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POLAR BEARS IN THE MIDDLE AGES* Tall times in the history of the world certain articles have been prized out of all proportion to their intrinsic value. The rare occurrence of somearticlesand the prestigeaccruing to the owner thereof explain the desireto possess them and their very considerable value as diplomaticinstruments. Everyone is awareof the tremendousstoreset,by rulersof lesscivilizedstates, on the silks of the Byzantine Empire/ and of the use made of the white falcon by Scandinavianrulers in the Middle Ages. •It is not as generallyknown how eagerlythe princesof Europe desired to possess polar bears, nor that the Icelanders and their compatriotsin Greenlandtrappedtheseanimalsandby presenting them to kings gained royal fayour. Yet such knowledge must have been widespread among all classesin the Scandinavian countries, as may be seenby the fact that an Icelandic homilist usesa descriptionof two kinds of traps and the consequences of beingcaught in them to point a moral. The passage, occurring in the Bookof theMiracles of St. Thorlak,3readsas follows: AlmightyGod,through thelifeandteachings, theglorious examples, exemplary death and innumerablemiraclesof the blessedBishopThorlak, has set for us, in a very fineway, mercifultrapswhichhavean invitingbait andenticingprospects toleadusthrough loveandcharityintothenarrowpassage whereeverything that entersis kept and preserved. The trap is constructed of rocksand, once entered,is difficultto leave;it hasa doorwhichcloses and deliverseverything within the trap into the powerof him who madeit. This trap symbolises the life of this world, whichis crampedby reasonof pain and sorrow,muchdistress, andmany tribulations. Enticingoneto enterthistrap are thesebaits: immoral, passion-filled love and greed;pride and power;angerand unrighteousness; all sinfuldesires. They who have the misfortuneto enter thesedire traps, having beenenticedby theseevil baits,findthemselves, unableto turn aroundto escape from them, in a miserablecondition. Then closes the trap-door,which is death, the end of this mundanelife. Those in the trap are delivered into the hands of him who baited it, the devil himself, I say, who haulsthem off to eternal death andunending torture,inthesame wayaswearewonttokillharmfulanddestructive animalswhenwe removethem from traps. Then there is anothertrap which is constructed to capturethoseanimals whichrulerskeepandesteem asthe greatest treasures of thisworld,givingthem the bestpossible care. They retainmany pleasantmemories of theseanimals. *This articlewasin part madepossible by a grant from the RockefellerFoundation. •OnthisseeR. S.Lopez,"Silk Industryin the ByzantineEmpire" (Speculum, XX, 1-42). •'Cf. V. Stefansson,Greenland(New York, 1942), index, s.v. falcon. 3Biskupasi•gur(Kaupmannah6fn,1858), I, 872-8. St. Thorlak was bishopof Skilholt, 1177-98. 48 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW This symbolises the mercifultrap of almightyGod. It is constructed with care and diligence,and furnishedon the insidewith m•rcy and humility, deserved chastisement,solicitudeand honesty. Thither leads a long prayer-filled road, illuminatedwith holyscriptures portrayingthe excellence of the numerous virtues with which many of God's saintshave beenadorned .... When this trap has beenentered,thesamedoorcloses it--death, glorious andsanctifyingforitsvictims who comeinto the powerof him who hasbaited it, almighty, God who enticed them to him to partakein his companyof everlasting delightsin perfectenjoyment . But when they have departedfrom this world they leave behindthe memoryof glorious lives,exemplarydeeds,and their delicious death.... What are these two kinds of traps? The first is the fox trap, into which the fox walks and thereby forfeits his freedom. But the other? It is the polar bear trap, and the consequences of entering it are entirely different from those of being caught in the fox trap. Instead of enduringsufferingand death, the polar bear leaves the trap to enter a life of luxury and ease. He is trapped, not to be put to death but that, like the saints,he may have life and have it more abundantly. For polar bearswere, as the homilist says, the most prized possessions of mediaeval monarchs. The inhabitants of Iceland and Greenland are the only men known to have trapped polar bearsin order to train them and make petsof them.4 The earliestknowninstanceof the exportation of polar bears from Iceland and their importation into northern Europe dates from the last years of the ninth century (c. 880). Ingimundr the Old capturedtwo bear cubswhich had come ashore with their mother from the ice floes off Iceland. When he went abroad he took the cubswith him and presented them to King Harold the Fairhaired of Norway. The king rewardedhim with the gift of an ocean-going vesselloadedwith timber.5 The value of...

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