The glass was forged by lightening. The border was carved by the wind. It was a present for the queen. The king ordered it made in time to give to her as a wedding present. The queen loved her mirror. She looked into it and watched the world. This was before mirrors reflected back faces, back when they were windows across all the nations of the world. Inside, the queen saw many beautiful things and many horrible things.
The queen had a beautiful son and the kingdom rejoiced. He was kind, brave, wise and handsome. A fairy woman warned the queen, such boys are not meant for this world, but the queen did not like the sad idea. The old woman told the queen she world have to let go of the prince or risk ruining the lives of all her loved ones. The queen had the old woman banished from the kingdom.
The prince lived happily to the age of ten, but the queen still feared for his life. She had seen hunting trips go very wrong and so she kept him inside during hunts. She had seen an old man sneeze and die, so she sent her son to bed at the littlest sign of sickness. The prince did not mind at first but as the other boys told him of their adventures he began to long for the outside. He started to sneak out of the castle at night and enter the city. The people of the castle knew nothing of his secret escapes. The prince made many friends over time and eventually fell in love with a girl in town. One night as the prince was sneaking back into the palace a guard saw him on the wall and shot an arrow. It was supposed to be a warning, but the guard had little practice and less aim. The arrow hit the prince and he fell from the wall. The guard ran away, afraid of what the queen would do if she discovered his mistake. The girl from the town heard his scream and came running. She reached the prince just before his parents did. The queen shied from her son when she saw the girl crying and holding his head in her lap. She demanded she step away from her son. The girl started to move but the prince stopped her and pulled her back to his side. The prince knew what the queen had tried to prevent for years was coming to pass. He was dying young. He shared this information with his sobbing friend and shrieking mother. Even the king began to weep at those words. The prince said goodbye to his father, apologized to his mother, and pronounced his love for the girl. Then after struggling to sit up he pulled the girl towards him and held her hand tightly. His last breath was used to whisper in her ear. Then he closed his eyes. He was done living.
In hysterics the queen blamed the girl for the death of her son. The girl was thrown in the dungeon. Still sobbing the girl had to be carried by two guards. The king tried to reason with his wife, but she insisted. At last the king had the girl released without the queen's consent. Watching the girl leave from the tower the queen tossed her beautiful mirror out the window. It hit the girl and shattered, the queen's sadness and jealousy still glinting in its shards. The girl died instantly, not even having the time to think that she was no longer separated from her beloved prince.
When fear finally cooled the queen's rage her heart froze from the sudden coldness. It took a long time for anyone to notice the change. In that time the queen bore another child, this on a princess. The first years of her life were cold and terrifying, rarely leaving her mother's icy presence. The king wondered why his daughter never smiled, never laughed. He went to the old woman the queen had banished and asked for advice.
"Glass tears and icy hearts,
The queen has sent her rage
Into eyes and souls and minds
For princess, peasant, page."
The old woman would offer no more advice and the king went away as lost as before.
A proclamation was sent forth across the kingdom; anyone who could interpret the message of the wise woman or make the princess laugh was promised the kingdom when the king was gone. Lords, peasants and pages tried everything but the ice princess never smiled. Eager men read the words and set teams to discover the meaning but nothing came of the efforts.
Fed up with the jokes and frolics the princess left the castle and ran to the edge of the kingdom. From there she looked over the edge into the snow covered world below. In a desperate last hope the princess threw a copy of the proclamation over the edge and watched it drift into the dreary whiteness below. She had handwritten this copy herself, in a rich golden ink and sturdy parchment. She had asked the village witch to place a protection spell on it, rolled it up (because rolled is so much safer than folded), sealed it with red wax and her own royal seal. She had kissed it once for luck before she dropped it. The princess chanted word of protection as the scroll fell. Then softer and almost with feeling she murmured, "I hope you can solve its riddles."