The Snowman (fairy tale)

"The Snowman"
The Hanfstaengl portrait of Andersen July 1860
Author	Hans Christian Andersen
Original title	"Sneemanden"
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish
Genre(s)	Literary fairy tale
Published in	New Fairy Tales and Stories. Second Series. First Collection. 1861. (Nye Eventyr og Historier. Anden Række. Første Samling. 1861.)
Publication type	Fairy tale collection
Publisher	C.A. Reitzel
Media type	Print
Publication date	2 March 1861
Preceded by	"What the Old Man Does is Always Right"
Followed by	"In the Duck Yard"

"The Snowman" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a snowman who falls in love with a stove. It was published by C.A. Reitzel in Copenhagen as Sneemanden on 2 March 1861. Andersen biographer Jackie Wullschlager describes the tale as a lyrical and poignant complement to Andersen's "The Fir-Tree" of December 1844.

Wullschlager believes "The Snowman" was the product in part of Andersen’s "pining and discontent over" Harald Scharff, a handsome young dancer at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. According to Wullschlager, the two men entered a relationship in the early 1860s that brought the poet "some kind of sexual fulfillment and a temporary end to loneliness." It was the only homosexual affair during Andersen's life that brought him happiness.

"The Snowman" begins with its eponymous hero standing in the garden of a manor house watching the sun set and the moon rise. He is only a day old, and quite naive and inexperienced. His sole companion is a watchdog who warns him that the sun will make him run into the ditch. The dog senses a change in the weather, enters his kennel and goes to sleep.

At dawn, the land is covered in frosty whiteness when a young couple enter the garden to admire the scene and the Snowman. When they leave, the dog tells the Snowman the couple are sweethearts who will someday move into "the same kennel and share their bones." He then recounts happier days when he slept under the stove in the housekeeper‘s room as a pampered pet. The Snowman can see the stove through a window in the house and believes it is female. He falls in love. The Snowman longs to be in the room with the stove, but the dog warns him he would melt.

All day the Snowman gazes upon the stove, and, at twilight, the stove glows. When the door of the room is opened, the flames leap out of the stove and glow upon the snowman's face and chest. He is delighted. In the morning, the window is covered with frost and the Snowman cannot see the stove. He is stove-sick and cannot enjoy the frosty weather. The dog warns the snowman of an imminent change in the weather. A thaw descends, and, one morning, the snowman collapses. The dog finds a stove poker used to build the snowman within his remains, and then understands why the snowman longed for the stove, "That's what moved inside him...Now he is over that, too!" The girls in the house sing a springtime carol and the snowman is forgotten.

Scholars have noted Andersen was attracted to both men and women during his middle years. Andersen biographer Jackie Wullschlager observes, "Andersen's diaries leave no doubt that he was attracted to both sexes; that at times he longed for a physical relationship with a woman and that other times he was involved in physical liaisons with men." Andersen biographer Alison Prince comments, "It is obvious that Andersen struggled throughout his life with a painful sense of greatness and of being different from others. This was partly due to the suppressed homosexuality which set him apart in loneliness and forced him to take refuge in the safer and more conventional image of the talented and hypersensitive poet..." Both believe "The Snowman" has its source and inspiration in Andersen's relationship with a young male ballet dancer associated with the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.