bear & son

"Bear's Son Tale" (German: das Märchen vom Bärensohn, Bärensohnmärchen) refers to an analogous group of narratives that, according to Friedrich Panzer's 1910 thesis, represent the fairy tale material reworked to create the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf's first part, the Grendel-kin Story. Panzer collected over 200 analogue tales mostly from Eurasia.
The Bear's Son motif (B635.1) is exhibited only generally, not reliably. Exceptions include versions of "Jean de l'Ours", and the Grimms' fairy tale "Strong Hans" or "Der Starke Hans". Beowulf does not explicitly reveal a bear origin for its hero, but his name and great strength connect him to the animal closely.
Most of the tales are formally catalogued as either Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale type 301, "The Three Stolen Princesses" or ATU type 650A, "Strong John" or "Starker Hans". Their plotlines are similar, with some differences; in the latter, the hero is subjected to tests by ordeal.
"Bear's Son Tale" has thus become only an informal term for tale type classification in folkloristics, but scholars in Beowulf criticism continue to assert the usefulness of the term in their studies.

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