curs the perilous wall
with the railing. People fall down there. There is evidently here an
intimate primitive symbolism (for the child also). But I will not
anticipate.

It is not necessary to add anything to the bear dream. It is quite clear.
Only one point must be noticed, that the subsequent concern about the dead
is to be met in the parable, though not on the wanderer's part but on that
of the elders who desire the reviving of the lion.

The wanderer describes the lion (Sec. 6) as "old, fierce and large." (The
growling bear of the dream.) The glance of his eye is the impressively
reproachful look of the father.

The wanderer conquers the lion and "dissects" him. Red blood, white bones,
come to view, male and female; the appearance of the two elements is, at
any rate overdetermined in meaning as it signifies on the one hand the
separation of a pair, father and mother, originally united as one body;
and on the other hand the liberation of sexuality in the mind of the
wanderer (winning of the mother or of the dragon-guarded maiden).

We ought not to explain the figures of the lion and the elders as "the
father." Such exalted figures are usually condensations or composite
persons. The elders are not merely the father, but also the old, or the
older ones = parents in general, in so far as they are severe and
unapproachable. Apparently the mother also will prove unapproachable if
the adult son desires her as a wife. [The male child, on the other hand,
frequently has erotic experiences with the mother. The parents connive at
these, because they do not understand the significance even of their own
caresses. They generally do not know how to fix the limits between
moderation and excess.] The wanderer has no luck with blandishments in the
case of the lion. He begins indeed to fondle him (cf. Sec. 6), but the
lion looks at him formidably with his bright, shining eyes. He is not
obliging; the wanderer has to struggle with him. Offering violence to the
mother often appears in myths. We shall have an example of this later. It
is characteristic that the wanderer is amazed at his own audacity.

Dragon fighting, dismembering, incest, separation of parents, and still
other motives have an intimate connection in mythology. I refer to the
comparison of motives collected by Stucken from an imposing array of
material. [I quote an excerpt from it at the end of this volume, Note A.]
The motive of dismemberment has great significance f