The book about the miracle that brightened up the long winter and disappeared in the spring was read to us in early childhood. Now it is already difficult to remember what the fairy tale “Snow Maiden” is about. There are three stories with the same title and a similar plot. They all tell about a pure and bright girl who died and turned into a cloud or a puddle of water.
In the story of the American writer N. Hawthorne, the brother and sister went out for a walk after a snowfall and made a little sister for themselves. Their father does not believe that the baby is a resurrected snow figure. He wants to warm her up, takes her to a hotly heated house, and this ruins her.
“Snow Maiden” – a favorite winter fairy tale for children
In the collection of A.N. Afanasyev, a Russian fairy tale was printed. In it, childless old men made a daughter out of the snow. In the spring she was homesick, every day she became more and more sad. The grandfather and the woman told her to go play with her friends, and they persuaded her to jump over the fire.
In the play by A.N. Ostrovsky’s daughter Frost and Vesna-Krasna comes to the land of the Berendeys and must melt from the sun’s rays when she finds love. Alien, not understood by anyone, she dies during the holiday. The people around quickly forget about her, have fun and sing.
The fairy tales are based on ancient myths and customs. Earlier, in order to bring spring closer, they burned an effigy of Maslenitsa – a symbol of the outgoing winter. In the play, the Snow Maiden becomes a victim, who must save him from bad weather and crop failure.
Goodbye to the cold is fun. In a folk tale, girlfriends are not too sad when parting with the snow girl.
A fairy tale is a way to explain that everything has its time. One season is always replaced by another. It happens that in late spring snow still lies in the shade and in forest ravines, summer frosts occur. In ancient times, boys and girls burned fires and jumped over them. They believed that the warmth of the fire would completely drive away the cold. The Snow Maiden was able to survive the spring, but nevertheless, she melted in the middle of summer.
Today we find a different meaning in a magical story, explaining the phenomena of our life with its help.
It is often difficult for parents to understand the dissimilarity of their child, to accept him. They forget that his birth is wonderful in itself. The old man and the old woman rejoiced at having a daughter, but now they need her to become like everyone else and play with other girls.
The Snow Maiden is a splinter of the fairy world, a beautiful piece of ice. People want to explain the miracle, find an application for it, adapt it to life. They strive to make him close and understandable, to warm him up, to disenchant him. But by removing the enchantment, they destroy the magic itself. In N. Hawthorne’s fairy tale, a girl, created by delicate children’s fingers for beauty and fun, dies in the rough hands of a practical and reasonable adult.
The Snow Maiden is a touching and sad story about the laws of time and the need to follow the laws of nature. She talks about the fragility of magic, about beauty that exists just like that, and not in order to be useful.