Neither Rose nor Charles liked to talk much of their adventures with the trolls, but some of the so-called "softskins" whom they had brought out of Niflheim, as well as the crew of the ship Soren had hired to go north to find Rose, must have spread the story, because for many years afterward, there were tales of a race of trolls living on top of the world.Only Rose and her white bear know the whole truth of it.

I knelt by the design. Yes, there was the sun rising. But the white form I had always thought to be a cloud was a bear. I could see it now, upside down. White bear, isbjorn, stood for north. Father had not been able to help himself. The truth was there, too. Truth and lie, side by side.

She would search for him. In the land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. But there was no way there.

Where is it?" I asked, willing him to tell me.He laughed suddenly, and I could hear the full-throated, grating sound of the white bear's laughter in it."East of the sun and west of the moon," he said.