“East of the Sun and West of the Moon.” Scandinavian folk & fairy tales: tales from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, edited by Claire Booss, New York: Avenel Books, 1984, pp. 63-71.

Tale Summary

Once upon a time there lived a poor tenant who had many children but no money to feed and clothe them. One Thursday evening, a white bear knocked on the door and asked for the man’s youngest daughter (who was the most lovely) in exchange for great riches. She initially declined, but was talked into the arrangement by her family, and so the following week she rode the white bear back to his home, which was a splendid castle. The white bear gave her a little silver bell to ring whenever she wanted something, and that evening she wished to go to sleep and was whisked away to her bedroom. After the light went out she heard the bear enter and settle down in an armchair next to her bed, where he shed his bear skin. He did this every night, but left before dawn, so that she never saw his human form. The girl began to miss her family, and so the bear promised to let her visit if she swore not to be alone with her mother. He dropped her off at their new grand farmhouse, where her mother convinced her to have a private conversation. The girl told her mother about how a man came into her room every night but left before dawn, and how she was very sad not to ever see him. Her mother exclaimed that he might be some monster, and to check she must take a candle to light while he is asleep. On the way home, the girl admitted to the bear that she had spoken with her mother, and he warned her not to follow the advice she was given. That night she crept over to the sleeping man and when she lit the candle she discovered that he was the loveliest prince ever seen. She fell in love instantly, but when she leaned in to kiss him, the candle dripped hot wax on the man and he awoke. He was furious and told her that he had been transformed into a white bear by his evil stepmother, and that if only his bride did not see him for a year he would have been set free. He now had to return to his stepmother’s castle to marry an ugly princess. She begged to follow him, but he told her that the castle layed east of the sun and west of the moon and she would never find her way. In the morning he and the castle were gone and the girl found herself in the middle of the forest. She walked for many days until reaching a mountain, where she met an old woman playing with a golden apple. She explained who she was and who she was looking for, and the old woman offered her the golden apple and a horse so that she may ride to her neighbor’s house for help. The girl rode a long time until she came to another old woman who also did not know where the castle was, but offered her a golden carding-comb and to borrow her horse to ride to her neighbor, who may know the answer. After some time riding, she came to a large mountain where an old woman was sitting at a golden spinning-wheel. She listened to the girl’s plight, gave her the golden spinning-wheel, and lent her another horse to ride and see the east wind. When she reached him, the wind told her that he had heard of the prince and the castle but had never blown as far to reach it, so offered to carry her to see his brother, the west wind. She got on his back and they soon reached the west wind, but he had never been so far, either, and so they went to the south wind, who had also never been there. She was taken to the north wind, who had been to the castle before and offered to take her there the next day. They left in the morning and the north wind blew as hard as he could, and was barely able to drop the girl off at the castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon. The girl sat under the castle windows the next day and played with the golden apple, and was seen by the princess with the long nose whom her husband was to marry. She wanted the apple so badly that she agreed to give the girl whatever she wanted, and granted her permission to sit in the armchair next to the sleeping prince that night. When she came to the bedroom he was fast asleep, and no matter what she did the girl could not wake him. The next day she sat under the windows again, this time with her golden carding comb, and the princess again granted her the same wish as before in exchange for the comb. The same thing happened that night, and the girl could not wake her husband. She sat with her golden spinning-wheel the next day and the princess once more gave her permission to sit in the armchair by the prince that night. Some Christian people had been imprisoned in the room next to his and they told him about the weeping woman they had been hearing in his bedchamber, and so that night he only pretended to drink what was given to him by the princess, sure that she had been slipping him a sleeping draught. When the girl came to his room that night he was wide awake, and he told her that only she could save him from being married to the long-nosed princess. He said that he would challenge her to clean the shirt with the candle wax stains on it, knowing that she would be unable, because only a Christian could do it. He would declare that he would only take for a bride the woman who could wash the shirt, which would be the girl who had traveled so long to find him. The next day these things transpired exactly as he had told her, and when he pronounced that the girl should be his wife, all of the evil people in the castle burst from rage. The prince and his bride set free all who were imprisoned there, and moved far away together.