Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

Love you always, miss you always... running day and night, leaving the place of sun and moon, of ice and snow. Never look back, never forget.

And the prince who had once been a bear pulled close the girl who had once had no name, and kissed her.

Love’? What do you know about love?” "It’s at the heart of every story,” Rollo said with authority. “If humans could avoid falling in love, you would never get yourselves into any trouble.

Wind does not need translation. It speaks the language of men, of animals and birds, of rocks and trees and earth and sky and water. It does not eat or sleep, or take shelter from the weather. It is the weather. And it lives.

This book was made possible by the letter “ø.

It was a palace, made entirely of gold, sitting on an island of silver snow at the very top of the world. East of the sun, and west of the moon.

Love? ... It's at the heart of every story.

It is a fine thing, to set your sights on crystal towers and golden thrones," Hans Peter said quietly. "But first you had better see what lurks within those towers, and what sits on those thrones.

Every palace needs a foundation, Askeladden. Make sure that yours isn't of human bones.-Hans Peter

If it's easter than east and wester than west, it must be north.

And so they lived for many a long year, as happy and lighthearted as the birds in the trees and the flowers on the hill in spring.

Be careful. Wait out your year. Come home.

This book was made possible by the letter “ø.” Also the letter “æ.” The first time I saw them, I fell in love and just had to learn the language they belonged to. That language turned out to be Norwegian, with its rich history of folk tales about trolls and polar bears and clever young lads and lasses out to make their fortune. I only hope that I didn’t offend my Danish blacksmith forbears by choosing to study Norwegian instead of Danish in college.

As they traveled the sun and moon dipped in the sky and then rose again, moving around them in a stately dance. In the summer months, at the top of the world, neither sank below the horizon. The sky was both dark and light, the sun a tiny pale ball and the moon a long thin crescent, lying on its back like a bowl. Then, for a time, the sun was directly below the moon, looking insignificant and weak.