Why are the bears bulgy? Among the diverse characters introduced in _Prince Caspian_ during Caspian's tour of the Old Narnians are three bears known as the "Bulgy Bears". What exactly does it mean for them to be _bulgy_? It's not a word I've seen used very much, but presumably they bulge somehow - in what way do they bulge? What does this tell us about the characters?

If you google "algy met a bear" you will get thousands of hits on the traditional "Algy met a bear, the bear met Algy. The bear was bulgy, the bulge was Algy". If you look up pre-1940 _bulgy bear_ in Google books you get hits, such as this one in Everybody's Magazine with some version of a bear meeting Benjy, with predictable results.

Not that our Narnian bears would do such a thing: I'm sure their bulge came from eating too much honey.

From which I conclude: when _Prince Caspian_ was written, "Bulgy bear" was a known thing, appropriated & repurposed by CSL.