My favorite fairy tale no one knows about: The Polar Bear King

No one talks about this fairy tale, and it was a major staple of my childhood. I think it was my dad's influence, as he saw it was a Norwegian tale and could connect me to our distant heritage. He bought a VHS that I watched a ton as a child. I later watched it as an adult with my husband, and it made my heart sing with nostalgia. Sometimes it is not until you are older that you realize how special some stories are to you. The Polar Bear King is one such tale.

The fairy tale is truly called White Bear King Valemon. It is about a prince of spring lands who cursed by a witch into a polar bear. To break the spell, he must find a princess to marry him. So, he travels to the winter lands and meets a girl that dreams of spring and promises to take her there. Much to her family's dismay, the princess agrees to go with him.

He turns into a human at night, and the royal couple have daughters. However, every daughter is mysteriously kidnapped. Then the princess' sisters send her a candle gift so that she can see what her prince looks like as a human (though he told her that is forbidden until they marry). The princess ignores his warning and takes a peek on him sleeping. But he wakes up and explains that because of the curse and the princess' curiosity, he now has the marry the witch.

What follows is the princess going on a quest to save her prince from a witch. She cuts her hair, gathers magical items, disguises herself as a servant boy, and attends the wedding between the witch and prince. The prince is under a spell, and is basically a mindless doll at this point. The princess poisons the party and saves him. They reunite with their kidnapped daughters (which were actually stolen by the princes' invisible sorceress mom to protect them from the witch but that's a long story). Then they live happily ever after.

That is the story in a nutshell, but what makes it special to me are its details from the VHS film that stick with me in adulthood. I fell in love with the winter land and the princess' community. Her father could speak with animals, and gossip with the wolves. He was my favorite character. The community was small, and their king was worried the polar bear was tricking his daughter into becoming his next meal. So they rallied around the princess to make sure she wouldn't go to the bear. Of course, the bear powered through them and took her. The relationship got better from there though, as she would visit the winter land and eventually her prince even visited when his spell was broken and had a big hug with the king.

Snow was so romanticized. When she was homestick, her father mailed her a snowball with light shining under it. Other than that though, spring was so romanticized. The princess dreamed of flowers, greenery, and warmth outside of her kingdom. The movie really gave me a love of the seasons as a kid.

Also, the princess is a total badass in the second half. I took that for granted as a kid, but comparing it to so many other fairy tales I would say she is a natural hero. She not only kills the witch, but basically every other evil supernatural entity at the wedding such as demons, ghosts, wraiths, and whatnot. She also did it by raiding the witches' lab and using her own potions against her.

My dads favorite character was the most evil man of all. The funny part? We don't know why he is the most evil. We just know he is and because of that, the wedding is top-tier for evil people to attend. He is charismatic, funny, and the everyone adores him. Don't know his story, but that was part of the magic of the tale.

The magic was interesting too. Scissors that cut air and create clothes, boots for climbing sheer cliffs alone, curses, talking to animals, mind control, invisibility, and no shortage of food conjuration.

Of course, the movie is incredibly old. The polar bear and magic is done with bare bones effects. My husband would laugh

whenever the polar bear prince was around, and I couldn't blame him. However, the magic was far from gone to me. The music, settings, costumes, and magic are still strong. The acting has a range from terrible to amazing depending on the character.

The movie did take some liberties from the folktale, as the princess was given a golden wreath by the polar bear in the original. In the film, he gives her a golden chain necklace. In the original, the princes' carpenter actually made a trapdoor for the witch and her bridesmaids to fall through. I think I prefer the film, in that the princess poisons all the guests.

My biggest hope as well as fear is if some big company like Disney will try to get their hands on such a tale. I would be happy if it stuck true to the story, but would be upset if it was like how Frozen was originally going to be the Snow Queen. Or perhaps the fairy tale will keep being obscure.

Whatever the case may be, it is my favorite fairy tale of all, complete with a badass princess, witch-wedding, bear prince, invisible inlaw, magic, and beautiful locations . . . be they frozen in snow or blossoming in flowers.