[21][22] Some significant elements of the folktale missing in Beowulf (listed by Chambers) are: the captive princess(es), one of whom he marries, the hero's rescue by a "miraculous helper", his return to the Upper World under an assumed identity, and his retribution against his treacherous companions.
[24][25] Among elements considered vital to the epic are the loss of the ogre/demon's arm, and the trail of blood which leads the hero to the demon's lair (Lawrence (1928), p. 175, cited by Barakat (1967), pp. 1–2).
[26] Regarding Beowulf wrenching Grendel's arm off, Robert A. Barakat stated that no counterpart was to be found in the Bear' Son Tale of "Juan del Oso" (Spanish version of Jean de l'Ours).
[27] For a folktale analogue to Grendel's severed arm, commentators have looked on Celtic (Irish) tale of "The Hand and Child" type.
The parallel had been recognized already in the 19th century by several writers,[f][28] but Carl Wilhelm von Sydow is generally credited with developing the analysis which took notice.
Although this is not specifically mirrored in the Bear's Son Tale, the hero is able to track the adversary to a hole in the ground (or a well), and a trail of blood has been speculated.
[36] He also saw Unferth as a link between folktale and legend, his (covert) roles as smith and treacherous friend standing behind his gift to Beowulf of the "hafted blade" that fails.
An attempt to make the connection by asserting Arthur's name as based on the root arth- meaning "bear" in Welsh has been refuted.
[48] Therefore, a more elaborate explanation has been advanced, which postulates Arthur's prototype to be the mythological Arcturus "guardian of the bear" of constellation lore.
[52] Their offspring, represented by Tolkien in Sellic Spell as "a surly, lumpish boy...slow to learn the speech of the land",[53] is the undersocialised child.