East of the Sun and West of the Moon

East of the Sun and West of the Moon, gathered by Asbjørnsen and Moe, follows a farm girl who marries a bear and travels far to break his curse.

A poor family lives on the edge of a dark forest, barely getting by. One winter night, a great white bear knocks on the door and offers the family riches if they will give him their youngest daughter. She is afraid, but she agrees, and the bear carries her off to a grand hall carved into a mountain, lit by candles and full of every comfort she could want.

Each night, once the candles are out, a man comes to lie beside her in the dark. She never sees his face. Her mother, worried, tells her to light a candle while he sleeps and look at him. She does, and finds a handsome prince, cursed by a troll queen to be a bear by day and a man by night. Three drops of hot wax fall on him, he wakes, and the spell turns cruel: now he must go and marry the troll princess who lives in a castle east of the sun and west of the moon. The girl sets out after him, walking farther than any map can show, helped along the way by the four winds and three old women who each give her a strange golden gift. What she does with those gifts, and how far she is willing to go to win him back, carries the story to its end.

This is an old Nordic quest tale, closer kin to Cupid and Psyche than to a tidy fairy-tale romance, full of enchantment, broken promises, and a heroine who does the rescuing herself. It suits listeners who love classic Scandinavian folklore, the Blue Fairy Book tradition, and stories where an ordinary girl walks to the edge of the world for someone she loves.

Elizabeth Grace keeps an easy, walking pace. The long trek north, the wind at the girl's back, and the still castle past the edge of the world make a gentle road down into sleep.