Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales Reading A: The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son

Story: This story is about an old woman who lives near a shore. She had always longed for a son and one day, she finally got her wish. Well, sort of. The old woman lived in a town, with others, but she lived closest to the shore. Being an old woman, others in the town would always bring her meat and blubber to eat. Occasionally, when the townspeople would hunt. they would kill a bear to eat. One day, they killed a bear that had a cub. Knowing the old woman was lonely, they took the bear cub to her. The old woman began to care for the little cub as if it was her own child. The bear began to grow and as it did, the woman would talk to it in human speech and overtime the bear grew the mind of a human being. The children of the town would sometimes come to the old woman's house and want the little bear to play with them, and of course he did. Before he left, the old woman would always remind him to sheath his claws, and so he did. As the bear grew, he outgrew the children he was playing with and soon he began to play with adults, but as soon as he grew more, it was no time before he was even too strong for the adults to play with. The adults, knowing how strong he was, decided to start taking him hunting, as he would be an asset. Eventually, northern people heard of this bear and one time when he was out hunting with the humans, he almost got killed, but they managed to save him. The townspeople told the old woman that she needed to make some type of marker for the bear. so that other people would know him. The old woman made his a collar of plaited sinews to wear as a marker. After that, the bear continued to hunt and be the best hunter there was, and people of other villages would always let him go when they saw his collar. A group of people for a town called Angmagssalik heard of that bear that was not caught and they said that if they saw it, they would kill it. The bear had always leaned from the old woman, not to harm a human and treat them as kin. One time during a storm, the bear was away hunting, he did not return until evening and when he did, he nudged at the foster mothers hand as usual to tell her he was hungry. When the foster mother went outside, she saw the body of a man whom she did not know.  She then began calling to the townspeople. After this, the foster mother realized that the bear better not stay with her, as it was not safe. She regretted this, as he was the son she never had. On the morning the bear was set to leave as she hugged him, she rubbed oil and soot on his side without him knowing. That was the end of the story, but it did said, that people to north saw a large bear with a black mark on it's side.

Polar Bear:  Wikipedia

My Ideas: I really liked this story, but it was really sad at the end. I understand why the bear had to leave, but why could the old lady not have just gone with him and let him protect her as she had? I would like to change the ending and let the bear stay with the old lady. Maybe the could move together and take care of one another. They could even go visit the people of the other villages and explain the situation. I also think it would be cool to make the bear talk and put this story in his perspective. It would definitely be a unique. The old lady was the mother to him, as he was the son to her, their bond to each other is so loving, but I want to what the bear thinks. How does he feel about the people since they killed his mother? What about his natural instinct? Was it not there since he grew up with humans? Why did he not run off? I am almost positive you will be hearing a story from the bear's perspective.
Bibliography: Rasmussen, Knud. Eskimo Folk-Tales. Eskimo Folktale Unit. The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son. 1921.