Animal Legends and Lore

[Polar]

This seems to be the only account of an inuit, large polar bear, AND viking/Norse interaction all together in the Greenland coast!

The Quests of Nordig (pg.38), 1188 A.D:

"We once saw [a] large bear in Gronland, most blank in appearance. A few landers sought in the coast [with] their [sharp] spears and smooth skins. "Angiyok Issumadguyok," the natives [referred] to the bear. It's meaning is "one great bear," that's [what] it really looked like. The giant beast had a mixture of white fur and scat spots on the fur. It's mouth had only one meat-tooth in [the] front. We spotted the natives and the bear charging at them, and they [readied] their spears. Blood [was] everywhere and most of the natives could not comprehend the brute power of the greatest beast, the white bear. My [friend] Hendag had an encounter with one of these great beasts and he left the fight with a [broken] ryggrad after my men secured the village-born bear into its quarters.  Later, I talked to [chief] with my men and asked him about the bear. The [chief] described the bear as clever, old, and aggressive. All the natives avoided the bear for security and [danger], but the bear made great warning of his [hunger]. We had never [had an] encounter like this before, and before me and my men, all the natives were bloodied and as we say [massacred], and the great white bear feasted on one of them while sulking away [towards] a snow-layered hill, never to be seen again. There [were] no landers to deal with, but there was a trail of [blood] to [where] the bear had moved."

Looks like the bear described here was a grolar/pizzly combination? And surely it was an old one, indeed. Seems as though old carnivores target humans more than they do with less available, yet more nutritious and larger prey. Reply