LaDawn Noble

October 21, 2015

Fairy Tale Exploration
East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Questions

1. What evidence is there that the youngest daughter is clever? Give an example.
2. Why was the white bear so worried about his bride to be speaking to her mother in a
room alone?
3. Do you believe that the youngest daughter would have been able to wait a year before she
saw the princes face if her mother had not told her to hold a candle to his face?
4. Do you think that the old woman that the girl kept running into at the base of the
mountains could be the same person? Why or why not.
5. What kind of character does the youngest daughter possess? Is she vain and selfish or is
she humble and generous? Explain.
6. What would have happened had she never reached the castle, would she have continued
looking for the prince?
Patterns
1. There is a pattern of love at first sight.
a. In a variety of bride- groom fairy tales, the main characters almost always fall in
love at first sight. This pattern is necessary almost because it shows the intensity
of true love and that is exactly what these types of fairy tales are known for.
2. Youth is beauty
a. In most fairy tales the younger you are, the more beautiful you are made to be. In
Eats of the Sun and West of the Moon for example, the youngest daughter was
described as the most beautiful out of all his other daughters. In other fairy tales
as well, we see that the older people are usually more wicked and ugly. They are
less desirable.

Connections

Goodness vs. Wickedness

a. The Christians in this tale were portrayed as loving and pure, which is why only someone
born of a Christian was able to clean the princes shirt. The wicked and unclean trolls
only soiled the shirt even more.
Kindness vs. Cruelty
b. The princess troll was very cruel to the young girl in that she continued to use trickery to
put the prince into such a deep sleep that he would not be able to wake and respond to the
girl. However, the old lady who continued to gift the girl with items as she traveled to the
mountain as very kind and in the end the items that she had given the girl helped her be
able to get the prince back.