East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon
Summary:
There was a poor family that lived in a village. All of their children were fair but none was as beautiful as their youngest daughter. One day a White bear came knocking at the door. He said to the father I will make you rich if you let me have your youngest daughter. The Father asked the daughter about it and she refused but he talked her into it and so the bear took her with him to a castle far away. She had everything she wanted. All she had to do was ring a bell and she would get what she needed. At night she would go to bed and after the lights were out, a man came into her bed with her to sleep. She knew it was her husband but she never knew what he looked like because he would leave the room before she woke up. After living there a while she started to get lonely and sad because she missed her family. The bear took her back to visit but warned her not to take the advice that her mother is going to give her or else it will bring them bad luck. The bear left her with her family for a day. Her mother took her into a room to talk to her alone. She told her everything about what was going on with the bear and how he turns into a man at night. Her mother told her that he was probably a troll and that she needed to take a candle and look at him in the middle of the night, but she needed to be careful not to drop any tallow on him. When the bear came and got her he told her not to take her mother's advice or they will both be brought bad luck. That night however, she struck the match and lit the candle and laying next to her was the most handsome prince she had ever seen. He was so handsome that she fell in love with him immediately and went to kiss him but accidentally spilt three drops of tallow on him. He woke up and was sad because if she had just waited a year, the spell would have been broken. But now, everything between them is broken and he has to go live in a castle East o' the sun and west o' the moon and wed a princess with a huge nose. The girl was sad and asked him how she could find him, but he didn't know. In the morning she woke in the middle of the woods with her old rags laying next to her. Sh immediately went searching for him. Many, many days passed and in those days she met 3 hags. Each one of them didn't know how to find the prince but they each lent her a horse in turn. One gave her a golden apple, the next a golden comb and the last one gave her a golden loom and told her to go find the East Wind's house because he might know where to go. He didn't but he let her ride on his back to his brother, West Wind's House. He also didn't know where to go but he blew her to South wind's house, who blew her to North wind (the oldest and strongest blower out of the four). He said that he had blown there once and that if she wasn't afraid he would take her to the castle. He took her there and blew her right up to the castle edge. She wasn't sure what to do so she started playing with the golden apple and the long nosed troll princess looked out her window and said how much do you want for the apple. The girl said she just wanted a night to be with the prince. So the princess obliged but without anyone knowing she gave the prince a sleeping drink so that the girl couldn't wake him up. This happened again the second night in exchange for the golden comb. The girl wept and prayed that the prince would wake up but of course he didn't. However, on the last night, some christian captives who were in the room next to the prince told him about the girl that was coming to his room and about the sleepy drink and so the prince only pretended to drink it. When the girl came to his room the final night in exchange for the golden loom he was awake and they made a plan on how to get rid of the princess and so they could be together. He had the shirt with tallow on it and the next day (his wedding day) he said that he would not marry a woman who couldn't get the tallow out. Well, the princess thinking it would be easy tried and tried to get it out but it just got worse. The queen tried but couldn't do it either. Then he called in the peasant girl (his love) and asked her to get it out, and upon dipping it in water, it came out instantly. The troll women stormed out of the castle and the girl and the prince lived happily ever after.
Who would benefit from reading this?/Who would I recommend this to?
Any girl who loves romance would benefit from this, and I would likewise recommend this to a woman looking for a good romantic story to read.
What problems/conflicts would this potentially cause?
I don't think this fairy tale would cause any conflicts
My reaction:
I think this is a beautiful love story. I am so glad that I read it. Just the fact that she works so hard and travels so far to in a sense rescue the love of her life from an awful fate. She is willing to travel the world by dangerous means just to find him. It is a nice change from the normal love stories. I liked it a lot.
Other tales that I read:
Taming the Shrew
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Husband Who was to Mind the House
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