East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Page 1 of 65

* * * * *

[Illustration: He too saw the image in the water; but he looked up at once, and became aware of the lovely Lassie who sate there up in the tree. Page 70]

* * * * *

EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON

OLD TALES FROM THE NORTH

ILLUSTRATED BY KAY NIELSEN

NEW YORK GEORGE H DORAN COMPANY

* * * * *

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 _Norske Folkeeventyr_ of Asbjoernsen and Moe (from which these stories are selected), has an advantage over the reader of an English rendering. Of this advantage Mr. Kay 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. They are the romances of the childhood of Nations: they are the never-failing springs of sentiment, of sensation, of heroic example, from which primeval peoples drank their fill at will.

The quaintness, the tenderness, the grotesque yet realistic intermingling of actuality with supernaturalism, by which the original _Norske Folkeeventyr_ are characterised, will make an appeal to all, as represented in the pictures of Kay Nielsen. And these imperishable traditions, whose bases are among the very roots of all antiquity, are here reincarnated in line and colour, to the delight of all who ever knew or now shall know them.

Permission to reprint the Stories in this book, which originally appeared in Sir G. W. Dasent's "Popular Tales from the Norse," has been obtained from Messrs. George Routledge & Sons, Ltd. THE THREE PRINCESSES IN THE BLUE MOUNTAIN is printed by arrangement with Messrs. David Nutt; and PRINCE LINDWORM is newly translated for this volume.

CONTENTS

PAGE EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON 9 THE BLUE BELT 29 PRINCE LINDWORM 53 THE LASSIE AND HER GODMOTHER 65 THE HUSBAND WHO WAS TO MIND THE HOUSE 75 THE LAD WHO WENT TO THE NORTH WIND 79 THE THREE PRINCESSES OF WHITELAND 85 SORIA MORIA CASTLE 97 THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART IN HIS BODY 117 THE PRINCESS ON THE GLASS HILL 131 THE WIDOW'S SON 149 THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF 167 THE THREE PRINCESSES IN THE BLUE MOUNTAIN 171 THE CAT ON THE DOVREFELL 200 ONE'S OWN CHILDREN ARE ALWAYS PRETTIEST 203

ILLUSTRATIONS

Prev - Next >>

Share this book

Table of contents (by pages)