The Story of the Abandoned Princess (Danish: Historien om den forladte Prindsesse; Norwegian: Eventyret om dem forladte prinsesse) is a Norwegian fairy tale published by Norwegian author Camilla Collet. It is related to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom and distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch.
Summary
A king is on a hunt, but loses his way in the forest, and cannot find his way home. He ventures deep into the woods, and suddenly a white bear comes out of the bushes. The king is afraid at first, but the bear begins to talk and assuages him he means no harm, and promises to help him out of the forest in exchange for the king's youngest daughter. The king agrees to his terms and is carried on the bear's back to his castle. Time passes, and the king hopes the bear has forgotten their deal, until a golden carriage appears on the road to the castle. The king tries to send his elder daughters to the bear, but the carriage does not move, and, reluctantly, sends the third princess to be with the bear.
While the king and the queen mourn for their daughter, she is taken to a magnificent castle. Despite the luxury, she notices that the castle is devoid of life, and cries, thinking she will never be able to see her family again. That same night, the princess senses someone is in the bedchambers with her; the mysterious guest tells her he means no harm, and that the castle is hers, as long as she obeys and trusts him. They sleep together. The next morning, she wakes up and sees the white bear, and cries again, alone in the castle.
For three years, they live together and she gives birth to two boys and a girl in three consecutive years, but each time, they are taken from her: the elder boy by a dog, the younger boy by a wolf, and the girl by a dragon. Fed up with the increased loneliness and losing her children, she asks the white bear to visit her family. The white bear allows it, but warns her to listen to her father, not her mother. Despite the warning, the princess visits her parents: the king advises her to be patient, while the queen gives her a flint to use at night. The princess returns and, after the third time, decides to light a candle at night to see her husband's face: he is a handsome prince, and a bearskin is folded on the floor near the bed. However, a drop of tallow falls on his chest. The prince wakes up and chastises his wife, saying that, if she waited, his curse would have been lifted, and now he must remain a bear.
The princess pleads with him, and he agrees to take her on his back. They journey together; the princess sees in the distance a faint light like a star, then one shining like the moon, and another bright like the Sun. The bear explains the distant lights are from his sisters' houses. They pass by each of them to get provisions for the road, and the princess finds one of her children in each of them. Finally, they reach a Glass Mountain, which the bear climbs up and leaves his wife there, but an old woman appears and gives the princess a bag with items inside she can use to scale the mountain.
The princess does and arrives at a castle, where she is made to perform tasks for a Hexen: first, she is given a large bag of black wool she must wash white. A strange prince appears to her and offers to fulfill the task for her in exchange for a kiss. The princess refuses, but the man helps her at any rate. Next, the castle's Hexen orders the princess to take a large casket to the Hexen's sister in another farm, which she must not open. The princess walks with the casket along the way, but decides to open it: worms and toads jump out of it and spread to the four directions. The strange prince appears again and offers to help her for a kiss. Despite the girl's refusal, he commands the animals back to the box and gives her a handkerchief and a piece of meat. The princess walks to the farm and uses the handkerchief on a gate that attempts to squash her and the meat for a fierce dog, enters the farm and is served a sausage, which she hides in her clothes to deceive the Hexen's troll sister.
Finally, the Hexen has the princess sit at the table and forces her to hold a candle until it melts on her fingers. The princess begins to cry that her fingers are burning, and the strange prince says he can save her if she calls him her "Hjertenskjer". After some insistence, the princess agrees to his terms, and she recognizes his voice as her husband's. The Hexen bursts in anger, and the prince explains the Hexen cursed him into bear form, but now he is free. The princess and he take the Hexen's treasures, rescues their children and live together in the prince's castle.