East of the Sun and West of the Moon

A poor farmer had many children, and one autumn night a great White Bear knocked at the window.“Give me your youngest daughter,” said the Bear, “and I will make you rich.”The girl was afraid, but at last she agreed, and she climbed onto the Bear’s broad back and was carried away.

The Bear brought her to a hidden castle full of gold and fine rooms, where a silver bell gave her anything she wished for.Each night, after she put out the light, a man came and lay down beside her in the dark, and was gone before morning.She never saw his face, and though he was kind, she grew lonely and longed to visit her family.

The Bear let her go home, but warned her not to listen to her mother’s advice, or she would bring sorrow on them both.Her mother, hearing the strange story, gave her a candle and told her to light it while the man slept and look at his face.Back at the castle she lit the candle — and saw the most handsome prince, so lovely that she bent to kiss him.

Three drops of hot wax fell on his shirt, and he woke. “Now you have ruined us both,” he said sadly.A wicked stepmother had put a curse on him: a Bear by day, a man by night, and one more year would have set him free.Now he must go to her castle, which lay east of the sun and west of the moon, and marry a princess with a long, ugly nose.

In the morning the castle was gone, and the girl set out to find him, walking on and on through the world.Three old women gave her golden gifts and sent her from one Wind to the next, until the strong North Wind carried her on his back over the sea.He set her down, worn out, beneath the windows of the castle east of the sun and west of the moon.

She traded her golden gifts for three nights with the prince; twice he was in a drugged sleep, but on the third night he was awake and they made a plan.When the long-nosed princess could not wash the wax from the shirt, the girl washed it white in a moment, the spell was broken, and the prince took her for his wife.