page_title: Jean de l'Ours
section_title: Other Provence tales
hierarchical_section_title: Jean de l'Ours / Occitan / Other Provence tales
caption_attribution_description: English: Jean-de-l'Ours defeats faces devil
context_page_description: Jean de l'Ours or John the Bear, John of the Bear, John-of-the-Bear, John Bear, is the leading character in the French folktale Jean de l'Ours classed as Type 301B in the Aarne-Thompson system; it can also denote any tale of this type.
  Some typical elements are that the hero is born half-bear, half-human. He obtains a weapon, usually a heavy iron cane, and on his journey, bands up with two or three companions. At a castle the hero defeats an adversary, pursues him to a hole, discovers an underworld, and rescues three princesses. The companions abandon him in the hole, taking the princesses for themselves. The hero escapes, finds the companions and gets rid of them. He marries the most beautiful princess of the three, but not before going through certain ordeal by the king.
  Numerous variants exist in France, often retaining the name Jean de l'Ours or something similar for the hero. Some of the analogues in Europe that retain the names corresponding to "John" are: Jan de l'Ors; Joan de l'Os; Juan del Oso, Juan el Oso, Juanito el Oso, Juanillo el Oso; Giovanni dell'Orso, Iann he vaz houarn; Ivashko Medvedko.
context_section_description: Some tales from Provence were published in standard French. In Hippolyte Babou's version (1862), considered to be an arranged piece of work to a large degree, the hero goes to the Holy Land region into Palestine on his bearskin, and faces off with an archdemon who rides a shark. (Likewise in the version close to it printed by Henri Carnoy, with illustrations by Édouard François Zier).
  Henri Carnoy also published a version in which a mother who had no food due to famine exposed her infant in the woods, but the child was raised by a mother bear that lost one of its cubs. The plotline is somewhat elaborate. A slaying of dragons rescues three princesses, Pomme d'or, Pomme d'argent, Pomme de cuivre ("Golden-Apple", "Silver-Apple", "Copper-Apple"). Although this is enough number of brides for Jean's party, the betrayal of the cut cord still ensues. Pomme d'or refuses marriage to a traitor, and wishes to wed Jean. So the two companions consult a witch on a way to murder Jean and Pomme d'or. An evil spirit with the black beard who enters into the betrayers' service is defeated and killed by Pomme d'or's guardian spirit, whom she summons by biting into her gold apple. The two companions are punished by the guardian spirit, but afterwards forgiven by Jean.
caption: Jean-de-l'Ours combats the archdemon who uses a shark as his mount.
  —illustration by É. Zier.
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