The Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth (; ) is a Swedish folktale collected from Småland by Swedish folktale collectors George Stephens and Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius. It features versions of the swan maiden, a mythic female character that alternates between human and animal shapes.
The story is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 400, "The Man on a Quest for the Lost Wife", in a form of the narrative that, according to scholars, appears in Northern Europe, namely, in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea.
Translations The tale was translated to English as The Beautiful Palace East of the Sun and North of the Earth by Benjamin Thorpe and as East of the Sun and North of the Earth.
Summary A man dwells in a forest near a rich green meadow. In summer mornings, the grass somehow is treaded all over. He orders his three sons to stand guard near the meadow. The elder two fail on their vigils, because they fall asleep through the whole night. When it is the youngest's turn, near "the hour of the matins", he sees three doves coming to the meadows, take off their plumages and become human maidens.
As the girls dance around meadow, the youth takes notice of one of them and intends to have her for himself. He also seizes the opportunity to hide their plumages. As the sun rises, the maidens prepare to depart in bird form, but cannot find their featherskins. They search for them, and sees the youth standing there. They beg him to return their feathers. The youth agrees to their pleading, but first he wants some explanations: one of the girls says they are a princess and two court attendants that live in a palace east of the sun and north of the earth. The youth also asks the princess to become his bride, and to set a date to their marriage. The princess agrees and they promise to remain faithful until their wedding, then departs with her court attendants.
The youth goes home to his father and tells nothing of his nightly adventure. Time passes, and the wedding date approaches. The youth asks his father to prepare a wedding feast for him and invite all of their relatives. By midnight, a luxurious carriage comes to the feast, bringing the princess and her court attendants. The youth introduces her as his intended bride and explains the night adventure at the meadow.
Happiness abound between the couple, but it is short-lived: just before sunrise, the princess tells her bridegroom she must depart, since a Troll killed her father, the true king of the palace east of the sun and north of the earth, and she can only enjoy some hours of freedom around midnight, having to go back before sunrise. The youth understands the urgency of the situation. The princess gives him her golden ring, her court attendants a golden ball, and rushes to leave her wedding feast.
After some days, the youth decides to go after her, and says goodbye to his father. He begins his long quest, searching meadows, valleys and kingdoms for his wife's palace. One day, he finds two giants fighting over their father's inheritance: a pair of magical boots that allow its wearer to take a hundred miles with every step. The youth convinces the giants to part with the boots to settle their little dispute.
The youth reaches another forest, where he finds another pair of giants fighting over a cloak of invisibility. The youth also convinces them to give him the cloak to settle their quarrel. Lastly, he finds yet another duo of giants fighting over a sword that kills on its point and revives with its hilt. He also wins the sword.
On the next stop of his journey, he traverses a vast desert, and sees a light in the distance, coming from a little cot. A "very very old old" woman takes him in and gives him shelter for the night. The next morning, the old woman summons all "beasts of the field" to consult with them if anyone knows the location of the palace. None know it, and the youth departs.
He arrives at another vast desert, with a little cot in the distance that belongs to an ever older woman, ruler of the fishes in the sea. He stays the night and the next morning the old woman summons all fishes. None know where the palace east of the sun and north of the earth is. The old woman bids him consult with her eldest sister, who rules the fowls in the air.
Lastly, the youth reaches a third vast desert, with a small cot on a mountain. The youth greets the eldest sister and explains the motive of his journey. The next morning, the eldest woman summons all her subjects to consult with them. After a while, she notices the phoenix is not among them. The phoenix arrives soon after and tells his lateness is due to him coming from the palace east of the sun and north of the earth. The eldest woman then proclaims the phoenix's punishment is to take the youth to the palace.
The phoenix carries the youth on its back. Long is their journey: at first, the youth can only see a blue cloud in the horizon; then, a speck of glitter in the blue cloud, and finally, a gleaming palace in gold and silver. The phoenix leaves the youth there and flies back to its ruler. At midnight, all trolls having fallen asleep, the youth knocks on the castle doors. The princess sends her court attendants to see who is their visitor. The attendants open the door and see it is their princess's husband. To confirm his identity, he returns them the golden apples they gave him.
The princess does not believe it at first, so goes to check herself. The youth gives her the golden ring, confirming he is her bridegroom. They spend the whole night conversing with each other, but, come morning, the princess fears for her beloved's safety, since the trolls will awake. The youth decides to stay and, with the aid of the magical boots, the cloak and the sword, stakes out near the palace gates and kills each and every troll with the sword.
Later in the day, the court attendants report to the princess her bridegroom's success. The princess is overjoyed, but claims her happiness will be even greater if her relatives are alive. The youth goes to the room where her relatives' bodies are laid, and revives them with the sword. The princess's family wakes and thanks the youth for reviving them, and enthrones the princess and her bridegroom as their king and queen.Hyltén-Cavallius, Gunnar; Stephens, George. Schwedische Volkssagen und Märchen. Wien: Haas. 1848. pp. 174–190.Hyltén-Cavallius, Gunnar Olof och Stephens, George. Svenska Folk-Sagor och Äfventyr. Förste Delen. Stockholm: pa A. Bohlins Förlag. 1849. pp. 139-150.Thorpe, Benjamin. Yule-tide stories: a collection of Scandinavian and North German popular tales and traditions, from the Swedish, Danish, and German. London; New York: G. Bell. 1910. pp. 158–168.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 400, "The Man on a Quest for the Lost Wife": the hero finds a maiden of supernatural origin (e.g., the swan maiden) or rescues a princess from an enchantment; either way, he marries her, but she disappears to another place. He goes after her on a long quest, often helped by the elements (Sun, Moon and Wind) or by the rulers of animals of the land, sea and air (often in the shape of old men and old women).Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 . pp. 128–129.Pen, Jikke. "De man zoekt zijn verdwenen vrouw". In: Van Aladdin tot Zwaan kleef aan. Lexicon van sprookjes: ontstaan, ontwikkeling, variaties. 1ste druk. Ton Dekker & Jurjen van der Kooi & Theo Meder. Kritak: Sun. 1997. pp. 226-227.
The middle episode of the hero acquiring magic objects that help in his journey is classified as tale type ATU 518, "Men Fight Over Magic Objects": hero tricks or buys magic items from quarreling men (or giants, trolls, etc.).Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 75-76. .Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Third printing. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 . p. 186. Despite its own catalogation, folklorists Stith Thompson and Hans-Jörg Uther argue that this narrative does not exist as an independent tale type, and usually appears in combination with other tale types, especially ATU 400.Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 76. .
Motifs Romanian folklorist Marcu Beza recognized an alternate opening to swan maiden tales: seven white birds steal the golden apples from a tree in the king's garden (an episode similar to German The Golden Bird), or, alternatively, they come and trample the fields. Researcher Barbara Fass Leavy noted a variation of the first opening episode which occurs in Scandinavian tales: a man's third or only son stands guard on his father's fields at night to discover what has been trampling his father's fields, and sees three maidens dancing in a meadow.
Similarly, Swedish scholar also noted that the motif of keeping watch over the fields at night is a "typical development" of Swedish, Nordic and Baltic Sea variants of the story he termed Das Märchen von der Schwanenjungfrau ("The Fairy Tale of the Swan Maiden").
Variants Scandinavia Sweden Finnish folklorist Oskar Hackman summarized some Finnish-Swedish variants in his publication Finlands svenska folkdiktning under the banner Konungariket Midnattssol ("The Kingdom of the Midnight Sun").Hackman, O. Finlands svenska folkdiktning. Skrifter / utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. Helsingfors. 1917. pp. 172-177 (entry 76); 520 (classification).
In a tale sourced from Karleby, a dead father appears to his sons and orders them to keep watch over their fields for three nights. The two elder brothers fail due to bad weather. Despite the heavy rain, the third son keeps watch and sees three witches flying to the fields, taking off their wings and dancing on the fields. Two of the witches are long-nosed, but the third is a beautiful maiden. The third son hides the third witch's wings. When morning comes, the two long-nosed witches wear their wings and fly back, while their companion remains there. The youth promises to return her wings if she promises to be his wife. The maiden does agree to his proposal, but offers a counterproposal: she will be his wife if he goes after her in her palace, and gives him her ring as a token. The maiden departs to her castle, and the youth begins his journey. On the road, he finds three cottages where he obtains three magic objects: a pair of seven league boots, an invisibility hat and a magical harp. The youth then meets two witch ferrywomen (the same witches that flew to his fields) that can take him across the sea to an island. The youth gives the first witch the harp as payment for the crossing, and uses the invisibility hat to secretly jump on the second witch's boat. He reaches the maiden's castle and sees a servant fetching water. He drops the maiden's ring into the jar, which is brought to her. The maiden sees her ring and notices her beloved must be nearby, and bids him come out of hiding. The youth appears, kisses her and breaks the spell on the castle.Hackman, O. Finlands svenska folkdiktning. Skrifter / utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. Helsingfors. 1917. pp. 172 (entry nr. 76.1).