There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
From the book, Brown Bears by Melissa Gish - The Bear Warrior.
Long ago, Hrolf Kraki was king of Denmark. In a quest for power, the devious Queen Skuld of Norway ordered her army to invade Denmark so that she could seize Hrolf's throne. Hrolf had many warriors, but the bravest was Bodvar Bjarki.
The night before the battle with Queen Skuld's army, Hrolf's warriors gathered to plan their defense of the kingdom. They talked late into the night, preparing for the attack. But Bodvar, as if carried by an unseen hand, drifted away to his lodge and fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, Queen Skuld's army charged Hrolf's fortress. Hrolf's warriors fought courageously, but they were no match for Queen Skuld's men. Hrolf wondered where Bodvar could be. No one could find him.
Then, just as it seemed that Queen Skuld's army would claim victory, an enormous brown bear, roaring like a thunderstorm, charged into the battlefield. Hrolf's men watched as the bear, with paws as broad as a man's chest and claws as long as a man's hand, tore into Queen Skuld's front line, ripping her soldiers to pieces. It soon seemed that Hrolf's men would win the day.
Meanwhile, some of Hrolf's men continued looking for Bodvar. They finally found him asleep in his lodge. They shouted to wake him, but Bodvar was not easily roused. "Bodvar!" the men continued to shout, shaking the sleeping warrior. "We need you!"
On the battlefield, the enormous bear-warrior swept through Queen Skuld's army with the power of a tornado. With teeth gnashing and claws ripping, the bear crushed every man he touched. Blades broke in half against his chest and blows glanced off his back. Queen Skuld's army struggled to defeat the mighty bear.
And then, as suddenly as he had appeared, the bear-warrior vanished.
Back in Bodvar's lodge, the warrior awoke. "What is it?" Bodvar asked, his head pounding. "I was dreaming..."
"The battle rages," Bodvar's comrades explained, "and we need you."
"I was dreaming that I was a bear - that I fought as a bear!"
It was true. As Bodvar had slept, his bear-spirit was awake and battling Queen Skuld's army with more ferocity than Bodvar would have been able to muster as a mere human. But in waking him, Bodvar's comrades hads broken the spell, and Bodvar's bear-spirit evaporated like a dream.
Without the mighty bear-warrior, Hrolf's men were again no match for Queen Skuld's army, and soon the tide turned in her favor. Her men poured over Hrolf's fortress and destroyed his army. Queen Skuld took the crown of Denmark from Hrolf's sorrowful head.
As for Bodvar, the bear-warrior would return to fight another day - but that is another story.
About the above story: Perhaps no other animal has inspired legends of strength and valor as much as the brown bear, which appears in traditional tales of virtually every culture in the Northern Hemisphere. One of the world's oldest written stories, composed sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries, is that of the Danish warrior Bodvar Bjarki ( Bawth-var bee-Yar-kee ), known in Germanic folklore as Beowulf.
