Building on the social anthropologist Matti Sarmela’s valuable tradition-ecological work, this paper examines the relationship between swidden cultivators and forest peasants and the bear. Geographically, it centres on southern and northern Savonia as well as on the old Savonian settlements of northern Tavastia in Finland and central Scandinavia, notably in northwest Värmland and the bordering side in Norway. The folkloristic source material largely covers the 19th century. The paper investigates what kind of “bearhood” the bear songs and charms produced and what these data tell us about the relationship between bear and man. With increasing animal husbandry, the bear came to be seen as a threat to the cattle that were pastured in woodlands and forest villages. Also, the human-bear relationship changed profoundly. Even though the bear was still honoured and treated with respect, it increasingly came to be seen as a beast of prey with a less honourable origin than was the case among earlier hunters. In spite of these changes in attitude, the songs and charms establish an intersubjective and relational stance between bears and humans. Through this communication, the bear was established as a person, who was perceived as an intentional, sentient being with the agency and capacity to make choices, with whom the cattle-minder could reason.