Hi,
very interesting research!
On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 1:07 AM, Stefan Donecker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm looking for sources and/or scholarly literature that deal with the transformation of humans into bears in the early modern period.
Two allegedly encounters with "strange" bears in 1601 (a neighbor
later claim it was the bear) and 1630 (a talking bear) reported in
duchy of Lorraine witch trials were cited by Robin Briggs (Briggs,
2002: 4, 18)
Unfortunately, I haven't found any other relevant item from 15th- to
17th-century Europe. With a brief search, I collected the following
odds and ends probably unuseful for your research:
- in 1661, in Plymouth Colony, MA, Dinah Silvester (1642-after 1673),
a first generation "American" (at least from her father; it is unclear
about her mother) claimed to have seen another woman in the form of a
bear (Godbeer, 1992: 153-154). See also:
http://www.howderfamily.com/lineages/d0001/i0305.htm
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/p/o/Russell-E-Spooner/BOOK-0001/0004-0032.html
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37091707
http://books.google.com/books?id=hIhLAAAAYAAJ&q=%22transform+into+a+bear%22&dq=%22transform+into+a+bear%22&hl=en&ei=9d3CTaaWCsKp8QOsjMW3BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAjgK
- L. Sazhina (2003: 161) cites a passage from folklorist A. Sidorov
(1928, in Russian; English title: "Charms, witchcraft and evil eye of
the Komi people") on a Komi (a Finno-Ugric group living in the
north-east of European Russia) belief:
***
In order to transform into a bear, "the witch first takes off the
clothes and after that turns three successive somersaults against the
sun" (Sidorov 1928: 15).
***
Bibliography:
Briggs, Robin (2002). Dangerous spirits. Shapeshifting, Apparitions,
and Fantasy in Lorraine Witchcraft Trials. In Edwards, Kathriyn A.
(ed.). Werewolves, Witches, and Wandering Spirits. Traditional Belief
& Folklore in Early Modern Europe. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State
University Press, pp. 1-24 [relevant pages here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=K2IYvBu-IiYC&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q&f=false
and http://books.google.com/books?id=K2IYvBu-IiYC&pg=PA18]
Godbeer, Richard (1992). The Devil's Dominion. Magic and Religion in
Early New England. ?: Cambridge University Press, pp. 153-154 (pages
online here: http://books.google.com/books?id=iHQpBARCuJ4C&pg=PA153)
Sazhina, Lyubov (2003). Gathering the Female Body in Komi Everyday
Life and Rituals. In: Multiethnic communities in the past and present.
Tartu, 2003, 159-168. - (Pro Ethnologia ; 15); online here:
http://www.erm.ee/pdf/pro15/sazhina65.pdf
[From a literary point of view I should mention "L'orza" ["The
She-Bear"] in Basile, Giambattista (1634). Lo cunto deli cunti overo
Lo Trattenemiento de' Peccerille. De Gian Alessio Abbattutis. Iornata
seconna. In Napoli: Appresso Ottavio Beltrano (I cite from Basile,
Giambattista (1998). Lo cunto de li cunti. Milano: Garzanti, edited by
Michele Rak, where the tale was at pages 356-371) a tale in where a
princess (Preziosa), daughter of the king of Rocca Aspra, to escape
the sexual attentions of her father becomes, with the help of an old
woman ("na vecchia"), a she-bear, putting a stick in the mount; and,
outside your period of interest, "The History of Darby O'Sullivan"
(1831, January 22). _The Edinburgh Literary Journal_ 115, 60-61,
online here: http://books.google.com/books?id=CtJPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA60 ;
another literary tale could be the one of Jonas Kruse: see
http://books.google.com/books?id=Qz2n2kJAFI0C&pg=PA128 and
http://books.google.com/books?id=OidKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA49]
Best,
Roberto Labanti
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