East of the Sun, West of the Moon

East of the Sun, West of the Moon is one of the first non-mainstream fairy tales I remember reading and falling in love with. My family has a deep and abiding love of polar bears, and our gifts to one another tend to feature said animal. We also have a great love of books. One year for Christmas my mom found me a book called East, which had a girl and a polar bear on the front cover. The book was a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and I devoured it during Christmas day. That was my introduction to the fairy tale.

Now, some of you may be wondering what in the world polar bears have to do with East of the Sun, West of the Moon. The answer is: a lot. The fairy tale is Norwegian in origin, and one of the main characters is a polar bear for a large portion of the story. Interested? Excellent! Let me tell you the tale.

 

Once upon a time there was a poor peasant with a large family. One cold winter’s night he heard knocking on the cottage door. Opening it, he found a large polar bear looming outside. The bear was quite polite and well spoken, despite the peasant’s fear, and offered the man an interesting proposition. In exchange for the peasant’s youngest daughter, the polar bear says he'll make the peasant and his family rich. The bear’s words win the man over to the idea, and he asks the bear to come back after he’s had a chance to convince his daughter.

The girl is understandably reluctant to be given to the bear, but her kind heart takes pity at her family’s poverty. She agrees for their sake, and the bear returns to claim her. He carries her upon his back to a land that is far away, eventually stopping at a castle.

The bear leaves her there, and she finds that all of her needs are met by invisible servants within the castle.

When the girl retires to her bed that night she gets a surprise - a man enters her chambers! It is dark, so she cannot see his face, but his words win her over. He returns every night, but leaves each morning before the light of dawn appears. During the day the girl is kept company by the bear.

Eventually the girl grows homesick. The bear reluctantly agrees to take her back to visit her family, on one condition: she must never speak to her mother alone. The girl agrees, and they begin the long trek back to her family.

She is surprised to find them living in an expensive, well-furnished house instead of the poor cottage she left. The bear had kept his promise and made her family rich. They are thrilled to see her, and insist that the girl tell them everything. She talks about the bear, the castle, and the invisible servants - but she leaves out the strange man who comes to her bed each night.

Throughout her visit the girl’s mother keeps trying to get her alone. Eventually she corners the girl and persuades her to tell everything. Upon hearing about the man, and the fact that the girl has never seen his face, the mother is horrified. After all, for all the girl knows it might be a troll sharing her bed! The mother gives the girl several candles and tells her to light them at night when the man is asleep in order to get a good look at him.

The girl leaves soon after, returning to the palace with the bear. That night she waits until the man is asleep and pulls out the candles from a hiding place in her room. She lights one and walks over to the bed...only to find not a troll, but a handsome man!

The girl is so captured by his beauty that she leans over him to get a better look at his face. Unfortunately, this tilts the candle, and three drops of hot wax fall onto him. This wakes the man, who gazes at her with dismay.

He tells her that he has been cursed by his wicked stepmother to be a bear during the day, only returning to his human form at night. If the girl had lasted for a year without looking at him, the curse would have been broken - but now she has seen his face, and he must return to his stepmother to marry her daughter (who is, unlike the man, a troll.  And not just any troll...a princess troll!) The stepmother lives in a castle that is east of the sun and west of the moon - which is, of course, impossible. That’s the whole point; she doesn’t want to be easy to reach.

When the girl wakes up the next morning she finds that the castle has disappeared. (I’m wondering how she would fall asleep after the night’s revelations!) The man - and the bear - are also gone. Having fallen completely in love with him, she decides to set out and try to find him.

The girl travels for a time before coming to a tall mountain. An old woman lives there, and is sitting outside playing with a golden apple. (As in solid gold.  Not just gold in color.)  The girl asks her if she knows where the castle that is east of the sun and west of the moon is. The woman does not, but she offers to lend the girl a horse to travel to a neighbor’s house, in the hopes that the neighbor might know. She gives the girl the golden apple before she goes.

The neighbor lives on a nearby mountain, and is also an old woman. This one has a golden carding comb instead of an apple. She also doesn’t know the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but she has a neighbor who might...The process then repeats itself, with the girl being lent a horse and given the carding comb. She travels to yet another mountain, where there lives an old woman with a golden spinning wheel. She doesn’t know the way, but gives the girl the wheel and offers to lend her a horse to take her to the East wind - who might know.

The East wind doesn’t know where the castle is, but he blows her to the West wind, who might. The West wind doesn’t, but he takes her to the South wind. The South wind also does not know, but he transports her to the North wind. There, to the girl’s relief, she is told that the North wind once blew a leaf to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. If the girl would like, he is willing to take her there.

True to his word, the North wind deposits the girl outside the castle east of the sun and west of the moon.

She is unable to infiltrate the castle, so she sits outside and starts playing with the golden apple. The troll princess (the one the man/bear is set to marry) sees this from her window in the castle and desires it. She offers to buy it from the girl, who agrees to trade her golden apple in exchange for one night with the man. The troll agrees.

The troll, however, is not stupid. She gives the man a sleeping potion before bed. When the girl is allowed in to see him, she is unable to wake him up.

The next day goes much the same, with the girl trading the troll princess her golden carding comb in exchange for another night with the prince. The troll once again drugs him, and the girl is once more unable to wake him up. This time something is different, though - there are some townspeople imprisoned in the castle, and they hear the girl crying over the man. The next day they tell him about it. Realizing what’s happening, he only pretends to drink the sleeping draught that night.

During the day the girl trades the golden spinning wheel for one last night with the man. To her joy, she finds him awake. He tells her that he has a plan - he will tell his stepmother that he will only marry the woman who can wash the tallow (the candle wax she had previously dropped on his shirt, now dry and hard) off of his shirt.

The next day is to be the day of the wedding. The man tells his stepmother that he will only marry the woman who can clean the tallow off of his shirt. The troll princess attempts it, but is unable to get it off. So too is the stepmother; they’re royalty, after all, and don’t know how to clean.

The girl then steps up. Having been raised a peasant, she is well aware of how to get tallow out of a shirt, and swiftly does so.

The troll princess - and the man’s stepmother - are so enraged by this that they quite literally explode. (I’m picturing that scene from Big Trouble in Little China...) The townspeople within the castle are freed, and the man marries the girl after they leave the castle.

So ends the story of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I forgot how long that one is! My plan had been to tell the story, and then to tell the Greek and Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche. I don’t want this post to be too huge, so I’ll have to postpone it for now and do a full post about Cupid and Psyche another time. However, I will say here that it is a myth that is highly similar to East of the Sun, West of the Moon, despite hailing from another part of the world. It deals with the god of love, Cupid, who takes a bride to a castle in the sky. She never sees his face, as he only comes to her at night. Psyche’s sisters are the ones who convince her to look upon him, and she does so with a lamp instead of a candle. As such, it is oil instead of wax that spills onto Cupid. He disappears, and she sets out on a quest to find him...all while being hindered by the goddess Aphrodite, Cupid’s mother. Can you say in-law problems? When I do a post series on Roman myths, I promise I’ll cover this one!

(Update: I've now done the post on Cupid and Psyche!  You can find it here if you're interested.)

I’ll wrap this post up with a few adaptations of East of the Sun, West of the Moon that I really love. I already mentioned East in this post, and I highly recommend that novel if you’re interested. It is a gorgeous retelling of the story, and I love the way the author (Edith Pattou) writes. If you’re looking for a shorter book, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George is also a lovely retelling. Lastly, if you want a huge version of the story that’s also the first book in a series (and that manages to combine the story with Norse mythology, ‘cause it’s just awesome like that.  Seriously.  This is where I fell in love with the Norns!) check out Once Upon a Winter’s Night by Dennis L. McKiernan.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! I’ll be back next week with one about The Snow Queen (which is definitely not Frozen!)  Until then, as always, feel free to comment below or email me.  I'm looking for people to tell me what fairy tales they're interested in seeing covered - The Snow Queen was a request, so I'm doing it, and I'd love to do posts on your suggestions!  I'll see you in a week!