The Mormont women live and breath the Mama Bear trope: fierce, loyal, no-nonsense women with their own brand of sweet tenderness who *can and will* fight tooth, claw, and sinew to defend their home and family.
Brave companions used black bear in fighting pit in Riverrun. Dany called Jorah her black bear in ASOS. His sigil also had black bear on it. Then the bear in Bear and the Maiden Fair is described as having black and brown furs. Do you think black bear is indicating something?
Hi anon!
I'm extremely ambivalent about how GRRM uses bears. There's no one recognizable theme like with dogs. The best I've arrived at so far is that bears can represent questionable mentor figures.
Sansa in the Vale is compared to a bear cub (with Littlefinger her horrible "father"), Dany compares herself to a bear cub withJorah, the fugitive slaver who both advises and molests her, then you have Jon with Jeor Mormont, who hands him the transformed family blade that used to be a bear - but was turned into a wolf, making him a pseudo "father", who is both a useful teacher AND a misguided leader of the Watch, but leaving Jon in charge of his own wolfy fate, eventually.
Arya watches the black bear kill Amory Lorch and feels reminded of Yoren, her second (and violent!) mentor after Syrio, but that same bear is turned against Brienne as a precurser to threatened rape and murder, and the bear is killed when Jaime returns to save her.
In the song "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", the male bear is another beastly sexual predator.
On the other hand, the ladies of House Mormont are generally depicted as loyal protectors and independent leaders. Dacey is Robb’s loyal guard, while Maege is trusted to carry out a vital mission for him. Lyanna Mormont has no qualms about rejecting Stannis, steadfastly sticking with House Stark. Asha is undeniably impressed with “Aly” Mormont, who protects Asha from the fire-mad R’hllor adherents in spite of the ancient enmity between their people.
Tormund’s story of the she-bear who sheds her skin mirrors Alysane’s story about the Mormont ladies being skinchangers who mate with bears in the woods. The bear goes her own way. No husband necessary.
The Mormont men? Absent, dead, deeply flawed, irrelevant.
There is a clear and constant rift between the female bear and the male bear.
If I had to make a guess, I would suspect that the bear image is about growing beyond a flawed system. The mentor that protects the various characters can transform into a weak leader, a traitor, a predator. Independence is better. Growing up is necessary. Responsibility for one’s own fate is necessary.
Be that as a she-bear, or a wolf. (Or a dragon.)