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Abstract: The article is based on the «The Snow Queen» and related Andersen’s fairy tales («The Story of a Woman», «Eden Garden», «The Mermaid», «Red Shoes»); it deals with the poetics of Andersen, which forms its iconic system based on the archetypal semantics. It is about the semantics of the mirror and the garden: it is in these images that revel Andersen's refleхion on time and death. The plot of «The Snow Queen» is a calendar story, which tells of the death and salvation and where the dominant experience is the experience of time. Andersen’s thoughts about art are depicted in an attempt to oppose the «imperfection» of time to the «perfection» of eternity. A troll, a witch and the snow queen are God’s rivals in their attempt to make the time better opposing it to eternity. Eternity is described in the article, firstly, as a synonym of death, and, secondly, as a synonym of memory, which is the justification of art. Thus, the competition of the Troll and God is the competition of art and life. The story of the Troll and his mirror resembles the story of Mermaid: seduced by the desire for immortality the Mermaid loses her divine powers in an attempt to rise above the nature. The tale «Red Shoes» is similar to the story about eyesight ruin by the character of «The Snow Queen» named Kai. The shoes here are similar to the piece of mirror, turning the vision of Karen from the world and God to herself. Changing her shoes, Karen goes off the right road and lives her version of the story of the fall and the loss of the soul. Particular attention is paid to the Christian symbolism of Andersen's fairy tales.