BEARS, NAMES AND MYTHS

Donald Dewey (1991, Michael Friedman Publishing Group Inc, Great Britain) compiled an interesting coffee table book on bears. His research covers facts over the past forty million years, including the animal behavior of the various species, references to bear insignia in sport, art, religion and myth. One of the major characteristics is their territoriality (Ibid., p. 22). According to the author the bear is one of the most homely animals, however, could mark a territorial range over hundreds of square kilometers. Astral myths speculates whether bears are from the heavens. Subsequently Eastern and Western myths can be traced back to the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations, inter alia described by the Greek myth of Kallisto and Athems Ibid., p.34). Early Christian writings and folklore refer to the characteristics of the bear as typical sins that man should avoid, namely greed, gluttony, hiding in lurking places, lust, sloth and as an anti-intellectual symbol (Cf. ibid., pp. 56-63). Dewey quotes storytellers who describe the bear as a instrument of God’s wrath : “…Jeremiah’s observation in Lamentations that God in his anger was like a bear lying in wait…also in the Book of Hosea’s testimony of divine pique:’ I am the Lord your God…they forgot me… (so) I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs’ “(Ibid., pp. 62-63). In 2 Kings 2.24 God instructed bears to tear apart the children of Bethel who mocked the aged prophet Elisha (Ibid., p63). Christianity eventually adapted relevant references to the “good” qualities of the bear (Cf. ibid., p64).
The former Soviet Union used a bear “Misha” as an emblem at the 1980 Olympics while Russia was also depicted as the bear at the back door during the Cold War era. Numerous cities around the world used the bear as an emblem in some way or other as far back as 1200 (e.g. Berlin’s coat of arms Ibid., p.79).The Danish coat of arms also displays a standing bear in the left quarter of the shield. Many names referring to this animal could be configurated with the Teutonic stem “ber” in the word “bear”. For example the capitol of Switzerland, Bern, and which could be traced in my blog elsewhere. Other words are bier/beer, barley, berth, berg, bereave “but also such cognates as iron, feral, fertile and ferocious “ says Dewey (Ibid., p. 79).
From Kindergarten stories based on bears and their cubs, cuddling little toy teddy bears up to the bear and bullish stock markets either refer to the day dreams of children or the harsh reality that business cannot sell the skin of a bear before it is shot…and thereby hangs a tale still to be told.