WAR-GOD BATTLES GODZILLA-SIZED POLAR BEAR

 Okay, it wasn’t really the Ohio Northern Polar Bears mascot who was the giant bear in question. I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to show a cool logo for one of the teams Balladeer’s Blog covers. This post is just to let readers know I have once again updated my Navajo mythology page. I added the next segment of the war god Nayanazgeni’s battles with the Anaye. I titled this segment “The Bear Who Pursues”. 

10. THE BEAR WHO PURSUES – Next Nayanazgeni set out to slay the Anaye known as The Bear Who Pursues. As you would expect this alien or foreign god was depicted as an enormous, several-story tall bear.

I favor those myths which depict it as a polar bear (which the ancient Navajo would know about from their time in the north with the Athapascans) since the polar bear is the only known bear to actually hunt down humans and will actually chase its prey of any species until their quarry collapses from exhaustion. To me an animal with such habits would certainly merit the name The Bear Who Pursues. I can’t believe the pro-polar bear camp never cites this argument to support their contention.

At any rate, Nayanazgeni traveled northward, to the land where the cold weather goddess Hazke Estsan held sway. In some versions this goddess, always depicted naked and sitting in the snow, appears to Nayanazgeni and tells the war god where he can find this Anaye.