The bear and the maiden fair - an analysis of all bear related themes in aSoIaF
1. Introduction
About bear beliefs, taboos, rituals, legends and Tolkien's bear
GRRM mentions or alludes to bears several times, refers to certain people as bears (temporarily or permanently), has an actual bear in a pit fighting a maiden, and a song called “the bear and the maiden fair”. Often the bear elements in the story tie in with sexual tension or even danger for a woman. In order to comprehend the symbolic value, patterns and motifs behind these, a significant amount of backgr
Oh, sweet she was, and pure and fair! The ugly duckling!
I will leave the arguments for Gendry as a bear for the moment, though I will come back to that. Instead I will focus for a while on a character that I have as a POV used for Gendry's evidence as a bear - Arya Stark. She will inadvertently lead us back to the hidden bear. Some swan themes may be glaringly obvious plot wise, but just as much as Gendry is a very well rounded bear in symbolism, Arya is very much written out as a maiden by