KOTOW NEWSLETTER: VOL. 1. NO. 1. Spring, 2022

Veneration of bears and other animals is among the most ancient and mystifying aspects of human heritage. There are many open questions about how traditional bear myths in ethnographic and literary records may or may not relate to bear veneration of the extremely remote past (Hallowell, 1929; Wunn, 2000; Germonpré, 2007). This research addresses some of these questions, focusing on the occurrence of a specific motif, identified as the ancestral-bear motif, in which a bear mates with a human female, known to occur in mythic traditions throughout the northern hemisphere. A cross-cultural comparative analysis raises questions about ancient migrations, differentiation of cultural traditions, and evolution of ancestral arts and story-telling traditions throughout the northern world. 

The ancestral-bear motif occurs in mythic traditions throughout the northern hemisphere. Scholars have questioned if Paleolithic hunter-gatherer migrations in the circumpolar region might account for the widespread distribution of cultural similarities associated with bear rites and stories (Hallowell, 1926; Wunn, 2000; Janhunent, 2003; Germonpré, 2007). Evidence from recent genetic, archaeological, ethnographic and literary studies adds to this historic discussion. 

Hallowell (1926) applied anthropological theory to analyze bear ceremonialism in the northern hemisphere, intending, “…to survey bear ceremonialism in its widest aspects among the peoples of both North America and Eurasia, with a view to determining the geographical distribution of genuine similarities in customs and beliefs, as well as to indicate the significant differences which are to be found in the various tribes and culture areas” (pp: 23). In doing so, Hallowell provided contemporary theoretical context to the examination of bear veneration. 

His analysis provided a global environmental overview of bears and humans in a co-evolutionary context from Paleolithic times to the ethnographic present. He described ecological qualities of the range and habitat of different bear species through time, highlighting the significance of bear subsistence and hibernation cycles as they relate to diverse cultural rites. His report is stacked with highly informative accounts, each describing bear-hunting traditions and techniques used by different Native people throughout the northern hemisphere. The accounts demonstrate similarities and differences, not only in hunting techniques, but also in ceremonial and mythical significance ascribed to the bear in different societies. 
Since Hallowell's treatise, many scholars have contributed to the analysis of distribution of similarities and differences in bear ceremonialism among circumpolar cultures. 

EARLY BEAR VENERATION & CULTURAL DIFFERENTIATION

Questions about wether or not bear veneration was practiced in Paleolithic times were recently addressed in a study by Germonpré (2007). The study reviewed evidence and connected traces of red ochre found on cave bear fossils recovered from caves in Belgium, dated as early as 27, 590 years ago, to evidence of ritual applications of red ochre in later Paleolithic burial rites. The study found sufficient evidence to conclude, "...that a proto bear-ceremonialism existed during the Upper Paleolithic" (pp: 1). This is significant because it supports the possibility that an early form of bear veneration could have spread into Europe, Asia, and North America from a shared cultural root. However, comparative analysis of literary, ethnographic and archaeological evidence shows that significant material cultural differentiation occurred during the Iron Age or earlier, indicated by evolutionary developments associated with metal. Evidence indicates that brass and bronze ornamentation became ritualistically significant in some Siberian and Scandinavian traditions, while many other circumpolar Native traditions, especially those of North America, do not attest to metal in bear rites or stories, though these distantly related cultures often share the same ancestral-bear motif in mythic traditions.    

To elaborate, concurrent with Germonpré's study, Tolley (2007), an esteemed expert on comparative mythology, analyzed the occurrence of the ancestral-bear motif in the Icelandic Saga of King Hrolf. Tolley applied comparative methods and evaluated the significance of a ring in the story, which was associated with the hunting of a bear. Tolley compared this to the significance of rings and other brass and bronze ornamentation in Sami bear-hunting rites recorded in numerous historical and ethnographic accounts. He cautiously suggested that the motif in the Norse story originated from Sami or earlier circumpolar cultural traditions. He reported, “the vagueness of the motif precludes anything but a tentative conclusion... even if the motif itself is likely to be of great antiquity within the tradition from which it is derived...” (pp: 6-7).  He added, “the bear rites recorded from northern Siberia are remarkably homogeneous, suggesting that aetiological tales recognisably similar to each other will have existed over a wide span of time and space” (pp: 14). 

Archaeological evidence discovered about six years later affirmed that bear rites associated with bronze rings were practiced in central Siberia in the ancient past. Archaeologist, Gusev (cited in Liesowska, 2013) described a bronze-ring, dated circa 100 BCE-100 CE, recovered from Ust-Polui, a ceremonial site in central Siberia associated with the ancestors of the Khanty, Mansi, Selkup, and Nenets people, as a world class find, "showing the head and paws of a bear." According to Gusev, "the ring is tiny in diameter so even a young girl, let alone a woman, cannot wear it." The archaeologist concluded,  "that it was used in a ritual connected with a bear cult and was put on the bear claw." The site also produced clear evidence that along with bronze ornamentation, birch bark was used in ancient ritual contexts. Ritualized use of birch is documented extensively in historical and ethnographic records of circumpolar bear-rites. Insights gained from the recent discoveries lend material, temporal and spatial focus for addressing questions about formative cultural migrations and distribution of the motif in diverse cultural traditions throughout the northern hemisphere. Importantly, the evidence adds significant support to suggestions that the region was a locus of exchange of cultural knowledge between Ugaric and Indo-European language speakers (Wiget, 2011).  

BEAR CEREMONIALISM & THE NORSE ART OF SEIDR

 Tolley's suggestion that the origins of the ancestral-bear motif in Hrolf's Saga originated from ancient Siberian bear ceremonialism has direct parallels with Price's (2004) recommendation for investigating the origins of a distinctively Norse art tradition identified as seiðr. The archaeologist wrote:
 

…uncritical ethnographic analogy is a constant danger in shamanic research, but I strongly believe that any meaningful study of seiðr must look seriously to the work being done not just in the Sámi homelands but also in Siberia, Alaska, Canada, the Northern continental United States, and Greenland (pp: 112). 

Evidence of bear-ceremonialism and seiðr practice occur together in the archaeological record of Viking-Age Scandinavia, evident in the burial assemblage of a woman who was interred wrapped in bear fur and buried with a bronze ornamented ceremonial staff. Based primarily on the presence of the staff, Price (2002) identified the woman as, a sorceress. Price’s conclusion was echoed by Gardela (2008, 2009) and Ulriksen (2018), and also affirmed as a possibility by the National Museum of Denmark (2022). Comparable ornamented staffs are significant in ethnographic accounts of Sami bear hunting rites detailed below. Collectively, the burial assemblage connects material culture of arts traditions practiced in Viking-Age Scandinavia to material culture associated with earlier bear-rites of Siberian cultures. But there is still more to this ancestral story.

Bear myths and rites of Native circumpolar cultures ranging from North America to Scandinavia are relatively well documented, however, none of the aforementioned studies account for earlier recorded occurrences of the ancestral-bear motif in Iron-Age Indo-European sources. The motif occurs in the famous but poorly understood Greek story of Callisto, which ends with mother and son being transformed into the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Strong parallels in later Thracian iconography dated circa 450 BCE and in the story of Polyphonte, told in Metamorphoses, dated circa 200-100 BCE, collectively suggest there was continuity of the story-telling tradition in the region. These sources, however, do not attest to brass or bronze ornamentation directly associated with the rites. Archaeological evidence from the ancient Greek ceremonial site of Brauron circa 800-700 BCE suggests that the Indo-European tradition produced an altogether distinct and different material signature associated with bear rites, characterized, surprisingly, by the occurrence of weaving implements offered to the goddess Artemis (Blundell, 1998). 
 

To introduce this complex matrix of connections, scholars have compared literary and archaeological evidence and concluded that young initiates in rites that occurred at the Brauron temple site were identified as "bears" (Walbank, 1981). The rites have parallels in the stories of Callisto and Polyphonte, wherein those characters chose to remain virgins and wandered with Artemis in the wild, but under different circumstances, both mated with bears and had children. Scholars rely primarily on the Greek play Iphogenia, by Euripedes, to reconstruct the bear rites at Brauron. Passages in the play connect the character, Iphogenia, to a type of sorcery comparable to that which occurs in the Norse story, Voluspa, wherein a prophetess, like Iphogenia, remembers the ancient past. The play attests to direct associations between these remarkable powers of memory with weaving; Iphogenia poetically states,  "Fine linen threads I used. The memories come" (line 817, Trans. Murray, pp: 46). It also describes how Iphogenia will be buried; she is told, "above thy shrine, fair raiment undefiled, left upon earth by mothers dead with child" (lines 1467-1468, Trans. Murray, pp: 88). This partially explains the mythical context behind ritualized offerings of weaving implements to Artemis at the ancient site. Literary records show that cloth was offered to Iphogenia, but archaeological evidence suggests that weaving implements were offered to Artemis (Blundell, 1998), possibly in relation to successful childbirth, or also perhaps in relation to rites of passage, particularly coming of age for women. 
 

The significance of these early attestations of bear ceremonialism in Indo-European traditions is perplexing in the broader study of the cultural evolution of bear ceremonialism. Accounting for evidence from the Ust-Polui, additional archaeological and literary evidence presented below suggests that circumpolar and Indo-European arts traditions directly associated with very different forms of bear ceremonialism can be identified in the later material culture of seiðr in Viking-Age Scandinavia.
 

NEW INSIGHTS FROM OLD SOURCES

Finally, this research resulted in identification of additional literary evidence that supports Tolley’s (2007) conclusion that the aforementioned ring in Hrolf's Saga  is indicative of a distinct circumpolar tradition. The additional literary evidence, particularly from Volundarkvitha and the Saga of Eric the Red,  suggests that Tolley's conclusion about the significance of brass and bonze ornamentation may be applied more broadly to analyses of Norse literature. However, this research also identified the ancestral-bear motif in much earlier Indo-European literary sources, which raises further questions about migrations of the ancestral-bear motif itself. These unexpected findings enable cross-comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence of distinct material cultural traditions represented in later Norse arts and story-telling traditions. However, it must be noted that other literary and evidence suggests that bronze may have been significant in the Indo-European bear stories and rites as well, possibly even contributing significantly to the incorporation of metal in the Siberian and Scandinavian traditions, but this has simply not been definitively detected in records. 

The overview of stories and rites presented below further describes these sources and evaluates complex connections to explore the origins of traditional cultural arts, commonly identified as sorcery. 

 There are many questions about how the ancestral-bear motif might have come to exist in different cultural story-telling traditions of the northern hemisphere. A broad overview of paleontological and archaeological evidence of bear veneration in prehistory, along with a basic overview of ancient migratory patterns, subsistence behaviors and traditional hunting techniques during the Paleolithic suggests a possibility that these very different traditions could share a common oral cultural story-telling root, but based on available evidence, this can not be confirmed.
 

Human migration during the Paleolithic is characterized by highly nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence behaviors. People ranged with animals that supported them. Distinct Paleolithic stone tool technological traditions are commonly distributed over extremely broad areas. Wunn (2000) analyzed similarities and differences between homo neanderthalenis and homo sapiens in Europe and determined, “their similar lifestyle offers sufficient certainty for identical or very similar religions of recent hunter-gatherers and Palaeolithic man” (pp: 431). Essentially, early humans spread rapidly and widely throughout the world during the Paleolithic, carrying their culture with them. This theory is further supported by genetic evidence presented below.
 

Comparatively, the evolutionary history of human subsistence behavior is strongly punctuated by global environmental shifts that occurred during the end of the Ice Age, about 8,000 years ago. Along with environmental changes, throughout the world, subsistence behaviors also changed, and people adapted to local environmental niches, giving rise to early formative eras of ancient cultures. In North America, this behavioral shift marks the beginning of the archaic period. In Europe and in Asia, it corresponds with the emergence of pastoral and agricultural subsistence behaviors. Whereas potential for widespread distribution of traditional cultural motifs is supported by Paleolithic data, cultural differentiation occurred much more rapidly after 8,000 years ago. 

Evidence of Paleolithic cave bear veneration among homo neanderthalensis and other early humans is highly disputed (Wunn, 2000). The scant evidence that is available does not preclude the possibility that some form of bear veneration was practiced during the earliest stages of human migration to the continent of Europe, even before the arrival of homo sapiens. Debates focus on the distribution of bear bones in caves that were occupied by both humans and cave bears (Wunn, 2000, Germonpré, et al., 2007; pp: 1-2). Presently, there is no universally accepted physical evidence of bear veneration from before the arrival of homo-sapiens on the continent. 

Among the earliest undisputed paleontological evidence showing clear association between art and bears, a basis from which an early form of bear veneration might remotely be inferred, is an assemblage of modified bear teeth, recovered from Bacho Kuro Cave in eastern Europe (Bower, 2020, Hublin 2020). Holes carved or drilled into the teeth are presumed to support ornamental functions (the artifacts are identified as pendants, but it is possible that they had other functions). The artifacts were discovered along with some of the earliest known physical remains of homo sapiens on the continent - a human tooth - dated between 46,000-44,000 years ago. Hublin (cited in Bower, 2020) links the Paleolithic findings to the expansion of homo-sapiens and tool technologies before 45,000 years ago:

The excavations yielded… pendants manufactured from cave bear teeth that are reminiscent of those later produced by the last Neanderthals of western Europe... these finds are consistent with models based on the arrival of multiple waves of H. sapiens into Europe coming into contact with declining Neanderthal populations.
 

Stronger evidence of an early form of bear veneration occurs more than 10,000 years later among the remarkable features of Chauvet Cave in western Europe. A bear skull was placed conspicuously on top of a rock in the center of the cave. It was placed there during one of two occupations, “between either 32,000-30,000 or 27,000 to 26,000 years ago” (Bradshaw Foundation, 2022). Arrangement of bear bones is not universally accepted as evidence of veneration, but in the context of Chauvet cave, other remarkable behaviors associated with the bear can be detected. For instance, bears are represented among the myriad of animal depictions. Bear-claw marks in the cave walls were artistically integrated into the now globally famous murals.

An investigation by Germonpré (et al., 2007) identified cut marks and applications of red ochre on cave bear fossils recovered from a cave site in Belgium dated as early as 27,590. The study identified behavior parallels in ethnographic records of myths and bear rites of circumpolar cultures, citing stories of Native people of the Yukon, including Tlingit and Southern Tutchone stories recoded by McClellan (1970), in which the bear provides instructions on how their own remains should be treated after they are killed; the study found, “in many circumpolar societies, the bear head/skull and paws were colored with red or black marks during bear rituals, and it was the skull, in particular, that was disposed of at a sacred location” (pp: 20). 

Circumpolar bear rites are highly variable, but they consistently place emphasis on how remains are to be treated. In addition to accounts cited by Germonpré. ethnographic accounts of bear rites of Sami, Finnic, Khanty, Ainu and many other cultures of Siberia also attest to ceremonial treatment of bear remains, particularly the head, but also entire skeletons (Hallowell, 1926; also see Part II).
 

To add to these observations, there occurs a distinct parallel between the Greco-Thracian story of Polyphonte and a Sami custom involving the removal of the paws of bears that have harmed people. In Sami rites recored by , the ritual act of discarding the right paw would counter the normal custom of carefully arranging and burying all the bear bones together to ensure the animal will re-incarnate (Pentikäinen, 2015). Further details are described in ethnographic accounts below.

Anthropological data from this time period is extremely limited, precluding the possibility of detailing ancient migrations of the people that occupied these early sites. However, multiple lines of anthropological evidence offer insight into Paleolithic and later migration patterns throughout the northern world. Evidence of rapid and widespread migrations during the Paleolithic supports the possibility that bear rites, and possibly the ancestral-bear motif, spread to the three continents from a common cultural source. 

EARLY CIRCUMPOLAR MIGRATIONS: RECENT GENETIC EVIDENCE

Relatively new genetic evidence presented by Tamm (et al., 2007) suggests the initial peopling of the Bering Land Bridge began as much as 25,000 years ago, only 1,000 years after the last occupation of Chauvet Cave. Populations subsequently spread back into Siberia, then back to North America:
 

…[the] ancestors of Native Americans paused when they reached Beringia, during which time New World founder lineages differentiated [genetically] from their Asian sister-clades. This pause in movement was followed by a swift migration southward that distributed the founder types all the way to South America. The data also suggest more recent bi-directional gene flow between Siberia and the North American Arctic.

On the opposite side of Siberia, a study by Gunther (et al., 2018) suggests Scandinavia was initially populated by two distinct waves of migration, one from the northeast and another from the south: 
 

By analyzing the genomes of early Scandinavian hunter-gatherers, we show that their migrations followed two routes: one from the south and another from the northeast along the ice-free Norwegian Atlantic coast. These groups met and mixed in Scandinavia, creating a population more diverse than contemporaneous central and western European hunter-gatherers.
 

A study by Lamnidis (et al., 2018) identified genetic evidence of later migrations from Siberia into Scandinavia:
 

…the genetic makeup of northern Europe was shaped by migrations from Siberia that began at least 3500 years ago…we show that ancestors of modern Saami inhabited a larger territory during the Iron Age, which adds to the historical and linguistic information about the population.

Thus, at least three separate studies indicate genetic flow occurred on continental scales throughout the circumpolar region, all of which support theories that Siberia was a major cultural crossroads over the past 25,000 years or more and that related cultural traditions spanned widely throughout the northern hemisphere. 

A growing number of scholars, including Tolley (2007) and Price (2004) agree with Hultkrantz (1988) that similarities in circumpolar shamanic arts traditions are widespread, suggesting their origination from the remote past:   
 

...it is reasonable to postulate a continuous shamanic drum complex from Lappland to Siberia in ancient times… evidence of such widespread diffusion makes it obvious… we seem to face the fact that the drum was part of the original heritage of shamanism (pp: 14, 23).
 

Thus, evidence of cultural continuity and widespread distribution of circumpolar arts traditions continues to mount, along with evidence that some of these traditions may originate from Paleolithic times. 
 

In theory, Native cultures of North America are separated from those of Europe and Asia by at least 8,000 years of cultural evolution. By conventional archaeological standards, waves of human migration from Asia to North America across the Bering Land Bridge continued between circa 16,400-8,000 BP and ended when the land mass submerged under rising waters concurrent with the end of the last glacial maximum. With regard for other theories on the initial peopling of North America, US National Park Service (2022) reports:
 

…One radical theory claims it is possible that the first Americans didn't cross the Bering Land Bridge at all and didn't travel by foot, but rather by boat across the Atlantic Ocean… evidence for this theory is minimal… a somewhat more widely accepted maritime theory looks to modern cultural anthropology and linguistics… suggesting that a pan-Pacific journey via boat might have brought the first Americans to our shores.

Despite their significant differences, all three of these theories are consistent in the respect that they hold that Native cultures of North America are separated from those of Europe and Asia by thousands of years of cultural evolution.
 

Yet, the ancestral bear motif occurs in mythic traditions on all three continents, along with other evidence of cultural continuity in bear rites

"Bear People" & Native American Canoe Traditions

 In defiance of conventional anthropological theory, North American Native people of the Pacific Rim maintain ancestral story-telling traditions that include accounts of encounters with people from Asia. 
 

A traditional story told by Haida story-teller, Woodrow Morrison (2010), tells that ancestral Haida people made remarkable long-distance canoe journeys and had direct contact with people throughout the Pacific Rim, including the Bear People of Siberia. According to Morrison, the Bear People wore bearskin coats. They helped the ancestral Haida endure the hard winters of the northern world by teaching them to hunt the "great brown bear" and obtain bearskin coats of their own. The account specified that the Bear People taught the Haida to hunt the bear by causing it to impale itself on a spear abutted to the ground (note the same practice occurs in many accounts identified by Hallowell, 1929). Similarly, general accounts of contact with Bear People from "Russia" also occur in story-telling traditions of Athabaskan Deg’hitan Dine people (High Bear, personal communications, 2009-2011).
 

From these accounts, it is not clear who the Bear People were, nor where or when these encounters occurred. Nevertheless, the recurrence of Bear People in multiple Native story-telling traditions of the same region point to Siberia. Though temporally vague, the accounts are consistent on this point with scientific knowledge compiled over the course of this research. However, this also raises questions about the possibility that prehistoric cultural exchange between the continents did not end with the submersion of the Bering Land Bridge.
 

Aspects of Woodrow’s account can not be verified by available empirical evidence. It is possible that the account describes events from the very distant past, or to be more precise, before 8,000 years ago, however, continuity of Native canoe traditions strongly suggests that cultural exchange among people of Asia and North America persisted much later in time than postulated by conventional anthropological theory. The possibility that the ancestral-bear motif was introduced to the Americas from Asia after the submersion of the Bering land bridge circa 8,000 years ago can not be ruled out.
 

If the ancestral-bear motif as it occurs on all three continents share a common ancestral story-telling root, then the motif is a relic, a fragment from a story originating from an extremely ancient time, long before the emergence of the classical ages of mythology and possibly even before the Asian and North American continents were divided by the submersion of the Bering landmass. 

Norse

The Saga of King Hrolf

 
Early written attestations of the ancestral bear motif occur in medieval Norse literature. In the Saga of King Hrolf, a Sami sorceress named Hvit cursed a young man named Bjorn (Bear). He was transformed into a bear and made to eat great multitudes of livestock that belonged to his father, King Hring. The king did not know what had become of his son. One day, his lover, a young woman named Bera (she-bear), recognized the bear’s eyes and followed it into a cave, where at night, Bjorn returned to human form. Things continued this way for a while. One night, Bjorn prophesied many things to Bera. He predicted that his father would kill him. He also told her that she was pregnant with their three sons. The next day, at sunrise, he became a bear again. As Bera left the cave, she saw dogs, followed by the king’s men, hunting the bear. The bear killed the dogs. The men encircled the bear (a technique identified as ringing the bear). The bear killed the man closest to the king, then collapsed from exhaustion and was killed. From underneath the arm of the slain bear, Bera recovered a ring. 

Volundarkvitha 

Accounting for the significance that Tolley (2007) ascribes to the ring in Hrolf’s Saga, new insights emerge from another old norse literary source. The ancestral-bear motif also occurs in the Norse tale, Volundarkvitha, in which rings are directly associated with a bear and with pregnancy. In this ancient story, Volund is described as, “a keen eyed archer,” who hunted and skied with his two brothers (Trans. Crawford, 2015; pp: 125, 123). 

One day, after returning home from a long journey, Volund began to roast bear meat. While sitting on a bear skin, he counted his seven-hundred rings (one of which had been stolen). The masterful hunter and metal-smith was then cruelly wounded and imprisoned by King Nithuth, who coerced Volund to make jeweled works for him. Meanwhile, Volund plotted vengeance. He tricked Nithuth’s two sons and secretly killed them both. Then Nithuth’s daughter, Bothvild came to Volund. She praised the quality of a ring he made for her, but lamented that it had broken. She asked him to repair it. Volund tricked her also, and told her he would fix it, then forced himself upon her. Restless over the death of his sons, Nithuth pleaded with Volund to know, “...What kind of fate did my sons meet?” Volund said that he would tell him, but first made him swear on many things, including a, “shield’s-edge” (a kenning for ring), that he will, “...not harm my lover... even if she bears my child in your own halls” (Trans. Crawford, 2015; pp: 130-131). Nithoth agreed. Volund then told Nithoth that he killed his son’s and fashioned their skulls into ornamental drinking cups. He also told him that his daughter was pregnant. Thus, his vengeance was wrought. After this, Volund, in magical fashion, flew away. 
 

In this story, Volund is not clearly a bear, however, his association with the bear is strongly indicated by the bearskin, which in circumpolar story-telling traditions is directly associated with shapeshifting between human and bear form. The broken ring ultimately leads to Bothvild becoming vulnerable to Volund, reinforcing Tolley’s (2007) conclusion that the motif in norse story-telling tradition originates from a circumpolar tradition in which the ring provides prophylactic protection from the bear.
 

Intriguingly, the tale describes the placement of rings on a rope of fiber, a custom which is also described in accounts of Sami bear-hunting rites. The description is translated as follows:
 

Red gold he fashioned | with fairest gems,
And rings he strung | on ropes of bast;
So for his wife | he waited long,
If the fair one home | might come to him
(Volundarkvitha, stanza 8, Trans. Bellows, 1936).
 

Accounts of Sami customs recorded by Fjellstrom, 1755,  and Laestadius, circa 1842, describe comparable ritual acts of adding rings to ropes or chains. In an account recorded by Fjellstrom, brass rings were added to a looped branch of birch. Birch had special significance in the ceremonies. The association with birch and rings at the Ust-Polui site demonstrate use of birch in a ceremonial context with depth in time. Tolley (2007) provides the following details from Fjellstrom’s account:
 

A switch was twisted into a ring and attached to the slain bear’s lower jaw, and the belt of the principal slayer was tied to it, marking him out as the bear’s master. This ring would be taken home and preserved by the housewife until after the ceremonial meal, when it would have a brass ring along with the bear’s tail attached to it by the women and children (pp: 16)
 

Similarly, according to Laestadius's, Fragments of Lappish Mythology (Trans. Börje Vähämäki, 1842, cited in Pentikäinen, 2015): 

...the wife of the best bear-hunter, who has had the above-mentioned birch-tree loop wrapped up in a piece of cloth, now takes it out. All the women and children present put a brass ring or a chain on it. After eating what there was to eat, and after sucking off all the grease stuck to the bear’s tail fur, they tie the tail onto the same branch loop, which is now decorated with brass rings. This they hand over to the bear-hunters, who preserve it together with all the bear bones” (§67)
 

The potential for Volundarkvitha to yield new insights about bear ceremonialism in Norse tradition is further suggested when skaldic metaphorical traditions are accounted for. One of these, specifically outlined in Skaldskaparmal (stanza 20) may have an important  implication for interpreting the story of Volund;  “All the goddesses may be periphrased thus: by calling them by the name of another, and naming them in terms of their possessions or their works or their kindred” (Trans. Broduer, 1916). The same principle can be applied to gods.  Drawing from attestations in Gylfaginning, Atlakvitha En Grönlenzka, Grimnismal, and Skaldskaparmal, the Aesir god, Ullr is explicitly associated with hunting, archery, snow- skiing, and rings. Likewise, In Volundarkvitha, Volund is a hunter, an archer and a skier and is also explicitly associated with rings. 
 

If an association between Volund and Ullr may be presumed, Ullr’s association with this story may yet further elucidate the significance of the motif in Sami cultural traditions and Norse mythos. Ullr’s role in Scandinavian culture is not well understood; there are relatively few literary attestations of him. However, place names and archaeological sites in Scandinavia associated with Ullr raise questions about the possibility that Ullr may have originated as a Finn or Sami deity. In scholarly investigations, the story of Volund is not normally cited as evidence of this possibility, but these insights from Volundarkvitha may be suggestive of a Sami, Finn or Siberian origin. This suggestion seems even more promising when cross-comparing Volundarkvitha with the Finnish folk poem, Otso the Honey Eater, recorded in 1888 in Crawford’s, Kalevala (published in 1891). Like Volundarkvitha, it accounts for the magical smith behind the metals associated with bear hunting rites: 

Wainamoinen, ancient minstrel,
To his brother spake as follows:
"O thou blacksmith, Ilmarinen,
Forge a spear from magic metals,
Forge a lancet triple-pointed,
Forge the handle out of copper,
That I may destroy great Otso,
Slay the mighty bear of Northland,
That he may not eat my horses,
Nor destroy my herds of cattle,
Nor the flocks upon my pastures.
 

There is still further evidence of Volund’s association with Sami people. Volund is identified as a son of King Finni. At face value, Finni seems to be a reference to Finns, or people of Finnmark. According to Byock (1998), “Finnmark, ...the border land of the Finns’, is modern Lapland. The people known as Finns to the Norse were the ancestors of the modern Sami, and they had a reputation for magic and witchcraft. The name, ‘Finn,’ is often used synonymously with ‘sorcerer'" (pp: 82).  

Associations between Sami and sorcery are strongly iterated in Norse literary sources. In the Saga of the People of Vatnsdal, a venerated seeress is identified as a Lapp woman (Saga of Icelanders, pp. 204-205). In Hrolf’s saga, Hvit, was first encountered in Finnmark, where she was identified as, “...the daughter of the King of the Lapps” (Byock, 1998, pp: 35). Hvit struck [Bjorn] with wolfskin gloves, telling him to become a cave bear, grim and savage” (Trans. Byock, 1998, pp: 37). 

To note, shape-shifting is also associated with a curse  in the Saga of the Volsungs, wherein two heroes put on wolf pelts and are overtaken by their power (stanza 8). Although there is no clear association with Lapp, Finn or Sami people in this story, the account conspicuously mentions golden rings, possibly a skaldic metaphor referencing a particular worldview or arts tradition. While questions about this particular passage remain, there are nevertheless strong and explicit associations between Sami people and sorcery throughout the Norse literary cannon.
 

Sami

Pentikäinen (2015), states, “the most important source for the Sámi bear cult from the time while it was still living is the description from 1755 by the Swede Pehr Fjellström.” A mythic story that accounts for the significance of brass ornamentation in Sami bear rites is recorded as follows:

Three brothers had a sole sister, who was hated by her brothers, so that she was forced to flee into the wilderness; she became exhausted, and finally she came upon a bear’s den and went into it to rest; to the same den there also came a bear, who after a closer acquaintance took her as his mate, and begat a son with her. After some time, when the bear became old and the son had grown up, the bear is supposed to have said to his wife that he could live no longer because of age, and wanted therefore to go out at the first snow of autumn so that her three brothers could find his tracks, and thus surround and kill him... the bear asked for a piece of brass to be fastened on his brow as a sign to distinguish him from other bears, and so that his own son, who had left, would not kill him.

So, when deep snow was fallen, the three brothers set out to slay this bear, whom they had previously ringed in. Then the bear asked his wife if all three brothers had been equally hateful towards her. She answered that the two elder brothers had been harsher, but the youngest somewhat milder. When these brothers came to the bear's den, the bear leapt out, and attacked the eldest brother, biting and wounding him very badly, and thereupon the bear returned immediately to his den unscathed. When the second brother came, the bear leapt against him as well, and injured him just like the first, and returned to his den.

Then he told his wife to grasp him round the waist. She did this, and he walked on two feet, carrying her out of the den; she then ordered the youngest brother to shoot him, which he did. The wife placed herself some distance away, and covered her face, as she hadn’t the heart to watch, and the bear was shot, and next had to be flayed: she shot a glance at it, however. From this must the custom have derived thereafter that no women may see the bear or the bear hunters, other than with hidden face, and through a ring of brass...
 

...When the three brothers had felled the bear, and all the flesh was put in the kettle to cook, the son arrived, and the three brothers recounted in front of him how they had shot an astonishing animal, which had a piece of brass on its brow. He said that this was his father, who had been distinguishable by such a piece of brass...
 

... From the brass found on the bear’s brow must have arisen the custom that the bear hunters and all the equipment used in the hunt must be adorned with brass chains and rings.” (Fjellstrom, 1755, cited in Tolley, 2007, pp: 11). 

Scheffer (1673) attests to the use of metal ornamentation on a ceremonial staff during bear hunts. He writes:

 …he chooses the best drummer among them, and by his beating consults whether the hunting will be prosperous or no, which done they all march into the field in battle array after him that invited them as Captain, who must use no other weapon than a club, on whose handle is hung an Alchymy ring.

.
Tolley (2007) synthesized data from Fjellstrom’s (1755) account:
 

..the man who has ringed in the bear… leads the way with a staff onto which a brass ring has been attached…The man with the ring has to begin the bear song… Fjellstrom mentions brass rings frequently, particularly in connection with women, whose contact with the bear and the hunt had to be conducted through a ring at all turns (pp: 15-16).
 

These accounts elucidate behaviors and material culture that is distinct to Sami traditions. From these, it is apparent that the use of brass rings is especially closely associated with ceremonial aspects of the hunt and with women's activities. The ornamented staff, however, is associated with men and also, like the Haida bear song, with the power of incantation.

Haida


The ancestral-bear motif occurs in a Haida story documented in 1873. Deans (1889) describes the Native informant as, “a very intelligent Haida, by the name of Yak Quahu” (pp: 255). Quahu relates a story of a woman named Kind-a-wuss, who was taken unwillingly and made pregnant by a bear. Her lover, Quiss-an-kweedass, searched for her but could not find her. Finally, after searching for her for many years, he consulted a “medicine man,” who had a vision of the missing woman; he said:
 

I see a young woman lying on the ground, she seems to be asleep. It is Kind-a-wuss. There is something among the bushes, coming toward her. It is a large bear. He takes hold of her, she tries to get away, but cannot. He takes her away with him. They go a long way off… she lives in [a large cedar tree] with the bear… I see two children, boys. She had them by the bear. If you go to the lake and find the tree, you will discover them all there (pp: 257).  

The account also records the words of a Haida bear song, which serves to elucidate cultural significance in the storyline; “I have taken a fair maid from her Haida friends as my wife. I hope her relatives won't come and take her away from me...” (pp: 259). In the end of the story, despite the bear’s wishes, Kind-a-wuss is returned to her people, along with one of her children. The other son remains close to his father in the wilderness.

In Deans' account, at least two forms of arts are explicit. The first being the vision experienced by the medicine man and the second being the power of the bear song. The account adds a unique insight into the significance of the bear song, “whoever can sing it has [the bear’s] lasting friendship” (pp: 259).
 

Notably, this story differs significantly from many other ethnographic accounts of the motif in that it does not conclude with the death of the bear. 

Tlingit


The ancestral-bear motif is recurrent in Tlingit story-telling traditions. Numerous variations of this story are recorded and published. To be concise , these are compiled and summarized in a version told in American Indians and the Natural World (North South East West, 2022); in this version, the bear:

...appeared to her as a fine looking young man. ‘Come with me,’ he said. She followed him a long way up into the mountains. They came to a place with people—at least that’s how it seemed to her. When she awoke at dawn, she pushed aside the blanket and saw brown bears instead of humans asleep around her. She married the bear, who looked like a man to her, and they had two children. In the meantime, her five brothers searched for their sister. They found her footprints alongside the bear tracks, and then they knew that she had gone with the bear... 

In the final stages of this version of the story, the bear was hunted and killed by the woman’s five brothers. Before the bear was killed, he instructed the woman to honor him by draping his hide so that it faces toward the setting sun.” The author notes, “...this story is a composite... version [that] emphasizes the story line, omitting the rich detail and cultural complexity present when told by Tlingit storytellers.” 

McClellan (1972) recorded and analyzed a similar version of the story told by a Tagish speaking woman. The ethnographer identified eleven versions of the story distributed among Native people in a localized area of the southern Yukon, observing, "al1 the southern Yukon lndians have a very great deal in common in both their material and their ideational culture, and in a broad sense the cultural context for al1 versions of the story is much the same" (pp: 6). She identified three versions told among Tlingit speakers (Tagish and Inland Klingit) and eight versions told among Athabaskan speakers (Southern Tutchone). What may be a key insight, she noted that to her knowledge, the story was not told by Athabaskan speakers of the Mackenzie River Drainage, nor by northeastern Algonkian, adding, "however, the real distribution of the story remains to be worked out" (pp: 9).

Tolley (2007) cites a different version of the story, which concludes in the death of the bear and the woman, along with three of her four brothers (pp: 10).  

A markedly different Tlingit story recorded in 1903 (Swanton, 1909) tells of a man named Kats, who was abducted by a she-bear. They bore several children together. It is said that, “Indoors [these] bears took off their skin coats and looked just like human beings” (pp: 49). Eventually, these bear-cubs killed their father and scattered him about the world. Later, the bears were killed in various places. According to the account, the last of the four was killed as it attempted to carry off a woman alive.
 

Generalized Circumpolar Traditions

Hallowell (1926) recognized the exceptional reverence for the bear demonstrated in Sami customs. Despite the breadth of accounts he compiled, Hallowell rarely mentions the significance of rings. He does, however, cite from Scheffer (1673) and also from Fjellstrom (1755), and acknowledges the significance of rings in Sami bear rites (pp: 101). He added an observation related to a piece of copper associated with Finnic bear-rites. He described how during ceremonial feasts, the bear's head would be hung from a tree. The hunter that had killed the bear, "was distinguished by a copper key which was attached to his weapons as a mark of honour" (pp: 98). He also described hunting techniques that involve other more cryptic types of “rings,” including the ringing technique and also techniques in which a “snare” is wrapped around the animal. For example: 
 

Sometimes the natives…would fasten a snare around the animal’s neck and, drawing its head close up to the hole they had made in the top of the lair, would finally dispatch the beast with a hatchet (pp: 36).

Thus, insights gained from Tolley’s (2007) analysis of the significance of the bronze or brass ornamentation can not be applied universally to bear ceremonialism in Siberian and North American Native traditions. In fact,  Hallowell’s analysis resulted in relatively little that can be generalized about bear hunting techniques, which he typified as either forcing bears out from their lairs, trapping the bears in the lairs, and attacking bears in the open. Complex ritualized feasting after bear hunts is perhaps the most readily generalizable aspect of circumpolar bear ceremonialism.
 

‘ALTVATAR’ THE BEAR 

Hallowell also documented linguistic customs and found that across the breadth of cultural traditions throughout the region, euphemisms and honorific names are used to refer to the bear. He suggests the reason for this, “ …seems to be to please the animal (or its spirit controller) by the substitution, or, to put it negatively, to avoid any possible offense”(pp: 43-50). Commonly, the bear is referred to as, ‘Grandfather’ and also ‘Grandmother,’ depending on the sex. Of notable interest is a euphemism in Samoyed, “Altvater” (pp: 49). All Father is a common euphemism for the Aesir god, Odin, who is strongly attested to in association with sorcery in Norse mythic tradition.

Thracian


Meteamorphoses & the Story of Polyphonte

The ancestral-bear motif was recorded in Metamorphoses by Antoninus Liberalis. Liberalis probably lived between circa 100-200 CE, however, Celoria (1992) describes this conclusion as, “...a matter of nervous speculation..., perhaps the best that can be suggested after centuries of scholarship” (pp: 2). Celoria further describes Liberalis’s Metamorphoses as, “...a collection of anciently edited sources, put together in one book (pp: 10). The myth survives through a single manuscript, dated circa 800-900 CE. The myth begins as follows:

Thrassa was daughter of Ares and of Tereine daughter of Strymon. Hipponous, son of Triballos [eponym or god of the Triballoi tribe of Thrake (Thrace)], married her and they had a daughter called Polyphonte (Slayer-of-Many). She scorned the activities of Aphrodite and went to the mountains as a companion and sharer of sports with Artemis.

Aphrodite, whose activities Polyphonte failed to honour, made her fall in love with a bear and drove her mad. By daemonic urge she went on heat and coupled with this bear. Artemis seeing her was utterly disgusted with her and turned all beasts against her. 

Polyphonte, fearing the beasts would make an end of her, fled and reached her father's house. She brought forth two children, Agrios (Agrius) and Oreios (Oreus), huge and of immense strength. They honoured neither god nor man but scorned them all. If they met a stranger they would haul him home to eat.
 

Zeus loathed them and sent Hermes to punish them in whatever way he chose. Hermes decided to chop off their hands and feet. But Ares, since the family of Polyphonte descended from him, snatched her sons from this fate. With the help of Hermes he changed them into birds (Trans. Celoria, 1992; pp: 77-79).
 

The story of Polyphonte is generally regarded as a Greek myth, however, it may be more properly characterized as Thracian. This distinction has significant implications for reconstructing migrations of cultural arts and story-telling traditions. The association with Thracian culture is strongly indicated by Thrassa’s marriage to Hipponous, who Celoria (1992) identifies as, “an eponym or god of the Triballoi tribe of Thrake (Thrace)” (pp: 77). Thrassa’s cultural significance may be comparable to that of her brother, Thrax, who is identified as a Thracian variant of Aries himself (Lenard, 1884). In the play, Alcestis, dated  448 BCE, by Euripides, a man identifies himself as being, "Of Ares [Thrax], the lord of the gold-rich shield of Thrace!" (line 58, Trans. Aldington, 1930). Translator, Lenard (1884) notes, "one of the names of Ares was Thrax, he being the Patron of Thrace" (pp: 95). At face value, Thrassa seems to be a feminine variant of the name, Thrax. Thus, whether by her mother or father or both, Polyphonte herself is certainly Thracian. 
 

This distinction adds an important geographic insight into bear ceremonialism as it relates to later Norse traditions. Evidence  presented in The Path of the Serpent (this newsletter) points to Tyras as a locus of cultural exchange between Germanic and Greco-Roman culture. In short, evidence indicates that ancient migrations originating from the eastern regions of the Black Sea  resulted in displacement and subsequent reorganization of Celtic and Germanic people in Northern Europe during the first several centuries CE, and that these social changes significant effected  the evolution of Norse arts traditions. 

Dogs and Bear Hunting

The Letnitsa archaeological treasure, recovered from a site in Bulgaria,  dated to circa 350 BCE, includes a plate showing a man hunting a bear. Significantly, he is  apparently accompanied on his hunt by a dog. Dogs are not mentioned in the Thracian version of the myth, nor in Greek variants of the story of Callisto. However, the presence of the dog on the Thracian artifact suggests that dogs were significant in Thracian bear rites and myths.  Dogs occur frequently in circumpolar variations and in the Norse variant told in the Saga of King Hrolf  (to note, a dog is also significant in a traditional Iroquois story of a bear hunt). In her ethnography of Native people of the Yukon, McClellen (1950) observes, "that lndians do not class dogs with the rest of the animals. In this story dogs clearly ally themselves with the humans in league against the bear, and like humans, dogs have personal names" (pp: 9). 

Removal of the Paw in Thracian Myth and Sami Custom

There is an intriguing anecdote that emerges from this analysis. For their offenses to the gods and to men, Polyphonte’s sons are condemned to be punished by having their hands and feet removed. An account of Sami bear rites describes how this very same punishment was applied to bears that harmed a person:  

According to the Sámi concept, both human and animal could receive a new body in the otherworld, as long as the skeleton was kept intact. This also enabled the bear to be reincarnated on earth. A bear which had attacked men and had therefore behaved in an unbecoming fashion did not receive a funeral, but its right paw was cut off and thrown away; thus its skeleton was no longer intact and the bear’s cycle came to an end then and there [Itkonen, 1946, p. 365]. According to some information a pair of skis could be placed in the grave, or a flute, a knife, a piece of brass etc" (Pentikäinen, 2015).  

For now, one may only conclude that ritualistic removal of the bear’s paw as punishment is similar in the two traditions. Wether or not these traditions share a common root is another question altogether.

Greek


Hesiod & the Story of Callisto

The story of Polyphonte parallels the Greek story of Callisto. Like Polyphonte, Callisto chose to remain a virgin and wander in the wild with Artemis, mated with a bear and gaves birth. A number of variations of this story exist. The earliest is accredited to the Greek poet, Hesiod. According to Griffin (1986), Hesiod, was probably writing around 700 BCE (pp: 77). Sale (1962) reconstructs Hesiod’s story of Callisto from a number of ancient sources: 

Hesiod says that she was the daughter of Lycaon and chose to spend her time with wild beasts in the mountains, together with Artemis. She was ravished by Zeus but remained in Artemis' company dissimulating her pregnant condition; eventually she was seen while bathing and her secret discovered. Artemis in anger converted her to a bear, and in this form she gave birth to Arcas, named from Callisto's metamorphosis (pp: 124).

Greek sources include unreconciled  variations of this myth, but they all end famously the same way. Arcas (sometimes identified as Arctos), attempts to hunt his mother, but she is saved when Zeus places either mother and son or both in the heavens in the forms of  the constellations Ursa Major and Minor, Big Bear and Little Bear. 

From Arctos, the scientific name for the great brown bear, ursa arctos, is derived. 

Remarkably, scholars generally agree that a form of bear ceremonialism associated with Artemis was actually practiced at the ancient temple site of Brauron in Greece. This conclusion is drawn from literary and archaeological data. In the ancient Greek comedy, Lysistrate, by Aristophanes, dated 411 BCE, young initiates are identified as “bears.” Walbank (1981), compares the text of Lysistrate to ancient iconography of Brauron and affirms an association between initiation rites and bears in a ceremonial context:

There is no question but that the 'bears' of line 643 are devotees of Artemis. Sourvinou-Inwood’s emendation of the text, in light of the evidence from pottery at Brauron that 'bears' were very young girls who shed their saffron robes, the mark of their office, at the age of ten, seems eminently correct… In my opinion, this passage refers entirely to services rendered to the goddess Artemis at Brauron. The chorine spent her life, until marriage, in the sanctuary, performing various ritual tasks appropriate to her age (pp: 279-280). 

The rites may have echoed - even recreated - aspects of the story of Callisto, who chose to remain a virgin, devoted herself to Artemis, wandered with her in the wild, then lost her favor after becoming pregnant. Similarities between the Greek story of Callisto and Lysistrate, along with the Thracian story of Polyphonte, suggests some degree of temporal and spatial continuity in the Greek and Thracian traditions. 

As with circumpolar traditions, Greek and Thracian stories are associated with forms of sorcery and rituals, but in contrast, they do not attest to significance ascribed to brass, bronze or other metal ornamentation, nor rings, as in Norse and Sami traditions. Hesiod's Theogeny  ascribes considerable mythic significance to bronze, for instance, Hercules,  "used merciless bronze to despoil the monster" (Trzaskoma, 2018, stanza 315, pp: 140) but still, no mention of brass or bronze can be detected in the tale of Callisto nor Polyphonte. The negative evidence adds support to the theory that brass and bronze ornamentation, especially rings (in specific archeological and literary contexts associated with Norse arts and story-telling traditions) is distinctive of a circumpolar cultural tradition, however, given the significance of bronze in other Greek stories, it seems likely that further research may yet connect such ornamentation to Greek or Thracian bear ceremonialism.  

Sanskirt

Hesiod’s account may be the earliest written record of the ancestral-bear motif in western literary sources. A close contemporary occurs in Sanskrit, namely the Mahabharata, dated circa  400-200 BCE, in which Jambavan, commonly identified as a bear deity, offers one of his daughters to Krishna for marriage. The Ramayana dated to after 300 BCE,  describes how the "elder of the name of Jambavan... now in the form of a bear was a ripe soul full of knowledge and wisdom" (Narayan, 2006). 

The occurrence of the motif in multiple Indo-European languages adds further complexity to retracing the origins of the motif. Data presented by Chang (2015) suggests Sanskrit and Greek languages diverged about 5,000 years ago. Genetic evidence presented below suggests some of the early circumpolar migrations in question may have begun 25,000 years ago or more. These observations return this analysis to the original question as to wether or not the motif in these cultures share a common cultural origin, and if so, how?

This chronology of literary sources begins in circa 700 BCE with Hesiod's account of Callisto and ends in 1462, with the oldest known manuscript of Hrolf's Saga. The story told in Hrolf's Saga is thought to have originated in oral tradition during circa 400-600 CE.  According to Byock, Hrolf’s saga belongs to a group of sagas identified as fornaldar sagas (legendary sagas), which are distinct from other sagas in that, “they tell of events that occurred, or are supposed to have occurred, long before the ninth-century settlement of Iceland” (pp: vii). Byock compares mythic events in Hrolf’s saga with archaeological records associated with the Great Hall of Lejre, on the island of Zealand, (also spelled Selund and Sjaelland, Denmark) and other archaeological sites nearby. At Lejre, the Great Hall is superimposed on top of a smaller, older hall, radiocarbon dated to 660 CE. Byock, concludes: 

The oldest of the two halls is a little too young to be identified with… Hleidargard in Hrolf’s Saga. However, it is possible that that these halls replaced an older structure in the vicinity, where remains have been obscured or have yet to be found. The large nearby burial mound called Grydehoj, ‘Pot Mound’, is evidence of earlier chieftains being connected with the site. Dated by radiocarbon and artifacts, including gold threads and pieces of bronze, to approximately AD 550, the Grydehoj is a rich burial (pp: xx). 

In principle, there is at least some archaeological evidence supporting the hypothesis that elements of the storyline in Hrolf’s saga correspond with the 6th century CE. Archaeological data might serve as a proxy indicator for the motif’s depth in time in oral tradition, however, this assessment must factor for the complexity of oral culture and history of the early manuscripts of the tale. The earliest known manuscript dates to 1462, and is survived by later copies (Byock, 1998; pp: xxxvi). 

The tale of Volundarkvitha is preserved among the vellum leaves of the Codex Regius, dated to the 1270s. It is possible that earlier manuscripts of either story may have existed, however, based on known literary records, in their preserved forms, the tale of Volundarkvitha predates Hrolf’s saga by approximately two-hundred years.
 

Yet, there are far older written accounts of the ancestral-bear motif in Thracian and Greek mythology. The closest available proximation of the time of Liberalis' Meteamorphoses is 100-200 CE. The earliest surviving manuscript is dated circa 800-900 CE. 

Hesiod’s reconstructed account can be placed astonishingly to circa 700 BCE, predating Liberalis by 500-600 years, and the Codex Regius by nearly two-thousand.

When it occurs, the ancestral-bear motif is universally integrated with stories that attest to some form of art practice, commonly identified as sorcery. These include accounts of shape-shifting, visions, prophecies, use of amulets, drums, and incantations. 

Scholars (Price, 2002, 2004; Gardela, 2008, 2009; Tolley, 2007; Orchard, 1997) provide anthropological context to the practice of sorcery in Viking Age Scandinavia. Their analyses rely heavily on passages in the Ynglinga Saga, wherein the art of seiðr is identified explicitly as,  “...the art in which the greatest power is lodged, and which [Odin] himself practised; namely, what is called magic [seiðr ]. By means of this he could know beforehand the predestined fate of men, or their not yet completed lot; and also bring on the death, ill-luck, or bad health of people, and take the strength or wit from one person and give it to another” (stanza 7; Trans. Laing, 1844). From this, Orchard (1997) derives a suiting definition of seiðr as, "a particular form of magic practiced by Odin" (pp: 137).  The Ynglinga Saga identifies a wide range of types of spell-craft that Odin practiced, including shape-shifting. Price (2004) identifies these arts more broadly as, Odinnic Magic, which is, “often interpreted in a similar context” (pp: 110).

Story-telling traditions and material culture associated with Indo-European and circumpolar bear ceremonialism  have distinct parallels with material culture associated with seiðr  practice and Odinnic Magic. In examining the material culture of, seiðr, Price (2004) concluded, “uncritical ethnographic analogy is a constant danger in shamanic research, but I strongly believe that any meaningful study of seiðr must look seriously to the work being done not just in the Sámi homelands but also in Siberia, Alaska, Canada, the Northern continental United States, and Greenland" (pp: 112).  Gardela (2015) agrees, adding, "in order to unravel the seiðr complex one should also look closer at the ritual practices conducted by the Eastern and Western Slavs as well as the Baltic and Finno-Ugric peoples” (pp: 52). Gardela focused attention on, "strong connections between the old magical practice known as krzywanie undertaken by pagan Baltic priests called kriwe (in Prussia) or krìvis (in Lithuania), and the performers and performances of seiðr" (pp: 51).


Price (2004) identified problematic issues with comparative methods in contemporary analyses of arts and story-telling traditions.  He resolved that studies of ancient Scandinavian arts traditions can be advanced through critical examination of material culture. Though refined, Price’s conclusion was not new. It echoed the same conclusion made by Hallowell about eighty-five years earlier, but about bear veneration.

Hallowell (1926) also grappled with issues related to comparative methods. He addressed questions about psychological dimensions of animal veneration and reviewed theories of the time (pp: 15); he found no compelling evidence for a universal psychological explanation for animal veneration. He wrote, “the history of particular customs and beliefs must be pursued at the cultural, not the psychological level” (pp: 19). 



A heritage that honors learning and exchange of knowledge is embedded in ancient Norse stories. In the Ynglinga Saga, Odin is described as a far-traveled wanderer. He is  explicitly venerated for his learnedness and for teaching the arts to the people (stanzas 6-7). It tells that Vanir goddess, Freya, "taught the Asaland people the magic art, as it was in use and fashion among the Vanaland people" (stanza 4, Trans. Laing, 1844). In Havamal, becoming wise is directly associated with traveling widely (stanza 18) and speaking with others (stanza 57).  Norse stories plainly exonerate cross-cultural learning and exchange of knowledge, however, reconstructing the evolution of arts traditions and exchange of cultural knowledge from empirical evidence is only possible when empirical evidence is forthcoming. Surprisingly, iconographic and archaeological discoveries associated with bear ceremonialism in Greece, Bulgaria, and Siberia  may offer opportunities to investigate the distant roots of seiðr  in Indo-European and circumpolar traditions.

SEIDR MATERIAL CULTURE

The Saga of Eric the Red is often cited as the richest description of seiðr material culture in ancient Norse literature. Archaeologists recognize aspects of the description in the archaeological record of viking-age Scandinavia. The account describes the seeress as follows:    

 ...she was dressed in such wise that she had a blue mantle over her, with strings for the neck, and it was inlaid with gems quite down to the skirt. On her neck she had glass beads. On her head she had a black hood of lambskin, lined with ermine. A staff she had in her hand, with a knob thereon; it was ornamented with brass, and inlaid with gems round about the knob. Around her she wore a girdle of soft hair, and therein was a large skin-bag, in which she kept the talismans needful to her in her wisdom. She wore hairy calf-skin shoes on her feet, with long and strong-looking thongs to them, and great knobs of latten at the ends. On her hands she had gloves of ermine-skin, and they were white and hairy within. Now, when she entered, all men thought it their bounden duty to offer her becoming greetings, and these she received according as the men were agreeable to her... She had a brazen spoon, and a knife with a handle of walrus-tusk, which was mounted with two rings of brass, and the point of it was broken off (Smiley, 1997; pp: 658).

THE SORCERESSES WAND

The description of the staff ornamented with brass is remarkable. Price (2002) connected literary attestations of seiðr to material culture in the archaeological record of viking-age Scandinavia, especially to that which he identified as the graves of sorceresses. According to Gardela (2009), “the key artefact which enabled Price to interpret those graves as possible volva-burials was the presence in each one of a strange iron rod. Price sees those items as possible staffs of sorcery, which might have functioned as distinctive attributes of the Viking Age volur and were symbols of their craft and profession” (pp: 53).  The archaeological record of viking-age Scandinavia includes a surprising number of burials of women identified as sorceresses (also identified as volur, volvas, seiðkanna, spae queens, seið  women, and seeresses). 

Ulriksen (2018) compared some of these burials, and concluded, “the graves, most of them dated to the 10th century, are not at all alike but nevertheless include comparable elements. Beside the ‘staff’ a common feature is a rather comprehensive furnishing of the graves with imports, luxury objects, buckets, boxes, amulets and jewellery indicating a high social status” (pp: 236). Assemblages frequently include sacrificed animals. Brass and bronze vessels originating from distant locations in Asia and Europe are also common. Some of the burials include weaving tools. Seeds of psychotropic plants, including henbane and cannabis, occur in a small number of these graves. 

There are many burials fitting the profile to be considered, but one in particular suggests a connection between arts, staffs, bronze ornamentation, and bear veneration. The National Museum of Denmark (2022) reports:

The völva burial from Köpingsvik, on the Swedish island of Öland, contained an 82 cm long iron staff, with bronze ornamentation and a house represented on top. Accompanying this was a jug from Central Asia and a bronze cauldron from Western Europe. The woman was dressed in bear fur and was buried.

Although the sample is limited, the burial assemblage can be reasonably interpreted as  evidence that material culture associated with sorcery and bear ceremonialism is represented in the archaeological record of viking-age Scandinavia. To expand, the National Museum of Denmarks (2022) offers this description of a comparable burial: 

Amongst the unusual objects were a metal wand and seeds from the poisonous henbane plant. These two accessories are associated with the seeress. The most mysterious object is the metal wand. It has partially disintegrated after the long period in the ground. It consists of an iron stick with bronze fittings. This may have been a wand associated with the practice of magic – a völva’s wand or magic wand.

Tolley (2007) explicated an association between bronze ornamentation and ceremonial staffs in Sami bear hunting rites. His conclusion about the origins of the motif in Hrolf’s Saga rests heavily on the mythic and ritual significance of brass and bronze ornamentation used frequently in various stages of bear-hunting rites practiced by Sami people. To elucidate, the historic ethnographic account recorded by Fjellstrom in 1755 (cited in Tolley, 2007, above) described how bronze ornamentation, namely a ring, was ritualistically attached to a ceremonial staff proceeding the hunting of a bear. The man holding the staff was to sing the bear song as the hunt ensued. In circumpolar and other Native traditions, songs are frequently sung for special purposes. Examples include the Haida Bear song identified. Etnographic records document an especially rich heritage of songs in bear ceremonialism of the Khanty people (Wiget, 2022). Comparatively, the use of ornamented staffs and incantations is also strongly associated with seiðr craft. Obviously, incantations can not be detected in the archaeological record, however, the art is widely attested to in Icelandic Sagas. For instance, in the Saga of King Hrolf, a seeress, "wrenched open her mouth, yawned deeply, and [a] chant emerged from her mouth" (Trans. Byock, 1998: pp. 6). Other literary attestations, including the Saga of the People of Vatnsdal (chapter 44) and Eric the Reds Saga (chapter 4) attest to sorceresses using ornamented staffs. According to Gardela (2008):    

Working with seiðr, however, meant dealing with another kind of reality — an elaborate world of thought which had the capacity to change the ordinary into the supernatural. The search for seiðr is thus a search for details and subtleties which are all hidden within even the most banal objects. Finally, we must realize that the iron staff became a tool for sorcery only when its bearer decided to use it in such a manner and when other participants of the ritual believed in her (or his) power and the magic with which the seiðr paraphernalia were enchanted. It was all ‘real’ because the minds of Viking-Age peoples considered it real (pp; 54).      

Women's roles are especially significant in ritual activities associated with bear rites in circumpolar Native and in Indo-European traditions. To illustrate, ethnographic accounts of Sami bear rites attest to the strong association between bronze rings and woman's roles in ceremonial activities, exemplified by the customs of viewing the bear through the ring and attaching brass rings to cooking vessels. In Greek rites, offerings to Artemis in the archaeological assemblage at Brauron  include, “implements such as spindles, spindle whorls, loom weights and epinetra…” (Blundell, 1998). These offerings may be purely associated with initiation into womanhood, but based on the literary and iconographic evidence presented above, they are also associated with a distinct form of bear ceremonialism and with ancient memories. Seiðr art is especially strongly associated with weaving. Weaving implements occur commonly in viking-age female burials and are often interpreted in the context of woman’s societal roles, but as Gardela remarked, seemingly mundane objects take on extraordinary significance when associated with seiðr. Of special significance, weaving tools occur in some of funerary assemblages of women identified as sorceresses, including the one in Fyrkat, Denmark; according to the National Museum of Denmark (2022), along with an ornamented iron staff:
        

She had been given ordinary female gifts, like spindle whorls and scissors. But there were also exotic goods from foreign parts, indicating that the woman must have been wealthy. She wore toe rings of silver, which have not been found elsewhere in Scandinavia. In addition, two bronze bowls were also found in the grave, which may have come all the way from Central Asia. 

Price (2002, 2004) and Gardela (2009) compare literary and archaeological evidence of association between seiðr and weaving. Gardela concludes, “...evidence suggest that there was a clear relationship between the objects used in seiðr: they were all symbolically interlinked and revolved around the central concepts of spinning and weaving” (Gardela 2009, pp: 65). He postulated among other theories that the staffs are symbolic of distaffs, “recalling the concept of spinning fate, and a symbol of feminine control and responsibility for or power over the household” (Gardela 2009, pp: 70-71).    

This conclusion may, in some ways, be an overgeneralization, as seiðr arts are not always clearly associated with weaving. Weaving tools do not always occur in the funerary assemblages of women identified as sorceresses. Numerous literary attestations of seiðr do not mention weaving at all, except through generalizable inferences based on metaphoric tradition. An example of this occurs in Hrolf’s Saga, wherein  a form of lesser norns are summoned. It tells that, Skuld, a daughter of King Helgi and a mysterious elven woman, "to overpower her brother, King Hrolf, fashioned a spell of high potency, which summoned elves, norns and countless other vile creatures. No human power could withstand so strong a force” (Byock, 1998; pp: 71). Although there is no significant mention of weaving in this account, one may be inferred through association with the Norns, but only in a most generalized way. 
    Skuld’s appearance as an antagonist on the battlefield is certainly a departure from the hypothesis that seiðr is strictly associated with women’s domestic activities. Indeed, it was also a craft of war. Still, seiðr’s close association with women’s activities is certain (for more information, see featured article,Weaver's of Fate?).  

Brass and Domestic Items  

Further evidence of ritualistic association between domestic items and ceremonial arts include brass and bronze vessels from distant locations in Europe and Asia that occur frequently in the burial assemblages of women identified as sorceresses. Incidentally, the archaeological context of these vessels adds to evidence of exchange of cultural knowledge over broad areas of Europe and Asia. The vessels can be interpreted simply as domestic items, but it is plausible that they, like weaving tools, also had symbolic and ritual significance. Records of Sami bear rites include an account of brass ornamentation ceremoniously fitted to a vessel:      

The bear grease is strained; all the dishes in which the grease is strained have to be fitted with brass. If only one bear has been killed, the container has to be fitted with one piece of brass, if more bears have been killed, the grease cup also has to be fitted with several pieces of brass’ (Samuel Rehn, Schefferus, p. 237) (§66) (Laestadius cited in Pentikäinen, J., 2015).    

The description of the seeress in Eric the Red's Saga details that she possessed a walrus tusk-handled knife fitted with brass rings. Again, the literary account conspicuously mentions brass rings in association with sorcery and a domestic item, adding to literary evidence of ritualistic significance ascribed to bronze and brass ornamentation and also domestic objects in Norse story-telling and arts traditions. 

Based on available evidence, brass and bronze ornaments, particularly rings, are highly significant in Norse and Sami bear-rites and story-telling traditions, but the same can not be said for Indo-European cultures that also told stories of the ancestral bear. Nevertheless, the bear-rites of Artemis are associated with material culture that is also strongly associated with seiðr. This insight may have practical applications for archaeological investigations. 

In the final passages of Hrolf’s saga, Hrolf and his champions win renown in a great battle against King Hjorvard and his army. Hjorvard and his overwhelming forces were aided by the powerful sorceress, Skuld. Hrolf and his champions were aided by a great bear:

The bear was always beside the king, and it killed more men with its paws than any five of the king’s champions did. Blows and missiles glanced off the animal, as it used its weight to crush King Hjorvard’s men and their horses. Between its teeth, it tore everything within reach, causing a palpable fear to spread through the ranks of King Hjorvard’s army (Trans. Byock, 1998; pp: 74).   


The bear in this account is generally interpreted as the son of Bjorn and Bera, the hero Bodvar Bjarki, appearing in the form of a bear.  But after the bear leaves the battlefield, Bodvar is encountered relaxing, possibly sleeping or in a trance. The question of wether Bodvar transformed into a bear or if the bear was Bodvar’s fylgja (an ancestral or personal animal spirit helper) remains unclear.  What is clear is that the final battle of Hrolf’s saga is partly a battle of mythical forces.  

The gaining of mastery of the power of the bear is at the heart of all of these tales. Though mythic, stories of the ancestral bear have profound cultural significance, and yet, like bear veneration itself, the origins of the motif and its significance in the human psyche remain mysteries.

Cross-examination of multiple lines of anthropological data, including biological, paleontological, archaeological, ethnographic, linguistic, and literary evidence, suggests a strong possibility that the motif is rooted in an extremely ancient ancestral story-telling tradition that persisted in an evolutionary cultural context from prehistoric times into the ethnographic present. Paleolithic and prehistoric evidence can not be directly linked to oral traditions in the ethnographic present, but ethnographic, literary and archaeological  evidence are mutually informative. As remote as the possibility of a Paleolithic origin may seem, the scattered fragments of evidence that exist are highly suggestive. 
New evidence, particularly from genetic studies, continues to inform long-standing debates, adding to evidence of extremely widespread distribution of cultural traditions throughout the circumpolar region.  

The evidences calls into question the epistemological nature of cultural distinctions in contemporary disciplines. Evidence of multiple cultural traditions in Norse arts and story-telling traditions in literary and archaeological sources presents clear need to develop anthropological theory and archaeological methods that can account for arts traditions in evolutionary and behavioral ecological contexts over vast spacial and temporal scales.