White Bees: four chapters of the Andersen fairy tale are ready

In Andersen’s tale the grandmother calls snowflakes “white bees” — hence the name of our fairy-tale adventure. Four of ten chapters are ready. In the first, Gerda moves into a house on Crow Hill, hunts for paper snowflakes signed “K.”, and she and Kai, the boy from the attic, make a pact: only “now”, never “later”. In the second, splinters of the troll’s mirror strike Kai, he breaks the pact with a “later”, and the white sleigh carries him off.

In the third, Gerda gives her red boots to the river and reaches the sorceress’s garden, where flowers tell stories in paper theatres. The fourth is the palace, with a mirror gallery of real reflections and dreams racing along the walls. Next come the little robber girl and the road north.