THE CASTLE EAST OF THE SUN.
AN OLD STORY, FROM THE DANISH.
There was once a king who had been very prosperous and happy, but he was growing old. He had six sons and one daughter. His sons were very gay and jovial young men, who spent their days very merrily; and when the old king saw their vigorous sports and their enjoyment of life, he sighed to think that he could not be young once more. His daughter was beautiful and mild, and devoted all her days to amuse the old king, and to make him forget that he was growing old. But there came a very handsome prince from a far-off country, and he fell in love with the old king's daughter, and asked her in marriage, and desired to take her away with him to his own kingdom.
Now, the prince was very handsome, and had a very beautiful carriage, and very fine horses, and many servants, and plenty of gold and jewels, and everything which belongs to a prince. But the old king desired to know where lay the kingdom of the prince, and what was its name. But the prince said that it was the island which lay east of the sun and west of the world, and that was its name; and that it was so far off that nobody had ever been to it from this country, nor had any one come to this country from it besides himself.
Then the old king was not willing that his daughter should marry a prince from a country so far off that nobody ever before heard of it. The young princes, his sons, were also opposed to the marriage. They did not like the prince because he was so much handsomer than themselves, and had more money, and appeared with so much more splendour than they could. They said he was probably some adventurer and impostor, for no one had ever heard of the country he pretended to come from, nor could they see how any one could get thither from a place east of the sun and west of the world.
Now, the princess felt a great affection for the strange prince, for he was the handsomest man who had ever come to her father's court, and was passionately in love with her; but she would not consent to leave her father in his old age. Then said the prince, that he was bound not to return to his own country, nor to take upon him its government, for three years, and for that time he would stay in this country; and when they went away at length, he would send the old king some of the water which played in the fountain in the court of his castle, and some of the apples which grew over the sides of the fountain, and were wetted daily with the dew of its spray. This fountain was the fountain of immortality, and the apples were the apples of youth; and whoever drank of that water and ate one of those apples would be instantly young again, and enjoy once more all the buoyancy and ardour of his freshest years.
When the old king heard that, he was very glad, and gave his consent for the prince to marry his daughter, for above all things he wished to be young again, and to enjoy his life as he had done in his youthful years. The princess, too, on learning this, was willing to marry the prince, for she thought if her father could be young again he would find plenty of sources of happiness, and she herself would not grieve to go away to such a far-off country, if by that means she could thus purchase for her father the great desire of his heart, and the renewal of his life.
So the prince and princess were married, and they lived in a splendid palace near the old king, and were very happy. Every day the princess found the prince more amiable and sensible, and desirous to add to her felicity, and he promised himself a long and joyous life with her in his own beautiful island east of the sun and west of the world—so long, that nobody could tell the end of it, for they could drink of the fountain of life and eat of the apples of youth daily.
But the old king was so impatient for a draught of this water, and a taste of one of those apples, that he forgot that the prince said that he was bound not to return to his kingdom for three years. He was impatient for the prince and princess to begone, and to send some of the apples and the water, for he longed with a longing unto death for the renewal of his youth, which in his memory seemed so beautiful.