NORDIC TALES | KING VALEMON

This was probably a bad idea.

No! You should stop thinking things like this. He’s your husband! Saving him from a crazy old hag who apparently cursed him to be a bear and now wants to marry him is NOT a bad idea!

Okay, maybe this WAS a bad idea.

FLASHBACK

You are the king’s youngest child. Your two older sisters, Freya and Sigrid, were notorious around the palace (and the kingdom) for being sort of.. well, not very nice towards people. You, however, were much different. You were kind and gentle towards others and tried your best not to be like your sisters. One night, however, you had a dream. A dream about a golden wreath. It was crafted so perfectly it seemed like it glowed like some kind of halo, and the details were so delicate it looked like it came right off of mother nature’s head. It was the most perfect piece of craftsmanship you’ve probably ever laid eyes upon, so you knew you had to have this thing.

However, despite your father’s initial requests to the royal goldsmiths, none of them could get it right. Hundreds of wreaths were made, but there was only ONE of the wreath that you dreamt of. Defeated, you made your way into the woods, when all of a sudden you saw a polar bear. But this polar bear was different.

This polar bear was holding your wreath.

It was playing with it, actually. Holding it awkwardly between its two large paws. You went up to it and asked if you could buy it. The polar bear refused, but you told it your father was a king. And that he could grant it anything it wanted. But it didn’t want gold or jewels or anything of the sort, oh no..

..it wanted you.

It wanted you to go away with it. To be with it forever. Desperate, and hooked by the crown’s power and allure, you took the bear up on its offer. It then gave you the wreath, and told you that you had three days to prepare for it’s coming.

After that, you went back to the castle and told your father about the deal you made with the bear, but he would have none of it. He guarded the castle from the bear, but when Thursday rolled around, the bear broke through his defenses. He gave the bear his eldest daughter’s hand in marriage in an attempt to save you, but the bear didn’t want her. The second Thursday rolled around, he had broken through the new defenses, the king offered his second daughter’s hand this time, but it was the same thing! He had no choice but to give you over to him once the last Thursday rolled around. The bear had literally defeated his entire army somehow. And so, you climbed on its back, and made your way through the forest riding a running polar bear of all things. After an hour into their journey, it asked you if it was the softest you sat on, and if this was the clearest you’ve ever seen. When you answered yes to both of these question, you could hear it mutter under it’s breath ‘you’re the right one.’ ..whatever that meant.

And so now you were like it’s spouse. Caring for its home while it was away, and meeting it at night when it came back. However, every night since, you were greeted in your chambers a seemingly handsome man. You’ve never seen his face, since the castle you were in had like no light sources whatsoever. But he gave love to you so passionately that you felt like it was the last day on earth every time you.. well, okay. Use your imagination here.

After 3 years of going to freaktown with your husband at night and caring for the polar bear in the day, you started to get lonely and homesick. So one day you requested to visit you family. The bear agreed to your visit, and when you returned to the palace, they asked you about your husband. When you explained you’ve never seen his face, your mother gave you a candle so that you could see for yourself what he looked like. When you came back to the bear’s home and night fell upon the land, you were greeted by the same mysterious man. And when he fell asleep next to you, you took the candle and shone it onto him.

He truly was the most beautiful man you’ve ever laid eyes upon.

You could swear you could feel your face flush, before suddenly the wax dripped onto his bare chest. Ruining the moment and causing panic from the man.

What have you done?!

he asked you, before grabbing his his bear skin and putting it on as day started to break.

If you had only waited a few more months, I would’ve been free! Now I have to spend the rest of eternity with the witch who cursed me!

he said, putting on the skin before shifting back into a bear. He then started to run into the woods, but not before you grabbed onto his coat and threw yourself onto his back before her darted off at inhuman speeds. He started to pick up the pace, and you knelt getting hit with branches and bramble and all kinds of things. Eventually, you were too tired to keep hanging on to him, and so you eventually let go in fatigue. Dropping on the floor and going to sleep as your husband was succumbed to this terrible fate.

Once you awakened, you went on a journey to find your husband and rescue him from the old witch. You had found cottages along the way with old women who armed you with scissors that could make any cloth, a flask that could make any drink, and a tablecloth that could conjure up food. Not to mention a sick pair of ice claws to help you climb the glass mountain in which the old crone lived on. The journey was tedious, lasting 3 days and nights. You barely made it to the top of Glass Mountain without fainting from fatigue.

Now that you made it to the top of Glass Mountain, you could now focus on infiltrating the palace to find your husband. You used the scissors, flask, and tablecloth to make expensive garments, delicious beverages, and the most expensive food. All of which caught the eyes of the old crone. Who had approached you outside the palace gates, and complained about how the wedding would be easier to handle if she had them. You gave them to her, on the condition that you could spend 3 nights with ‘her’ fiancée before the wedding. She accepted the deal and allowed you to do so. But for the past two nights, she’s been putting him to sleep with sleeping potion. Rendering him unable to move or plan an escape. However, for the third night, he tricked the witch, letting her think that he drank the potion after a servant told him he could hear someone crying over his bed at night. Which, he assumed would be your handiwork. He pretended to be asleep for the old crone, not even stirring once form his sleep... until he heard you call out in the darkness.

“Valemon?”

He immediately rose from his ‘slumber’ at the sound of your voice and locked eyes with you. A sea of emotions present in his eyes as he made his way over to you. You were going to say his name once more, before he shushed you. And looked around the room as if the walls had eyes. He then leaned in and whispered to you:

“My love, why have you come here? Don’t know know it’s dangerous?”