“Listen closely! We’re about to begin. And when we reach the end of the tale, let’s hope we know more than we do now, for it concerns an evil goblin, one of the very worst—the Devil himself!”

The story’s very first words are a call to the reader, informing them that a story is about to begin and telling them that they must listen because it is an important tale. The final sentence links “The Snow Queen” to Christian morality by bringing in the devil. Altogether, these lines set the tone of the book as serious with a hint of fun. Though the warning is sincere, the lighthearted delivery suggests that there will be a happy ending and that the story itself is not too frightening for its intended young audience.

“‘What a hoot!’ cried the Devil. If someone had a kind thought, then a sneer would appear in the mirror, which made the old goblin laugh at his own cunning. The goblins who went to goblin school—for you see, the Devil ran a goblin school—all chattered about the miracle. They thought that now they could see what humans and the world really looked like. They ran everywhere with the mirror and, in the end, there was not one person or country that it didn’t twist out of shape.”

The devil is pleased with the mirror because it twists goodness into the appearance of evil. This shows that the devil is bad, but the lighthearted tone—such as the reference to goblin school—makes the devil come across as less threatening than he otherwise might be. The reference to goblin school also makes the devil’s followers more relatable to young readers, which sends the subtle message that the devil’s followers are not so different from people. This both bolsters the book’s message that humankind is imperfect and foreshadows Kai’s vulnerability to the mirror. That the goblins believe what the mirror shows them points to The Power of