Into the Forest discussion

Hi all! A friend asked me for help finding a fairy tale. Here's her description:

"I wanted to ask you about a fairy tale I remember from my childhood that I have not been able to find through a search. Perhaps because what I remember as the title is more of a repeated motif than the actual title. What I recall is "More North Than North, More South Than South." Does that ring any bells with you?"

Any ideas? It's not East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

Margaret wrote: "Hi all! A friend asked me for help finding a fairy tale. Here's her description:

"I wanted to ask you about a fairy tale I remember from my childhood that I have not been able to find through a s..."

Margaret,
I googled it and what came up was a book called The Space Between Before and After by Sue Stauffacher. I don't know if this is the book your friend is asking about. I hope it is.

I'm guessing that's not it because it was written in 2019, and this is a story from her childhood (she's in her late 50s). But thank you!

Try http://dev.surlalunefairytales.com/bo... from The Norwegian Fairy Book by Klara Stroebe

Amanda wrote: "Try http://dev.surlalunefairytales.com/bo... from The Norwegian Fairy Book by Klara Stroebe"

That may be it! I sent it to her. I'll let you know!

Does your friend remember anything else about the story - the gender, age, appearance, etc. of the protagonist, the central "problem" of the story (quest, curse, etc.), how long it was, when she read it?

Michele wrote: "Does your friend remember anything else about the story - the gender, age, appearance, etc. of the protagonist, the central "problem" of the story (quest, curse, etc.), how long it was, when she re..."

She didn't remember any of those things! I sent her the fairytale Amanda suggested, and she said that might be it, but she never got back to me on whether it was the correct fairytale.

There are many variants of East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North. Your friend needs to do some more reading, and responding to you. ;) If there's a bear who is a man at night, and a long multi-stage quest for the girl, and iron shoes, and/or a troll princess, it's a variant.

Google also reveals: "More north than North, more south than South... in old Baba Yaga legend."

And when I added the word 'and' to the middle of the searched quote, I found at: https://pgiaa.org/alumni-in-action/te...
there's "Once upon a time, in a time when the sun rose in the west and settled in the east, in a land far, far away, more north than north, and more south than south, a countryman had a son, a boy only as big as a thumb, a boy called Thumbling."

Implication that I derive from the academic (second) source is that we're looking at a longer alternative to the simple "once upon a time." It could have been on any number of stories.

Ancient Origins could be a supplemental source to Sur La Lune: https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths...

Cheryl wrote: "There are many variants of East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North. Your friend needs to do some more reading, and responding to you. ;) If there's a bear who ..."

Great research! I no longer remember who asked me this, lol.

That's ok. It was fun research. Cuz the phrase sounded familiar to me, too.

Cheryl wrote: "That's ok. It was fun research. Cuz the phrase sounded familiar to me, too."

:)