The white bear carried me to his castle which was very grand and made my father’s castle look quite poor. I would live happily, the bear promised, and I would have nothing else to do but to tend the fire and see that it never went out.

The bear went away by day, but at night he came home, and in the dark he shook off his bear skin and turned into a man. I loved him and we lived together for three years, but things happened that mystified and deeply grieved me. Every year I had a baby, and he carried it off as soon as it came into the world. He would not tell me why, and I became more and more dull and disinterested in everything.

I told him I wanted to go home and see my parents. He wasn’t going to stand in my way, but he made me promise to listen to what my father said, and not do what my mother wished.

I went home, and when I was alone with my parents, I told them how I had been treated. My mother wanted to give me a light to take back so that I could see what kind of man he was. I had never seen him in the dark of the night and he would not allow it.

My father did not agree with my mother. “No!” he said. “She mustn’t do that, for it will lead to harm and not to gain.”

My mother didn’t listen. She gave me a bit of a candle-end to take with me on the way back.

Princess who Lives with the White Bear in King Valemon, The White Bear, Tales from the Fjeld, G.W. Dasent. Illustration by Margaret MacDonald.