『'''雪の女王'''』（'''ゆきのじょおう'''）はデンマークの代表的な童話作家・詩人であるハンス・クリスチャン・アンデルセンの童話。

==あらすじ==

あるところにカイという少年とゲルダという少女がいた。2人はとても仲良しだったが、ある日、悪魔の作った鏡の欠片がカイの目と心臓に刺さり、カイの性格が一変してしまう。その後のある雪の日、カイは一人で雪ぞりで遊んでいて、そのまま雪の女王に連れ去られる。

春になると、ゲルダはカイを探しに出かけた。太陽や花、動物の声に耳を傾け、ゲルダは旅を続ける。途中で、王子と王女の助けにより、馬車を得るがそれが元で山賊に襲われる。あわや殺されそうなところで、山賊の娘に救われたゲルダは、娘が可愛がっていた鳩に、カイは北の方に行ったと教えられる。山賊の娘のトナカイに送られ、ゲルダはとうとう雪の女王の庭にたどり着く。

カイを見つけたゲルダは、涙を流して喜び、その涙はカイの心に突き刺さった鏡の欠片を溶かし、カイは元の優しさを取り戻す。2人は手を取り合って故郷に帰る。

==映画==
*スノー・クイーン 〜雪の女王〜（The Snow Queen）2002年製作
*雪の女王／THE SNOW QUEEN (Lumikuningatar) 1986年制作　フィンランド語

==漫画==
藤田貴美の漫画で、アンデルセンの同名の童話のパロディ。1997年12月～1998年1月にかけて発表された。

主人公はゲルダではなく山賊の娘で、「人生に目的(カイ)があり、それを目指して懸命に生きている」ゲルダと、「目指すものがなく、ただ漫然と日々を送っている」山賊の娘とが対照的に描かれている。

<!--コミックス同時収録
*真夜中のアヘン（1996年12月初出）
*肩越しに月（1996年3月初出）
-->

==アニメ==
この作品は、日本を含めいくつかの国で何度かアニメ化されている。

===ソビエト連邦（現ロシア）===
ソ連のソユーズムリトフィルムによって長編アニメーション作品『 / Snezhnaya koroleva』となった。

キャラクターの動きはよく練り込まれており、ゲルダは仕草・表情が実在の生きている少女を思わせるほど精巧である。運命に流されるディズニーアニメのヒロインと異なり、積極的に行動するヒロインのゲルダ、カイや山賊の娘の性格演技、女王の造形センスなど、ディズニーとは異なる独自の流れとして、世界のアニメーション史にその名を刻んでいる。

日本では、NHKで放送され、かつてはしばしば日本語吹替版が休日などに地上波で放送されていた。東映動画『太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険』など草創期の日本アニメーション界に大きな影響を残した。とりわけゲルダの少女像は東映動画労働組合主催の上映会で見た宮崎駿にショックを与えたとされる。

オリジナルシーンとして、ゲルダがカイの名を呼び、だんだんその声を変えていくことでゲルダと女王が同じ声優であることを演出として示すシーンがあり、吹き替え版でも踏襲している。互いに正反対の行動を見せる女王とゲルダが、実は同じ動機のもとに行動していたとする解釈である。

===イギリス===
BBC制作のアニメがある。レンタルビデオ店などを根気よく探せばあるはずというほどレアな存在。

=== 日本 ===
*フジテレビ - 1971年1月3日から12月26日にかけて放送された虫プロダクション制作の『アンデルセン物語』の1エピソードとして、1971年2月12日と19日の2回に分けて放送された。ゲルダは野村道子で、カイは野沢雅子が演じた。
<!--記事と関係ないことなので、コメントアウト
＃キャスト＃

thumb|H.C. Andersen.

'''The Snow Queen''' (''Sneedronningen'') is a fairy tale by poet, playwright, travel writer, short story writer and novelist Hans Christian Andersen (1805 - 1875). The tale was first published in 1845, and centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kay and Gerda.

The story is one of Andersen's longest and is considered by scholars, critics, and readers alike as one of his best. It is regularly included in selected tales and collections of his work as well as being frequently reprinted in illustrated storybook editions for children. The tale has been adapted in various media including animated film and television drama.

== Narrative division ==

'''The Snow Queen''' is a tale told in seven 'stories' (Danish: ''Historier''):
# About the Mirror and its Pieces
# A Little Boy and a Little Girl
# The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Knew Magic
# The Prince and Princess
# The Little Robber Girl
# The Lapp Woman and the Finn Woman
# What Happened at the Snow Queen's Palace and What Happened Afterward

==Characters==

thumb|200px|right|Cover of a modern Danish edition of ''The Snow Queen'' (''Sneedronningen'')

* '''The Snow Queen''', queen of the snowflakes or "snow bees", who travels throughout the world with the snow. Her palace and gardens are in the lands of permafrost, specifically Spitsbergen. She is successful in abducting Kay after he has fallen victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror. She promises to free Kay if he can spell "eternity" with the pieces of ice in her palace.
* '''The troll''' or '''the devil''', who makes an evil mirror that distorts reality and later shatters to infect people on earth with its splinters that distort sight and freeze hearts. Some English translations of "The Snow Queen" denote this character as a hobgoblin.
* '''Kay''', a little boy who lives in a large city, in the garret of a building across the street from the home of Gerda, his playmate, whom he loves as a sister.  He falls victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror and the blandishments of the Snow Queen.
* '''Gerda''', the heroine of this tale, who succeeds in finding and saving Kay from the Snow Queen.  When Gerda loves Kay in the Snow Queen's palace, the ice around him spells "eternity", freeing him from the Snow Queen's influence and that of the evil mirror.
* '''Grandmother''' of Kay, who tells him and Gerda the legend of the Snow Queen. Some of Grandmother's actions are essential points of the story.
* '''An old sorceress''', who maintains a cottage on the river, with a garden that is permanently in summer. She seeks to keep Gerda with her, but Gerda's thought of roses (the flower most favored by herself and Kay) awakens her from the old woman's enchantment.
* '''A field Crow or Raven''', who thinks that the new prince of his land is Kay.
* '''A tame Crow or Raven''', who is the mate of the field Crow/Raven and has the run of the princess's palace.  She lets Gerda into the royal bedchamber in her search for Kay.
* '''A princess''', who desires a prince-consort as intelligent as she, who finds herself at home in her palace.  She helps Gerda in her search for Kay by giving her warm, rich clothing, servants, and a golden coach.
* '''Her prince''', formerly a poor young man, who comes to the palace and passes the test set by the princess to become prince.
* '''A robber hag''', the only woman among the robbers who capture Gerda as she travels through their region in a golden coach.
* '''The robber girl''', daughter of the robber hag. She takes Gerda as a playmate, whereupon her captive doves and reindeer Bae tell Gerda that Kay is with the Snow Queen.  The robber girl then helps Gerda continue her journey to find Kay.
* '''Bae''', the reindeer, who carries Gerda to the Snow Queen's palace.
* '''A Lapp woman''', who provides shelter to Gerda and Bae, and writes a message on a dried cod fish to the Finn woman further on the way to the Snow Queen's gardens.
* '''A Finn woman''', who lives just 2 miles away from the Snow Queen's gardens and palace. She knows the secret of Gerda's power to save Kay.

== Summary ==

thumb|Vilhelm Pedersen illustration.
An evil "troll," "actually the devil himself," makes a magic mirror that has the power to distort the appearance of things reflected in it.  It fails to reflect all the good and beautiful aspects of people and things while it magnifies all the bad and ugly aspects so that they look even worse than they really are.  The devil teaches a "devil school," and the devil and his pupils delight in taking the mirror throughout the world to distort everyone and everything. They enjoy how the mirror makes the loveliest landscapes look like "boiled spinach." They then want to carry the mirror into heaven with the idea of making fools of the angels and God, but the higher they lift it, the more the mirror grins and shakes with delight. It shakes so much that it slips from their grasp and falls back to earth where it shatters into billions of pieces — some no larger than a grain of sand.  These splinters are blown around and get into people's hearts and eyes, making their hearts frozen like blocks of ice and their eyes like the troll-mirror itself, only seeing the bad and ugly in people and things.

thumb|left|Vilhelm Pedersen illustration. 

Years later, a little boy, Kay, and a little girl, Gerda, live next door to each other in the garrets of buildings with adjoining roofs in a large city.  One could get from Kay's to Gerda's home just by stepping over the gutters of each building.  The two families grow vegetables and roses in window boxes placed on the gutters.  Kay and Gerda have a window-box garden to play in, and they become devoted in love to each other as playmates. 

Kay's grandmother tells the children about the Snow Queen, who is ruler over the snowflakes, that look like bees — that is why they are called "snow bees." As bees have a queen, so do the snow bees, and she is seen where the snowflakes cluster the most.  Looking out of his frosted window, Kay, one winter, sees the Snow Queen, who beckons him to come with her.  Kay draws back in fear from the window.  

By the following spring, Gerda has learned a song that she sings to Kay: ''Where the roses grow in the vale, there the infant Jesus will speak to us.'' Because roses adorn the window box garden, Gerda is always be reminded of her love for Kay by the sight of roses.

It was on a pleasant summer's day that splinters of the troll-mirror get into Kay's heart and eyes while he and Gerda are looking at a picture book in their window-box garden.  Kay's personality changes: he becomes cruel and aggressive.  He destroys their window-box garden, he makes fun of his grandmother, and he no longer cares about Gerda, since all of them now appear bad and ugly to him.  The only beautiful and perfect things to him now are the tiny snowflakes that he sees through a magnifying glass. 

The following winter he goes out with his sled to the market square and hitches it—as was the custom of those playing in the snowy square—to a curious white sleigh carriage, driven by the Snow Queen, who appears as a woman in a white fur-coat. Outside the city she shows herself to Kay and takes him into her sleigh. She kisses him only twice: once to numb him from the cold, and the second time to cause him to forget about Gerda and his family. She does not kiss him a third time as that would kill him. Kay is then taken to the Snow Queen's palace on Spitsbergen, near the North Pole where he is contented to live due to the splinters of the troll-mirror in his heart and eyes. 

The people of the city get the idea that Kay has been drowned in the river nearby, but Gerda, who is heartbroken at Kay's disappearance, goes out to look for him. She questions everyone and everything about Kay's whereabouts. Gerda offers her new red shoes to the river in exchange for Kay; by not taking the gift at first, the river seems to let her know that Kay is not drowned.  Gerda next visits an old sorceress, who wants Gerda to stay with her forever.  She causes Gerda to forget all about her friend and, knowing that the sight of roses will remind Gerda of Kay, the sorceress causes all the roses in her garden to sink beneath the earth. At the home of the old sorceress, a rosebush raised from below the ground by Gerda's warm tears tells her that Kay is not among the dead, all of whom it could see while it was under the earth. Gerda flees from the old woman's beautiful garden of eternal summer and meets a crow, who tells her that Kay was in the princess's palace. She subsequently goes to the palace and meets the princess and her prince, who appears very similar to Kay. Gerda tells them her story and they help by providing warm clothes and a beautiful coach. While traveling in the coach Gerda is captured by robbers and brought to their castle, where she is befriended by a little robber girl, whose pet doves tell her that they had seen Kay when he was carried away by the Snow Queen in the direction of Lapland. The captive reindeer, Bae, tells her that he knows how to get to Lapland since it is his home.

thumb|right|Vilhelm Pedersen illustration. 

The robber girl, then, frees Gerda and the reindeer to travel north to the Snow Queen's palace. They make two stops: first at the Lapp woman's home and then at the Finn woman's home. The Finn woman tells the reindeer that the secret of Gerda's unique power to save Kay is in her sweet and innocent child's heart:

thumb|left|Vilhelm Pedersen illustration.

When Gerda gets to the Snow Queen's palace, she is first halted by the snowflakes which guard it. The only thing that overcomes them is Gerda's praying the Lord's Prayer, which causes her breath to take the shape of angels, who resist the snowflakes and allow Gerda to enter the palace. Gerda finds Kay alone on the frozen lake, which the Snow Queen calls the "Mirror of Reason" on which her throne sits. Gerda finds Kay engaged in the task that the Snow Queen gave him: he must use pieces of ice as components of a Chinese puzzle to form characters and words. If he is able to form the word "eternity" (Danish: ''Evigheden'') the Snow Queen will release him from her power and give him a pair of skates. Gerda finds him, runs up to him, and weeps warm tears on him, which melt his heart, burning away the troll-mirror splinter in it. Kay bursts into tears, dislodging the splinter from his eye. Gerda kisses Kay a few times, and he becomes cheerful and healthy again, with sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks: he is saved by the power of Gerda's love. He and Gerda dance around on the lake of ice so joyously that the splinters of ice Kay has been playing with are caught up into the dance. When the splinters tire of dancing they fall down to spell the very word Kay was trying to spell, "eternity." Even if the Snow Queen were to return, she would be obliged to free Kay. Kay and Gerda then leave the Snow Queen's domain with the help of the reindeer, the Finn woman, and the Lapp woman. They meet the robber girl after they have crossed the line of vegetation, and from there they walk back to their home, "the big city." They find that all is the same at home, but ''they'' have changed! They are now grown up, and they are delighted to see that it is summertime. At the end, the grandmother reads a passage from the Bible:

:"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)

== Media adaptations ==
<!--  Commented out because image was deleted: thumb|200px|right|''[[The Snow Queen (1957 film)|The Snow Queen'' (1957) by Soyuzmultfilm]] -->
"The Snow Queen" has been adapted numerous times on film and other mediums.  It was made into an animated film in the Snezhnaya koroleva'' (1957). It was dubbed into English and released in 1959 by Universal Studios with the voices of Sandra Dee and Tommy Kirk as Gerda and Kay; this version was introduced by an Art Linkletter Christmas quarter hour special.  A 1998 English version was also released.  It was also made into a live-action film in the Soviet Union in 1966, directed by Gennadi Kazansky, and in 1986, entitled ''Tayna snezhnoy korolevy'' (''The Secret of the Snow Queen'') and directed by Nikolai Aleksandrovich.

It was adapted by the live-action family series ''Faerie Tale Theatre'' in 1985, starring Melissa Gilbert as Gerda and Lee Remick as the Snow Queen.  It was again made into a live-action film in Finland in 1986, entitled ''Lumikuningatar'', directed by Päivi Hartzell.

In the live-action film in Hallmark, starring Bridget Fonda, Jeremy Guilbaut, Chelsea Hobbs, Robert Wisden, and Wanda Cannon; this version was directed by David Wu