“The Snow-Daughter and the Fire-Son.” The Yellow Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, London, New York, Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1906, pp. 206-208.

Tale Summary

Once upon a time there was a man and his wife who desperately wanted children. One winter's day the woman looked at all the little icicles hanging from their roof and told her husband that she wished she had as many children as there were icicles. A tiny icicle fell, and dropped into the woman's mouth, and after swallowing it she wondered aloud jokingly if she would give birth to a snow child. Sometime after, the woman gave birth to a little girl who was as white as snow and cold as ice. She gave her parents much trouble and anxiety as she grew up because she detested the heat. Her parents called her “our Snow-daughter”. One day as the girl was playing outside in the snow the woman sighed and said that she wished she had given birth to a fire-son. As she said this a spark from the fire flew into her lap and she laughed thinking that her wish could come true. Sometime after, she gave birth to a boy who refused to be in the cold, and hated being around the Snow-Daughter who herself avoided him as much as possible. Their parents called the boy “our Fire-son,” and he caused a great deal of anxiety because of his temperature preferences. When the two children grew to be a man and a woman their parents died, and the Fire-Son said he would go out into the world. She said she would go with him but he worried about traveling together because he always froze near her and she always overheated when he approached her. The woman had a plan for each to wear fur coats to protect themselves and they lived quite happily in each other's company this way. The two wandered the world for some time, and at the beginning of winter decided to stay in a big wood until spring. One day the King of the land found the Snow-daughter and was so charmed by her that he asked her to marry him. He had a huge house of ice made for his wife, and for his brother-in-law he built a house with huge ovens all around it. One day the king had a feast and invited the Fire-son who had become very hot in his furnace Castle. Everyone fled from the room because of the heat, and the Fire-son embraced the king who at once was burnt to a cinder. When the Snow-daughter saw this she attacked her brother and a great fight began. The Snow-daughter was melted into water and the Fire-son burnt to a cinder, and so the two died unhappily.