The Princess and the White Bear King (Book & CD)

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So away travelled the princess through the wood, which seemed never to come to an end, both day and night, and next morning she came to another hut. In it there were also two women, an old wife and a young girl. Well, he passed by and went up the mountain three days ago, but nothing else without wings can climb it.” This little girl played about on the floor with a flask, which was of that kind it poured out every drink any one wished to have. Well!’ the old hag said, ‘she might have that leave and welcome, but she must herself lull him off to sleep and wake him in the morning.’

The princess took the napkin, thanked them, and set off again. She went far and farther than far through the woods and travelled all day and night. The next morning she came to a mountain as steep as a wall, so high and wide that she could see no end to it. At the base of the mountain there was a hut, and as soon as she set foot inside it, she said, “Good day. Do you know if King Valemon the white bear passed this way?” Kristensen, Evald Tang. Skattegraveren. Kolding: Trykt hos Sjodt & Weiss, 1890. pp. 31-37 (Tale nr. 21). Good-day!” said the princess. ‘Have you seen anything of King Valemon, the white bear?’ That was what she asked them.

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Every year, the princess had a child, but as soon as the baby was born, the bear rushed away with it. At the end of three years, she asked to visit her parents. There, her mother gave her a candle so that she could see him. At night, she lit it and looked at him, and a drop of tallow fell on his forehead, waking him. He told her that if she had waited another month, he would have been free of an evil witch queen's spell, but now he must go to the witch's realm and become her husband. He rushed off, but she seized his fur and rode him, though the branches battered her, until she was so tired that she fell off.

Blecher, Lone Thygesen; Blecher, George. Swedish Folktales And Legends. University of Minnesota Press, 2004. pp. 185-194. ISBN 9780816645756. The princess said, “I will not sell the scissors for any amount of gold, but you can have them if you let me spend the night with King Valemon.” But the princess said, ‘It was not for sale for money, but if she might have leave to sleep with her sweetheart that night, she might have it.’Once upon a time there was a king with two daughters who were ugly and evil, but a third who was as fair and soft as the bright day. One night, his third daughter dreamt of a golden wreath so lovely that she couldn’t live without it. She grew sullen and wouldn’t so much as talk due to her grief at not having the wreathe, so the king sent out a pattern based on her dream to goldsmiths far and wide to see if they make the wreath. The goldsmiths worked night and day, but the princess tossed all their wreathes away. In some tales, before the separation from her supernatural husband, the wife's children are taken from her and hidden elsewhere. Scholarship locates this motif across Celtic and Germanic speaking areas. [12] [13] [14] Variants [ edit ] Denmark [ edit ] And as she said this she begged her mother so hard, that at last she got leave to give her the scissors.

The next Thursday it came again, and the king tried his second daughter, and she also failed. The third Thursday, the king had sent his third daughter, and she had never sat softer or seen clearer, so it took her to its castle. Every night, it turned into a man and came to her bed in the dark. Now, once on a time there was, as there well might be, a king. He had two daughters who were ugly and bad, but the third was as fair and soft as the bright day, and the king and everyone was glad of her. So one day she dreamt of a golden wreath that was so lovely she couldn’t live until she had it. But as she could not get it, she grew sullen and wouldn’t so much as talk for grief, and when the king knew it was the wreath she sorrowed for, he sent out a pattern cut just like the one that the princess had dreamt of, and sent word to goldsmiths in every land to see if they could get the like of it. So the goldsmiths worked night and day; but some of the wreaths she tossed away from her, and the rest she would not so much as look at.

The hut was full of small children who hung around their mother’s skirts and bawled for food as she put a pot on the fire full of small, round pebbles. The princess asked why the old woman did that, and she explained that they were so poor that they had neither food nor clothing, but when she put the pot on the fire and said, “The apples will be ready soon,” the words dulled the children’s hunger so they were patient a while. The children crying for food went to the princess’s heart and she brought out the napkin and the flask. After the children were full and happy, she cut them clothes with her golden scissors. But that night, there was one of the workmen who worked in a room next to theirs. He heard the weeping and knew how things stood, and next day he told the prince that she must be come, that princess who was to set him free.