Winter’s Literary Journey

Children play outside without minding cold weather. They get more excited in the cold winter. Winter literature for children is as pure as snow and as clear as ice. It sometimes depicts hardship and adversity, but like clear footsteps in snow, it envisions a bright future.
This part introduces winter stories for children that are beloved around the world along with Korean children’s winter literature. They include the world classics written by Brothers Grimm (Jacob Grimm, 1785–1863; Wilhelm Grimm, 1786–1859) from Germany, Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) from Denmark, and Carlo Collodi (1826–1890) from Italy, as well as winter poems for children written by famous Korean poet Yun Dong-ju, “Snow” and “Dog,” and a Korean children’s song, “Little Snowman” by Kang So-cheon (1915-1963).
“Rolling Snowballs” written by famous Korean children’s author Yun Seok-jung (1911–2003) is among the songs that transport us back to the innocent world of childhood. It goes: “Make a snowball and roll it up. Everyone, come out and roll it up. And let’s do a lap around the globe.” The winter world in children’s stories abounds in dreams and hopes. Their characters encounter hardship and adversity but overcome them wisely and smartly to meet the warm spring; the world they live in is depicted as being full of mystery, adventure and fantasy.

In the world-famous fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), Gerda sheds warm tears on Kai to melt his frozen heart and bring him back to life. Italian author Carlo Collodi (1826–1890), in “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” sheds light on paternal love through Geppetto who sells his only coat despite the cold weather to buy a school book for Pinocchio. In Brothers Grimm’s “Frau Holle,” when the protagonist shakes a featherbed coverlet, the feathers turn into beautiful snowflakes falling over the whole world. Children run around joyfully and blow on their freezing hands. In his poem for children “Pockets,” Yun Dong-ju (1917–1945) wrote, “My pockets, when winter comes, become gapbuk gapbuk full with my two fists.” By repeating a mimetic (or onomatopoeic) word to mimic the children, the poet added fun to his description of a child’s pockets crammed with his fists seeking relief from the frigid weather. Lee Sang-gyo (1949–) also took advantage of the rhythmic tone of the Korean language in his poem for children, “A Dawn after Snowfall.” It goes, “On a fresh pile of snow, the footsteps of a do, do, do, doduk alley cat….”

A children’s poem becomes a children’s song when it is given a beautiful melody. “Little Snowman,” written by Kang So-cheon (1915–1963), was also published as a children’s poem first and later was made into a song. “Children’s poems and children’s songs are like two fruits of a tree,” Kang said.