The Snow Maiden

Once upon a time there was a beautiful garden which became even more beautiful that day, after a heavy fall of snow covered the ground, the trees and bushes in a soft white mantle. A little boy and girl were playing happily in the garden, they were brother and sister.

 They chased each other, threw snowballs and played hide and seek under the fir trees. Then the little girl said,

"Let's make a snow doll."

 They began to make a snow doll and decided it would be a girl.

 "So there will be three of us and we'll have more fun!" said the little girl. So they carefully built a doll made of snow, with a pretty oval face, long hair, large eyes and a delicate little mouth. It looked just like a real little girl.

 "Let's give her a kiss and maybe her lips will turn red like ours," said the sister. So they kissed the doll... and lo and behold, its lips turned red! And the snow doll's cheeks turned pink. When a sudden gust of wind blew from the north, the doll came to life. It moved, smiled at the two children and started to play with them.

Some time later, the children's father returned from town. When he saw the girl in white playing with his own children, he said to himself,

 "It must be one of the neighbour's daughters." Then he said to the little snow doll, "Come into the house and get warm." But the snow maiden made a frightened sign as though to say "No!" The man, however led her into the house, saying,

 "Oh, you're so cold! The fire will soon warm you up!" But the snow maiden sighed sadly, though she didn't have the courage to speak. In she went and stood by the window, looking out at the white garden. Then she began to weep - as slowly and gently, she began to melt... until nothing was left of her except a trace of white snow on the floor...
 
 

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I didn't like the ending of this story when I read it, so I made up my own ending. If you don't like the ending to this story, write your own. If you e-mail me with your new Snow Maiden version, I will publish it here.

Alternate endings sent in:

These endings are from Pierce Elementary Rainbow Daycare, Flint, Michigan
from Janelle:
At the end of the story the little snowdoll girl said no I will melt so she stayed outside and after awhile the kids came back outside and played all day long. Then after winter she melted and since she had such a good heart then when winter came back around the big gust of wind blew the snow and with magic she came back alive and this is what happened every winter and every winter they spended the time that they had with the snowdoll.
Submitted by Jussica Pettis, Age 9

from Angelica Jazmin, age 9:
At the end of the story the snowdoll came alive and she was a real girl when she came alive. Then she had went inside with the boy and the sister also. They played and they had hot chocolate with marshmellows. Then they went to sleep happily after again but with the snowdoll.

from Ariel Andera, age 9:
At the end of the story the snowdoll stood by the window and turned into a real girl. She had clothes and light brown skin. After that she went back outside with the two littlechildren. They were playing snowball fight. When a snowball hit her she quickly turned back into a snowdoll. The children had no idea what had happened they were sad. Because they missed her very much. They thought that she would be a goner forever. When the sun her by it her she turned back into a normal girl. They lived happily every after.

from Quincy, age 10:
The snowgirl stayed outside. She built a snow house to live in. She played with the boy and girl.

 
From ESL students from John F. Kennedy Elementary School
 
"Come in." And the snow doll melted and became water. Children were sad. The gust of wind came from the north and water turned into a snowman. The gust of wind came from north again and the snowman was alive. It was frozen and it was moving. It didn't melt. Children were happy again! (2nd Grade)

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"Come in." but she said, "No”.
The kids did not let her go inside either, because they knew that if she went inside she would melt. The snow doll said to the kids, "No, I'm going inside I want to be a real girl." As she was stepping inside the house she fell down and she fell asleep. When she woke up she was a real girl. So they lived happy after. (4th Grade)

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"Come into the house. "The snow doll was about to melt because the house was warm. She was about to died, then a snowman came into the house and the snowman said to the snow doll, "I'll give you all my snow." The snow doll became alive! (4th Grade) 

"Why not? Aren't you cold?" The snow doll began to sing with a beautiful voice. She was singing about herself. The man didn't believe his ears. He never heard someone sing beautifully. The snow doll sang that she was made of snow but the man wasn't listening to the words, he was only listening to her beautiful voice. The snow doll said, "Do you understand now? Why I can't come in?" The man was so impressed that he couldn't speak. The kids left the snow doll outside and went to speak with the man. When they were done talking, the man said, "I'm so sorry." The snow doll said, "It's Okay." The man wanted to surprise the snow doll. So he decided to go to the radio station and television station to tell everybody how to make a snow doll and how to make it come alive. Everybody started to do it. The snow doll asked, "Why did you tell everybody in the world?" The man said, "Because I want you to have friends." The snow doll said, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The snow doll went to play with her new friends. (5th Grade)
From JCC Eurhythmics Class (Pittsburgh, PA)
From Samantha and Eleanor:
The kids saw her melting, so they went outside an built a snow witch. They kissed the witch to make her alive. The witch suddenly got alive. They told her of their story. Finally, they got to the point. "So could you cast a spell to make her alive again?" asked the boy. "I'm not sure," said the witch. "Please?" "Oh. I've thought of it now," the witch said. "It will be tricky, but I will try."

The children went inside and picked up the remaining bits of the snow maiden. They didn't want the witch to melt too! They went outside and gave them to the witch. She sung the following words: Hocus Pocus Magic Please, bring this maiden back to life once again pretty, pretty please! The maiden came back to life again. The children were so happy to see her again.

From Stan and Jon:
...but the snow maiden was a snow fairy. So the snow faires wanted revenge. They sent hail and ice down to the earth. Quickly the boy and girl ran out and built a snow giant. The girl kissed the giant, and for a moment, nothing happened. Suddenly, the snow giant came to life, caught all the ice and hail and saved the day!

From Amani:
The father beckoned the doll inside to rest for they were all tired. So they gave her some hot food but when she had it she did not melt! Instead, she was calm but she was always okay until one day in the middle of August she was tired of hot food. So she said, "I'm tired of this hot food, and this burning house!"...and then she was gone and all was quiet...

From Emily:
The snow doll was melting...she didn't want to melt. The children cried. They wanted her to come back to life again. 

From Naeem:
The snow girl came inside. Then someone lit a match. Then she melted.

From Melissa:

The little girl and boy were very sad at the sight of their friend melting, so they quickly decided to make a wish:

Wish, Wish,
Please Come True,
Wish Wish,
We Are Blue,
All We Wish,
Is For Our Snow Maiden,
To Be Alive And New.....

Then they clapped three times.....

The little boy and girl waited, but nothing happened. They began to turn around, until they heard a noise. It sounded like three claps, just as they had done after the wish. Both of them quickly turned around and saw the Snow Maiden standing in front of them with a smile..... The little boy and girl looked at each other and giggled, because they saw that their snow friend was now alive and real, just like they were.

~~~~~The End~~~~~

This entry is from Joanna Kelley and Mackenzie Cline from Mrs. Genth's 2nd grade class in Westerville, Ohio.

The snow doll was getting very lonely. SHE WAS MELTING! "Oh no," said the children! "We must build another snowdoll," said the brother. "How about a boy this time?" sot he children made the snowboy. Fast! The sister kissed the snowboy. He came alive, yelling......."WHO KISSED ME!! WHO KISSED ME!! WHO KISSED ME!!" His cheeks turned red;he was SO EMBARRASSED. The snowdoll and snowboy fell in love, and had children, but it was almost spring. The children never saw another snowman like the ones they had built, since the day the snowdoll and snowboy had melted.
From Belmont Primary School Belmont Road Erith Kent England
From Lee:
Then the children’s dad came home and sees the snow maiden playing with the children. So he said do you want to come in for a cup of coffee because the children are coming in for their dinner “no thanks” Said the snow maiden and started to play with another snowman it had been 9 hours so the children’s Dad said it is time to come in now so the snow maiden
had to come in so she come in. When she did She started to melt. When the children’s father came in and saw the snow maiden melting he fell to the ground and had a heart-attack.

From Lauren:
Then he said , “come in-side children, it’s too cold out here.” “Ok dad, we are just coming ,” said the girl. They walked in to the living room and sat by the fire. The snow girl went inside not knowing that she could melt.

Their dad brought hot chocolate for all the children but when he got there, the snow girl had melted and there was a puddle where she had been sitting.

The children were very up-set, they told their dad all about the snow girl. He didn’t believe them. The children convinced him and all together they made another snow girl and they kept her out side. In the end every-one was happy. THIS WAS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Charlotte and Lisa:

Some time later the children father return from town. When he saw the girl in white playing with his own children he said to himself, “It must be one of the neighbours daughters”, and went inside the house.

It was getting dark and the children had to go inside. The snow doll said in a soft voice, “Please, come back with me, to where I belong ?” “We can’t,” said the children ,”We can’t leave father here all alone.” “What about your mother?” the doll asked. “Oh, well she died a few years after we were born.” The children answered. “I understand," said the doll. Then
she slowly faded and all that was left was remaining snow flakes.

From Sharan & Louise:
She looked around and finally decided that she wanted to stay out so she walked out the door briskly. For some time later the children came out and asked her if she would like to stay for tea. “Yes I would love to stay” she replied. So she walked in and sat far away from the fire, as she was eating dinner she took the first mouthful of pie and spat it out because it was to hot for her body. Later on the father looked under the table and realised her toes where starting to melt. “What is happening to your toes?” asked the father Then she realised that she was starting to melt soon later all was left was a puddle. 

From Keith:
"Oh, you're so cold! The fire will soon warm you up!" The Snow Maiden made it perfectly clear that she didn't want to go inside, but went in anyway. The children began to cry as the Snow Maiden melted. The next day, one of the children came downstairs and found the Snow Maiden sitting in an armchair drinking a glass of milk.

From Emma:
"Come in " she said "On thank you" but the boy and girl said to each other "I'm going in are you sis?" so they went in and left the snow doll. She made snow ball and keep on chuching them at the window the children's father looked out of the window. Then it started to rain the
children's father said "It raining Kids" after a few hours the rain stopped and they said to each other"...

From Matthew:
“Oh your skin is really pale you should come and get warmed up” the snow maiden didn’t budge the dad said“ we have got Snowballs for lunch” of course she ran straight in with excitement she waited and she already started to melt but the Dad did not notice she got a snowball! But it was made of chocolate she ate one and started to melt and when dad Came
back there was only a soggy snowball left with A puddle left.

From Liam & Jake:
Oh! Don’t you like the warmth? The snow maiden nothing! " Now you sit there while I'll go and make some coco and cookies. "Help guys I'm melting………. Before we knew it she had melted away!…….. Dad had brought in the coco and cookies, "where's has she gone" we pointed to the floor." Ooh!" In front of ours eyes dad had fainted.
~~~~~The End~~~~~

From Isaac, age 7:

The father told her to come in. She said no. Finally, he pulled her in. She looked out the window, snapped her fingers, and disappeared!

~~~~~The End~~~~~

From Richard:

"It must be one of the neighbours daughters" Out in the garden they were having a gigantic snowball fight. By the time they had finished. It was impossible to see though the kitchen window.

~~~~~The End~~~~~

From Darren:

"What shall we do now, go inside" asked lo "No" shouted the snow maiden. They decided to play hide and seek, Snow maiden was first to hide. Lo peeped and saw her go behind the tree. When she went round all she could see was a gigantic puddle.

~~~~~The End~~~~~

Mr. Mack's first grade class in Beaverton, Oregon, has written some story
endings:
from Janelle:
..and then the father said," Come in the house and get warm," and she did. When the boy and the girl went to bed, the Snow Maiden then melted away until next winter. the End

from Cheyanne:
No, thanks. I am staying outside because I am used to staying outside. But, then when the little girl came outside, she pulled the nose off and gave it to the dog. They lived happily ever after. The End

from Drew:
The kids were playing with the snow doll. The dad said, "Why won't you come in?" The doll said, "Okay." She came in. The dad said, "Why don't you come to the fireplace?" She went to the fireplace. She melted. She said, "I only have my stomach and my arm and my head!" The End

from Simon:
When she got in the house she went to the fireplace and threw parts of herself into the fireplace. Soon, she was all gone! The End

from Ricky:
He forced her in the house. She screamed and she melted and went under the floor. The End

from Tarisa:
The dad said, "Come inside to get warm." The snow maiden came in. She ate some soup. She came to life! She was nice. The End

 

~~~~~The End~~~~~