Bears in Literature

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Mowgli and Baloo, the big Brown Bear.

                                                              

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The Pyrenee graphic novel is a story similar in many respects to Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. About a young girl raised by a bear. 
 
      

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Rudyard Kipling wrote "The Jungle Books" about a feral boy in the jungles of India who was raised by a pack of wolves. The wolves named the toddler Mowgli which, in the language of the jungle means "Little Frog". A black panther ( leopard ) became the boy's big brother. A sloth bear ( although usually wrongly depicted as a brown bear ) was the boy's teacher of the jungle laws. Both Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear loved Mowgli above all other jungle denizens.

Regis Loisel and Philippe Sternis created a graphic novel of a young feral girl who lived in the mountains of the French Pyrenees. The little red haired girl is called Pyrenee and her constant companion is a brown bear simply called, Bear. Like the young Indian boy Mowgli, Pyrenee, being feral, as wild and free as any beast of the moutains, knows nothing about such silly things as clothing. Because of this, while readily acceptable in most European countries, Pyrenee has not yet found her way into America.

I can add to this a bear named, Death Hug. To start with, we must understand that there are two Davy Crocketts. There is the famous historical David Crockett and then there is the fictional folk hero, Davy Crockett. This Davy could grin a bear out of a tree, ride a tornado, and out shoot or out wrestle any man alive. In fact, Davy Crockett could out wrestle any bear he ever met; until one day he came across a bear he named Death Hug. This big black bear defeated Davy in a wrestling match. But afterwards, the two became inseparable companions. Death Hug was so strong that he could simply squeeze any man to death; except Davy. Davy Crockett was as wild as any beast of the Tennessee forest.

In Edgar Rice Burrough's thirteenth Tarzan novel, "Tarzan at the Earth's Core", the eternally young man who was raised by great apes in Africa, visits Pellucidar, the lost world beneath our feet. Here the ape man discovers mammoths, dinosaurs, primitive peoples, and other creatures from various prehistoric time periods.
It is in this novel that Tarzan has his only encounter with a bear. Tarzan is being pursued by a huge hulking cave bear. But, the personal pride of savage Tarzan cannot long allow him to retreat. Tarzan climbs up above the giant cave bear and, with knife in hand, ambushes the huge bear "panther style."
*Interestingly, although E.R.Burrough's could easily imagine his jungle hero defeating lions and tigers in face-to-face confrontations with only his father's old hunting knife; he had the mighty Tarzan ambush the great bear, after first fleeing from the brute.

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Three Bears - Russian Fairy TaleRussian fairy-tale art.
Here the main heroes of the fairy tale "Three Bears" are depicted (Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich).
Girl Mashenka sleeps sweet sleep in the house of bears, and the bear family returns from the festivities through the forest. Stanislav Martinovich by Stanislav Martinovich 
 
fineartamerica.com/featured/three-bears-russian-fairy-tale-stanislav-martinovich.html

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For the Love of All Things EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS (a FaceBook group)

Tarzan draw, by Z. Burian.
*I have read all 24 Tarzan novels; each one more than once. The only bear ever killed by Tarzan was a cave bear in book #13, "Tarzan at the Earth's Core". Tarzan killed the bear from ambush with his knife.