Bear's Son Tale

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates "Bear's Son Tale" (Template:Langx)<ref>Template:Harvp uses "Bear's Son Tale" and give German equivalent "das Märchen vom Bärensohn"</ref> refers to an analogous group of narratives that, according to Template:Illm's 1910 thesis, represent the fairy tale material reworked to create the Anglo-Saxon poem BeowulfTemplate:'s first part, the Grendel-kin Story. Panzer collected over 200 analogue tales mostly from Eurasia.Template:Sfnp

The Bear's Son motif (B635.1) is exhibited only generally, not reliably.<ref>Template:Harvp, p. 4, note 9: "typically if not always of part bear parentage or raised by bears".</ref> Exceptions include versions of "Jean de l'Ours",<ref>Template:Harvp, referring to his No. 65 and 69, Brittany versions of Jean de l'Ours edited by Sebillot</ref> and the Grimms' fairy tale "Strong Hans" or "Template:Illm". Beowulf does not explicitly reveal a bear origin for its hero, but his name and great strength connect him to the animal closely.

Most of the tales are formally catalogued as either Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale type 301, "The Three Stolen Princesses"Template:Refn Template:Efn or ATU type 650A, "Strong John" or "Starker Hans".<ref name="klaeber"/><ref name=bierhorst/> Their plotlines are similar, with some differences;<ref name="klaeber"/> in the latter, the hero is subjected to tests by ordeal.<ref name=bierhorst/>

"Bear's Son Tale" has thus become only an informal term for tale type classification in folkloristics, but scholars in Beowulf criticism continue to assert the usefulness of the term in their studies.<ref>Template:Harvp: "While more recent folklorists prefer to call this folktale 'The Three Stolen Princesses', classified by Aarne as Type 301, it would seem more appropriate in a consideration involving analogy and parallelism with Beowulf to use the name 'The Bear's Son', employed by Panzer and other[s].</ref><ref>Template:Harvp: "I shall continue to use the term Bear's Son for the folktale in question; it is established in Beowulf criticism and certainly Stitt has justified its retention".</ref>

Core characteristics

Studies comparing the poem Beowulf to the Bear's Son Tale see these common core characteristics: a hero is raised by or descended from a bear, with bear-like strength. He and companions must guard a dwelling against a monster (which Panzer calls "Der Dämon im Waldhaus"Template:Sfnp). The companions are defeated, but the hero wounds the creature, sending him to flight. In pursuit, the hero descends into a netherworld or underground domain. The hero often has a second round of adversaries.Template:Sfnp

Other common elements are a captive princess, betrayal by a close friend or ally of the hero, and magical weapons.Template:Sfnp<ref>Róheim, Géza (1992), Fire in the Dragon, p. 72</ref> Some of these elements are paralleled in the Grendel story in Beowulf, others are not.

Parallel elements

Some of the traits in the Bear's Son Tale regarded as being paralleled in Beowulf will be explained further below.

Betrayal

The betrayal element (F601.3Template:Sfnp) transpires in the fairy tale version (see Jean de l'Ours) as follows: After the hero descends to the world underground and rescues the princess, he is betrayed by his companions, who instead of pulling him up by a rope, either cut it or release it so he falls to the bottom.<ref>Template:Harvp, Der Starke Hans example; p. 378, Jean de l'Ours example.</ref>Template:Sfnp The parallel to this in Beowulf, (according to Panzer and Chambers) is that after seeing blood come up from Grendel's mere (lake), the Danes only wait until nones (3 PM), and then they abandon the hero at the lake.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

Magic weapon

The hero in the Bear's Son Tale may have a magic sword (motif D1081,Template:Sfnp usually found in Type 301A) or a walking-stick (Type 301B).Template:Refn The magic sword in Beowulf is supposedly represented by the sword of the "ancient giants' sword" (ealdsweord eotenisc) that Beowulf discovered in Grendel's mother's lair.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

Elements lacking in Beowulf

Some significant elements of the folktale missing in Beowulf (listed by Chambers) are: the captive Template:Not a typo, one of whom he marries, the hero's rescue by a "miraculous helper", his return to the Upper World under an assumed identity, and his retribution against his treacherous companions.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

Princess

The princess or three princesses to be rescued are lacking in Beowulf,Template:Efn but this absence has been rationalized by W. W. Lawrence, who theorized that romantic love elements are superfluous and out-of-place in historical epics and had to be truncated.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

Elements in Beowulf not in folktale

Among elements considered vital to the epic are the loss of the ogre/demon's arm, and the trail of blood which leads the hero to the demon's lair (Template:Harvp, cited by Template:Harvp). These are not paralleled in any obvious way in the Bear's Son Tale.<ref>Template:Harvp, pp. and 8.</ref>

Grendel's severed arm

Regarding Beowulf wrenching Grendel's arm off, Robert A. Barakat stated that no counterpart was to be found in the Bear' Son Tale of "Juan del Oso" (Spanish version of Jean de l'Ours).Template:Efn Template:Sfnp This was because there was no mention of "actual physical damage [Juan] inflicted" on the devil during the barehanded wrestling phase. However, Juan did cut off one of the devil's ears afterwards with his weapon.<ref>Template:Harvp, with "iron weapon"; p. 8, with machete.</ref>

For a folktale analogue to Grendel's severed arm, commentators have looked on Celtic (Irish) tale of "The Hand and Child" type. The parallel had been recognized already in the 19th century by several writers,Template:Efn Template:Sfnp but Carl Wilhelm von Sydow is generally credited with developing the analysis which took notice.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

Trail of blood

Beowulf determines Grendel's lair by following a trail of blood. Although this is not specifically mirrored in the Bear's Son Tale, the hero is able to track the adversary to a hole in the ground (or a well), and a trail of blood has been speculated.Template:Efn Template:Sfnp Chambers found that an Icelandic Bear's Son Tale, "Bjarndrengur" ("Bear-boy") parallels this exactly, and Bear-boy and his companions follow the blood-trail of the giant who had been grabbed by the beard but who has torn away.Template:Efn Template:Sfnp

History and reception

Template:Illm's monumental study, Studien zur germanischen Sagengeschichte, Part I: Beowulf, sought to prove that Beowulf was an eighth century Anglo-Saxon reworking of the "Bear's son" motif, which has been present since antiquity and widely disseminated.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Harvp: "patterns found in numerous folktales.. parallel many of the lives found in heroic legends, including those of Beowulf.."</ref> Later, the Panzer hypothesis on Beowulf was supported by W. W. Lawrence and R. W. Chambers, who elucidated and expanded on it.Template:Sfnp

John F. Vickrey, who took up the thesis in 2009, wrote that there had been very few studies focusing on the folkloric origins of Beowulf for 40 years previous to his writing.Template:Efn Template:Sfnp

J. R. R. Tolkien was very interested in the idea of the bear-son folktale underlying Beowulf,<ref>John D. Rateliff, Mr Baggins (London 2007) p. 256</ref> and pointed to several minor but illuminating characteristics supporting the assumption: Beowulf's uncouthness and appetite, the strength of his grip, and his refusal to use weapons against Grendel.<ref>C. Tolkien ed, J. R. R. Tolkien: Beowulf (London 2015) p. 206-7, p. 241-2 and p. 235</ref> He also saw Unferth as a link between folktale and legend, his (covert) roles as smith and treacherous friend standing behind his gift to Beowulf of the "hafted blade" that fails.<ref>C. Tolkien ed, J. R. R. Tolkien: Beowulf (London 2015) p. 208-11, and p. 381</ref>

Critics of Panzer's thesis have argued however that many of the incidents he sees as specific to the Bear's Son Story are in fact generic folktale elements; and that a closer analogue to Beowulf is to be found in Celtic mythology and the story of the 'Monstrous Arm'.Template:Sfnp

Tale group

Panzer lists some 202 examples of Bear's Son Tales in his study,Template:Sfnp Template:Refn

The "Strong John" subgroup includes more than 400 tales counted in the Baltic-Scandinavia area. The tale remained current in French Canada, but its original may no longer survive in France.Template:Sfnp

North American examples

Panzer's list did not include any North American examples, but "Bear's son" tales have been known to have disseminated to native North American populations, and these are considered to have European origins, an example being the Assiniboine story published as "The Underground Journey" by Robert H. Lowie in 1909.<ref name=boas/><ref name=thompson-euro-northamerican/><ref name=espinosa/>

Some examples of ATU 301 tales

Other literary examples

There are several other literary examples perceived as being related to Bear's Son Tales.

One example regarded as particularly important to the Beowulf study is the bear-hero Böðvar Bjarki who appears as a companion to Hrólf Kraki in the legendary saga Hrólfs saga kraka.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

Another literary incident is in the Grettis saga, or the saga of Grettir the Strong.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

Also, there have been attempts to associate King Arthur with the bear, and thus with the Bear's Son Tales. An attempt to make the connection by asserting Arthur's name as based on the root arth- meaning "bear" in Welsh has been refuted.<ref name=anderson-p41>Template:Citation</ref> Therefore, a more elaborate explanation has been advanced, which postulates Arthur's prototype to be the mythological Arcturus "guardian of the bear" of constellation lore.Template:Sfnp<ref name=walter&delarue>Template:Citation</ref>

Odysseus<ref name=anderson-p41/> in the cave of Polyphemus has also been related to the theme.

Psychoanalytic interpretations

For psychoanalysis, the bear-parents represent the parents seen in their animal (sexual) guise<ref>M. Wolfenstein, Children's Humour (1954) p. 151-6</ref> – the bear as the dark, bestial aspect of the parental archetype.<ref>Jung, Carl (1990), The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, London, p. 195</ref> Their offspring, represented by Tolkien in Sellic Spell as "a surly, lumpish boy...slow to learn the speech of the land",<ref>Tolkien, Christopher, ed. (2015), J. R. R. Tolkien: Beowulf, London, p. 360</ref> is the undersocialised child. And in the underground struggle, Géza Róheim argued, we find a representation of the primal scene, as encapsulated in the infantile unconscious.<ref>Róheim, Géza (1992), Fire in the Dragon, p. 71</ref>

Notes

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Bear's Son Tale

Contents

Core characteristics

Parallel elements

Betrayal

Magic weapon

Elements lacking in Beowulf

Princess

Elements in Beowulf not in folktale

Grendel's severed arm

Trail of blood

History and reception

Tale group

North American examples

Some examples of ATU 301 tales

Other literary examples

Psychoanalytic interpretations

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

Navigation menu

Bear's Son Tale

Core characteristics

Parallel elements

Betrayal

Magic weapon

Elements lacking in Beowulf

Princess

Elements in Beowulf not in folktale

Grendel's severed arm

Trail of blood

History and reception

Tale group

North American examples

Some examples of ATU 301 tales

Other literary examples

Psychoanalytic interpretations

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

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