A single arched bridge, impossibly ornate and suspended in a sea of blue, sweeps the eye upward to a world of fairy tale logic in The Bridge Over the Sea (East of the Sun and West of the Moon). Kay Nielsen’s illustration, alive with swirling patterns and star-dotted shadows, invites the viewer to climb alongside the cloaked rider and their companion, whose billowing cape and anxious gesture suggest a journey both urgent and enchanted. The bridge itself is more than a path—it is a threshold, guarded by a golden-maned, mask-like head, its mouth chained shut, as if holding back the sun itself.

Below, a lone, wind-bent tree clings to a black rock, dwarfed by the vastness of sky and sea, reminding us how small human quests can seem against the stage of myth. Created in 1922 for a collection of Norwegian fairy tales, this work belongs to a world where illustration was not mere adornment but a portal to the story’s heart. The early twentieth century saw a flowering of book illustration, with artists like Nielsen drawing on both Art Nouveau’s decorative line and the dreamlike spaces of Symbolism. Publishers sought to enchant readers, commissioning such images to bring old tales to life for a new, modern audience hungry for wonder.

Though few details survive about the journey of this particular image, its presence in a digitized library collection today lets us cross that bridge ourselves, returning again and again to its strange, starry threshold.