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gerec · 6 months ago

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fairytale style AU? I'm feeling a bit cheesy

There are a lot of great fairy tale aus in this fandom, Anon; here are a few that I hope you enjoy!

The Changeling Prince by Regann

While seeking help to break a magical curse, a soldier named Erik finds himself trying to solve the mystery of a young prince's illness, a task that leads him deeper into the fickle world of the fae than he ever imagined. (Fairytale AU)

Tale As Old As Time by madneto

Charles is a bibliophile living with his stepbrother in a remote village. Erik is a lonely prince with an affliction he doesn't know how to control. Logan is the greatest hunter in the whole world.

Little Blue Riding Hood by Pangea

An extremely serious retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

Gain Your Freedom by Synekdokee

“Why are you so concerned,” the king asked, voice strained. “You are here against your will. You were gifted to me against your consent. When I die, you shall gain your freedom.”

The Most Powerful Thing in the World by velvetcadence

Charles has been cursed with a pig's nose, and only true love can break the spell.

The Little Polar Bear (East of the Sun and West of the Moon) by kageillusionz

In a Modern, Powered AU, Charles Xavier is a struggling post-graduate student who works part time as a waiter for a catering job. His father once owned the prestigious toy company called The Little Polar Bear, that is until he died in a factory fire and his mother remarried to the Markos who run it to the ground.

As fate will have it, Charles is working the night The Little Polar Bear undergoes a merger with Das Spielwarengeschäft mit der Maus, an overseas toy company that is run by the enigmatic Erik Lehnsherr who always keeps part of his face covered.

This is the story of them falling in love and facing a number of trials and tribulations to stay together. Based loosely from the Norwegian fairytale East of the Sun, West of the Moon and written for Round Two of X-Men Big Bang.

The Sleeping Beauty in the Ivory Tower (- or Erik Lehnsherr is a hopeless romantic) by ximeria

There is a tale, out among the stars, of a sleeping beauty in an ivory tower.

Maze by AuraWhiteFox

The last thing Erik expected to deal with was a child kidnapping King from another dimension. But that’s what happening. When one night became too much and Erik wished his children gone the Goblin King accepted his wish and stole them away.

Faced with a future without his children Erik makes a deal with the King, if he can solve the Maze and make it to the Goblin King’s castle in 12 hours he can have his children back.

If he doesn’t…his children will remain in the Goblin’s hands…as too will Erik.

The Sleeping Prince by Gerec

Erik grew up on tales of the Sleeping Prince, the beautiful boy who slumbers in his castle, waiting for true love's kiss. His stepbrother Sebastian pushes him to go searching for Charles, hoping to wake him and claim a just reward. But when they find the Prince still asleep in his Tower, a simple kiss isn't enough to break the spell...

...so Sebastian suggests they try a little something more.

(A dark, Sleeping Beauty AU).

Erik by jackpack

The Shrek AU nobody asked for. Erik is a mutant living deep in the woods of Genosha, whose land is suddenly invaded by other displaced mutants. Angry, he approaches Lord Stryker, who says that he will only give Erik his land back if he brings him Prince Charles Xavier, the fairest royal in the land and the heir to the Genoshian throne, who has been kept in a tower since his childhood and hidden from the world.

Burn as Blue by ang3lsh1

When the King liberates Prince Erik from the dragon and carries him back to the kingdom, he doesn't realise that Prince Erik feels that he's been kidnapped instead and is determined to make his way back to his dragon.

Love Like Winter by garnettrees (unfinished but amazing and highly recommended!)

"Once, when all the world was green and young, there lived two very different little boys..."

Now these boys have grown, thrust onto a political battlefield filled with long-held grudges and secret motives. Charles has spent the majority of his adult life studying and teaching the finer points of spell casting.

Erik... Erik fights for what is his.

More Than All The World (The Werewolf's Tale) by luninosity

An Erik/Charles story very loosely based on Marie de France’s 12th-century French werewolf tale, in which Erik is the man transformed into a wolf (he’ll get changed back by the end, it’s not that kind of story, though they very definitely do fall in love) and Charles is a king and eventually there’s a happy ending. Also, a villain’s nose gets bitten off.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms by Pangea

The Swan by waitfornight

In 1939 Erik and his sister Ruth are sent to Devonshire, England, during the Kindertransport refugee program to live with Kurt and Sharon Marko as foster children just before the start of World War II. Angry and wishing he could return home on the night of his seventeenth birthday, Erik meets a boy alone in the forest who is cursed to transform each day into a swan, only taking his true form by night.

Swan Lake AU.

Beyond the Brambles by velvetcadence

Erik won't wake up unless Charles kisses him down there. A Sleeping Beauty AU.

The Sleeping Prince by stickmarionette

The King and Queen both came to a violent end, as so many kings and queens of Genosha had before them. A shame, but all tales of this sort need blood to feed them.

As for the Crown Prince, just fifteen years old and full of promise, he fell into a deep sleep from which no method devised by the best healers in Genosha could wake him.

The tale of Erik Lehnsherr and the Sleeping Prince of Genosha.

Till Human Voices Wake Us And We Drown by SharpestScalpel

Charles is a selkie. Erik finds his pelt.

Snow White & Sky Blue by TurtleTotem

In which Mother MacTaggert raises two mutant infants left to die in the forest, Shaw is an evil dwarf, and Erik is a bear. (An XMFC version of the fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red".)

As They Kept Falling the Way Leaves Do by cm (mumblemutter)

Charles saves Erik.

A Wolf Eats the Sun by SharpestScalpel

For a kink meme prompt:

Charles = red riding hood Erik = the hunter Shaw = the wolf

Can be as vanilla or as smexy as you want given how the red hood in the original parable is supposed to represent a girl's virginity lol

Happily Ever After, My Arse! by ximeria

Fairy Land has had a nice, long run of the show Happily Ever After, but with it gearing up to its 13th season, the previous two years' dwindling viewer numbers mean this might be the last one.

The premise has always been a selection of contestants competing for a happily ever after. No one has ever considered adding a clause specifying that villains can't participate. So what happens when the Master of Magnetism decides to join in on the 'fun'?

The show might turn out to be a total disaster — or a total success if the show’s suffering host, Charles Xavier, manages to come to terms with several things, the pressing one among them being his budding attraction to this impossible man. Not that his co-host, Raven, makes it easy for Charles to stay in denial when she’s in charge of dressing up the contestants.

Add in a tablespoon of Shrek, some How to Train your Dragon and a pinch of Monsters' Inc and your Happily Ever After might just not flambè your arse

#gerec rambles #gerec's fic rec #fic rec #cherik #fairytale au #fairy tale au #long post

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river-gale · 3 months ago

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jane eyre and fairy tale references in the mars house by natasha pulley

Let's talk about folklore! TMH references it near-constantly. This post was originally just going to be me chatting about individual references for fun and enrichment, but now I want to talk about what purpose they serve.

A few of them are to describe situations or scenery:

This one is a Sleeping Beauty reference, used to describe what happens when the internet goes out. Sleeping Beauty is also a ballet with music by Tchaikovsky, completed in 1899; a lot of ballets are based on fairy tales, so it makes sense that these are the stories the narrator picks. The story is from January's perspective, and he's a former ballet principal—it's a neat bit of characterization.

He also uses them to talk to and about Gale:

(If you know a specific Tang dynasty novel this is referencing, please tell me, I will give you my hand in marriage.)

This is the plot of Bluebeard!

The second one here is Selene and Endymion. The first one is Jane Eyre, which is not technically a folk tale—it's a novel, a work of Gothic literature by Charlotte Brontë—but, like TMH, it follows the same archetypal plot of plenty of folk tales. A vulnerable person, usually a young woman and sometimes poor, has to marry someone powerful and monstrous—an animal, a dragon, an invisible god, a serial murderer, a nobleman who's keeping his ex-wife locked in the attic, or in the case of TMH, a CEO who is also a xenophobic demagogue who may or may not have murdered their last spouse. This is why January references Bluebeard. He's in the exact same type of story.

There's an equivalent feminine archetype of the Monster Bridegroom—the Swan Maiden and related tales—but the allusions in TMH tend towards the Monster Bridegroom version, just because it works better for the themes of power dynamics and different kinds of power.

The thing that makes TMH interesting, though, is that it isn't just an Monster Bridegroom folktale from January's perspective. It's also one from River's. January is marrying an incredibly wealthy and influential politician who wants people like him permanently disabled; River is marrying someone with superhuman strength who belongs to the same group as the person who recently ripped off their leg. If we take "monstrous" to mean alien, powerful, and potentially dangerous, then that's exactly what they are to each other—and what the animal spouses in Monster Bridegroom myths are.

And the allusions in the book reflect that, because they're also used to describe January.

Could be a lot of things—many different cultures have Things In Ponds That Eat You, and that's beautiful—but my first thought is kelpies.

A generic one.

January's Swan King thing! (And then they kiss about it!!)

I don't have a quote for this one, but Earthstrongers—and January in particular—are often compared to polar bears. (He's got polar-bear-colored hair.) It's very East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

The double fairy tale plot of this book is super cool—they're each the same fairy tale archetype to each other—but possibly even cooler is that Jane Eyre does a really similar thing with its fairy tale allusions!

The first speaker is Rochester, and the second is Jane. He's her monster bridegroom (due to the attic wife situation), but he frequently alludes to changeling and fairy stories when speaking about her. It adds some depth to the Jane Eyre reference in TMH!

It also recalls this passage from TMH:

Because at their hearts, Jane Eyre and TMH are both stories about class boundaries and power dynamics being transcended by the ability to match someone's freak.

#the mars house #meta #i haven't been citing my sources properly but this isn't a real essay it's me cornering you at a party and yapping nonstop until you escape #i briefly thought selene and endymion was the one where the guy gets immortality but not eternal youth and he gets so old and shriveled--#--he literally turns into a cicada. but that's actually eos and tithonus #and it implies that there's one cicada out there that's completely immune to death

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whatsoeverislovelyandpure · 7 years ago

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The Polar Bear King / Kvitebjørn Kong Valemon (1991)

#The Polar Bear King #The Polar Bear King 1991 #East of The Sun West of The Moon #Kvitebjorn Kong Valemon #Fairytales #My GIFs #White Bear King Valemon

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fairytale-idylls · 4 years ago

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Norway.

#Winter #Norway #The Polar Bear King #Kvitebjorn Kong Valemon #East of The Sun West of The Moon #Fairytales

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maskedhatterdoodles · 5 years ago

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East of the Sun West of the Moon

Hello!! I am back from my long, long looooooooooooong doodling hiatus (for now at least)

First off, I have to thank @phana-banana and their wonderful little comic series The Uggo Club (I highly recommend checking it out, it is extremely funny and wonderfully drawn) for reminding me of this fairy tale. I absolutely adored this story growing up (my first contact to it was the film "The Polar Bear King" which is pretty much a retelling of the original tale that also combines elements from similar tales) and I had forgotten it completely till I saw the inclusion of Bjørn in the uggo comic (which honestly had me in stitches) and was inspired to seek out the story again (which in turn inspired me to do this particular peice.)

I was initially going to attempt to do more of an etching style drawing, but the further along I got with the piece, the more I felt it should be a lineless drawing (a desicion I am heartily glad I made.)

Anyway, hope you all enjoy and I'll see you all next time

#east of the sun and west of the moon #the polar bear king #polar bear #bear #art #my art #illustration #fairy tales #fanart #digital illustration

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fairytalemovies · 3 years ago

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One of the better Nordic fairytale movies. :)

The Polar Bear King (1991)

#the polar bear king #isbjörnskungen #kvitebjorn kong valemon #kvitebjørn kong valemon #der eisbärkönig #white bear king valemon #east of the sun and west of the moon

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cuppykin · 2 years ago

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East of sun west of moon gives me an idea to make a burly mean polar bear king bf

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fairytalemovies · 11 days ago

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youtube

Kristine Kujath Thorp - Flaske, duk og saks

#kvitebjørn: østenfor sol og vestenfor måne #valemon: the polar bear king #the polar bear king: east of the sun and west of the moon #east of the sun and west of the moon #white bear king valemon #kvitebjørn #music #odd nordstoga #kristine kujath thorp

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angiestown · 5 years ago

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Animal Crossing Town Name Ideas - Updated

I made this post last week with the assumption that town names in NH would be limited to 8 characters like in previous games. After today’s direct, we know that towns can have at least 10 letter names! I decided to update this list to include 6 and 7 letter words because of the new flexibility those two extra letters add (along with more short words that I didn’t think of the first time). Just choose 2-3 words you like that add up to 10 letters or less, and you’ve got a town name!

Island/Water words:

3 letters: Bay, Sea, Wet, Eel

4 letters: Isle, Tide, Dock, Port, Boat, Ship, Sand, Lake, Flow, Damp, Pond, Palm

5 letters: Shore, Shell, Beach, Pearl, Ocean, Moist, River, Water, Coral

6 letters: Cruise, Summer, Bubble, Harbor, Marine

7 letters: Seaweed, Mermaid, Harbour

Animal words:

3 letters: Cat, Dog, Paw, Cow, Cub, Pig, Fox, Zoo

4 letters: Fish, Frog, Bird, Wing, Tail, Lion, Bull, Deer, Bear, Duck, Goat, Crab, Horn, Wolf, Gull, Tuna

5 letters: Horse, Bunny, Tiger, Eagle, Hippo, Koala, Kitty, Puppy, Mouse, Moose, Rhino, Sheep, Shark, Whale

6 letters: Rabbit, Monkey, Badger, Parrot, Salmon

7 letters: Firefly

Forest words:

3 letters: Oak, Nut, Dew, Sap, Elm, Fir

4 letters: Wood, Weed, Seed, Bark, Tree, Fall, Leaf, Root, Vine, Pine, Bush, Moss, Dirt, Snail

5 letters: Maple, Field, Acorn, Grass, Nymph, Plant, Wheat, Swamp, Cliff, Birch, Cedar

6 letters: Acacia, Nutmeg, Willow, Mildew, Canopy, Cotton, Spruce, Walnut

7 letters: Hemlock, Hickory

Flower words:

3 letters: Bug, Bee

4 letters: Rose, Lily, Bulb, Iris, Puff

5 letters: Bloom, Tulip, Spring, Cosmo, Pansy, Daisy, Honey, Poppy, Lilac, Lotus, Peony

6 letters: Violet, Spring, Bumble, Beetle, Garden

7 letters: Blossom, Ladybug

Food words:

3 letters: Pit, Cup, Egg, Pie, Bun, Tea

4 letters: Pear, Sour, Lime, Plum, Cake, Milk, Bean, Farm, Bake, Cook, Roll, Mint, Tart

5 letters: Apple, Peach, Lemon, Berry, Fruit, Sweet, Grape, Mango, Sugar, Jelly, Cream, Layer, Candy, Mince, Fudge, Donut, Pecan, Toast

6 letters: Banana, Potato, Carrot

7 letters: Dessert, Mustard, Cupcake

Sky/Weather words:

3 letters: Sky, Sun, Day, Ray, Fog, Sol

4 letters: Moon, Star, Rain, Dark, Wind, Drop, Mist, Warm, Luna, Gust

5 letters: Night, Cloud, Shine, Light, Foggy, Comet, Storm, Dream

6 letters: Cosmos, Breeze, Meteor, Bright

7 letters: Thunder, Eclipse, Rainbow

Winter words:

3 letters: Ice, Nip

4 letters: Snow, Slip, Bite, Cold, Coat, Yule, Noel, Cozy

5 letters: Frost, Chill, Flake, Holly, Jolly, Slush, Polar, Scarf

6 letters: Winter, Tundra, Aurora, Toasty, Mitten, Arctic

7 letters: Snowman

Colours:

3 letters: Red

4 letters: Blue, Aqua, Teal, Pink, Navy, Grey, Gray, Cyan, Gold, Jade

5 letters: Black, Green, Brown, White, Amber, Color, Azure, Ivory, Blush

6 letters: Purple, Silver, Golden, Ginger

7 letters: Crimson, Saffron, Verdant

Months:

3 letters: May

4 letters: June, July

5 letters: March, April

6 letters: August

7 letters: January, October

Music words:

3 letters: Tap

4 letters: Tune, Beat, Drum, Sing, Song, Sung, Bell

5 letters: Music, Flute, Rhyme, Choir, Tempo, Strum

6 letters: Chorus, Melody, Rhythm

7 letters: Harmony

Spooky words:

3 letters: Urn, Ash, Bat, Web, Sad, Rib

4 letters: Goth, Bone, Jack, Grim, Crow, Scar, Cage, Tomb, Weep, Wail

5 letters: Ghost, Quiet, Witch, Death, Mummy, Demon, Devil, Raven, Skull, Scare, Ghoul, Grief, Blood, Scary, Haunt, Grave

6 letters: Spooky, Creepy, Autumn, Plague, Broken

7 letters: Pumpkin, Lantern, Haunted, Twisted, Weeping

Rocks and Gems:

3 letters: Jet

4 letters: Rock, Ruby, Onyx, Opal

5 letters: Stone, Agate, Amber, Beryl, Flint, Lapis, Nacre, Topaz

6 letters: Marble, Basalt, Gypsum, Garnet, Jasper, Quartz, Lazuli, Spinel

7 letters: Citrine, Diamond, Emerald, Peridot

Other:

3 letters: Row, Way, Tip, Top, Low, Out, Run, New, Old, Big, Rip, Fly

4 letters: York, Lane, High, East, West, Over, Road, Trim, Past, Slow, Tiny, Gift, Land, Cape, Comb, King, Well, Wild, Town, City, Fire

5 letters: South, North, Under, Short, Small, Range, Crown, Glory, Peace, Queen, Speed, Angel, Happy, Ville, Cross, Sword

6 letters: Desert, Canyon, Castle, Battle, Shield, Steady

7 letters: Welcome, Glimmer, Slipper, Glitter, Unicorn

#animal crossing new horizons #acnh #animal crossing #guide #tyvm @beacon-of-chaos for a lot of these new words!!!#some of your words I had to google to figure out what section they'd go under lmao #I also spent my break at work writing down as many as I could in those 15 minutes

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konglindorm · 3 years ago

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White Bears

So the other day I was flipping through my Kay Nielsen-illustrated “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” collection with my mom, because she’d never seen the illustrations before, and they’re some of my favorites. And we weren’t actually reading the stories this time; we were just there to look at pretty pictures.

The book starts with the titular “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” and therefore some illustrations of white bears. And then we keep going through a few more pages, and suddenly there’s another illustration of a white bear, and at this point I’m thinking “oh, right, ‘White Bear King Valemon.’ Huh. It’s kinda strange that there would be two Norwegian enchanted bridegroom stories where the bridegroom is specifically a white bear.”

And then I flip to the next page, and, granted, at this time I haven’t read “White Bear King Valemon” in a few years, but the next illustration was not at all consistent with what I remembered. So I went back a few pages to discover that this set of white bear illustrations was actually for “The Blue Belt,” and this collection didn’t even include “White Bear King Valemon.”

So let’s talk today about the enchanted bridegroom subset “white bears in Norway.”

Now, the reason I'd forgotten about the white bear bit of "The Blue Belt" is that it's largely inconsequential, just another crazy element in a story packed with crazy. The main character is never actually turned into a bear, but does convincingly disguise himself as one to meet the princess he loves in secret, allowing him to collect insider information to win her hand. The main thing about this story is that, as irrelevant as his white bear disguise is to the plot as a whole, it has resulted in a couple of fantastic illustrations that can easily be used for bear-based enchanted bridegroom stories. But primarily we're here to talk about "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and "White Bear King Valemon," which are very similar but also completely distinct stories. You can read all about "East-West" here, and this post will be mainly running through how "King Valemon" is different and why we care.

So first off, this is another of those stories where youngest kid is best kid and therefore wins, and specifically the kind of story where it's not something you really want to win - in this case, the right to be kidnapped by a polar bear. All three sisters are princesses, and the bear deemed the older two unworthy to be kidnapped, possibly because they had brains in their heads, which our girl does not seem to.

Bear whisks girl away to palace, joins her in bed at night in human form. And, okay. Remember how in "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," the girl and the enchanted bear have to share a bed for a year, and we really don't know exactly what all they're doing in that bed?

In "White Bear King Valemon," we know exactly what they're doing, and it's exactly what you think. She lives with the bear for three years, and in that time she has three babies. All of whom the bear whisks away immediately. Which, dude, yikes.

I mean, ambiguous bed-sharing with a stranger for one year is already a little, um...well. But getting knocked up by a stranger? Three times? And having all the babies kidnapped by the same white bear who kidnapped you? Who you may or may not have gathered by now is also the stranger who knocked you up? (My money's on not gathering that, because our girl doesn't strike me as the brightest, so far.) Again, yikes. I'm just, like, I'm at a loss for words. "Yikes" is all I've got, guys.

Why does she keep having sex with this man? Does she have a choice? Is this consensual? Why isn't she questioning this man about what on earth is going on here? Why is she not having an enormous fight with the bear and demanding her children back? Why is she allowing herself to become pregnant again when she knows that the baby is going to be taken away by the bear? What does she even think the bear is doing with the babies?

There comes a time when you just have to say, okay, either the sex stops or we explore period-appropriate alternatives to birth control, because I refuse to bring another child into this world to be eaten by a bear.

After three years and three stolen babies, the girl convinces the bear to let her visit home. Where her mom does the whole "You're doing what? With who? You haven't even seen his face?" bit, only she's even more justified in her concern than the East-West mom, because her daughter is reproducing with this man and then allowing her grandbabies to be taken away and possibly eaten by a talking bear. Like, yes, mom, you tell her; she should absolutely be gathering more information about this situation. There is a time and a place to go with the flow, and that is not here and now, sweetheart.

So she goes back with the white bear and lights her little candle, and he wakes up when the tallow drips on him and acts like this is some great betrayal, and not the sensible thing she should have done two and a half years ago when she realized she was pregnant the first time.

He is, like in East-West, just one month from the curse being broken, and I would like to just take a moment to say that is not fair, the troll who cursed him is not playing by the rules, everyone knows the time frame in situations like this is a year and a day, what is this slightly over three years crap?

Bear switches from hot guy back to bear and runs off to where he's supposed to meet the troll or whatever, idk - the girl grabs his fur and tries to go with him, but falls off in the forest somewhere.

She does her best to catch up with him on foot, and on the way she meets three little girls, living with three old women, and each of these girls gives her a gift; these gifts are what she will trade to the troll for three nights with the white bear - well, with King Valemon, now that his bear-curse is over. He's drugged on the first two nights, and they can finally talk on the third, just like in East-West. But instead of Fun With Laundry, in this story they make a trap door for the troll to fall through when she's walking down the aisle. Which. Lame.

With the troll handled, King Valemon takes our girl home, but on the way we stop to collect the three little girls who helped her. Because those are their kids, who he, get this, "had taken so they could aid in her quest." The quest that didn't exist yet at the time, because he hadn't been taken by the troll yet, and had no reason yet to suspect that she would look at his face - I mean, the girl was having babies with him and not bothering about the face, so I would have considered it a safe bet that she would continue not bothering, and taking the babies was definitely overkill.

Also, like. She lived with him for three years and had three babies. After three years, she visits her parents, and then she looks at him with the candle; this all seems to happen pretty quickly. Which means the oldest girl might, maybe, possibly be as old as three, but probably she's younger. We should have an age range of infant to toddler here. And yet all three are described as little girls, not babies, and all three seem able to effectively communicate. So that's a bit of a plot hole. Gotta love timeline inconsistency.

In conclusion: "East of the Sun, West of the Moon"? Beautiful, meaningful story, perfect, magnificent, 25 out of ten. "White Bear King Valemon?" Garbage story full of garbage characters who make garbage decisions, not worth the paper it's printed on, only redeeming feature is mom not putting up with her daughter's absolute idiocy.

#East of the Sun West of the Moon #asbjornsen and moe #white bear king valemon #folklore #fairy tales

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dasphinxone · 4 years ago

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AU Moodboard based on the Norwegian fairytale East of the Sun and West of the Moon for the Book of Nile.

Nile lives with her mother and brother in the snowy lands of a magical Snow Kingdom.

During Nile’s youth, there was a brutal civil war in between the usurper, Merrick, and the rulers who called themselves the Immortal Coven. Nile’s father, a great knight, sided with the Immortals since they were the true rulers. Unfortunately, the Immortal Coven lost the war and disappeared in the aftermath. So no one knows if they are alive or dead. Nile’s father also died fighting during the war.

King Merrick the Usurper took over the kingdom. His rule is pretty terrible. Since Nile’s father fought for the losing side, his surviving family of his wife, Nile and her brother moved north to the snowy isolated tundra to avoid King Merrick’s potential retribution against the Immortal Coven’s supporters. While Nile’s family isn’t dirt poor, they are certainly not rich and sometimes struggle to survive.

One night during a terrible winter storm, a great white polar bear comes knocking on their door looking for shelter. He’s magical and can talk. He also assures the family that no harm will come to them. It turns out he’s right and shelters with them for the night without incident. He also peacefully leaves in the morning. A few days later, the polar bear returns and says he’s looking for a wife in Nile. Mostly because he’s lonely and wants a companion. Also, she was so kind to him during his shelter from the storm. He swears on his life that no harm will come to Nile and that she will want for nothing. In exchange, he’ll pay for her dowry and make the family rich. He gives the family 24 hours to arrive at their decision.

Nile’s mother immediately says no. I mean, sure, it’s a magic polar bear. But she would never push Nile into sacrificing herself for her family. However, Nile tells her mother the decision isn’t hers and that she would rather see her family safe and secure than pass up a chance to change their destiny. Plus, Nile’s teenage brother will be able to go to school and her mother will never have to work again. So Nile agrees to marry the polar bear.

They marry immediately and the polar bear makes good on his promises. He gives Nile’s family enough treasures to set them up for life. Then he has Nile climb on his back and he races across the tundra to take her to his home. It turns out to be a beautiful, enchanted winter castle. There are (human) servants who speak of the polar bear’s kindness and treat Nile well. The polar bear gives Nile whatever she wants without question. She’s also free to roam the entire castle and the grounds.

His only request of her is that while he sleeps by Nile’s side at night (should she want him to, of course), Nile will never be able to look upon his true form in the light. Nile finds it odd but agrees since she’s used to dealing with magic due to living in the enchanted kingdom all of her life.

Nile is happy for the most part. Her Polar Bear husband treats her well and seems to have a good heart, whether he’s in his bear or his night form. Her family is taken care of. She can have whatever she wants at this beautiful, enchanted castle and the servants for company. Except Nile becomes increasingly and understandably lonely. And it’s been months since she’s seen her family. While her Polar Bear husband is worried that her brother will turn her against him, he doesn’t stop her from visiting her family. He just warns her to not talk to her brother too much and remember their rule that she’s not to see her husband’s real form outside of the darkness at night.

Nile returns home and sees that her mother is thriving while her brother’s schooling is going well. While her mother is happy to see Nile happy, her brother can be a bit overprotective of her. Especially when Nile explains that her husband becomes his real form at night. She just can’t see him by his own rules. Nile’s brother eventually convinces her that her Polar Bear husband is nowhere near human in his true form that she feels at night. He’s simply a monster and she needs to kill whatever it is she’s married to. In fact, Nile should drug her husband and take a candle to him so she can see him for what he is before she kills him.

Nile reluctantly agrees she needs to know the truth. Yet she refuses to promise her brother that she’ll kill her husband. Later that month, she returns back home to her enchanted castle.

It takes Nile a few more days to arrive at a plan. Eventually, she does the deed and drugs her husband. Except she sees via candlelight in their bed that she’s been sleeping next to what looks like a solid human. Looking closer, she realizes that it’s pretty Prince Sébastien (also known by his common name of Booker among the people). Booker is one of the lost of the Immortal Coven who used to rule the kingdom before King Merrick the Usurper came along.

Nile is so shocked at the revelation that she accidentally drops the hot wax of the candle on the human form Prince Sébastien and it wakes him up. Rather than being angry with her for her violation, he’s in anguish. Because had Nile waited just a few more days, she would have been married to him for a full year and his curse of being a polar bear during the day would have been broken. He would have then remained in his human form forever and in the light.

Before the civil war that Nile’s father died in, Princess Andromache was the Immortal Coven’s leader. She ruled the magic Snow Kingdom for thousands of years alone until she found her wife in Princess Quynh, a fellow Immortal. They both eventually found Prince Yusuf and Prince Nicolò and then Prince Sébastien/Booker. The five of them equally ruled the kingdom fairly and justly and the people were content. In turn, the magical Snow Kingdom thrived.

Well, until Princess Quynh disappeared in a shipwreck while she was on a diplomatic mission. Her loss was felt not only by the whole kingdom and the Immortals, but especially by Princess Andromache. Princess Andromache became exhausted and cynical. She remained in mourning for her wife for centuries, clad in all black and the silver of steel. Things started to slowly decline. The kingdom was also weakened by a series of bad harvests, droughts and winter storms. That’s when Duke Merrick invaded the kingdom by claiming that Princess Andromache and her fellow rules had no right to rule for so long. The people were split in their loyalties and hence the civil war.

Prince Sébastien tells Nile that he was cursed by King Merrick the Usurper. For Merrick promised that he could bring back Booker’s dead wife and children to him if he betrayed his fellow Immortals in the last years of the civil war. Lord Copley was the one who presented Prince Sébastien with Merrick’s deal, as he too wanted his wife back from the dead. But Copley was cautious, waiting to see if Duke Merrick could actually raise the dead with Prince Sébastien’s family as the guinea pigs. Copley also realized how that sort of power could change the world and no one would have to suffer from the grief of losing their loved ones ever again. Also, Prince Sébastien and Lord Copley were tired of fighting. Especially in a war that was killing thousands.

Except Merrick the Usurper lied. He used Booker’s information about the others of the coven to strengthen his own magic and defeat the Immortal Coven. He then cursed Booker and turned him into a polar bear. Booker was doomed to wander the world in such a scary form because it would be nearly impossible for him to find his second chance at true love. Lord Copley fled and has never been seen since the end of the civil war.

In order to break the curse, Prince Sébastien has to find a human wife and stay married to her for a year in order to permanently return to his human form. If his marriage doesn’t last for a full year, he will be forced to marry King Merrick and turn over what ever is left of his magic and immortality to Merrick. Since Nile broke her promise, Prince Sébastien is now doomed to marry Merrick.

Nile is determined not to let that happen and insists there must be a way to stop the impending marriage. Prince Sébastien says that she must rescue him if she wants him back. In order to find him, she must head East of the Sun and West of the Moon. There, she will find a castle that lies at the ends of the earth. He also tells her where Lord Copley has exiled himself since the end of the war. For he will guide her as well. With that, Prince Sébastien disappears along with all of the servants. Nile is left alone in the now freezing and abandoned castle.

She packs up some cold weather gear, rations and weapons and hikes out to save her Prince. First, she heads to Lord Copley’s castle and sneaks in. Stunned at Nile’s existence as Booker’s willing wife, Lord Copley agrees to help her. He gives her a golden apple, a golden carding comb and a golden spinning wheel. While he does not tell her explicitly how to use each item, he believes she has the wits to know the right time to use them. He also lends her the fastest horse of his stable and tells her to head east until she reaches the mountains. Nile will then have to climb to the top of the peak and call out to the East Wind.

Nile manages on her journey and heads to the top of the eastern mountains. She calls on the East Wind to assist her. Taking pity on this brave woman, the East Wind doesn’t know of a castle located east of the Sun and west of the Moon. However, his husband in the West Wind may know of the place. So the East Wind carefully takes up Nile and winds her over to his husband in the west

The West Wind also does not know of where this castle east of the Sun and west of the Moon lies. But his good friend the South Wind may know. So the West Wind carefully takes up Nile and winds her over to the South Wind.

The South Wind is also at a loss for the location of this mystery castle. While she is stronger than the East and West Winds, she needs to take Nile to her wife of the North Wind. Like the East and West Winds, the South Wind takes a liking to Nile and winds her over the North Wind.

The North Wind usually blows cold and harsh. Yet she admires Nile’s strength and determination. She is also happy to see her wife in the South Wind. The North Wind tells Nile that a long time ago, she once blew an aspen leaf to a castle located exactly east of the Sun and west of the Moon. While the North Wind found herself exhausted with going so far, she is willing to take Nile there on the recommendation of the East, West and South Winds. Nile is then winded to the enchanted castle.

She finds that the castle is indeed King Merrick’s winter retreat. She finds out from the local townspeople that the King is planning his wedding to Prince Sébastien. Once the wedding rituals are done, the King will be able to steal the Prince’s magical powers and immortality, just as Booker said. Nile disguises herself as a servant and sneaks into King Merrick’s castle. She’s able to locate Prince Sébastien’s quarters, where she finds him alive and in his polar bear form since it is during the day.

Prince Sébastien is stunned that his beloved wife has made it so far. He tells her that while he is a prisoner of the castle during the day, Nile must physically steal him from King Merrick’s castle in the night and while he’s in human form. If they can make it off the castle grounds by sunrise, Sébastien will be saved, remain in his human form and retain his magic and immortality. Nile and Sébastien agree that she will meet him at his quarters that very same night so they may escape.

Nile arrives to Sebastian’s quarters and bribes the servant attending to him with the golden apple she was given by Lord Copley. The servant lets her into Prince Sébastien’s quarters only for Nile to find him drugged to sleep. No matter what she does, he doesn’t wake up. Defeated, Nile retreats by sunrise.

The second night, Nile bribes the servant with the golden carding comb, the second gift that Lord Copley gave her. Except Sebastian has been drugged again and does not wake. Nile once again leaves him at sunrise.

The next day while Nile is working and still disguised as a servant, she’s given a note by the servant she bribed the previous two nights. It’s from Prince Sébastien. It turns out he suspects he’s been drugged by King Merrick’s right hand in Lord Keane. As Keane is taking every precaution to ensure that Prince Sébastien doesn’t escape before the wedding. Tonight, Prince Sébastien will not eat his dinner and will toss it out of the window of his quarters. That way, he’ll stay awake when Nile arrives.

The third night, Nile bribes the servant with the golden spinning wheel Copley gave her. When she enters, Sébastien is awake, in human form and ready leave. The two of them sneak out of the castle and make it to the palace grounds.

Just before her and Sébastien arrive to the outer gate of the palace grounds, they run into Lord Keane. Since Prince Sébastien is weakening due to the coming dawn and about to transform back into a polar bear, it is up to Nile to defeat Lord Keane. She does so in a battle of combat and wits and slays him. She then drags Prince Sébastien across the border between the castle and outside its grounds, managing to save him just as the sun crests the horizon.

King Merrick flees his castle in terror.

When Nile saves Prince Sébastien, Merrick’s evil spell is finally broken. Sébastien becomes his full human form. Also, it allows the winds to return to their their human forms as well. It turns out they were the remaining four Immortals. The East Wind was Prince Yusuf, his husband the West Wind in Prince Nicolò. Princess Andromache was the South Wind while Princess Quynh was the North wind who led Nile to Prince Sébastien.

The reason the North Wind helped Nile is because after she managed to free herself from the wreckage of her ship deep beneath the cold arctic seas, the minute Quynh touched solid land, she was turned into the North Wind. This was due to Merrick’s cursed spell that specifically affected all of the Immortal Coven once they lost the war. The North Wind found Prince Sébastien wandering the tundra in his cursed polar bear form. He told her of his grief of losing his family and the guilt of his betrayal of his Immortal family. He also revealed to her how to find Princess Andromache and the others in their wind forms. In exchange for his honesty and helping to find her wife, the North Wind helped Nile find Prince Sébastien.

With the Immortals now in their true human forms and all of their magic returned to them, they defeat Merrick the Usurper. The people of the magic Snow Kingdom welcome them to rule again via referendum and they resume power. Nile renews her vows with Booker, her family and the other Immortals as their witnesses. Princess Andromache then bequeaths Nile the title of Princess for Nile’s bravery and her role in helping to free the Immortals from Merrick’s curse.

Sébastien is devoted to his wife for saving not only him but also his new family. The other Immortals welcome her into their fold as well since Nile magically gains her immortality. Likely, fate has seen fit to grant her such due to her saving everyone from Merrick the Usurper and the rescue of her Prince. And unlike in The Old Guard, Princess Nile is able to tell her family and they all maturely deal with her new immortality.

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