Bear's Son Tale

Bear's Son Tales are a group of tales found from Europe, Asia and North America, with over 200 known versions,[1] first isolated and identified as such by Friedrich Panzer.[2]

The best known of these tales is Beowulf.[3] Others are the story of Bödvar Bjarki in material about Hrólf Kraki and an incident in the Grettis saga, while King Arthur,[4] and Odysseus in the cave of Polyphemus, can also be related to the theme.

Core characteristics

Among the core characteristics of the story are a hero who was a feral child, raised by or descended from a bear, with bear-like attributes; a monster to be defeated, usually after others fail in the attempt; and a descent in pursuit into a netherworld or underground cavern.[5] In some stories the monster defeats the hero instead.

Other frequently associated elements are a captive maiden, treason by a close friend or ally of the hero, magical weapons or talismans, and a smith as protective or persecutory figure.[6]

The Bear's Son and Beowulf

J. R. R. Tolkien was very interested in the idea of the bear-son folktale underlying Beowulf,[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]

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'.[10]

Psychoanalytic interpretations

For psychoanalysis, the bear-parents represent the parents seen in their animal (sexual) guise[11] - the bear as the dark, bestial aspect of the parental archetype.[12] Their offspring, represented by Tolkien in Sellic Spell as "a surly, lumpish boy...slow to learn the speech of the land",[13] 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.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Fjalldal, Magnús (1998). The long arm of coincidence: the frustrated connection between Beowulf and Grettis saga. University of Toronto Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-8020-4301-6.
  2. ↑ S. Mitchell, Heroic Sagas and Ballads (1991) p. 41
  3. ↑ Stitt, J. Michael (1992). Beowulf and the bear's son: epic, saga, and fairytale in northern Germanic tradition. Garland Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8240-7440-1.
  4. ↑ G. Anderson, King Arthur in Antiquity (2004) p. 43
  5. ↑ J. Vickrey, Beowulf and the Illusion of History (2009) p. 23
  6. ↑ Géza Róheim, Fire in the Dragon (1992) p. 72
  7. ↑ John D. Rateliff, Mr Baggins (London 2007) p. 256
  8. ↑ C. Tolkien ed, J. R. R. Tolkien: Beowulf (London 2015) p. 206-7, p. 241-2 and p. 235
  9. ↑ C. Tolkien ed, J. R. R. Tolkien: Beowulf (London 2015) p. 208-11, and p. 381
  10. ↑ M. Puhvel, Beowulf and the Celtic Tradition (2010) p. 4-5
  11. ↑ M. Wolfenstein, Children's Humour (1954) p. 151-6
  12. ↑ C. Jung, the Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (London 1990) p. 195
  13. ↑ C. Tolkien ed, J. R. R. Tolkien: Beowulf (London 2015) p. 360
  14. ↑ Géza Róheim, Fire in the Dragon (1992) p. 71

Further Reading

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