Bearing Dead Seals and Good Luck Alice Bower Kristinn Schram Folklore Narrative Animals Folk belief This paper offers an analysis of the development, transmission and reception of selected Icelandic folk legends about bears which share features in common with legends of elves (Icel. álfar) and hidden people (Icel. huldufólk). We explore the ideas, attitudes and motifs underpinning representations of bears in this sub-set of legends in a historical and narrative context and offer a close analysis of six selected tales. We address how narrators develop onpre-existing narrative conventions to portray the bear in a new light and touch upon the responses that these portrayals may evoke among a domestic and international audience. Philipps-Universität Marburg Marburg Deutschhausstraße 9, 35037 Marburg 2022 2023-04-11 2023-04-11 Text article urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0004-2022-307-85833 eng 1418722-x 24 1 (2022) 1 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/article/download/8583/8273 10.17192/mjr.2022.24.8583 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/2022/307/8583 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0