Everything about East Of The Sun And West Of The Moon totally explained
East of the Sun and West of the Moon is the
Norwegian version of an old
Scandinavian fairy tale. The Swedish version is called
Prince Hat under the Ground.
The Norwegian version
East of the Sun and West of the Moon was collected by
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and
Jørgen Moe, and it's
Aarne-Thompson type 425A, the search for the lost husband. The themes of marriage to the monstrous or mysterious husband, of curiosity inspired by the mother, and even the drops of spilled tallow are very similar to the
Hellenistic romance of
Eros and Psyche. Others of this type include
The Black Bull of Norroway,
The Brown Bear of Norway,
The Daughter of the Skies,
The King of Love,
The Enchanted Pig,
The Tale of the Hoodie,
Master Semolina,
The Sprig of Rosemary,
The Enchanted Snake, and
White-Bear-King-Valemon.
It was included by
Andrew Lang in
The Blue Fairy Book.
Synopsis
The White Bear approaches a poor peasant and asks if he'll give him his youngest daughter; in return, he'll 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'll 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's 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'd 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.
In the morning, she finds that the palace has vanished. She sets out in search of him. Coming to a great mountain, she finds an old woman playing with a golden apple. She asks if she knows the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon. The old woman can not, but lends her a horse to reach a neighbor who might know, and gives her the apple. The neighbor is sitting outside another mountain, with a golden carding-comb. She, also, doesn't know the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but lends her a horse to reach a neighbor who might know, and gives her the carding-comb. The
third neighbor has a golden spinning wheel. She, also, doesn't know the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but lends her a horse to reach — not a neighbor but the East Wind. She also gives her the spinning wheel.
The East Wind has never been to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but his brother the West Wind might have, being stronger. He takes her to the West Wind. The West Wind does the same, bringing her to the South Wind; the South Wind does the same, bringing her to the North Wind.
The North Wind reports that he once blew an aspen leaf there, and was exhausted after, but he'll take her if she really wants to go. She does, and so he does.
The next morning, she takes out the golden apple. The daughter who was to marry the prince sees it and wants to buy it. The girl agrees, if she can spend the night with the prince. The daughter agrees but gives the prince a
sleeping drink, so that the girl can not wake him, and does the same the next night, when it was the price of the carding comb.
But trying to wake the prince, she'd wept and called on him, and some captive Christian-folk in the castle told the prince of it, and the
third night, in return for the golden spinning wheel, the princess brings the drink, but the prince doesn't drink it, and so is awake. He tells her that she can save him: he'll declare that he won't marry anyone who can not wash the tallow drops from his shirt, but
trolls, such as his stepmother and her daughter, can not do it, only one born of Christian-folk, and so he'll call her in, and she'll be able to do it, so she'll marry him.
The plan works, and the trolls, in a rage, burst. So the prince and his bride freed the Christian-folk captive there, and took the gold and silver, and left the castle east of the sun and west of the moon.
Commentary
The transformation of the man into a beast has often been interpreted to signify a young woman's revulsion from sexual activity. The element of being changed by his stepmother, giving a motive for his transformation, is unusual.
The urging of her father to marry the beast because of the financial benefits for the family represents a factor clearly present in arranged marriages. This tale has been interpreted as symbolically representing an arranged marriage; the bride's revulsion to marrying a stranger being symbolized by his bestial form.
Retellings
In the early 1980s Don Bluth Productions began work on an animated feature film entitled "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Ultimately, the film was never made due to a loss of financial backing, even though the film was heavily into production at that point.Further Information
Get more info on 'East Of The Sun And West Of The Moon'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://east_of_the_sun_and_west_of_the_moon.totallyexplained.com">East of the Sun and West of the Moon Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
