Bear, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230
In The Early Middle Ages, the Church saw the bear as a violent, cruel and lubricious animal, resembling man when mating standing straight. In the Carolingian age, the Church began to condemn bears’ vices such as brutality, wickedness, idleness and filthiness.
In Medieval bestiaries and Christian symbolism, bears were often associated with sin and temptation: the bear's hibernation habits were likened to a withdrawal from spiritual vigilance, and its ferocity when awakened was seen as a metaphor for the dangers of succumbing to sinful desire.
The bear was sometimes connected to the concept of martyrdom and self-sacrifice. This interpretation was likely influenced by stories of saints facing persecution with fortitude, much like the bear's endurance during the hibernation period.
Some interpretations drew parallels between bears and Christ. For instance, the bear's habit of licking its cubs into shape was seen as a representation of Christ's nurturing and guiding role in the lives of believers. The hibernation and awakening of bears were seen as symbolic of Christ's death and resurrection.
Transcription
Translation
fetus suos. quasi orsus. Nam aiunt eos in-
formes parere fetus. et carnem quandam nasci.
quam mater lambendo in membra componit. Unde est
illud. Sic format lingua fetum quem protulit
ursa. Sed hoc inmaturitas; partus facit. Denique tri-
cesimo die generat. Unde evenit ut precipitata
fecunditas; informis procreatur. Ursorum capud;
invalidum est. Vis maxima in brachiis et lum-
bis est. Unde interdum erecti insistunt. Ursi quos
egri; formicas devorant et sanantur Vulnerati
ut solo eius curentur attactu. Numidi ursi ceteris pres-
tant; dumtaxat villis profundioribus. Coeunt ursi non
ut alii quadrupedes; sed ut homines mutuis amplexi-
bus. Desiderium veneris; hiems suscitat. Mares ve-
rentur gravidas honore quo possunt. Unde se aliquan-
tulum seperant a feminis in scrobibus unbi lacent.
Tricesimo dies carnes paxillas edunt. quibus color can-
didus. oculi nulli quas illi lambunt. et appositas
pectori calefaciunt donec formentur et spiritum vita-
lem trahant. Interea cibus nullus. In primis .xiiii.
diebus mares ita in sompnum ita concidunt; ut nec vulneri-
bus excitari queant. Enixe. ternis latent mensibus. Sed
postea egresse. in diem liberum; non possunt susti-
nere insolentiam lucis. ut putes eas obsitas cecitate.
Insidiantur alvearibus apum. quia nichil avidius quam favos
et mella appetunt. Cum gustaverint mala man-
dragore; moriuntur. nisi formicas commederuit. Si qn
cum tauris congrediuntur. cornua aut nares petunt.
Cornua; ut pondere deficiant. Nares; ut acrior dolor sit
in loco teneriore. Nomine igitur ursi sive urse; aliquando
they expose their sores to the mullein plant that the Greeks called φλόμος/flómos, and they heal by just touching it. Numidian bears stand out from the other bears only by virtue of their shaggier fur. Bears do not mate like other quadrupeds, but like humans, they embrace each other when copulating. Winter arouses their sexual desire. Male bears respect the pregnant females and honour them by keeping at a distance a little from them in the lair wherein they lie. On the thirtieth day, the females beget small lumps of flesh (the cubs) white in colour, they do not lick their eyes until they are formed but hold them closer to the chest and warm them and then draw out the vital breath. Meanwhile, no food is eaten and in the first fourteen days, males fall into such a deep sleep that no wound could rouse them from sleep and strenuously try to remain hidden for three months. After coming out into the open, they are so unused to the excessive light that you would think they had blinded. They lie in ambush and attack beehives, for they desire nothing more than honeycombs and honey. When they taste the evil mandrake, they die unless they have eaten ants. If they fight with bulls, they aim at the horns or nose: the horns to make them lose their balance, the nose for a sharper pain in a more sensitive place. Therefore, the word bear, whether male or female, is sometimes associated with
post alia dicit david ad saul. Nam et leonem et ursum inter-
fecti ego servus tuus. Erit igitur philisteus hic incircumcisus;
quasi unus ex illis. Et. Dominus qui eripuit me de manu leo-
nis et de manu ursi; ipse liberabit me de manu philistei
huius. Ursus quoque sive ursa crudelem significat;
Unde in libro regum legitur. quod ascenderunt duo ursi
de saltu. et devoraverunt xlii. pueros qui clamabant
ad eliseum ascende calue ascende calue. Hinc iterum
pro crudeli gentilitate dicit dominus per osee; de iudeis.
Et ero eis quasi leena. sicut pardus in via assiriorum.
Oiturram eis quasi ursa raptis catulis et disrumpam
interiora iecoris eorum. consumani eos ibi quasi
leo. Bestia agri scindet eos. Loquitur hic de hereticis sub-
ipse iudeorum qui propter mentis superbiam; falsi dogma-
tis novitatem finxerunt. et oblitu dei sui; secuti sunt
deos inventionis sue. quos deus crudeliter et inmi-
serabiliter tractabit nisi resipiscant. Iudeis quod cum
traditi essent assiriis propter ydolatriam suam; com-
versus est. dominus in ferocitatem omnium bestiarum qui
erga illos dementissimus semper fuit. Nam et crudeles
the Antichrist or another persecutor of the Church. Hence, in the Bible, David says to Saul: “Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.” (Samuel 17:34–36).The bear, whether male or female, signifies also cruelty. In the Book of Kings, two bears came out of the woods and devoured forty-two boys who were mocking Elisha, saying to him: “Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head”( 2 Kings 2:23). Again, the Lord speaks through Hosea concerning the Jews, on account of their cruel paganism: “So I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road I will lurk; I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The [e]wild beast shall tear them.”(Hosea 13 NKJV).
He speaks here of the heretics among the Jews, who invented false doctrines by reason of the haughtiness of their minds and forsook their God, following the deities of their invention. God will treat these deities cruelly and pitilessly unless they repent. Owing to their idolatry, the Jews were handed over to the Assyrians and the Lord was infuriated by their actions and harboured a grudge towards them. He made even cruel nations rise up against them, which would tear them asunder.
Hee bestie que hic enumerantur; cum catulos perdiderint
vel civis indiguerint; sevissime sunt; Unde in parabol’.
Expedit magis urse occurrere raptis fetibus; quam fatuo con-
fidenti sibi in stulticia sua;
These beasts mentioned here are most ferocious when they lose their cubs or lack resources and support. Hence, “Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly.”(Proverbs 17:12 NKJV).
Bibliography
David Badke, The Bestiary Blog: Animals in the Middle Ages, Bear, November 6 2023, https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast171.htm
Josh Goldenberg (BA 2012) and Matt Shanahan (BA 2014, Logeion, November 2022, https://logeion.uchicago.edu/
Castiglioni, L. and Mariotti, S. (1996). Vocabolario della Lingua Latina: Latino-Italiano Italiano-Latino. Terza Edizione. Loescher Torino
Franco Cardini, Mondi Medievali, L’orso in un bestiario medievale, January 2024, www.mondimedievali.net
Matthews, J. and Matthews C., (2010), The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, HarperCollins UK, London
Curley, M. J., Physiologus: A Medieval Book of Nature Lore (University of Chicago edition 2009)
Rackham, H., M.A., Pliny Natural History Volume III, Libri VIII-XI (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1949)
Collins, A. H., M.A., Symbolism of Animals and Birds (New York: McBride, Nast & Company, 1913)
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White, T. H., The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts (New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1960)
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Footnotes
1 In Latin, the noun orsŭs means attempt/beginning and is the participle of the verb ordīri that means to begin/to start.
2 Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in Northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya.
3 Historically, the Assyrians played a role in the conquest and exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel around 722 BCE. This event is often associated with the Assyrian conquest of Samaria and the dispersion of the ten northern tribes.