"Bear's Son Tale" (German: das Märchen vom Bärensohn, Bärensohnmärchen)[1] refers to an analogous group of narratives that, according to Friedrich Panzer's 1910 thesis, represent the fairy tale material reworked to create the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf's first part, the Grendel-kin Story. Panzer collected over 200 analogue tales mostly from Eurasia.[2] Others have added more examples from worldwide.
The Bear's Son motif (B635.1) is exhibited only generally, not reliably.[3] Exceptions include versions of "Jean de l'Ours",[4] and the Grimms' fairy tale "Strong Hans" or "Der Starke Hans". 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"[a][b] or ATU type 650A, "Strong John" or "Starker Hans".[7][8] Their plotlines are similar, with some differences;[7] in the latter, the hero is subjected to tests by ordeal.[8]
"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.[9][10]
- ^ Mitchell (1991), p. 58 uses "Bear's Son Tale" and give German equivalent "das Märchen vom Bärensohn"
- ^ Panzer (1910), pp. 5–13.
- ^ Puhvel (2010), p. 4, note 9: "typically if not always of part bear parentage or raised by bears".
- ^ Panzer (1910), p. 20, referring to his No. 65 and 69, Brittany versions of Jean de l'Ours edited by Sebillot
- ^ Thompson (1977), pp. 32–33, 183, 85–86, 52, 287, Index.
- ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Folklore Fellows Communications (FFC) n. 284. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004. p. 177.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
klaeberwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
bierhorstwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Puhvel (2010), p. 4, note 9: "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].
- ^ Vickrey (2009), p. 209: "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".
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