Jørgen Moe

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PREFACE A folk tale, in its primitive plainness of word and entire absence of complexity in thought, is peculiarly sensitive and susceptible to the touch of stranger hands, and he who has been able to acquaint himself with the Norse folk event of Esbjørnsson and Moe, from which these stories are selected, has an advantage over the reader of an English rendering.

Of this advantage Mr. K. Nielsen has fully availed himself, and the exquisite bizarrerie of his drawings aptly expresses the innermost significance of the old world, old wives' fables.

For to term these legends nursery tales would be to curtail them by nine-tenths of their interest.

she just opened the door a tiny bit when pop out flew the sun but when her foster-mother came back and saw that the sun had flown away she was cut to the heart and said now there was no help for it the lassie must and should go away she couldn't hear of her staying any longer now the lassie cried her eyes out and begged and prayed so prettily but it was all no good nay but i must punish you said her foster-mother but you may have your choice either to be the loveliest woman in the world and not be able to speak or to keep your speech and to be the ugliest of all women but away from me you must go and the lassie said i would sooner be lovely so she became all at once wondrous fair but from that day forth she was dumb so when she went away from her foster-mother she walked and wandered through a great great wood but the farther she went the farther off the end seemed to be so when the evening came on she climbed up into a tall tree which grew over a spring and there she made herself up to sleep that night close by lay a castle and from that castle came early every morning a maid to draw water to make the prince's tea from the spring over which the lassie was sitting so the maid looked down into the spring saw the lovely face in the water and thought it was her own then she flung away the pitcher and ran home and when she got there she tossed up her head and said if i am so pretty i'm far too good to go and fetch water so another maid had to go for the water but the same thing happened to her she went back and said she was far too pretty and too good to fetch water from the spring for the prince then the prince went himself for he had a mind to see what all this could mean so when he reached the spring he too saw the image in the water but he looked up at once and became aware of the lovely lassie who sat there up in the tree then he coaxed her down and took her home and at last made up his mind to have her for his queen because she was so lovely but his mother who was still alive was against it she can't speak she said and maybe she's a wicked witch but the prince could not be content till he got her so after they had lived together a while the lassie was to have a child and when the child came to be born the prince set a strong watch about her but at the birth one and all fell into a deep sleep and her foster-mother came cut the babe on its little finger and smeared the queen's mouth with the blood and said now you shall be as grieved as i was when you let out the star and with these words she carried off the babe but when those who were on the watch woke they thought the queen had eaten her own child and the old queen was all for burning her alive but the prince was so fond of her that at last he begged her off but he had hard work to set her free so the next time the young queen was to have a child twice as strong a watch was set as the first time but the same thing happened over again only this time her foster-mother said now you shall be as grieved as i was when you let the moon out and the queen begged and prayed and wept for when her foster-mother was there she could speak but it was all no good and now the old queen said she must be burnt but the prince found means to beg her off but when the third child was to be born a watch was set three times as strong as the first but just the same thing happened her foster-mother came while the watch slept took the babe and cut its little finger and smeared the queen's mouth with the blood telling her now she should be as grieved as she was when the lassie let out the sun and now the prince could not save her any longer she must and should be burnt but just as they were leading her to the stake all at once they saw her foster-mother who came with all three children two she led by the hand and the third she had on her arm and so she went up to the young queen and said here are your children now you shall have them again i am the virgin mary and so grieved as you have been so grieved was i when you let out the sun and moon and star now you have been punished for what you did and henceforth you shall have your speech how glad the queen and prince now were all may easily think but no one can tell after that they were always happy and from that day even the prince's mother was very fond of the young queen CHAPTER V.

Recording by Anna.

East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Kristen S. Bjansson and Young Ingebretson Moe.

Translated by George Webb Dunstant.