Quote from "The Ice Maiden" (1861)

Registered motifs in this quote

But the guidebooks tell nothing about Babette's quiet life in her father's house – not at the mill, for strangers live there now – in the pretty house near the railway station, where many an evening she gazes from her window beyond the chestnut trees to the snowy mountains over which Rudy had loved to range. In the evening hours she can see the Alpine glow – up there where the daughters of the sun settle down, and sing again their song about the traveler whose coat the whirlwind snatched off, taking it, but not the man himself.

There is a rosy glow upon the mountain's snow fields; there is a rosy tint in every heart in which lives the thought, "God wills what is best for us!" But it is not always revealed to us as it was revealed to Babette in her dream.

Registered motifs in this quote:

  1. Faith
  2. Faith in Providence
  3. Gods, spirits and demons
  4. Omen

Keywords: Woman, memories, mountains, immortal soul

Comment: The song about the traveler whose coat the whirlwind snatched off, taking it, but not the man himself – a fable of Aesop. In this context it means that the ice maiden, or death itself, may have taken Rudy's body (the coat), but not his soul (the man himself) – Rudy's soul has been set free, rising into heavenly light. Cf. Babette's dream.