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WESTERN AMERICAN LITERATURE



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 * THE BEAR’S SON FOLK TALE IN WHEN THE LEGENDS DIE AND HOUSE MADE OF DAWN

 * Nora Baker Barry
 * Western American Literature
   
 * The Western Literature Association
 * Volume 12, Number 4, Winter 1978
 * pp. 275-287
 * 10.1353/wal.1978.0065
 * Article
 *  * View Citation
    * Related Content

 * Additional Information

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

N O R A B A K E R B A R R Y Bryant College The Bear’s Son Folk Tale in When the
Legends Die and House Made of Dawn Long recognized in oral-traditional
literature such as Beowulf and the Grettis Saga, elements of the Bear’s Son folk
tale also are to be found embedded in contemporary novels where the protagonist
is connected to a heroic cultural background. The native North American heroes
of Hal Borland’s When the Legends Die and N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn1
exhibit traits of the Bear’s Son type, and the incidents associated with Bear’s
Son heroes provide a structural framework for both novels. The European and
Asian folk tales of the Bear’s Son type are told through a recurring sequence of
motifs: I. The hero is raised by bears. The hero is frequently represented as
having been brought up in a bear’s den. Sometimes he is the son of a bear who
cap­ tured his mother. II. Strength and Adventures The hero has extraordinary
physical strength but is often sullen, taciturn, and lazy in youth. He sets out
on adventures with various companions. JHal Borland, When the Legends Die
(Philadelphia: Bantam, 1972) ; N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (New York,
New American Library, 1969). All fur­ ther references are to these editions and
will be noted parenthetically. 276 Western American Literature III. Two
struggles with supernatural foes Usually in an enclosure, the hero resists and
often mutilates in the arm a supernatural being. His companions have been unable
to defeat this foe in previous encounters. During this initial encounter, the
hero wrestles with his enemy rather than attacks with a weapon. A minor motif is
the presence of light shining from the monster’s eyes. A second struggle occurs
after the hero tracks the creature to a spring or waterfall and then to a cave.
The hero descends into the cave and overcomes another supernatural foe, often
his former enemy or his enemy’s mother. In this confrontation a weapon is used
but is not effective. A significant motif of both struggles is the abandonment
of the hero by his companions.2 In the contemporary novels details often are
blurred and characteristics associated with the monster in the folk tale often
are transferred to the hero; however, the motifs are present in varying but
aesthetically signifi­ cant forms. Borland’s novel conforms more explicitly to
the folk tale sequence than does Momaday’s work. 1. The Hero is raised by bears.
A Ute boy, Tom Black Bull, is taken by his mother into the wilder­ ness where
his father has fled after killing a man. On their way to join the father, Tom
and his mother briefly take refuge in an abandoned bear’s den (p. 16). Tom lives
in the wilderness with his parents in the “old way” of the Ute tribe before they
were confined to the reservation. Shortly after Tom’s father is killed in an
avalanche, Tom takes the name Bear’s Brother, telling his mother: “This
morning... I met a she-bear and she was not afraid of me. I was not afraid of
her. We talked to each other. Then I killed a deer and I left a part of the meat
for that she-bear. I shall call myself Bear’s Brother. That is a good name” (p.
22). After Tom’s mother dies, the boy seeks out the she-bear, who is killed
along with a female cub by a white prospector. In this way the boy becomes the
literal brother/companion to the she-bear’s other male cub (pp. 312Panzer ’s
findings concerning over 200 European and Asian versions of the Bear’s Son folk
tale are summarized by R. W. Chambers and C. L. Wrenn in Beowulf: An
Introduction to the Study of the Poem (Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univer­
sity Press, 1967), pp. 621 and 369. Nora Baker Barry 277 34). Borland gradually
removes the boy from twentieth-century civiliza­ tion to the moment when Tom is
living in the most “primitive” state. Leading the reader into the folk-tale
in...



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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ISSN
1948-7142
Print ISSN
0043-3462
Pages
pp. 275-287
Launched on MUSE
2017-10-04
Open Access
No



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