Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 01 (4 page)

"There might be a cure for that," said the White Bear,
"if you would but promise me never to talk with your
mother alone, but only when the others are there too; for
she will take hold of your hand," he said, "and will want
to lead you into a room to talk with you alone; but that
you must by no means do, or you will bring great misery
on both of us."

So one Sunday the White Bear came and said that they
could now set out to see her father and mother, and they
journeyed thither, she sitting on his back, and they went
a long, long way, and it took a long, long time; but at last
they came to a large white farmhouse, and her brothers
and sisters were running about outside it, playing, and it
was so pretty that it was a pleasure to look at it.

"Your parents dwell here now," said the White Bear;
"but do not forget what I said to you, or you will do much
harm both to yourself and me."

"No, indeed," said she, "I shall never forget;" and as
soon as she was at home the White Bear turned round and
went back again.

There were such rejoicings when she went in to her
parents that it seemed as if they would never come to an
end. Everyone thought that he could never be sufficiently
grateful to her for all she had done for them all. Now they
had everything that they wanted, and everything was as
good as it could be. They all asked her how she was getting
on where she was. All was well with her too, she said;
and she had everything that she could want. What other
answers she gave I cannot say, but I am pretty sure that
they did not learn much from her. But in the afternoon,
after they had dined at midday, all happened just as the
White Bear had said. Her mother wanted to talk with
her alone in her own chamber. But she remembered what
the White Bear had said, and would on no account go.
"What we have to say can be said at any time," she
answered. But somehow or other her mother at last
persuaded her, and she was forced to tell the whole story. So
she told how every night a man came and lay down beside
her when the lights were all put out, and how she never
saw him, because he always went away before it grew
light in the morning, and how she continually went about
in sadness, thinking how happy she would be if she could
but see him, and how all day long she had to go about
alone, and it was so dull and solitary. "Oh!" cried the
mother, in horror, "you are very likely sleeping with a
troll! But I will teach you a way to see him. You shall
have a bit of one of my candles, which you can take away
with you hidden in your breast. Look at him with that
when he is asleep, but take care not to let any tallow drop
upon him."

So she took the candle, and hid it in her breast, and
when evening drew near the White Bear came to fetch her
away. When they had gone some distance on their way,
the White Bear asked her if everything had not happened
just as he had foretold, and she could not but own that it
had. "Then, if you have done what your mother wished,"
said he, "you have brought great misery on both of us."
"No," she said, "I have not done anything at all." So
when she had reached home and had gone to bed it was
just the same as it had been before, and a man came and
lay down beside her, and late at night, when she could
hear that he was sleeping, she got up and kindled a light,
lit her candle, let her light shine on him, and saw him, and
he was the handsomest prince that eyes had ever beheld,
and she loved him so much that it seemed to her that she
must die if she did not kiss him that very moment. So
she did kiss him; but while she was doing it she let three
drops of hot tallow fall upon his shirt, and he awoke.
"What have you done now?" said he; "you have brought
misery on both of us. If you had but held out for the
space of one year I should have been free. I have a
step-mother who has bewitched me so that I am a white bear
by day and a man by night; but now all is at an end
between you and me, and I must leave you, and go to her.
She lives in a castle which lies east of the sun and west of
the moon, and there too is a princess with a nose which
is three ells long, and she now is the one whom I must
marry."

She wept and lamented, but all in vain, for go he must.
Then she asked him if she could not go with him. But
no, that could not be. "Can you tell me the way then,
and I will seek you—that I may surely be allowed to do!"

"Yes, you may do that," said he; "but there is no way
thither. It lies east of the sun and west of the moon, and
never would you find your way there."

When she awoke in the morning both the Prince and
the castle were gone, and she was lying on a small green
patch in the midst of a dark, thick wood. By her side lay
the self-same bundle of rags which she had brought with
her from her own home. So when she had rubbed the
sleep out of her eyes, and wept till she was weary, she
set out on her way, and thus she walked for many and
many a long day, until at last she came to a great mountain.
Outside it an aged woman was sitting, playing with
a golden apple. The girl asked her if she knew the way
to the Prince who lived with his stepmother in the castle
which lay east of the sun and west of the moon, and who
was to marry a princess with a nose which was three ells
long. "How do you happen to know about him?"
inquired the old woman; "maybe you are she who ought to
have had him." "Yes, indeed, I am," she said. "So it is
you, then?" said the old woman; "I know nothing about
him but that he dwells in a castle which is east of the sun
and west of the moon. You will be a long time in getting
to it, if ever you get to it at all; but you shall have the
loan of my horse, and then you can ride on it to an old
woman who is a neighbor of mine: perhaps she can tell
you about him. When you have got there you must just
strike the horse beneath the left ear and bid it go home
again; but you may take the golden apple with you."

So the girl seated herself on the horse, and rode for a
long, long way, and at last she came to the mountain, where
an aged woman was sitting outside with a gold carding-comb.
The girl asked her if she knew the way to the
castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon;
but she said what the first old woman had said: "I know
nothing about it, but that it is east of the sun and west
of the moon, and that you will be a long time in getting
to it, if ever you get there at all; but you shall have the
loan of my horse to an old woman who lives the nearest
to me: perhaps she may know where the castle is, and
when you have got to her you may just strike the horse
beneath the left ear and bid it go home again." Then she
gave her the gold carding-comb, for it might, perhaps, be
of use to her, she said.

So the girl seated herself on the horse, and rode a
wearisome long way onward again, and after a very long time
she came to a great mountain, where an aged woman was
sitting, spinning at a golden spinning-wheel. Of this
woman, too, she inquired if she knew the way to the
Prince, and where to find the castle which lay east of the
sun and west of the moon. But it was only the same
thing once again. "Maybe it was you who should have
had the Prince," said the old woman. "Yes, indeed, I
should have been the one," said the girl. But this old
crone knew the way no better than the others—it was
east of the sun and west of the moon, she knew that, "and
you will be a long time in getting to it, if ever you get to
it at all," she said; "but you may have the loan of my
horse, and I think you had better ride to the East Wind,
and ask him: perhaps he may know where the castle is,
and will blow you thither. But when you have got to
him you must just strike the horse beneath the left ear,
and he will come home again." And then she gave her the
golden spinning-wheel, saying: "Perhaps you may find
that you have a use for it."

The girl had to ride for a great many days, and for a
long and wearisome time, before she got there; but at last
she did arrive, and then she asked the East Wind if he
could tell her the way to the Prince who dwelt east of the
sun and west of the moon. "Well," said the East Wind,
"I have heard tell of the Prince, and of his castle, but I
do not know the way to it, for I have never blown so far;
but, if you like, I will go with you to my brother the West
Wind: he may know that, for he is much stronger than I
am. You may sit on my back, and then I can carry you
there." So she seated herself on his back, and they did go
so swiftly! When they got there, the East Wind went in
and said that the girl whom he had brought was the one
who ought to have had the Prince up at the castle which
lay east of the sun and west of the moon, and that now she
was traveling about to find him again, so he had come
there with her, and would like to hear if the West Wind
knew whereabout the castle was. "No," said the West
Wind; "so far as that have I never blown; but if you like
I will go with you to the South Wind, for he is much
stronger than either of us, and he has roamed far and wide,
and perhaps he can tell you what you want to know. You
may seat yourself on my back, and then I will carry you
to him.".

So she did this, and journeyed to the South Wind,
neither was she very long on the way. When they had got
there, the West Wind asked him if he could tell her the
way to the castle that lay east of the sun and west of the
moon, for she was the girl who ought to marry the Prince
who lived there. "Oh, indeed!" said the South Wind, "is
that she? Well," said he, "I have wandered about a great
deal in my time, and in all kinds of places, but I have
never blown so far as that. If you like, however, I will go
with you to my brother, the North Wind; he is the oldest
and strongest of all of us, and if he does not know where
it is no one in the whole world will be able to tell you.
You may sit upon my back, and then I will carry you
there." So she seated herself on his back, and off he went
from his house in great haste, and they were not long on
the way. When they came near the North Wind's dwelling,
he was so wild and frantic that they felt cold gusts a
long while before they got there. "What do you want?"
he roared out from afar, and they froze as they heard.
Said the South Wind: "It is I, and this is she who should
have had the Prince who lives in the castle which lies east
of the sun and west of the moon. And now she wishes to
ask you if you have ever been there, and can tell her the
way, for she would gladly find him again."

"Yes," said the North Wind, "I know where it is. I
once blew an aspen leaf there, but I was so tired that for
many days afterward I was not able to blow at all. However,
if you really are anxious to go there, and are not
afraid to go with me, I will take you on my back, and try
if I can blow you there."

"Get there I must," said she; "and if there is any way
of going I will; and I have no fear, no matter how fast you
go."

"Very well then," said the North Wind; "but you must
sleep here to-night, for if we are ever to get there we must
have the day before us."

The North Wind woke her betimes next morning, and
puffed himself up, and made himself so big and so strong
that it was frightful to see him, and away they went, high
up through the air, as if they would not stop until they
had reached the very end of the world. Down below there
was such a storm! It blew down woods and houses, and
when they were above the sea the ships were wrecked by
hundreds. And thus they tore on and on, and a long time
went by, and then yet more time passed, and still they
were above the sea, and the North Wind grew tired, and
more tired, and at last so utterly weary that he was scarcely
able to blow any longer, and he sank and sank, lower
and lower, until at last he went so low that the waves
dashed against the heels of the poor girl he was carrying.
"Art thou afraid?" said the North Wind. "I have no
fear," said she; and it was true. But they were not very,
very far from land, and there was just enough strength
left in the North Wind to enable him to throw her on to
the shore, immediately under the windows of a castle
which lay east of the sun and west of the moon; but then
he was so weary and worn out that he was forced to rest
for several days before he could go to his own home again.

Next morning she sat down beneath the walls of the
castle to play with the golden apple, and the first person
she saw was the maiden with the long nose, who was to
have the Prince. "How much do you want for that gold
apple of yours, girl?" said she, opening the window. "It
can't be bought either for gold or money," answered the
girl. "If it cannot be bought either for gold or money,
what will buy it? You may say what you please," said
the Princess.

"Well, if I may go to the Prince who is here, and be
with him to-night, you shall have it," said the girl who
had come with the North Wind. "You may do that," said
the Princess, for she had made up her mind what she
would do. So the Princess got the golden apple, but when
the girl went up to the Prince's apartment that night he
was asleep, for the Princess had so contrived it. The poor
girl called to him, and shook him, and between whiles she
wept; but she could not wake him. In the morning, as
soon as day dawned, in came the Princess with the long
nose, and drove her out again. In the daytime she sat
down once more beneath the windows of the castle, and
began to card with her golden carding-comb; and then all
happened as it had happened before. The Princess asked
her what she wanted for it, and she replied that it was not
for sale, either for gold or money, but that if she could get
leave to go to the Prince, and be with him during the
night, she should have it. But when she went up to the
Prince's room he was again asleep, and, let her call him,
or shake him, or weep as she would, he still slept on, and
she could not put any life in him. When daylight came in
the morning, the Princess with the long nose came too,
and once more drove her away. When day had quite
come, the girl seated herself under the castle windows, to
spin with her golden spinning-wheel, and the Princess
with the long nose wanted to have that also. So she
opened the window, and asked what she would take for
it. The girl said what she had said on each of the former
occasions—that it was not for sale either for gold or for
money, but if she could get leave to go to the Prince who
lived there, and be with him during the night, she should
have it.