Magic and Myth: The Young Adult Fantasy Novels of Eileen Kernaghan

By Denise Dumars     August 18, 2000

Poet and fantasist Eileen Kernaghan published four adult fantasy novels in the 1980s. Since then, she's concentrated on taking the mythology of exotic lands and translating it into fiction for young adult readers. Her Young Adult fantasy novel, The Snow Queen, is based on Scandinavian myth as interpreted by Hans Christian Andersen.

'My novel is a reworking of Hans Christian Andersen's 19th-century fairy tale 'The Snow Queen'. In the Andersen story, the Snow Queen flies over Denmark and pierces Kai's heart with a splinter from a magic mirror. The splinter makes Kai see everything that is great and beautiful in the world as small and ugly, and though 'he wanted to say his prayers he could only remember the multiplication tables'. (Andersen's subtext is that major preoccupation of his time, the conflict between science and religion),' she says.

'The Snow Queen arrives on her sledge and kidnaps Kai, taking him away to her frozen palace on Spitzbergen Island. Gerda sets out on an epic journey to the North Pole in search of Kai. Along the way she is captured by robbers, and the robber chieftain's daughter saves Gerda's life in order to keep her as a pet. Eventually the Robber Maiden takes pity on Gerda and sends her on her way, on the back of the faithful reindeer Ba. With more help, this time from two wise women of the north, Gerda reaches the Snow Queen's palace. She finds Kai trying to solve the Snow Queen's puzzle: he must find a way to form the word 'Eternity' out of pieces of ice. If he succeeds, the Snow Queen has promised to let him go, and she will give him 'the whole world and a new pair of skates'. When Gerda finds Kai at last, her hot tears melt the ice in his heart, and the ice pieces spell out 'Eternity'. That's really where Andersen's story ends. The Robber-Maiden turns up briefly, riding off in search of adventure; Gerda and Kai return home to live happily ever after.'

Kernaghan wanted to expand on the story, especially its non-traditional aspects: that is, the fact that it's the girls who rescue the boy; both Gerda and the robber girl, here the Saami girl Ritva, rescue Kai. 'As you can see,' she says, 'my version follows the original plot quite closely for much of the way. I've loved the Snow Queen story, since I was a child, and I've re-read it many times. It's an unusual fairy tale in many respects. The story is complex and detailed, and the description of the robbers' camp in particular is grittily realistic. The little robber-maiden comes across as a militant feminist, and her relationship with her mother has to be the most dysfunctional in children's literature.' Kernaghan continues with the conflict between Ritva's Saami shaman mother and her daughter, who in The Snow Queen is fated to be the tribe's next shaman. 'And of course Andersen subverts the conventions by having the girl hero rescue the boy in distress. Years ago I wrote a poem based on the fairy-tale, and later expanded it into a short story, 'The Robber-Maiden's Story', which appeared in the Canadian speculative magazine TransVersions.'

Kernaghan studied fairy tales and Scandinavian mythology for further insights into the story of The Snow Queen. 'The characters and the story continued to haunt me,' she says. 'Meanwhile, I'd been reading the great Finnish myth-cycle, the Kalevala, and began to hear echoes in Andersen's Victorian fairy tale of a far older and darker mythology--a world inhabited by Saami sorceresses and by the Terrible Enchantress, the Woman of Pohjola, of Finnish myth. When I finally began to write the story as a novel, Andersen's story became interwoven with the Kalevala mythology.'

Ultimately, however, it was the pat and simplistic 'fairy- tale' ending of The Snow Queen that gave her the impetus to reengineer the story. 'Much as I loved the rest of Andersen's story, I was always a little disappointed with the ending. Andersen was a man of his time, writing for a mid-Victorian audience with expectations of a conventional, morally uplifting resolution. After all her heroic adventures, Gerda returns with Kai to a life of contented domesticity, and nothing has really changed for her. I wondered, is that really what Gerda would have wanted? So in my version, events take quite a different turn.'

Regarding the Victorian setting of the novel, she says, 'The original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale was written in the mid-Victorian era. But also because the mid-19th century was a turning point in western culture, when traditional religious belief was challenged by modern science. This is really the underlying theme of Andersen's story--the conflict between simple faithrepresented by the innocent Gerda--and the new spirit of scientific investigation which threatens it (symbolized by the Snow Queen's ice-puzzle).'

She had fun with these contrasting elements. 'And besides, throwing Gerda's very civilized middle-class Victorian values into conflict with Ritva's pagan, animist world-view, created all kinds of dramatic possibilities.'

Both girls in The Snow Queen are strong and independent; it is a great book for girls. 'That's one of the unusual things about the Andersen tale,' she says. 'Unlike most fairy tales, it has really strong-willed, fiercely independent female characters. It was my idea to have Ritva, the robber-maiden, go along on the journey north as Gerda's companion. In my version Ritva takes on a much bigger role. Her wildness and unpredictable temper make a great foil for the determinedly polite and proper Gerda.'

Kernaghan's study of shamanism in different cultures helped her create the world of the Saami shaman and her daughter. 'Before I began to research Saami shamanism, specifically, I'd done a good deal of reading on Bon shamanism, and the shamanic cosmology and belief structure in general.' Bon was the pre-Buddhist animist religion of Tibet. 'Some of this research was for a story called 'Dragon-Rain', a spin-off from Dance of the Snow Dragon, which appeared first in David and Morgan Kopaska-Merkel's anthology Magic, and then in the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, 9th Annual Collection.'

Kernaghan shares her knowledge on the Web. 'I've also posted a long article on Bon shamanism on the web--there's a link from www.portal.ca/~lonewolf. I found that while specific shamanic practices may vary among cultures, the basic elements of shamanism are universal.'

Since Kernaghan is also a poet, I asked if she found herself applying poetic techniques to her fiction. 'Very much so,' she says. 'Writing poetry has taught me a great deal about the use of concrete details and imagery, and care in choosing the precise word. It's improved my ear for the rhythm of a sentence, and above all it's given me a love of language and a respect for its possibilities. I believe that prose style should not merely be functional, but, like poetry, should have (and here I'm paraphrasing author Charles Foran) 'thrust and sheen and organizing music'.'

Kernaghan's earlier YA novel, Dance of the Snow Dragon, is a novel of Tibetan Buddhism and animist mysticism. It is also a more complex story than that of The Snow Queen; so much so, in fact, that it hardly seems like a YA novel although the main character grows from childhood to his teen years in the story. 'Yes, Dance of the Snow Dragon is also a YA novel,' says Kernaghan. 'Though it is not obviously so, because it's longer than usual and I think fairly challenging in its subject matter. At any rate, I've been delighted to find that adults enjoy it as well. At the time that I first decided to write a young adult fantasy, I'd just finished doing some research into eastern philosophies for a non-fiction book on reincarnation--Walking After Midnight--which included an interview with the Dalai Lama.'

'Co-incidentally,' she continues, 'a friend had just been to see the Royal Bhutanese Dance Troupe, when they performed in Vancouver. She was utterly entranced with their costumes and their stunning performance of ritual dance. As a setting for my new novel she suggested Bhutan, where Tibetan Buddhism has been preserved in a very pure form. So I started reading everything I could find on Bhutan--history, geography, folklore, travel books--and a great many books on Tibetan Buddhism.'

Dance of the Snow Dragon is a coming-of-age tale of a Bhutanese boy who is chosen to enter the monastery. 'The first half of the book takes place in the real world of 18th century Bhutan, and the second half is based on Tibetan legends of the journey to the mystical kingdom of Shambhala, 'beyond the highest snowpeaks'.'

Kernaghan wrote four fantasy novels for Ace books in the 1980's. Her novel Journey to Apriloth won the silver 'Porgy' award for original paperback fantasy, and Songs From the Drowned Lands won the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award for 1983/84. Asked if she plans for more fantasy novels for adults in the works, she replies:

'I have one hitherto unpublished adult fantasy, set in the ancient Indus Valley (yet another exotic locale!) and someday I hope to expand it into a trilogy. But I've enjoyed the YA novels so much that I want to concentrate on them for a while. I've just started a new YA novel set in Elizabethan England, and exploring alchemical magic.'

Kernaghan's poetry has also appeared in numerous magazines and in literary anthologies. She is a part of Quintet, a group of five women poets who do readings across the lower mainland of British Columbia.

She's also written works of nonfiction, including Walking After Midnight, which was based on a documentary film on reincarnation and near-death experiences, by a Vancouver filmmaker, she says. 'That one I researched and wrote in three months to meet the publisher's deadline--a daunting experience for a writer who normally takes at least two years to write a book!'

In an almost serendipitous fashion, one of Kernaghan's short stories was made into a film. 'The story was called 'Carpe Diem,'' she says. 'It's a kind of SF/horror story about the future of the medical care system, and is probably more topical now than it was ten years ago, when I wrote it. It first appeared in the Canadian small press SF magazine On Spec, won an Aurora (the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy award) and has been anthologized a number of times since. The film project came right out of the blue. Allan Belyea, an independent Alberta filmmaker, happened to pick up an anthology in a used bookstore, read 'Carpe Diem', and got in touch with me. He wrote the script, which is completely faithful to the story, I'm happy to say, and filmed it in Alberta last February. Right now I'm waiting to hear when and where it will be released--and Allan has promised me the video as soon as it's ready. I'm excited!'

Hear that filmmakers? Surely, Dance of the Snow Dragon would make an excellent film, especially now with all the celebrity interest in Tibetan religion. And what about The Snow Queen? Maybe Anna Paquin would like to portray Gerda, a heroine much different from the X-Men's Rogue but certainly no less heroic. In the meantime, keep watching for more fascinating tales of myth and magic from Eileen Kernaghan.