she has brought her friend back. Along the way, she meets a raven, "Mr. Corax" (Ancient Greek for "raven"). Gerda tells him that she is looking for a "good, kind, brave boy". Mr. Corax tells her that such a boy is now living at the palace of a princess. Mr. Corax takes Gerda to the palace to find his fiancée Henrietta, who knows the palace and can guide Gerda through it. The prince turns out not to be Kai, but he and the princess decide to help Gerda. They send Gerda on her way with a golden coach and attendants. While the coach travels through a dark woods, a gang of robbers takes Gerda and strip the coach of its gold plate. The daughter of the robber chieftain shows Gerda her menagerie, which contains a reindeer from Lapland. The little robber, touched by Gerda's kindness, releases the girl along with the reindeer to search for Kai, and then frees all her captive animals. Gerda and the reindeer arrive in Lapland, where a Lapp woman tells them that the Snow Queen had stopped there with Kai but went on farther north to Finland. She directs them to her cousin in Finland who can direct them further and writes a letter to her on a fish that she sends with Gerda and the reindeer. The reindeer is unable to take Gerda up to the ice palace, so Gerda goes on alone. When Gerda finally gets to the palace through the blustery wind and snow, she encounters Kai. Kai rudely asks Gerda to leave, which brings her to tears. She hugs him, and her tears melt the shard of mirror in his heart. Kai cries, which causes a second shard to fall out of his eye, breaking the spell. When the Snow Queen returns to the palace, Gerda rebuffs her, and the Queen simply disappears, along with her Palace. The children return home happily, meeting all those who helped them reunite along the way. Release Russian theatrical release The Snow Queen was released in Russia on 1 November 1957. The film is one of the first adaptations of the Danish fairy tale into cinematic media ever since the story was written by Andersen in New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection (1844). Previously playwright Evgeny Schwartz inspired by the Andersen's writing wrote an acclaimed children's play The Snow Queen that was staged in