Any visitor to Latvia's capital city Riga cannot fail to notice Brīvības piemineklis (the Freedom Monument) which proudly stands forty-two metres tall in the centre of the city. For many Latvians this is one of the preeminent symbols of Latvian independence and national identity. The monument, erected in 1935, is engraved with numerous images from Latvian folklore and history. On one side of the monument sits a carving of Lāčplēsis (Bearslayer), the hero from Andrejs Pumpurs’ epic, national poem. In the poem Lāčplēsis is awarded the name Bearslayer when, in order to save his adopted father, he rips apart the jaws of a grown bear.

Lāčplēsis is considered a (perhaps the) classic of Latvian literature. As with many epic works, Pumpurs’ masterpiece speaks not only of a mythical past, but also of a nation's present and future. The struggle for Latvian freedom against foreign oppressors (in Lāčplēsis’ case against the German crusaders) has great resonance with Latvia's more recent Soviet past, but also of the present. There is, however, a particular irony in the story of Lāčplēsis. The bear slayer is, in fact, half bear.

Looking up at the beautiful Freedom Monument, a Latvian friend once wryly commented that this story was symbolic of Latvia's ethnic situation today. ‘Latvians, half-bear’, he explained with a smile, ‘are just slaying themselves.’ In the final parts of the Lāčplēsis epic, Dietrich, the Black Knight, discovers that Bearslayer's strength comes from his bear ears, inherited from his mother. After cutting off Lāčplēsis’ ears, Dietrich manages to pull the hero down the cliffs with him, killing them both.