Week 10 Storytelling: White Lady on the Moor

Once lived a lady, firm as a king

With no husband or sons to keep

Till the hunters, they brought her a tiny little thing

That needed a warm place to sleep

So took she a bear cub for son

And gained a family where she’d had none

They say that the lady, she stands on the moor

Overlooking the bright cold sea

Yes they say the old lady, she stands on the moor

With eyes that forevermore do see.

Yet shall I pray forever and a day

That her eyes never land on thee

That old lady had loved that cub like a son

And soon he grew tall and free

So mighty was the bear that his teeth did tear

Through hunters who’d approached foolishly.

She wove him a collar to give him a mark

So others would see and their hunt disembark

They say that the lady, she stands on the moor

Overlooking the winter deep

Yes they say the old lady, she stands on the moor

With eyes that nevermore will weep

Yet shall I pray forever and a day

That her eyes never land on thee

(The Grey Lady - web source)

The bear was now grown

A magnificently frightful beast

Yet she held it still as her own

Though on men’s flesh he sometimes did feast

Till the tribe they did say

We must now send it away

They say that the lady, she stands on the moor

Solid as the oaken keep

Yes they say the old lady, she stands on the moor

Her revenge always ready to keep

Thus shall I pray forever and a day

That her eyes never land on thee

Angered, the lady unleashed her wrath

And the tribe in their furs did quake

Till good speakers did say good reasons they hath

And this is the tale they spake

If he stays more hunters will show

Mad on the hunt till the cub falls down on bow

Now our little old lady, sad as can be

Went to the bear she called son

Imploring with reason and down on one knee

With weeping the deed was done

And giving a farewell marking of oil

She made him to forever be free of hunter’s toil

They say that the lady, she stands on the moor

Even until this day

Yes they say the old lady, she stands forevermore

Making sure that hunters will pay

If you see a bear with a black side

Run from him fast, run and hide

For the old lady who stands on the moor

Has long ages now been dead

But stands there she more than fourscore

To watch over her cub beloved

The white old lady protects him to this day

Or at least, that’s what they say

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Author's note: In my reading this week there was a story about a lady who raised a polar bear cub. Eventually for his own safety she had to turn him loose, but she smeared his side with oil to mark him so the hunters of her village would know not to hunt him. It then spoke of her going out and watching, looking for him so as to protect him from harm, and the image chilled me to the bone. So, we get this.

Bib: "The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son" from Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen (1921). Web source.