Big and Little Bear

Our busy night starts right now. Hold on to my sail tightly and listen very closely. I know it is extremely hard to focus. When we pass stars at the speed of light you may be tempted to get distracted. There are families of interstellar dust too. Beautiful twinkles of pinks, blues, and greens that will captivate you. The night is eternal here, so it is easy to lose track of time, but I need to get you home before dawn. We just have so much to cover… let’s start with the Star King and his family.

As I told you, sometimes constellations are placed in the sky because the Star King loves them very much. So much he cannot live a day without them. What I did not tell you was who the Star King is….

The Star King is a powerful soul on Earth. He is so powerful he can make anything in the universe a constellation.... but he does not look like the powerful king you are imagining. He is a force of matter on Earth. Some days he is a man, some days he is a bird, and some days he is as plain as a leaf blowing in the wind. The point is that he does not belong to the sky. He is anything he wants to be. He cannot be restricted to a constellation. He is only able to share his immortality.

A long time ago the Star King was a man. He fell in love with a beautiful woman on Earth and they had a child. The child was a girl named Polaris.

The Star King and his family were undoubtedly joyful, but one day his wife fell very ill. The illness was contagious, and the mother and child were separated. The mother could not see a single soul other than the Star King.

As her condition worsened, the Star King sought advice from many wise constellations. They warned the Star King about how precious mortal life was and just how quickly it could be taken away.

The Star King faced a dilemma. He could put his beautiful wife into the stars, but he did not know what to do with Polaris. If he placed Polaris in the stars, she would be confined to them forever. He feared she could never be as happy as she was on Earth.

But the joy Polaris once contained was lost when her mother became ill. Polaris was not happy. She could not be without her mother and suffered greatly. The Star King knew that if he put her mother in the stars Polaris would be in distress. He also knew that if his wife died Polaris would be in even greater distress. The Star King wanted nothing more than to bring his child happiness.

There was only way for Polaris to be with her mother. Both Polaris and her mother would have to leave Earth and leave their human form, joining a new family of constellations in the sky. The Star King wrestled with the decision for many nights.

Every passing night the Star King's wife continued to fight. She refused to die, but the Star King could tell her time was coming to an end. Polaris begged her father to let her see her mother one last time, but he knew he could not give his child this. Polaris would thrash about the room in agony. The young child longed for her mother. The Star King could not manage the pain of seeing his child in this state. He placed both his wife and child in the sky as bears, making sure Polaris could watch over her mother for eternity.

If you look over here Polaris is the little bear looking down towards her mother, the big bear.

You may be wondering why bears. After many years on Earth the Star King had become very fond of bears. Bears had an incredible ability to continue fighting after being wounded. It only seemed fitting for his wife and daughter. They were fighters that fought for one another.

The Star King was also sure to place them where they would never leave the sky. Regardless of the season, the Big and Little Bear are always in the northern hemisphere's sky. The Star King never lives a day without them on Earth.

Author’s note:

Hey thanks for reading my story! There are tons of legends about Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (the Big and Little Dipper) that I read. The constellation is referred to as: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Big and Little Dipper, and Big Bear and Little Bear. My motivation behind this story was to create a kid-friendly explanation for the Big and Little Dipper. While my focus was on the constellations, I also wanted to explain the Star King I had mentioned in the introduction.

The Star King: Zeus, from Greek Mythology, inspired the Star King. Why Zeus? Well, in Greek mythology Zeus is the God of the Sky! Zeus is also the center of the Greek myth about the Big and Little Dipper.

In the myth: Zeus fell in love with a nymph named Callisto who lived on Earth. She was one of his many girlfriends. Zeus’s wife (Hera) did not know about this scandal, but she grew suspicious of his secret visits to Earth. One day Hera surprised Zeus on Earth. Zeus hid Callisto by turning her into a bear. When Hera told Zeus to leave Earth with her, he had to leave Callisto as a bear. Callisto’s son was a bear hunter and accidentally killed his mom. Zeus felt horrible and put Callisto and her son in the sky. He kept Callisto as a bear and transformed her son into the little bear.

The Big and Little Dipper: I used the idea of the Little and Big Bear being a mother and child. I changed Zeus to the Star King and excluded Hera from the story completely. Instead of Callisto dying from being shot, she became ill. Her child, Polaris, is named after the North star. This is a star that is a part of Ursa Minor (Little Bear). It also almost motionless in the sky. I used this to add to the reasoning behind why the Sar King put Ursa Major and Ursa Minor where he did. If they do not move, he can always see them.

If you are interested in reading more about the star Polaris please click here!

The Greek Myth that inspired this story can be found here! Norm McCarter does a great job at condensing several Greek myths into one PDF.