Print by Elena Dolgova from Art Content tumblr
In Finnish tradition women had a special relationship with bears. It was imagined that bears were looking for a chance to reincarnate through women. So metaphorically a bear would marry a young maiden. The purpose of this was to make a bear happy, but it could also be associated with the belief that the bear could be in the human lineage. There are several stories about this and many other stories about bears in Finnish literature. Otso, the bear (Apple of the Forest, Mead Paw), was born on the shoulders of Otava, in the regions of the sun and moon, and “nursed by a goddess of the woodlands in a cradle swung by bands of gold between the bending branches of budding fir-trees.”
Because of this belief women were supposed to stay far away from a dead bear during a bear’s funeral feast. It was commonly believed that bears would not attack a person they recognized as a female.
While this print is by a Russian artist, (edit:oops I’m not sure if she’s Russian, she’s located in Vienna but I think she might be illustrating this myth) not Finnish, it depicts the myth beautifully, and many features of bear cults are shared by many circumpolar tribes. I’m researching a paper about this so I’ll probably do some more posts with sources soon.
