Jean de l'Ours () or John the Bear, John of the Bear, John-of-the-Bear, John Bear, is the leading character in the French folktale Jean de l'Ours classed as Type 301B in the Aarne–Thompson system; it can also denote any tale of this type.
Some typical elements are that the hero is born half-bear, half-human; he obtains a weapon, usually a heavy iron cane, and on his journey; he bands up with two or three companions. At a castle the hero defeats an adversary, pursues him to a hole, discovers an underworld, and rescues three princesses. The companions abandon him in the hole, taking the princesses for themselves. The hero escapes, finds the companions and gets rid of them. He marries the most beautiful princess of the three, but not before going through certain ordeal(s) by the king.: analysis of themes for sections II ~ VII (applicable to Type 301 B)
The character is said to be one of "the most popular tale-types in Hispanic and Francophone tradition".McCarthy, William Bernard. Cinderella in America: a book of folk and fairy tales. The University Press of Mississippi. 2007. p. 130. Numerous variants exist in France, often retaining the name Jean de l'Ours or something similar for the hero. Some of the analogues in Europe that retain the names corresponding to "John" are: Jan de l'Ors (); Joan de l'Ós ( or ); Juan del Oso, Juan el Oso, Juanito el Oso, Juanillo el Oso (, ); Giovanni dell'Orso (), Iann he vaz houarn (Breton); (Russian)."Ivan the Bear’s Son." In: The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev: Volume I, edited by Haney Jack V., 359-61. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.99."The Bear, Moustaches, Mountain Man, and Oakman Bogatyrs." In: The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev: Volume I, edited by Haney Jack V., 321-29. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.91. The tale has also propagated to the New World, with examples from French Canada, Mexico, etc.
Physical appearance
Several French versions explicitly comment on Jean de l'ours being covered with body hair on his entire body.Delarue's element II c, "II a le corps couvert de poils", , seen in versions 1, 4, 9, (Cosquin's no. 1), etc. One Gascon version, Jan l'Oursét adds that he had "a large head just like a bear's, except for its shape".Delarue's 67, , , "Jan l'Oursét (Jean l'Ourset)", L'Armagnac Noir, ou Bas-Armagnac, pp. 211– 230.
The hero is human from the waist up and bear from the waist down in one Mexican version (Juan el Oso) as well as the Russian tale "" (or "Ivanko the Bear's son")., citing Gubernatis. For comparison, in the Avar tale "Bear's Ear", the protagonist has ears like a bear., citing Schiefner.
Jean de l'Ours is a beautiful abandoned child raised by a mother bear in 's version (1885).Delarue's 71 Jean l’Ours et ses compagnons, . Along the same vein, Jean de l'Ours was a beautiful foundling adopted by a widow according to Carnoy in another version (1885, illustrated by Édouard Zier), but this, except for an altered telling of the boy's origin, is by and large identical to the tale given earlier by Hippolyte Babou (1862):. Delarue's 66, , summarized in Jourdanne, Gaston, (1900) , p. 124. In both texts he is depicted as an angel-faced, blue-eyed boy who wears a bearskin around his loins, has a lush mane like Samson's falling from head to chest, and carries a poplar sapling as a staff.
The artist's depiction by Jean-Claude Pertuzé in his Le conte de Jean de l'ours (1988) depicts Jean with rounded bear's ears attached high on his head.
Tale type "John the Bear" is categorized as Type 301 or "Three Stolen Princesses" type.: "Three Stolen Princesses". Type 301 is also sometimes termed the "Bear' son" type, although "Bear's Son Tale" in general practice is a looser term that encompasses both 301 and 650A types.
The tale is classed more narrowly as type 301 B, and the whole group dubbed the "Jean de l'ours" type, especially in the French folkloristics community, whereas 301B is often called the "Strong man and his Companions" type in English-language circles. And analogues of "Jean de l'ours" often get admixed with elements of another but very similar tale type, Strong John (AT 650).
The Juan Oso tales as analyzed by the Spanish-language folklorists are described in similar vein, with certain differences. Juan Oso tales have disseminated widely to the New World, and fall widely into types 301A, 301B, 301C, or 301D. And they exhibit mixing not only with the AT 650 mentioned above,Hansen, Terrance Leslie (1957), The Types of the Folktale in Cuba, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, and Spanish South America, pp. 24–25, 75–77, cited by , p. 335 and note 6 but also with Type 513 A, "Six Go through the Whole World".
Type 513 A is marked by the presence of "extraordinary helpers". Cosquin believed these were an outside element introduced from other tales; and Clive Claudel attributed such helpers to Thompson's tale type 513 A. Bertram Colgrave on the other hand believed certain companions ("treeman", "mountain man", "stone man", etc.) should be regarded as native to Juan Oso tales, whereas generic companions (such as "the runner") are "strictly speaking" foreign to the tale group.
It has been suggested that tale types ATU 301 and Jean de l'Ours, ATU 650 ("Strong Hans"), ATU 302 ("Devil's Heart in the Egg") and ATU 554 ("The Grateful Animals") may have once comprised a single narrative, but, with time, the original story fragmented into different tale types.Frank, R. M. (2019). "Translating a Worldview in the longue durée: The Tale of “The Bear’s Son”". In: Głaz A. (eds). Languages – Cultures – Worldviews. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 68-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28509-8_3
French versions
Soldiers' version A key example of type 301 B noted by French scholars such as Paul Delarue or is the version told by soldiers, and first published by Vidal et Delmart in 1833. No regional localization was given for the version. It was designated version 1 by Delarue, who gave a summary of it. It has also been translated into English as the tale of "The Story of John-of-the-Bear".
Birth and childhood
A woodcutter's wife looking for wood is abducted by the bear, and gives birth to a child by this bear. The child walks at four months, speaks and runs at one year, and soon even rattles the stone with which the bear plugs the cave. The boy lifts the stone at age 5 or 6, and he and his mother escape. At school, his hairiness earns him the nickname "Jean de l'Ours" from other schoolchildren. He retaliates with violence, the schoolmaster demands his parents punish him, he drops out, and enters apprenticeship under a blacksmith.
His cane and companions He leaves the blacksmith, and as compensation, obtains an iron cane weighing 800 pounds in the shaft and 200 pounds more at the pommel. He obtains two companions, Tord-Chêne ("Twistoak") and Tranche-Montagne ("Cutmountain").
Inside the haunted castle Jean's party lodge at a castle, without sign of human presence, but with tables and beds prepared, and meals (and other wished-for items) that would appear as if by magic. They decide to go hunting, leaving one behind to sound the lunch bell. Tranche remains at the castle on the first turn, but a size-changing "little giant (petit géant)" descends from the chimney and beats him terribly with a stick. He blames a fall going down to the cellar for being unable to signal. Next day, another companion meets the same fate, and offers a different excuse. Jean defeats the little giant by striking him before he had the chance to grow large, and the enemy flees inside a well.
Descent and visit to the Underworld
They investigate the well, taking turns being lowered down riding a basket tied to a rope. Only Jean de l'Ours has courage to reach bottom. There John meets his informant, an old woman. She reveals the adversary to be a giant who abducted three princesses from Spain. Each princess is guarded separately: in a steel castle by 2 tigers, a silver castle by 4 leopards, and a gold castle by 6 lions as large as elephants. The old woman also provides a jar of ointment to cure wounds. Jean defeats the beasts and rescues the princesses. Each princess is prettier than the last. He finds them asleep, and uses increasingly gentler means to awaken them. The hero receives from the princesses a steel, a silver, and a golden ball, respectively.
The hero's climb out The companions betray Jean and let go of the rope pulling him up. He falls and suffers a bruised body and broken legs, which the ointment cures. Jean gains advice from the old woman on how to escape the Underworld, and is lifted out riding a giant eagle, which requires feeding each time it squawks. Near the end he runs out of meat, and he flays some flesh from his own thigh, but this too heals using the jar of salve.
The return to the princesses Jean reaches Madrid. His two former companions have claimed credit for saving the princesses, and the eldest is ordered to choose one of them to marry, but she is granted a stay for a year and a day. Meanwhile, they collect all the Marseilles soap in the kingdom to scrub the two men clean. The hero arrives and rolls his three balls, so the eldest knows to warn the king about their true savior. The king owns another set of the three balls, and declares marriage of his daughters to anyone who could replicate them. The hero succeeds by bringing the three balls he owns, and marries the eldest. The two treacherous companions are hanged on the high gallows.
Cosquin's version A version from Lorraine was printed by Emmanuel Cosquin in 1886 (listed as Delarue's version 9). Its English translation appeared in Stith Thompson's One Hundred Favorite Folktales (1968). The plotline is quite similar to the soldier's version summarized above, with numerous differences in detail, which will be noted:
The hero's mother was already pregnant before being captured by bear, but still born half-human, half-bear; given the John the Bear name as a child; apprentices under three blacksmiths, cane is 500 pounds. Three companions: Jean de la Meule ('John of the Mill') playing quoits (original: palets) with a millstone, Appuie-Montagne ('Hold-up-Mountain') and Tord-Chêne ('Oak-Twister'). Here it is a giant (not a size-shifting being) who attacks whichever companion is staying at the castle on his turn (i.e., whoever is keeping house while the others hunt; this is chosen by lot). Two companions blame kitchen smoke for their failure. John destroys the giant, splitting it in two with a cane.
He discovers the underworld by knocking on the floor with the cane; He descends hanging on a rope; at the bottom, hero's informant is a fairy (fée); hero destroys little devils in two rooms before reaching a chamber of three princesses; companions release rope carrying the hero.
The hero's escape from Underworld is up to a point by the "path leading to the ground above" formula, but unique in that the fairy warns him not to look back at the little light behind (lest the light vanish and make him unable to see anything).It is commonplace theme VI e8 "par une route qui ramène à la terre", but Delarue noted the additional "ne doit pas regarder derrière", . Hero after regains princesses from companions yet sends them home — this is also an unusual pattern;Delarue notes, after VII a that "Chasse ses compagnons, princesses rentrent chez le roi". John refuses invitation to kingdom at that point, and only after princesses have forgotten about him, enters kingdom on his own volition. Formulaic test of replicating three ballsDelarue's theme VII c3, is solved by balls hero obtained from princesses, but in this version, each is specifically an ornate ball made with pearls, diamonds and emeralds.
Other versions Origins of the hero