying the method of analogy, the sorceress from "The Snow Queen", which Gerda met during her journey, can be attributed to the descendants of Fynda. Such a conclusion can be made firstly, because she knows witchcraft and secondly, the rules of morality of the sorceress are quite subjective, she wants Gerda to stay with her, despite the necessity to save Kai.
Special attention in H.C. Andersen's fairy tale should be paid to the two main female characters - Gerda and the Snow Queen. As it was mentioned above, Gerda may be associated with the representative of the Frisian people, which preserved their purity, as it remained untouched by the mirror's pieces; she managed to overcome the difficulties with the help of prayers and psalms; thanks to her Kai was healed and came back to life. In the course of her trip, Gerda noted that people and animals were kind to her, and the Finn girl also mentioned it, calling Gerda an innocent child: "I cannot make her stronger than she is. Can't you see how great her power is? Can't you see how people and animals serve her? After all, barefoot she walked around half the world! She should not think that we gave her this power: she has it in her heart, her power lies in the fact that she is a sweet, innocent child" (Andersen). Innocent children's platonic love -
these are relationships between Gerda and Kai, in "The Snow Queen" there is not even a hint of carnal minds. Gerda accepts the potential marriage of Kai to princess with joy for him, only because he is alive, without a trace of regret or jealousy. Gerda's meeting with Kai in the North resulted not only in Kai's abolition of the mirror's pieces, but also led to the fact that the task given by the Snow Queen was implemented by itself: to get freedom from the Snow Queen's Kai tried to make the word "Eternity" from the pieces of ice, but he could not and when Gerda appeared the word got composed by itself.
When Kai and Gerda returned home they noticed that they grew up, but remained as pure as children. The return of Gerda and healed, almost resurrected Kai was accompanied by reading of the Gospel "Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" as well as understanding of the Psalm's meaning which is constantly repeated in the fairy tale: "Roses bloom in the valleys ... What a beauty! / Soon we shall see baby Jesus!" (Andersen). From this we can conclude that reunion of Gerda and Kai in the North can be recognized as hierogamy, which led to the revival of Kai and approached the phenomenon of the Savior the world, which, according to Frana's prophecy described in "The Oera Linda Book", can be identified as a New Dawn accompanied by the restoration of the pure race of Freya's descendants. And all this was also was consecrated by Eternity made from the pieces of ice in the palace of the Snow Queen. Consonance of names in the "The Snow Queen" and "The Oera Linda Book" also seems important: in "The Oera Linda Book" one of folk mother's name, whose activity is connected with migration from their habitable, but attacked by enemies lands to the new lands, was Gerda, in fact, because of her name the new land of Frisians was named Gerdmany (Germany).
The main character of H.C. Andersen's fairy tale is the Snow Queen, and her character should be studied with the utmost care, since this character, according to the further research, with the course of time was subjected to the greatest transformation. A lot of attention in the fairy tale is paid to the appearance of the Snow Queen: she is beautiful, magnificent, her eyes are like shining stars. They have neither warmth, no peace. According to Kai's opinion, the Snow Queen is perfect; the snowflakes that swarm like bees are also perfect, and the snowflakes, like bees, have a queen - the Snow Queen. The snowflakes that flew to the city where Kai and Gerda lived had a regular, perfect shape, but the trouble was that they melted similar to the purity of the Atlantic-Nordic race in the process of moving from the north to the south. The Snow Queen flies together with a swarm of snowflakes, if she looks into windows, wonderful patterns appear on them. She cools volcanoes with snow, which is good for plants. Despite her icy breath, it is only selectively destructive (when she breathed on the pigeon's eggs, nestlings, except two, died; chickens and horses serve her, but despite her close proximity they remain alive; the reindeer believes that the Snow Queen's land is a wonderful place).
The palace of the Snow Queen is located at the North Pole, on the island of Spitsbergen; her summer residence is located in Lapland. Snowflakes-warriors guard the halls of the Snow Queen. Kai believed that her palace was the best place on Earth. In the process of moving north the sky is coloured by multicolored lights, first red, then blue, the palaces of the Snow Queen are illuminated with white light. Northern lights at the pole are so correct and ordered that it is possible to calculate when they appear and when they disappear. It is important that the Snow Queen as well as the troll has the mirror. But this mirror is not a magical thing made with malicious intent that wounded many people and brought a
lot of misfortunes into the world; the mirror of the Snow Queen is "the mirror of mind" - a frozen lake which ice cracked into thousands of regular and identical pieces and became as beautiful as a work of art.
Summing up the study of "The Snow Queen" by H.C. Andersen and on the basis of the coincidences met, we may try to compare some characters of the fairytale and characters of "The Oera Linda Book". Thus, the Snow Queen can be associated with Freya, the ancestor of the white race; Gerda is feminine, a Folk Mother; Kai is masculine, killed and resurrected Savior; the troll and his disciples are Magians and the Magyars; the Finn girl and the Laplander girl are the children of Fynda. Considerable coincidences of the main characters bear evidence of the fact that both "The Oera Linda Book" which represents a chronicle reflecting the original epos of the North and "The Snow Queen" are artistic interpretation of the same original myth. At that, as it was mentioned above, the fairy tale, in contrast to "The Oera Linda Book" that was positioned as the "Ancient Covenant of the North" doesn't claim to historiography, therefore, when it was necessary, the measures to control its contents were different from those that were applied to "The Oera Linda Book", especially in relation to H.F. Wirth's who published it. It is almost impossible to falsify a fairytale as it is a work of art and its author's brainchild, which completely corresponds to the author's conception. But it is quite possible to change the meaning of its parts or meaning of the whole text to the opposite, and this fact can be discovered by studying the existing works of literature, films and animation created on the basis "The Snow Queen" by H.C. Andersen.
Appeals to "The Snow Queen" by H.C. Andersen took place during the 20th century and it was of considerable interest in the early 21st century; different countries manifested interest in it: the USSR (1937, 1957, 1986), Great Britain
(1995, 1996), modern Russia (2006, 2012), the USA (2002), Japan (2005), Korea (2006), Ukraine (2003), etc. "The Snow Queen" by H.C. Andersen was interpreted in literature (the pantomime by E.L. Shvarts and the novel by J. Vinge with the same name); in music (the opera and the musical); in cinematography (Russian and foreign films, including cartoons and anime). This article will focus on the seven interpretations.
"The Snow Queen" by E.L. Shvarts is a pantomime written in 1937. This work, compared with the original one has some additional characters; some of Andersen's heroes disappeared. The first category includes the storyteller, the counselor and the king, the second - the troll and his disciples, the woman who knew how to cast spells, the Laplander girl, the Finn girl, etc. At first glance, the basic storyline remains intact: misfortune happens to Kai, the Snow Queen takes him away and Gerda has to overcome many difficulties in order to save him. But if we take into account the fact that the troll disappeared from the characters of the fairytale, there is the question - who became the reason of the misfortune that happened to Kai, who is the main evil character? In E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale these functions are given to the Snow Queen ("the Snow Queen is very angry ...", says the reindeer) and the counselor who is closely connected to her - she supplies him with ice, selling which the counsel became so rich that he even managed financially subdue the king.
In E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale the Snow Queen is a woman of noble birth, the baroness, which has a lot of servants; she is accustomed to command other people. Even in the description of her appearance her opulence is emphasized - a huge diamond on a silver chain sparkles on her chest. The Snow Queen didn't wound Kai by a piece of the mirror, she kissed him and this kiss made his heart cold, turning it into a block of ice. As the Snow Queen is characterized from the
negative point of view, the positive characters start struggling against her: "Do not be afraid! Howl, whistle and sing, knock at the windows, we will struggle against you, the Snow Queen!" (Shvarts). E.L. Shvarts introduced the original character into the narration - the king who owed a lot of money to the councilor, the treacherous and sneaky king, "When I get angry, even the fur on my gown stands on end. ... The king has the right to be cunning" (Shvarts). The ancestors of the king were also bad-tempered, one of them killed his aunt three hundred years ago and he still wanders around the palace, in which, during the period of its existence, a lot of terrible crimes were committed.
In comparison with the original fairy tale, Gerda also displays qualities unusual to her character. Thus, when she heard that the Snow Queen had taken Kai away and he turned white from cold, she said: "Well, as I knew it. White from cold! It is necessary to rub him with his mitten and then give him some hot tea with raspberry jam. Oh, I would beat him up! Silly boy! Maybe now he has turned into a block of ice". It should be noted that descriptions of the North given by the reindeer in the fairy tales by H.C. Andersen and E.L. Shvarts are different. In the earlier source he describes the vast beautiful expanses of land, in the second text he focuses on the changes that happened to the North because of the Snow Queen: "People, lots of people used to live here, but they all run to the south, away from her. Now it's only snow and ice, ice and snow" (Shvarts). It is interesting to compare this passage to "The Oera Linda Book", as, according to it, the Atlantic-Nordic peoples, the descendants of Freya, had to leave the northern territories as they submerged, they had to move to the south and there was no alternative. As in the original source, in E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale, Kai makes the word "eternity", not on purpose, but because "the queen ordered so".
Summing up the consideration of E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale we may note that it considerably differs from the original source: there is no confrontation with the Snow Queen in Andersen's fairy tale, the evil character in it is the troll, whose functions in E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale were delegated to the Snow Queen. In fact, E.L. Shvarts rewrites H.C. Andersen's fairy tale according to the ideology of that period: the Snow Queen and King are the representatives of the class, to struggle which it is necessary to canalize people's energies. And, according to the fairy tale, it is impossible to make the Snow Queen and the King better, but the younger generation of this class is not lost for society - the prince and the princess said: "We will not go back to the palace. We will go to school here" (Shvarts). The influence of ideology is manifested at the lexical level, in particular, the first robber, turning to the others says, "Look, comrades, what changes happened to our bearded friend!" (Shvarts). In E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale the class enemies, which people should struggle with, were identified not only from the ideological point of view but even the qualities, necessary for this struggle were indicated: friendship, loyalty, warm heart and courage.
The Soviet feature fairy tale film "The Snow Queen" that was created at "Lenfilm" studio and released in 1966 closely follows E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale. The difference can be found only in some details: the woman gang-leader threatens the bearded men to dismiss him from the gang "at his own request", and he is proud that he was accepted to the gang "in excess of the plan". This can be considered as an echo of the real historical situation in the Soviet Union, the importance of belonging to the working class, which ironically turns into the employment and possible dismissal even from the bandit's gang. Another innovation - the Snow Queen flies away from the palace, explaining that with the words "I
want to delay the incoming of spring; I have to fly to the southern skies". Thus, the action remains almost the same (in H.C. Andersen's fairy tale she flies away to powder volcanoes with snow), but its meaning is changed to the opposite: in the original source this action was justified by the benefit for grapes and lemons, and in "The Snow Queen" 1966 the action was necessary to gain more power. In this interpretation, as well as in E.L. Shvarts' fairy tale, at the very beginning it is specified that the storyteller haven't written the end of this fairy tale and that the plot will unwind all by itself, without any influence ("And the most interesting thing is that I have written only the beginning of the fairy tale and something from the middle" (Shvarts)), although he calls himself the master of the fairy tale: "This is my fairy tale, I am its master" (Shvarts). In general, these arguments of the storyteller provide an example of what the author of the fairy tale interpretation can do with the original version, he is the master and he can do what he wants or let it take its own course. This results in the fact that the characteristics of the main characters are changed, for example, the Snow Queen, neutral and even positive character in H.C. Andersen's fairytale turns into vicious and domineering in the film released in 1966 (Fig. 1), she attacks Kai and Gerda on their way home and says, "I will freeze you, bold girl, I will turn you into a block of ice".
The animated cartoon "The Snow Queen" created by "Soyuzmultfilm" animation studio was released in 1957. On the one hand, it contains a lot of direct quotes from H.C. Andersen's fairy tale and the cartoon's plot is close to the original fairy tale, but there is also no troll in it and in this connection the evil inclination is concentrated in the Snow Queen. It was she who broke the mirror to do harm to people, saying: "I charm you, the pieces of ice, I charm you by my magic power. Fly away and in a wild noise of the wind fly over the earth, stab at eyes and hearts of those stupid
Fig. 1. A frame from "The Snow Queen" film, 1966
little people" (Fig. 2). The Snow Queen didn't only wound Kai - it was just the beginning of his change: the Snow Queen often talks to him, trying to change his mind: "You became very clever, Kai. ... I told you many times: the fragrance of flowers, the beauty and joy, the verses of poets and love - they do not exist. You have to forget all that ... Do you remember Gerda? Do not worry, you'll forget even that". In 1957 cartoon Gerda is represented as an opposite of the Snow Queen -she is kind, she can cultivate morality even in the robbers (Fig. 3). So, the little robber girl not only lets Gerda go and releases the reindeer from her
menagerie, but she also unties all the other animals who do not run away, but surround her and fawn to her, as it was customary in many Soviet cartoons: repentant evildoer gets forgiveness from those who he previously tormented. At the end of the cartoon the Snow Queen melted without a trace and from the two opposing characters only Gerda survives (Fig. 4).
The musical film "The Secret of the Snow Queen" created by "Ekran" creative company in 1986 is positioned by the authors as "a fairy tale about a fairy tale". The additional title justifies itself: it is this interpretation of the fairy tale where
all the possibilities of the tale, the wide meaning of the word are fully reflected. Regarding the importance of a fairy tale the Snow Queen notes, "A fairy tale is not a newspaper. Once you get into it, then it's for centuries"; "H.C. Andersen made me immortal". She also makes irony about Kai's words "well, we are grownups already, aren't we? We understand that the Snow Queen does not exist": "Of course, she doesn't! The Snow Queen
is a fairy tale for children". Thus, the audience is given the idea, that the fairy tale has its own reality, and even though only children believe in it, it does not cease to really exist.
In this musical film not only the reality of the fairy tale is considered, notwithstanding the fact if people believe in it or not, but the power of the word is outlined. This goal is achieved by introducing the "Voice of the Fairy Tale" and its
actions (Fig. 5). Thus, it is free to deliver its opinion regarding the characters of the fairy tale and is not just an independent storyteller. For example, it says to the face of the Snow Queen: "I am strongly against you". Its words are of a significant power, for example, if it says that spring has come, in the middle of winter snow begins to melt and spring really comes, surprising both autumn and the Snow Queen. But possessing such power, the Voice of the Fairy Tale is not always careful with words, and it results in bad consequences. Thus, it forgets to say "once there lived a baron" and the baron immediately gets into trouble: he loses his power, his wife leaves him saying: "When this fairy tale was created they forgot to say about you "there lived a baron". Therefore, you are an empty spot. And what for to be near an empty spot?" This moment is always reminded of to the Voice by the robber girl and the Snow Queen. The Snow Queen not only blames the Voice of the Fairy Tale, but tries to use its mistake for her benefit: "If only one link of the fairy tale is lost, the whole story will go another way... We can use it". Moreover, the Snow Queen invented another way to influence the word, the Voice of the Fairy Tale: "I will make you catch cold, the Voice of the Fairy Tale will not only become hoarse, but
silent. The fairy tale will lose its Voice". There is nothing the Voice of the Fairy Tale can do about it, the narration once again goes its own way, and like in the interpretation of E.L. Shvarts and its film version by Lenfilm, the Voice of the Fairy Tale may only state the fact: "The Snow Queen does everything the way she likes, this was not in the original fairy tale. She has got totally out of hand".
It is noteworthy, that it is not only the Snow Queen, who acts differently than in the original tale. There is a series of changes: additional characters from other tales of H.C. Andersen are introduced; robbers teach how one cannot be an egoist; the reindeer, which played an important role in the original tale, dies, etc. It happens that each time the fairy tale telling gets different from the previous telling, everything is repeated in a cycle with some changes. The Autumn comments it this way: "All boys like Kai will definitely play a trick one day. And what will be with them if such Gerda is not around? History repeats itself. Kai lives in all the boys, and Gerda lives in all the girls. You are not the first one, and not the last one". This idea that each girl is Gerda and each boy is Kai is one of variations on the topic that
some archetypical actions are repeating, where the characters are the prototypes of some archetypical heroes. M. Eliade in his "Myth about Eternal Return" also turns to this idea, A.G. Dugin also speaks about this - in the Nordic traditions the marriage between a man and a woman was a hierogamy. The Voice of the Fairy Tale notes that the Snow Queen shall be defeated each time: i.e. the actual historical background may change, but the archetypical plot remains the same. One cannot deny it, the only problem is that in the case with "The Snow Queen" by H.C. Andersen the main plot was changed to its exact opposite, the bound of good and evil was shifted, the Snow Queen has become the main and practically absolute evil to be fought with all one's might.
The Snow Queen has got the features not typical for her in the original tale: she is evil (The Autumn says: "The Snow Queen is an evil sorceress"), insidious (the Snow Queen says: "Let us think of something more insidious.. .We are to kill the girl"), powerful (The Snow Queen says: "It is the whole world, Kai. I want the cold people to rule it. You may become one of them. When you graduate from my school, I will confer you ice knighthood"), hysterical (The Voice of the Fairy Tale says: "Such an unexpected lady she is, smashes dishes in the yard, I'm afraid whether she gets high temperature - like it or not, she is snowy"). Nevertheless, it is mentioned that the Snow Queen and the Winter are different characters (The Autumn says: "Don't confuse the Winter and the Snow Queen, it's a mistake. The Winter is my little sister, she is kind, ruddy and merry. The Snow Queen is an evil sorceress"). Not only features of the Snow Queen are changed in the musical film in comparison with the fairy tale by H.C. Andersen, her actions also differ from those described in the original tale. For example, she sets out for Gerda herself, in order to bring her to the palace for further implementation of
her insidious plan. At the end, she melts and this end is different from the original one.
If for a moment we skip the fact that in this interpretation like in all others the main plot line is changed, we may pay attention to the historical and topical storyline. Like in the previous Soviet invariants of Andersen's fairy tale, there is a motif of the change of an old, tsar regime to a new one, the Communist regime. The Snow Queen says about her servants, "they are not court servants, they are court cleaners, someone has to clean at the court". She establishes an icy school to influence more people, to come to power through education organized at her own discretion. It is a kind of school on eliminating illiteracy, there they teach you the main principles of the freezing sight, ice courtesy, etc. To enter the school the students pass entry examinations, get marks during the course of study, like in Russian educational tradition but with minuses before them (-5, -4). Upon completion of the school programme one can get an icy medal in addition to the icy heart for outstanding achievements in studies.
In the musical film the image of "the baron who does not exist" reflects the historical trouble, i.e. addiction. While the film was showed in 1985, we may suppose that it was a reference to the alcohol addiction. The decision to fight it was taken in the USSR in 1985 (the Prohibition). Or the drugs addiction, which increased as the result of adoption of Prohibition. The Baron who does not exist represents a typical addict: he has nothing left, he even pawned his golden crown, he lives in poverty, his wife left him, he has big debts. He describes the history of his dependence the following way: "I get ice cream, thousand portions at once, through the chimney.. .When I got to know that I exist not, I mean, that I do not exist, I had to freeze the feeling of offence and fell on ice cream. Then I got addicted to it, spent all my treasury on it, started pile debts into debts".
In 1995 the British full-length animated film "The Snow Queen" directed by M. Gates
was showed. In this interpretation neither the plot, nor the characters refrained changes. At the beginning of the cartoon it turns out that Kai and Gerda are Tom and Ellie correspondingly. The Palace of the Snow Queen is shown, which is located in the coldest place on earth, the North Pole. It is surprising that the towers of the Palace may produce laser emission, which is more likely due to the historical situation. Laser beams come from the staff of the Snow Queen and even from her eyes. In the Palace of the Snow Queen, trolls are serving. The trolls are shown with irony, they are dumb and clumsy (Fig. 6). The Snow Queen told the trolls to install the magic mirror on the mountain to get the world power with its help: "As soon as the mirror is installed, the sunlight will get no more access to the Earth, it will get cold, extremely cold. The whole world will freeze and become mine... I want the world to plunge into darkness". But the trolls failed to install the mirror and it got broken into many pieces, which scattered everywhere. Almost all the pieces were gathered by the Snow Queen's bats, except two, which wounded Tom. Herewith, we may assume that in this interpretation the trolls are guilty that Tom was wounded with the mirror pieces, like
in the original text, but here the trolls are just mediators, because it is the Snow Queen who ordered to install the mirror on the mountain. In this interpretation, the trolls are not wicked, like in H.C. Andersen's tale, but it is the Snow Queen, who is the source of absolute evil.
The Snow Queen is shown as evil and powerful, she wants to make the whole world hers (The Snow Queen says: "How charming is the world where everything is icebound. No trees and flowers, no rivers and seas, too cold to work, move, think. How wonderful!"). To achieve her goals the Snow Queen uses her servants: the bats who may turn reindeer, and the trolls. The Snow Queen wants to kill those out of favour: she threatens to feed the troll to the bats, but later she freezes him; she wants to kill Tom to get the last two pieces of the mirror. Moreover, her kiss is fatal, the trolls call it "the kiss of death" and say that "he won't live more than two days after her kiss", he has got ice in his veins, and when it gets to his heart, he will die. After the final scene the Snow Queen does not die like in other interpretations of H.C. Andersen's tale, but gets icebound with snow blots dancing in her living eyes. (Fig. 7)
Other characters of the original tale are also changed: the robbers are represented by rats, the
Fig. 7. A frame from "The Snow Queen" cartoon, 1995
daughter of the woman gang-leader wants Ellie to be in her service; the Laplander girl Frida teaches reindeer in the summer school (which are drawn as dogs but with horns and hoofs) and goes with Ellie to the Palace of the Snow Queen; she prepares poison to vanquish the mirror. A new character appears, the sparrow Peeps, which performs the functions of a magic friend. The woman who performs magic, changed a lot. In the 1995 cartoon it is a witch with a hooked nose, warts on her hands, without teeth, with long nails, she has a skull in her house. The witch makes the elixir of life, to finish which she needs a heart of a little girl. That is why she needs Ellie. In her speech the witch uses some words and phrases related to the historical background of the cartoon: thus, she makes research experiments using chemicals; teaching at the reindeer school is based on theory and research, for example, the flight paths are studied.
In 2002 Lions Gates company released the film "The Snow Queen". The action of the film starts near the hotel owned by Gerda's father. The body of his missing wife is found in the forest. The pictures of a woman on a horse and the face of the Snow Queen showed before it, allow
to assume that the Snow Queen is guilty of her death. In the course of the film the Snow Queen appears as a cold-blooded killer (she is guilty of Gerda's mother death, and deaths of many young people whose dead bodies are frozen in the ice in her Palace) (Fig. 8). She commits crime on her way to her goal, to rule the whole world alone. She has got this goal not out of a sudden: "Thousands years ago in the depths of the Underworld, the Devil created a mirror. He gave it to four seasons of the year for them to admire his work. . The Devil made the mirror two-faced. The Winter looked in the mirror and decided to rule all other seasons of the year. ... She has become the Snow Queen. She got the mirror and went to gods to ask personally for eternal world power. For herself". But the mirror got broken and it pieces wounded many people. They started to see the world ugly and cold. Herewith, the beginning of the tale is preserved more fully in comparison with other invariants of the tale: the Snow Queen did not create the mirror. But in the tale of H.C. Andresen the mirror was created by an evil troll, and in the 2002 film it was created by the Devil. We can relate this to the attempt of avoiding the echo of the religion of Atlantic-Nordic people, the myths
Fig. 8. A frame from "The Snow Queen" film, 2002
of which (interpreted by the Christian mythology) were more likely the basis for H.C. Andersen's tale.
The idea to gather the pieces of the broken mirror takes total possession of the Snow Queen, powerful ("Let the whole world be mine, let it be winter always"), senseless, cold, harsh and cruel. She punishes those who are afraid of winter: "And these people are afraid of winter, they hide from it. May be, I should punish them? Yes, I think I should. ...I do whatever I want, it is the whole idea". The Snow Queen has magic powers: she knows what is going on in the room next door without getting there; the fact that she checked in the hotel got erased from the memory of almost all people. In the film there are attempts to decide, whether the Snow Queen is the Winter, or they are different personifications of the cold. Thus, the staff member of the hotel telling Gerda the story about the Snow Queen says that people are missing because of her: "The Winter is a toy in the hands of the Snow Queen". Nevertheless, the Snow Queen herself tells Kai: "The Winter is me". In one of the last scenes Gerda shouts to her:
"You are not the Queen, simply the Winter. And winter comes and goes. It is gone". Gerda unlike Kai does not like winter. She blames it for "taking her mother from her and the happiness of her father". But not only the Winter, the Snow Queen, but other seasons of the year appear in the film: all other seasons of the year are the characters of the film, starting from the point when they looked into the Devil's mirror. The sisters Spring, Summer and Autumn, like the Snow Queen, are evil, they make obstacles on Gerda's way. But the desire to win over the injustice (The Snow Queen rules longer than they do, winter gets longer) makes them free Gerda from their powers and she finally gets to the Palace of the Snow Queen.
The Palace of the Snow Queen is an invariant of the hotel owned by Gerda's father. It has the same interior, even Kai's skates left behind the desk of guests' registration are there, but here everything is white, covered with hoarfrost, unlike the real hotel, which is made of wood and its warmth is always outlined. All corridors in the Palace of the Snow Queen are covered with hoarfrost and ice, even running water has
frozen. When Kai tries to escape, giant icicles start dropping from the ceiling. And when he finally gets to the exit, he finds out that the Palace is located in the boundless icy lands. Kai meets the polar bear at the Palace, the stuffed body of which decorates the hotel's lobby (Fig. 9). The Bear explains to Kai the rules of the Palace and watches him like Gerda's father did at the hotel. The hotel and the Palace are not just invariants, their spaces intersect. First of all, we can judge it
by the red rose that Kai found there, where he had hidden it before at the hotel (Fig. 10). Secondly, after the final meeting with the Snow Queen, Kai and Gerda find themselves not at the Palace, but at the hotel nailed from outside.
Kai does not like it at the Palace of the Snow Queen, which contradicts the tale of H.C. Andersen, where Kai thought the Palace to be the best place on earth. In the film Kai feels too cold at the Palace, he feels like a prisoner. Here
Fig. 9. A frame from "The Snow Queen" film, 2002
we can parallel it with the house of the Spring (in H.C. Andersen's fairy tale it is the lady who can perform magic). The Snow Queen tells Kai, who has not found the way out of the Palace, that he is free to leave it as soon as he gets the pieces of the mirror together, and Kai says: "I am not willing to do what you say and I am positively not willing to do a puzzle of glass pieces". Therefore, the Snow Queen and Kai have the relations of an aggressor and a hostage. The Snow Queen tortures Kai by freezing first his hands, then ear. Kai understands that he was taken prisoner long before he had got to the Palace. He left a note for Gerda with two words "Help me", just like people taken prisoners do. Gerda is also taken prisoner, by the sister of the Snow Queen, she also writes notes-signs "This is not my life". But she addresses them to herself and hides everywhere in the room.
Gerda succeeds to escape from the sorceress, who does not want to free her even though Gerda is begging her. By the way, Gerda's requests seem very awkward in respect to the situation of her coming to the sorceress. When spring came, Kai's sleigh was found in the water and everyone thought he got drowned. Gerda asked the water: "Give him back to me, I will give you my shoes instead, I will give you myself instead of Kai", and then she jumped down from the bridge, thus deciding to kill herself. The pictures of Gerda's body floating in the water remind us of another suicide, made by Ophelia. After her wonderful rescue by the sorceress, when one would think that Gerda got drowned, the latter declares that she cannot stay in this house while she is looking for a man. Moreover, Gerda demonstrates the features untypical for her character: for example, she is capricious, she tells Kai: "Come to my birthday party. I will not forgive you, if you don't come. I am serious"; she knows how to fight, moreover, she can fight violently, demonstrating her abilities in the scene of the escape from the robbers.
The leitmotif of the film "The Snow Queen" is also not typical for the original tale: it is love, which is absolutely not platonic. Different characters along the film discuss several times the possibility of Kai and Gerda's wedding, they kiss at the skating rink. The Snow Queen kisses Kai when she kidnaps him and tells him later: "Tell me the truth, have you ever felt something like my kiss in your life?" Kai says: "No". The Snow Queen: "Of course not". Later the Snow Queen tells Kai about Gerda: "I wouldn't say she is ugly, but you are one in a million. You deserve something much better". Kai: "You?" the Snow Queen: "Yes, me". Moreover, she also notes: "Your feeling right now are just a prelude, you will rise to me yourself after my kiss". Several times Kai has to choose between Gerda and the Snow Queen, Each time he sees the kisses of both. The love triangle leaves almost no one behind it: other characters either give advice, comment or appear to be involved in it this or that way. For example, the robber girl says: "He left you for another woman, older than you, by the way. Would you really chase him like a cat?... If he loves you, why he has left you for her?" The Bear watching Kai appears to be in love with the Snow Queen since they first met, but she rejects his feelings, laughs at him. The Summer princess tries to interfere and make Gerda marry someone. The Spring gives Gerda advice: "Never underestimate the power of the kiss". It is the kiss that brings Kai back to life, love turns the Bear into a beautiful man taking away the powerless Snow Queen.
It is noteworthy, that it is not only Kai who comes back to life. We may consider the clarinet of Gerda's father to be the symbol of life in the film. The film start with the music played by a small ensemble near the skating rink, with Gerda's father amongst the musicians. But when Gerda's mother dies, life almost freezes in her father. When he is offered to play the clarinet, he says that he will never play again. More and more often he seats
in his armchair looking nowhere. He was coming to life from the touch of his daughter, but when she got missing, he nailed the hotel and remained there alone seating in his armchair. Appearance of Gerda in the Palace of the Snow Queen returns not only Kai back to life, but the whole house (the building, which may be considered the symbol of the universe; this house covered with hoar ice transfers back into the former wooden hotel filled with light) and her father, who plays his clarinet again with the ensemble.
Russian 3D computer animated film "The Snow Queen" was released by Wizart Animation, at the end of 2012 (in December 2014 it is planned to release its sequel "The Snow Queen 2"). In this interpretation of H.C. Andersen's tale, there is once again the king, who has complicated relationships with his own children, and also the troll, like in the original tale of H.C. Andersen (Fig. 11). But unlike in the original tale, the troll is not the source of all troubles, including those that happened to Kai, he is just a servant of the Snow Queen sent to bring to her Palace the successors of some master Vegard. As the story develops, the troll becomes a good friend of Kai and Gerda due to unsuccessful performance of the Snow Queen's will. During the journey, the troll tells about former greatness of trolls, "good creatures from the earliest times", which is a completely
different characteristic from the one given by H.C. Andersen in his tale.
The cartoon begins with the story about the Snow Queen reminding of the description of the north by the reindeer from E.L. Shvarts' work: "having once appeared in the North, the Snow Queen has changed the lives of all people on earth. They were hiding behind the walls of their houses from cold and fear". Nevertheless, if in Shvarts' work people escaped to the south, in the modern cartoon the focus is made on kind wizards, who tried to fight the Snow Queen, and disappeared with time. The last kind wizard was master Vegard, who created mirrors reflecting the true essence of things. The Snow Queen killed him and continued to chase his successors, while the magic mirror in her Palace told her that Vegard's successor with a strong heart will stop the powers of the north. Vegard's successor Kai is a beginning artist, and in this interpretation the Snow Queen hates all artists and kills them by turning them into ice sculptures. Kai and Gerda, both Vegard's children, after the death of their parents live in an orphanage, where they have to work like slaves (it is worth noting that the theme of slavery appears in the cartoon several times, thus the troll calls himself the Snow Queen's slave). When Gerda leaves the orphanage to find Kai, she along with the troll and the weasel (her pet) come to the
1
Fig. 11. A frame from "The Snow Queen" cartoon, 2012
flower woman. Unlike in H.C. Andersen's tale, this woman is not the "lady, who can perform magic", but a pragmatic market woman, who tries to find profit everywhere. She tells Gerda about her flowers: "Silly girl, it is just business. Don't panic, I will teach you everything. ...You will stay forever in my greenhouse and I will roll in money". Thus, in the cartoon some phenomena of the contemporary life are ridiculed, capitalism in particular.
Thus, juvenile justice is also ridiculed: according to the decision of the court, the king may not come to his children closer than ten steps for the failure to fulfill his parent duties. Resulting from this prohibition, the king becomes a tyrant: "May be I will punish you without court, behead you, then hang you". But when the first real danger appears, it turns out that it is just a masque and the king and his children are a close-knit family. After saying farewell to the king and his children, Gerda and the troll cross the home country of trolls, Amanta's caves (where the troll complains about the fate of trolls, blaming the "damned Queen" in their troubles). Then they come to the Laplander girl, who tells them the story of the Snow Queen. It turns out that the Snow Queen was the daughter of a Laplander sorcerer avoided by many for her outstanding magic powers. She was so offended that made a wish that all her offenders turn to ice, but "her malice made her
heart vulnerable, and the coldness of the magic lake took her soul forever". When the Snow Queen met Gerda at her Palace, she tried to kill her. The girl received help from her dead parents and she succeeded. Moreover, the Snow Queen turned back to the girl Irma and brought Kai back to life using her magic powers (Fig. 12). Herewith, in this interpretation of H.C. Andersen's tale we may find a motif of changing of an evil character into a good one and helping others.
It is especially noticeable in this animated film, that there are not only references to the actual historical situation (capitalism, juvenile justice), but reminiscence from Hollywood movies. First of all, "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter". The first one is reminded of in the interior of Amanta's caves, which look like Moria; along the walls and columns, from the caves and underground the creatures serving the Evil come to the characters; almost under the feet of the running characters the bridges fall; one of the characters of "The Snow Queen" falls into the gulf like Gandalf from "The Lord of the Rings" (Fig. 13). The motif from "Harry Potter" may be recognized in the ghost parents of Gerda, who appear at the most important moment and help her. This motif appeared many times during all "Harry Potter" films (for example, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone); moreover, Gerda's words addressed to
Fig. 12. A frame from "The Snow Queen" cartoon, 2012
Fig. 13. A frame from "The Snow Queen" cartoon, 2012
Fig. 14. A frame from "The Snow Queen" cartoon, 2012
the Snow Queen ("You thought you had taken away my family, but you were wrong, they will always be with me, no one can take them from my heart. Do you hear me? No one!") reminds us of Harry's words addressed to the dark Lord at the end of the film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" ("You are so weak, you will never know neither love, nor friendship. I feel sorry for you"), and his dialogue with the ghosts of his parents and friends (Lily Potter: "We have not gone nowhere", Sirius Black: "We are here, in your heart") (Fig. 14).
Making conclusions about this cartoon as an interpretation of H.C. Andersen's fairy tale, we may assume that the borderline between
good and evil is shifted: in the original text, the evil character is the troll, and in 2012 cartoon the evil part is given to the Snow Queen. The troll calls her "the damned Queen", her powers, the powers of the North should be stopped no matter what the cost; the troll calls his family kind, "good creatures from the earliest times". It is important in this interpretation that the Snow Queen disappears totally, becoming the girl Irma. Therefore, she has not left (H.C. Andersen), she has not got frozen (1995 animated film), she is not temporarily weak (2002 film) and does not stay to rule many people (1986 film). She disappears forever, "this is how the story of the Snow Queen ends".
Conclusions
This article is based on the idea expressed in the work "Multifaceted Globalization: Cultural Diversity in the Modern World" (Multifaceted Globalization, 2004): the process of globalization, which takes place nowadays, leads to unification and homogenization or, vice versa, to a surge of self-consciousness, cultural one in particular. Nevertheless, globalization can make an advanced step by eliminating the possibility of turning to cultural origins via misrepresenting of their content. Therefore, in the works based on the original sources, which are important for the culture (about general history of the nation, its origin, etc), it not only important to transform the actual historical background, but the original source as well. If only the actual historical component not misrepresenting it, will be added, then the work will only benefit from it, while it will be easier received by the audience. Nevertheless, when it is the basis itself, which is changed instead of the actual historical component, then the original source is misrepresented to its exact opposite. And if it is published in the misrepresenting format, then with time it will take the place of the original version.
Myths in their pure form are important for adults who turn to them while seeking their identity, unity with their social group on the basis of a common origin reflected in a myth. Myths in a fictional, so to say simplified form are demanded by children, who learn well. It is much easier to influence children. Therefore, it is probably more productive to change the content of fairy tales if one needs to misrepresent the mythology in the minds of people, in order to implant false ideas and values, which will further become a serious obstacle on the way of learning the serious "adult" myth, while it is difficult to change the ideas learned in the childhood when a person is a grown-up. This article studies how
almost one and the same original source, the epos of the Frisians, had a different fate depending on the fact, in what form and for which audience it was presented. We mean here "The Oera Linda Book" (the historical records, which reflect true epos of the North) and "The Snow Queen" fairy tale, which is a fictional interpretation of the original myth.
"The Oera Linda Book" was criticized by the contemporaries of H.F. Wirth, who published it, as well as the author himself, while he was accused of forging the document. As the result of these attacks "The Oera Linda Book" and H.F. Wirth are poorly famous not only to broad readership, but to narrow academic circles. "The Snow Queen" by H.C. Andersen has overtaken another destiny: it is widely popular in its various invariants, both literature and cinema ones, but the main idea in all these invariants in comparison with the original one is totally misrepresented. Moreover, if we take into consideration that reading of books in children's lives is nowadays replaced by watching animated films, there is a possibility that with time the fairy tale by H.C. Andersen will be soon forgotten, purposefully substituted by the works, the content of which totally misrepresents the original myth.
In the course of the research, seven invariants of H.C. Andersen's fairy tale were analyzed published in the USSR, the Russian Federation, Great Britain and the U.S. All of them contain a misrepresenting basis of "The Snow Queen" fairy tale, which coincides with the content of "The Oera Linda Book". If in the original version, evil was spread all over the world by the troll, in all the invariants of the fairy tale it is the Snow Queen, who is the absolute evil. Actually, she has substituted the troll, she has taken his functions. Meanwhile, in the fairy tale by H.C. Andersen they are not just dissimilar characters, but even the opposite ones, to some extent. The troll may be opposed to the Snow Queen on the basis of the
fact, that both had a similar element, which other characters did not have, the mirror. But their mirrors had totally different characteristics. The pieces of the troll's broken mirror brought evil to the world by wounding many people. The mirror of the Snow Queen, even though it got broken, presented even and regular fragments becoming a piece of art by its beauty and remained the Mirror of Intelligence.
In five out of seven invariants of H.C. Andersen's fairy tale the Snow Queen is the source of evil; in one of them (2002 film) the blame is divided between the Devil and the Snow Queen; in the seventh invariant (1986 film) evil is positioned as having always existed and continuing to exist, the Snow Queen only has to make it stronger. Almost in all invariants the Snow Queen is shown as powerful, cruel, willing to get world power, even though there wasn't even a hint of it in the original tale. In H.C. Andersen's tale the Snow Queen is described as a perfect being; she cools down the volcanoes, taking care of plants; she looks into the windows and draws beautiful patterns on them; she promises freedom to Kai if he composes the word "eternity" and the word got composed by itself. In all other fairy tales of the same name by other authors the Snow Queen at the minimum tries to get Kai for herself because she is "rich and lonely" and at the maximum is represented as a cruel killer, who killed many people, the dead bodies of which are frozen into the ice of her Palace (2002 film). In several invariants it is mentioned that appearance of the Snow Queen in the North has led to significant changes there and many people had to run away or fight the Snow Queen.
In the last two invariants of "The Snow Queen" (according to the chronological order) the issue of her origin is considered. In 2002 film it turns out that it is just one of the seasons of the year, Winter, which decided to rule the world alone. In 2012 animated film it is
said that the Snow Queen was a daughter of a Laplander sorcerer (in the system of "The Oera Linda Book" this means that she belonged to the descendents of Fynda and not Freya, which totally contradicts the epos), who has got angry and become the Snow Queen. In each tale it is mentioned what has happened with the Snow Queen after meeting with Gerda, but none of the invariants coincides with the original source. In H.C. Andersen's tale the Snow Queen was out of the Palace, when Gerda came, and neither Gerda, nor Kai were afraid of her return, while the word "eternity" has got composed by itself and the conditions under which Kai was promised freedom were fulfilled. In three invariants (E.L. Shvarts' tale, 1957 and 1966 films) the Snow Queen disappears and melts. In 1995 animated film she gets covered with ice, but her eyes are alive, hinting at an unfinished story. In 2002 film and 2012 animated film the Snow Queen is turned to what she used to be: the Winter and the girl Irma correspondingly. In the film "The Secret of the Snow Queen" the Queen disappears, but everybody understands that it is just for some time, and while there is evil in the world, the Snow Queen will be alive.
Almost all characters undergo changes. Thus, the troll as the source of evil in Andersen's tale disappears in five out of seven invariants. In two others (1995 and 2012 animated films) the trolls are characterized as positive characters, even "good creatures from the earliest times" being tortured by the Snow Queen. In three out of seven invariants Gerda is capricious and in one invariant she can even fight violently. In all invariants of the tale there is a motif of imprisonment, mainly represented by the fact of Kai's kidnapping by the Snow Queen and his imprisonment in her Palace. Even though there is not a word about imprisonment in the tale by H.C. Andersen: Kai has changed, has become cruel and behaved badly in relation to other
people; the Snow Queen has more likely isolated him until the moment when Gerda overcomes all difficulties and comes to the Palace able to return "former" Kai, to return him back to his former life. The motif of imprisonment attains its zenith in 2002 film, where it is not just imprisonment, but Kai is a hostage of the Snow Queen, she tortures him, he sends signs to Gerda to help him. In this very invariant the motif of love is also misrepresented: out of platonic, children's love it is transformed into a romantic feeling, one of the main powers (along with the desire to have the absolute power), which drives all the characters.
Besides transformations of the main content, almost all interpretations of the original tale have their own actual historical component, which makes the invariants different from each other. It is criticism of class enemies, capitalism, juvenile justice; substitution of the characters from the epos by Christian ones; the use of the vocabulary both typical for modern environment and determining the phenomena that have recently appeared; appeals to decrees recently adopted by the government, etc.
It should be noted that several invariants contain a reflection of the fairy tale's possibilities, the word, constructive possibilities, first of all. Thus, in E.L. Shvarts' tale and 1966 film it is mentioned that the storyteller has not thought the tale till the end yet, that it will get developed randomly, without special influence, even though he calls himself the master of the fairy tale. These thought of the fairy tale teller logically explain why the interpretation may differ from the original text. The reflection of the potential of the word and the fairy tale is more fully given in "the fairy tale about the fairy tale", "The Secret of the Snow Queen". In this invariant not only additional character, the Voice of the Fairy Tale, is introduced, but traditional characters also discuss the role of the word, the fairy tale. The
main ideas are as follows: a fairy tale makes one immortal; a fairy tale has its own reality, and even though only children believe in it, it does not cease to really exist. The word of the Voice of the Fairy Tale has significant power able to change the course of events. Nevertheless, the Voice of the Fairy Tale possessing such abilities, does not always pay necessary attention to the word, which leads to bad circumstances. The Voice of the Fairy Tale mentions the important truth: the Snow Queen has to be defeated each time, i.e. the actual historical background may change, but the archetypical plot will remain the same. It is difficult to disagree with this idea, the only problem is that in case with "The Snow Queen" by H.C. Andersen the main plot was changed to its exact opposite, the borderline of good and evil was shifted. The Snow Queen has become the main and almost absolute evil to be fought against. It is this misrepresenting basis that is being framed with the actual historical component in different invariants.
The analysis of several interpretations of H.C. Andersen's fairy tale fits the hypothesis that artificial globalization effects the mythology of different cultures changing it for its own needs, using different methods for different forms, in which the myth is presented. Thus, myths in their pure form, necessary for adult representatives of the culture to gain the basics of their social group identity, are being criticized and blamed in falsification. The target of such attacks is to make people forget the real myth as a false one. The myth represented in a reduced fictional form for children audience has a changed plot and it is widely spread in order to substitute the original with time. Due to the fact that children learn the information well and it is easier to influence them, it is more efficient to change the content of fairy tales for the children to have false ideas and values, if it is necessary to misrepresent the mythology in the minds of culture carriers.
Then, it will become a serious obstacle on the it is difficult to change the ideas obtained in the way of learning the serious "adult" myth, while childhood.
References
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«Хроника Ура Линда» и «Снежная Королева»: две судьбы одного северного мифа
К.В. Резникова
Сибирский федеральный университет Россия, 660041, Красноярск, пр. Свободный, 79
Настоящая статья опирается на идею, заключающуюся в том, что процесс глобализации ведет к унификации и гомогенизации либо, наоборот, к всплеску самосознания - культурного, прежде всего. Но и глобализация может сделать опережающий ход, элиминировав возможность обращения к культурным истокам, исказив их содержание. В таком случае в создаваемых на основе важных для культуры источников (об общей истории народа, о происхождении и проч.) должна присутствовать не только трансформация актуально-исторической канвы, но и самого первоисточника. Настоящая статья - исследование того, как практически один и тот же первоначальный источник - эпос фризов - постигла разная судьба в зависимости от того, в какой форме и для какой аудитории он был представлен. Это «Хроника Ура Линда» и сказка «Снежная королева», представляющая собой художественную интерпретацию того же изначального мифа. В ходе исследования были проанализированы семь инвариантов сказки Г.Х. Андерсена, созданные в разных странах. В каждом из них основа сказки «Снежная королева», совпадающая с содержанием «Хроники Ура Линда», была искажена. Проведенный анализ укладывается в гипотезу о том, что искусственная глобализация воздействует на мифологию отдельных культур, искажая ее для собственных нужд, прибегая к разным методам для различных форм, в которых представлен миф. Так, мифы в чистом виде, востребованные взрослыми представителями культуры, подвергаются критике, против них выдвигаются обвинения в фальсификации; конечная цель воздействия - предать миф забвению как ложный. В мифе, представленном в редуцированной художественной форме для детской аудитории, изменяется сюжетная основа и в таком новом виде он максимально тиражируется, чтобы со временем произошло вытеснение оригинала.
Ключевые слова: конструктивизм, глобализация, миф, Г.Ф. Вирт, «Снежная королева». Научная специальность: 24.00.00 - культурология.
