East of the Sun – West of the Moon

Amazing what pops into a person’s thoughts, and what strange times they occur.

One of the first stories I remember reading By Myself was titled: “East of the Sun – West of the Moon.”  This fairy tale from Norway was also the title of a children’s reader used in a second grade class I attended. We moved a lot when I was young, and my sister and I attended three different schools in two states that year. This particular book was part of reading at the Miller Valley School in Prescott, AZ. And I fell in love with the story and the book.

Over at Wikipedia the Synopsis for the story begins thus:

The White Bear approaches a poor peasant and asks if he will give him his youngest daughter; in return, he will make the man rich. The girl is reluctant, so the peasant asks the bear to return, and persuades her in the meantime. The White Bear takes her off to a rich and enchanted castle. At night, he takes off his bear form in order to come to her bed as a man, although the lack of light means that she never sees him.

When she grows homesick, the bear agrees that she might go home as long as she agrees that she will never speak with her mother alone, but only when other people are about. At home, they welcome her, and her mother makes persistent attempts to speak with her alone, finally succeeding and persuading her to tell the whole tale. Hearing it, her mother insists that the White Bear must really be a troll, gives her some candles, and tells her to light them at night, to see what is sharing her bed.

She obeys, and finds he is a highly attractive prince, but she spills three drops of the melted tallow on him, waking him. He tells her that if she held out a year, he would have been free, but now he must go to his wicked stepmother, who enchanted him into this shape and lives in a castle east of the sun and west of the moon, and marry her hideous daughter, a troll princess.

And if you want to know what happens, here is the link to the Wikipedia page however, I strongly suggest you browse Amazon or the other book sites and find the story to read.

East of the Sun West of the Moon

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Oh! I was brushing my teeth when I thought of this dear story!