The Snow Queen in Seven Stories — Story the First — Which Describes a Looking-Glass and the Broken Fragments

To understand the end of this story, you must first know the beginning. For it begins with two hobgoblins, two of the truly worst, real demons, one called Dysphoria, and the other . . . well, their name will be revealed, in time.

One day, in a fit of malice, they made a looking-glass, one that held the power to warp the reflection any person saw who looked into it. Everything good or beautiful that was reflected in it was hidden away, whilst everything that seemed worthless or bad looked increased in size and worse than ever. The most lovely landscapes appeared blasted and torn, and the people appeared miserable and alone, their countenances so distorted they could not see the truth of themselves, and instead even one blemish appeared to spread over the whole of the face.

Dysphoria and his sister found this very amusing. When a good or positive thought passed through the mind the mirror distorted it, misrepresenting it in the glass; and how the demons laughed at their cruel invention.

In the days of yore, when the looking-glass was cast, the demons kept a school. And all who went there talked of the what they saw reflected in the looking-glass, misled by malice into thinking that what they beheld was truth. They believed that the looking-glass told them who they really were; what they were really like. And they carried the looking-glass everywhere, fooled by its deception, until there was not a land or people therein untouched by the cruel lies of this distorted mirror.

But deceit is a slippery thing and, in time, the looking-glass grew so slick that the people could barely hold it, till, at last, it slipped from their hands, shattering into millions of pieces.

And the pleasure of the demons grew, for now the looking-glass caused more unhappiness than ever, for some of the pieces were smaller than a grain of sand and as light as air. Caught in the wind they flew about the world, into every country, and when one of these tiny pieces flew into a person’s eye it stuck there and from that moment on they saw everything through the distorted lies of the demon.

Some few people even got a fragment in their hearts, and from this a terror rose, for these people could no longer find good in themselves and instead lost themselves to hate, even as their hearts hardened and became cold like a lump of ice, for where the power of the brother’s hand lodged in the eye, the power of the sister’s hand lodged in the heart, and her name was Spite.

There were still a number of these little fragments of glass floating about in the air, and now you shall hear what happened with one of them.