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There is a legend that,
once upon a time, a beautiful fairy, the Snow Queen, lived on the highest, most solitary
peaks of the Alps. The mountain folk and shepherds climbed to the summits to admire her,
and everyone fell head over heels in love with her. Every man would have given anything,
including his life, to marry her. Indeed, their lives are just what they did give: for
Fate had decided that no mortal would every marry the Snow Queen. But in spite of that,
many brave souls did their best to approach her, hoping always to persuade her. Each
suitor was allowed to enter the great ice palace with the crystal roof, where the Queen's
throne stood. But the second he declared his love and asked for her hand, thousands of
goblins appeared to grasp him and push him over the rocks, down into bottomless abysses.
Without the slightest emotion, the Queen would watch the scene, her heart of ice unable to
feel anything at all. The legend of the crystal palace and the beautiful heartless Queen
spread as far as the most distant alpine valley, the home of a fearless chamois hunter.
Fascinated by the tale, he decided to set out and try his luck. Leaving his valley, he
journeyed for days on end, climbing the snowclad mountain faces, scaling icebound peaks
and defying the bitterly cold wind that swept through the alpine gullies. More than once
he felt all was lost, but the thought of the lovely Snow Queen gave him new strength and
kept him moving onwards. At last, after many days climbing, he saw glinting in the
sunshine before him, the tall transparent spires of the ice palace. Summoning all his
courage, the young man entered the Throne Room. But he was so struck by the Snow Queen's
beauty that he could not utter a word. Shy and timid, he did not dare speak. So he knelt
in admiration before the Queen for hours on end, without opening his mouth. The Queen
looked at him silently, thinking all the while that, provided he did not ask her hand in
marriage, there was no need to call the goblins. Then, to her great surprise, she
discovered that his behavior touched her heart. She realized she was becoming quite fond
of this hunter, much younger and more handsome than her other suitors. Time passed and the
Snow Queen dared not admit, not even to herself, that she would actually like to marry the
young man. In the meantime, the goblins kept watch over their mistress; first they were
astonished, then they became more and more upset. For they rightly feared that their Queen
might be on the point of breaking the Law and bringing down on the heads of all the
Mountain People the fury of Fate. Seeing that the Queen was slow to give the order to get
rid of her suitor, the goblins decided to take matters into their own hands. One night, as
dusk fell, they slipped out of the cracks in the rock and clustered round the young
chamois hunter. Then they hurled him into the abyss. The Snow Queen watched the whole
scene from the window, but there was nothing she could do to stop them. However, her icy
heart melted, and the beautiful cruel fairy suddenly became a woman. A tear dropped from
her eye, the first she had ever shed. And the Snow Queen's tear fell on to a stone where
it turned into a little silvery star. This was the first edelweiss ... the flower that
grows only on the highest, most inaccessible peaks in the Alps, on the edge of the abyss
and precipice . . . |
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