The Bear is a

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

collected by

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...

in ''

The Grey Fairy Book ''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...

''. It is Aarne-Thompson classification system type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include

Cap O' Rushes "Cap-o'-Rushes" is an English fairy tale published by Joseph Jacobs in ''English Fairy Tales''. Jacobs gives his source as "Contributed by Mrs. Walter-Thomas to "Suffolk Notes and Queries" of the ''Ipswich Journal'', published by Mr. Lang in ''Lon ...

Catskin Catskin is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in ''More English Fairy Tales''. Marian Roalfe Cox, in her pioneering study of ''Cinderella'', identified as one of the basic types, the Unnatural Father, contrasting with ''Cinderella'' ...

Little Cat Skin ''Little Catskin'' is an American fairy tale from Kentucky, collected by Marie Campbell in ''Tales from the Cloud Walking Country'', listing her informant as Big Nelt. It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include ' ...

Allerleirauh "Allerleirauh" ( en, "All-Kinds-of-Fur", sometimes translated as "Thousandfurs") is a fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Since the second edition published in 1819, it has been recorded as Tale no. 65. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Gree ...

, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter,

The She-Bear "The She-bear" is an Italian literary fairy tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the ''Pentamerone''. Ruth Manning-Sanders included it in ''A Book of Princes and Princesses''. It is Aarne-Thompson classification system folktal ...

Tattercoats "Tattercoats" is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his ''More English Fairy Tales''. It is Aarne–Thompson type 510B, the persecuted heroine. Others of this type include " Cap O' Rushes", "Catskin", " Little Cat Skin", "Allerl ...

Mossycoat "Mossycoat" is a fairy tale published by Katherine M. Briggs and Ruth Tongue in ''Folktales of England''. Carter, Angela. ''The Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book'' New York: Pantheon Books, 1990. pp. 48-56. . It appears in ''A Book of British Fairy Tale ...

, The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress, and

Donkeyskin ''Donkeyskin'' (french: Peau d'Âne) is a French literary fairytale written in verse by Charles Perrault. It was first published in 1695 in a small volume and republished in 1697 in Perrault's ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. Andrew Lan ...

, or the legend of

Saint Dymphna Dymphna is a Christian saint honoured in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. According to tradition, she lived in the 7th century and was martyred by her father. The story of Dymphna was first recorded in the 13th century by a canon of ...

.Heidi Anne Heiner,
Tales Similar to Donkeyskin
Maria Tatar, p 213, ''The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales'',

Synopsis

A king loved his daughter so much that he kept her in her rooms for fear harm would come to her. She complained to her nurse; unbeknownst to her, the nurse was a witch. She told her to get a wheelbarrow and a bearskin from the king. The king gave them to her, the nurse enchanted them, and when the princess put on the skin, it disguised her, and when she got into the wheelbarrow, it took her wherever she wanted to go. She had it take her to a forest. A prince hunted her, but when she called to him to call off his dogs, he was so astounded that he asked her to come home with him. She agreed and went in the wheelbarrow. His mother was surprised, and more when the bear began to do housework as well as any servant. One day, the prince had to go to a ball given by a neighbouring prince. The bear wanted to go, and he kicked it. When he left, she implored his mother for leave to just go and watch. With it, she went to her wheelbarrow and used the wand to turn her bearskin into a ballgown of moon-beams. At the ball, the prince fell in love with her, but she fled, so she would be back in time to hide herself. She was pleased when he told his mother of her, because she had fooled him, and laughed under the table. The second ball, she went in a gown of sunlight, and his attempts to follow her carriage did not succeed. The

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

time, the prince succeeded in getting a ring on her finger. When he went home, he declared he would search for her. First, he wanted some soup, and for the bear to have nothing to do with it, because every time he mentioned his love, the bear muttered and laughed. The bear put the ring in the soup. The prince asked her to take off the skin, and she became a beautiful young woman. She told the prince and his mother how her father had kept her imprisoned, and the prince married her.

Commentary

This is an unusual variant of this tale as commonly, the heroine flees the threat of enforced marriage to her own father, as in Allerleirauh, The She-Bear, Donkeyskin, and The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, or the legend of

. Other tales where the heroine has another motive include

, where she flees being married off to the first man, Cap O' Rushes where her father interpreted her words to mean she did not love him, and

The Child who came from an Egg The Child who came from an Egg or The Egg-Born Princess ( et, Munast sündinud kuningatütar) is an Estonian fairy tale, collected by Dr. Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in ''Eestirahwa Ennemuistesed jutud''. Synopsis A queen told an old woman th ...

, whose (apparent) father had been conquered by another army.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bear (Fairy Tale), The Scottish fairy tales Bears in literature Fictional princesses Characters in fairy tales Fiction about shapeshifting Witchcraft in fairy tales ATU 500-559