East of the Sun, West of the Moon Retelling

In a land of ice and snow lived a

girl, dressed in a wolf pelt, with a smile as

dangerous as the tundra. She lived in a dilapidated

cabin with her parents and eight siblings.

On a night where the wind howled harshly through

the holes in the cabin, a great white bear came crashing

through the front door,

giving the gaunt family quite a shock when a smooth voice came

pouring out of its cavernous maw.

Promised,

jewels, gold, clothes, wildest dreams fulfilled

all in exchange for the company of their youngest daughter,

a fierce girl of only sixteen years, a girl with

stars in her eyes and adventure in her heart.

In hope of saving her family from the eventual

starvation that came with living on the cruel fjords,

so, the girl left with the white bear. The magical beast carried

her to its reality-defying castle, where the bear told her that

the castle would fulfill her every wish, so long as she lived

with the bear for a year and a day.

That night when the girl lied down to sleep,

she was awoken by

a stranger who crawled into her bed.

Night after night the stranger came, but the girl

could never make out any features of her nightly companion,

just the unmistakable feeling of falling in love.

Many months later,

the girl mentioned missing her family terribly.

The bear told the girl that she could go and visit her

family, but she must not talk to her mother alone. With the

girl’s promise, the bear whisked her to her family’s grand mansion,

so, far from the modest cabin she remembered.

The night before the white bear returned,

the girl’s mother pulled the girl aside and

asked if the girl was well

cared for. The girl told

her mother about her mysterious bedmate. Her mother,

in such a fright, exclaimed that the girl’s nightly guest had to be a horrendous

beast and gave her youngest daughter a tallow candle, to light

so, she could see the face of the stranger.

Her first night back at the bear’s castle, the girl waited until

the person beside her fell asleep before lighting the candle.

Illuminating the stranger, the girl was shocked to

discover that it was an ethereal girl,

with hair, the color of the white bear’s pelt and

skin pigmented like chimney soot.

So, enraptured with the unnaturally beautiful girl

that laid next to her, the girl did not notice the drops of tallow drip

onto the night shirt of the slumbering girl. The girl woke

with a shout and promptly began to weep,

asking the girl why she had looked upon her sleeping form.

The girl goes on to tell the tale of how her stepmother

cursed her to live into the form of a great bear,

until she could find a girl who could love her for a year and a day

without ever seeing her true form, but

because she had looked at her before

the time was up, the bear-girl would be forced to marry her

grotesque stepbrother. The real reason her

stepmother cursed her is because she did not believe girls

should love other girls.

The next morning, the magical girl and her castle had

vanished, but the girl realized that she had truly loved the

other girl and did not want to live separated from her. So,

she began walking east, until she came across an igloo of a strange

woman, with a golden apple. The woman introduced herself as Helen,

and told the girl that she would help her in exchange for her story.

The girl told Helen of the girl who was cursed by her stepmother

and how she must reach her before she is forced to marry her stepbrother

because she is loved her.

Tears fill Helen’s eyes, because she too had fallen victim to love. Offering

the golden apple to the girl, she pointed her further east, to the shack

of another old woman who might be able to help her reach her love.

After walking for what seemed close to forever,

the girl came across a sorrowful woman who was running

a golden comb through her locks, upon seeing the girl the woman

waved her inside. Once they entered the shack, the woman gestured to a piece of

parchment on a small wooden table and the girl read what

was scribbled on it.

It explained that the woman’s name was Cassandra,

that a man had once courted her because of her luxurious locks,

but when he found out she saw the future,

he cut out her tongue and banished her to the tundra. It also

said that if the girl would tell her a story she would give her the golden

comb and directions to another woman who might be able to help her

reach her lost love.

Cassandra ran the comb through the girl’s hair while the

girl told the tale of the girl who was cursed by her stepmother

because she did not love who the stepmother wanted her to love.

Moved by the tale, Cassandra gave the girl the comb and a team of

sled-dogs to help her reach the woman at the edge of the artic.

Following Cassandra’s directions, the girl reached the cabin of

the woman who lived in the impossible land where the ice met the desert.

Music lilted out of the cabin’s windows, as the woman plucked the strings of

a golden harp. The woman called for the girl to enter and the woman

introduced herself as Medea. She told the girl that she would give her the

golden harp and get her to the girl who wore the skin of a bear, if she

would tell her a story.

While she made the potion, the girl told the story about the girl who

was more beautiful than anything that existed in all

four corners of the earth. The potion finished as the story ended, Medea said

she was going to harness the four directional winds to carry the girl to

her love, but she would need the girl’s name to bind the spell.

The girl spoke the name Kalinda as she gripped

the golden harp, and was swept into the air,

leaving Medea behind.

The winds delivered Kalinda to a castle that was neither mist

nor earth, where the girl once again laid eyes

on the girl who claimed her heart.

The bear-girl could not hear her shouts but her shouts did not go

unheard. The guards took Kalinda to the throne room

where she met the girl’s stepbrother.

Kalinda begged to be able to be allowed to see the girl

who is also a bear, but the stepbrother denied her request unless she

could give him three gifts that had been gained through the power of words.

Kalinda retrieves the golden apple, comb,

and harp from her belongings and handed them to the greedy stepbrother.

Ever a malicious creature, the stepbrother told Kalinda that she could

see the girl at the wedding and not a minute before. Dread enveloped

Kalinda and she sunk to her knees on the steps to the throne.

Soon the bear-girl was dragged into the throne room.

When she saw Kalinda, she burst into tears and threw her

arms around her. Suddenly, an impish gleam flashed in her tear-filled

eyes. She turned to her soon-to-be husband and asked if she could ask

for her wedding present early, which he granted. She then asked a guard to

retrieve a bucket of soapy water and her shirt stained with tallow.

She said that whoever could wash the tallow from the shirt would be who she

would marry.

While her stepbrother complained to his mother, the girl whispered

to Kalinda that her stepbrother was part hobgoblin, so he would never

be able to clean the shirt, only make it worse.

The guard set the bucket in front of the stepbrother who, begrudgingly,

began to scrub the shirt, but soon grew angry at the worsening stains.

Once he gave up Kalinda sat behind the bucket and began to

clean the shirt, the stains lessened until they were nonexistent.

She presented the shirt to the crowd that had gather around her.

The bear-girl’s stepmother and stepbrother raged around them,

but there was nothing they could do.

The bear-girl ascended the steps to the throne and

announced that as rightful queen Hakidonmuya, she banished her

stepfamily, and that she would marry the girl she loved,

the girl who had cleaned her shirt,

Kalinda.