Wk. 5 Ch. 7 - Research challenge: Beorn

[Sparrow]

Gandalf offers the travelers some preparation for meeting Beorn, but does not provide a full explanation. Who, and what, is Beorn? How old is he? What is a "skin-changer"? What do you make of Gandalf's reaction to the "shadowy form of a great bear" Bilbo notices on the third evening after leaving Beorn's home? Gandalf describes Beorn's diet as cream and honey. What is the typical diet of a black bear? Look for answers in other Tolkien literature, Tolkien commentary, and outside sources.

[Stormrider]

From Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, Beornings are Men who reside in the Vales of the Anduin. They are descendants of the Edain and speak a language similar to Adûnaic and Rohirric. They might have come from the Misty Mountains before the Orcs drove them out.

Beorn was a skin-changer (when I searched the Web, I got a lot of links for changing skins on MP3 players! So that was no help.) Tolkien defined it the best way he could--Beorn changes from a Man to a Bear! How he does it, who knows!

According to The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Beorn was a Man and lived only the lifespan of a Man. I was not able to find out how old he was when the Dwarves came to his home, but the Encyclopedia of Arda says that he died in the year III 3018 which was the year Frodo set out from The Shire. I don't know where they obtained that knowledge. That was 27 years after Bilbo and the Dwarves stopped at his home. So if Beorn lived to be 70 or 80 years old, he would have been somewhere between the age of 40-50 in The Hobbit.

Black Bears are mainly herbivorous (80% to 95% of their diet). From April to May, they eat mainly grasses, in June they can add insects, grubs and ants to their diet, and in the fall they eat berries, mushrooms and acorns.

They will also eat salmon and wait in the shallows of the streams when they are spawning to catch them. They may even take some small domestic animals for supplements to their diet.

[Andorinha]

Additional Notes on Beorn:

Bilbo left the Shire, with the Thirteen Dwarves, on April 27, Third Age 2941. On July 22, 2941 they met Beorn for the first time. On November 23, 2941 Beorn shows up at Erebor to take part in The Battle of Five Armies, and he accompanies Gandalf and Bilbo back to his "bee-guarded/ bear-guarded" compound on December 30. Rather than recrossing the Misty Mountains in the dead of winter, Bilbo and Gandalf stay with the reclusive Skin-changer until the Spring thaws of year 2942.

We hear no more (even indirectly!) of Beorn until the year 3001, the year of Bilbo's Farewell Party, when Bilbo states that he intends to see the mountains once again, and in "Many Meetings," p. 247 LotR, we learn that he did eventually wander from Rivendell, over the passes, through the forest to the restored town of Dale and the Dwarven realm of Erebor -- a reprise of his original journey. However, Bilbo does not mention whether he saw Beorn again on this second venture, but being old friends, and Beorn's establishment being on the direct route of his travel, I can only assume that he would have made sure to drop in on the old Bear-Man if he were still living.

I have no chronology for this second trek, except its starting date (the night of the Farewell Party) but, given a similar length of travel time as that which elapsed in his 2941 trek, Bilbo could have been in the neighborhood of The Carrock sometime in 3002. He could also have stayed a long while in Rivendell before heading east, so he might have reached the Mirkwood Forest eaves sometime later than 3002. Here I will assume that Bilbo made his second journey in a timely fashion, and stayed no longer in Rivendell than the Spring months of 3002 when the passes east would be easily traversed.

Whether Beorn was still living in 3001/ 3002, or not, I do not know. Bilbo does not make a specific reference either way. It could be that Grimbeorn, son of Beorn had already succeeded his father to the rule of the Beorings by this early date. The Encyclopaedia of Arda gives the date 3018, not as the death date of Beorn, rather as the first time that we learn that Grimbeorn is now the ruler of the Beorings (LotR, "Many Meetings," p. 245).

I suppose Beorn could still be alive in 3018, just retired and no longer the "ruler" of the Beorings? But, I do in fact believe Beorn is meant to be dead sometime before 3018, although, I know of no text or even letter that would allow us to determine just when he died. To be a stickler, I suppose Beorn could have died in 2942 or 43 for all that we know...

So, just how old was Beorn? Tolkien, as Stormrider points out, claims no more than a natural human span for Beorn's life (70 -100 years?). But we do not know how old he was in 2941 when he met Bilbo. I got the impression he was a matured male (full beard, not a teenager with light fuzz on his cheek), but he could be anywhere from 20 to 50! Just for fun, let's suppose he was 30 years old in 2941. Then, he would have been 107 years old in 3018 when we are told he is no longer the ruler of the Beorings (not strictly told that he is dead!). But, if Beorn was 40 in 2491, or even 50, he would be considerably past a normal human life span in 3018 -- 127 years old in the extreme case!

We know that Grimbeorn, son of Beorn is styled as "The Old" in 3018. So how old is "The Old?" I would put "old" age at around 60 - 70 years. So if we estimate Grimbeorn was 60 or older in 3018, he would have been born around 2958 or earlier. If Beorn was "unmarried" in 2941 (and there certainly is no indication of a "Mrs." Beorn lurking in the bushes at this early date), and if Beorn was at least 30 years old when he met Bilbo, he would have fathered Grimbeorn at age 47. Not an impossibility.

Otherwise, to get a "proper" generational difference of about 20 years, we would have to make Beorn three years old when he first met Bilbo -- now that's something improbable indeed!

One more point, Stormrider: if the first trek to Erebor was in 2941 (LotR, Appendix B, p. 1126) then I calculate 3018 would have been 77 years later, not 27? So, even if we make Beorn a stripling youth of 20 when he met Bilbo, he would have been 97 years old in 3018 (had he lived that long) and if he was 50 in 2941, he would have been 127! I think the "messy" chronology for Beorn is just one more weak point in the transition JRRT was forced to make when he added all that LotR stuff to his pre-existing, originally "independent" novel, The Hobbit.

[Stormrider]

Thank you, Andorinha, for correcting my math! Actually, I never did the calculations, I picked up the "27" from the Encylopedia of Arda and did not bother to look up and check the date for Bilbo's journey myself.

Now I wanted to go look at Beorn's listing in the Encylopedia of Arda again to verify if I misread that 3018 was his death date or Grimbeorn's date of rule and the site cannot be found! (I am sure it is just having some technical difficulties and it will get fixed soon). Well, Andorinha, I am sure your numbers are correct--you are always so thorough in your investigations! So thanks again!

Is Beorn's ability to change from man to bear an inherited trait and does Grimbeorn have the same ability? How would a man have gotten such a trait to begin with?

Or does it work with magic? Did he learn a spell or have one cast upon him?

Or was Beorn bitten by a bear and the transformation works like that of the werewolf? However, other than being strong and easy to anger and rather nasty once he is angered, Beorn seems friendly enough--not uncontrollable like a werewolf seems to be. And it seems he changes every night, not just on the full moon.

[Lanhail]

Stormrider said:

Is Beorn's ability to change from man to bear an inherited trait and does Grimbeorn have the same ability? How would a man have gotten such a trait to begin with?

Or does it work with magic? Did he learn a spell or have one cast upon him?

Or was Beorn bitten by a bear and the transformation works like that of the werewolf?

I did some digging into the History of ME series to see if some more light could be shed on this subject.
Christopher Tolkien made an interesting remark as a note on page 138 of The Treason of Isengard in reference to Radagast "Master of shapes and changes of hue; and he has much lore of herbs and beasts" (Council of Elrond chapter of FotR). C. Tolkien's remark was this: "Can this have been suggested by Beorn's aquaintance with Radagast?" To me, this means that Christopher sees a possible connection between the two. But, did Radagast make Beorn a skin-changer or did he just "study" him?
I have always been bothered by the phrase "changes of hue" not quite understanding why "changes of color" would be important enough to mention. But, I was never bothered enough to find out why until now. According to Websters dictionary the origin is Old English (not surprisingly) hiw, heow meaning form, appearance, color. So taken in this context Radagast was interested in "changes of appearance and form". If Beorn was a unique example, being the first of his line, then Radagast's specialty was highly specific and narrow of scope. It seems likely that there were other skin-changing individuals in and around Mirkwood. Perhaps, some of the other bears of Beorn's aquaintance were actually skin-changers, also. Close relatives, even? Later in The Hobbit it is mentioned that those of Beorn's line were skin-changers for many generations after him. On the other hand in the Riders of Rohan chapter of TTT, Aragorn mentions that the Rohirrim are related to the Beornings. Skin-changing doesn't seem to be a dominant trait.
Andorinha, Beorn was definitely dead according to Letter#144. If Beorn and wife follow the customs of bears, then we would not have seen any sign of Mrs. Beorn. Bears are solitary though the territory of the male may overlap a female's.
Lanhail
Addition: For the heck of it, I looked around for other examples of "so and so" the Old to get a sense of how old does a non-Numenorean man have to be, according to Tolkien, to gain that title. I found that Beor the Old (Silm. Of the Coming of Men into the West) was 93 when he died; King Aldor the Old (3rd King of the Mark, Appendix A LotR) was 101. Though other Kings of the Mark did manage to make it to their late 80's or older, none were called "The Old". Eomer made it to 93, but he already had the nickname Eadig, meaning "Blessed" in OE. I did not do a thorough search, but, it seems to me that Tolkien saved the title "The Old" for those that made it to a venerable old age. I'd say at minimum Grimbeorn was 85 in 3018, but probably over 90. (Grim in OE means "fierce, savage".)

[Lanhail]

I went back over the chapter Queer Lodgings. Gandalf states that "[Beorn] is under no enchantment but his own." That pretty much rules out anybody turning him into a skin-changer.
Also, in that chapter the narrator states "You see, in the old days [Beorn] had known the very part of the mountains that Gandalf was describing." This leads me to believe that Beorn is well out of young adulthood. You have to have alittle age in order to have "the old days" mean something older than say....yesterday...or the day before yesterday.
Lanhail

[Stormrider]

Lanhail:

I forgot the phrase about Beorn being under his own enchantment! I don't even recall the one about Beorn remembering the Misty Mountains in the old days either! Thanks for reminding me!

So Radagast did not cast a spell on Beorn, but was studying him. That would make sense. Radagast loved the animals and if a bear could change into a man, then that would probably really intrigue him! Very interesting!

Yes, Andorinha, I also pictured Beorn as a mature adult but never as an old one. Now with Lanhail's extra reminder, I guess he could have been much older than we were thinking!

Too bad there is not a lot of information on Radagast either, or has someone stumbled onto something about him lately, too?

[Andorinha]

Stormrider: good work ("Manners") on connecting Beorn with the Nordic concept of the "berserker." An alternative to the "bear-shirt" etymology is "bare-sark," one who fights in his own skin, unarmored. I suppose both etymologies would work equally well for him as Beorn certainly fights (in both his guises, as man and beast) without a protective "sark." and the bear's ferocity, reckless charges, raging combat style seem the salient features of Beorn's personality!

I often wondered if the names Beowulf and Beorn were derived from the same OE root, but, apparently the connection of "Bee Wolf" with bear is only a metaphorical one, and not a developmental aspect from a similar root. A "Bee-Wolf" (Beowulf) being that major bane of the hive, a honey eating bear. But Beorn, taken directly from "bjorn," (bear) comes by his connection with bees in a more directly ursine manner.

Lanhail: Yes, Tolkien states definitively in his Letter #144 to Naomi Mitchison, p.178, that Beorn is dead in 3018. Not that he died in 3018, of course, and this still leaves us with a problem (or several) in trying to determine his possible time of birth, and therefore his age in 2941 when he met Bilbo. My best guess here is that Beorn died before Bilbo's second trek, sometime before 3001.*

Lanhail: "I'd say at minimum Grimbeorn was 85 in 3018, but probably over 90. (Grim in OE means "fierce, savage".)"

Great methodology in checking the other instances of Tolkien's use of "old!" But I still see some problems here in giving Grimbeorn such seniority.

A "minimally" 80 year old "Old" Grimbeorn would give us a birthdate of 2928, a 90 year old Grimbeorn would give us 2918! This leaves us an interesting situation, even if we take the 80 year mark for Grimbeorn (so as not to exaggerate the difficulties) -- where was the "little cub" when Bilbo tottered through in 2941?

Lanhail: "This leads me to believe that Beorn is well out of young adulthood."

If Beorn is at least 20 years older than his son, he himself would have been born in 2908, and would have been 33 years old (young adulthood?) when Bilbo and the Dwarves showed up. At this time also, Grimbeorn would have been 13 years old, surely he would have been somewhere near his father learning from him the tricks of the were-bear trade? But Grimbeorn is just as absent and unmentioned as his presumed mother in the pages of The Hobbit, so I can only assume Beorn was not yet a "family man" in Tolkien's mind when he wrote The Hobbit. Otherwise we must assume a wife and a child (teenaged) off living on their own? Maybe more bear than human if such a living arrangement was found preferable?

But then, to fit Grimbeorn into the post 2941 chronology, and give him a suitable birthdate AFTER Bilbo's first trek eastward, we must reduce his "old" status by about 15 to 20 years. A 75 year old "Old" Grimbeorn would then have been born in a plausibly correct period of time, say 2943?

To get a Beorn who would be "out of young adulthood" in 2941, yet keep Grimbeorn's birth after the Hobbit's first trek, we woud have to push Beorn's own birth back in time, making him a rather old father at the time of his son's birth. If 40 - 50 is considered "mature," and out of young adulthood, then Beorn's birth could have been no later than 2900 or 2880. So, I guess we have a choice here of making Grimbeorn a very "late term" baby, 40 to 50 years younger than his father, or of assuming he was born before Bilbo's 2941 advent but was simply kept elsewhere and never mentioned at all...

_______________________

*And if we assume that Bilbo did not mention Beorn in his 3001-3002 trek because Beorn was already dead, then, assuming Beorn died just before Bilbo got there, the old were-bear would have been 90 - 93 years old at the time of his death in 3001. (Of course, he could actually have died anytime after 2942 and yet before 3018.)

[Lanhail]

As I was searching the Net for the "customs" (behavior) of black bears, it suddenly occurred to me that Tolkien wasn't writing about Ursus americanus....americanus being the key word here. The Black bear is indigenous to North America.

Beorn could be a Brown bear (color ranging from light brown beige to black) better known to Americans as the grizzly. This is a whole different animal which seems to fit Beorn's bear size and "berserker" temperment better.

www.bearbiology.com/brdesc.html
"Female brown bears reach sexual maturity at four-and-a-half to seven years of age. Males may become sexually mature at a similar age but are probably not large enough to be able to enter the breeding population until they are eight to ten years old."

Andorinha wrote: "If Beorn is at least 20 years older than his son, he himself would have been born in 2908, and would have been 33 years old (young adulthood?) when Bilbo and the Dwarves showed up. At this time also, Grimbeorn would have been 13 years old, surely he would have been somewhere near his father learning from him the tricks of the were-bear trade? But Grimbeorn is just as absent and unmentioned as his presumed mother in the pages of The Hobbit, so I can only assume Beorn was not yet a "family man" in Tolkien's mind when he wrote The Hobbit. Otherwise we must assume a wife and a child (teenaged) off living on their own? Maybe more bear than human if such a living arrangement was found preferable?"


If Beorn followed something close to bear behavior in his mating practices, he would be a mature man (say somewhere around 30-40) by the time his bouncing baby grizzly bear boy was born. If Grimbeorn was 90 in 3018, his birthdate would be 2928, and he would have been 13 at this point in the story. But, if we make him 95 in 3018, and fully capable to wear the title "the Old", he would be 18 during this chapter, and perhaps making his own way in the world. I'll venture to say that Beorn (at 48-58 years old) is at the "post" family stage rather than a younger "pre" family. Poor Grimbeorn's Mom could share the same fate as so many other Tolkien moms...just plain absent for one reason or another!

By the time Tolkien got to the chapter "The Return journey" he had in fact decided to give Beorn "a line" of descendants. At this current chapter stage I think Beorn's family wasn't even a "twinkle in Tolkien's eye". Grimbeorn was an afterthought.

Andorinha, how old are you? I deliberately left "young adulthood" as a vague age to be interpreted as one wished, but, at my current age of 46, young adulthood is interpreted as the years between 21-30.
Lanhail

[Andorinha]

Hmmm. This discussion does seem to pivot now about the single issue of just how "bearlike" Beorn was, and whether the "ursine" element of his personality spills into his human life sufficiently that bear domestic arrangements and family lifestyles take precedence over the "normative" human systems.

Lanhail, I think you are presenting a good, logical alternative here that allows Grimbeorn to be "old" in the Tolkien sense (80 - 90 or better) but may violate JRRT's RC family concept value structure? Tolkien also seemed at some pains to stress the human element in Beorn's composite nature in his letter to Naomi Mitchison, and I wonder if we are overstressing the bear element when we find an ursine family pattern better suits our chronologies?

Lanhail: "'Female brown bears reach sexual maturity at four-and-a-half to seven years of age. Males may become sexually mature at a similar age but are probably not large enough to be able to enter the breeding population until they are eight to ten years old.'"

Would a human who can "skin-change" into a bear follow bear chronologies of physical development toward a precocious (from human standpoints) sexual maturity? Certainly, a ten year old Beorn fathering a son would alter our schemes considerably and fit both our skin-changers into a more happy time-frame package, but I'm not sure Tolkien ever went into this matter with quite our obsessive tastes for detailed research! Would Tolkien have been aware of all this bear lore?

Of course, "Mrs. Beorn" need not have been anything other than human herself, a common Daleswoman, or Lake Woman type with no bear-like attributes of her own, in which case -- I suppose -- she would be expecting the Tolkien conservative "norms" of married life (even Goldberry has them!): a home/ hearth and the protection of a "house bound" man, and she would not be inclined to live a sow's (female bear) solitary existence raising a cub on her own.

LOL! I'm not sure where all this leaves us, but it is fun!

________________

Yes, just when does "young adulthood" end? Having recently tottered into my fifties I can attest that mental/ Emotional Maturity is not particularly associated with one's chronological achievements -- I remain frozen at 13 in terms of EM. But physically, I suppose I peaked around 45 when bench pressing 242#s, something I could not do at 20 - 30. But, with no long list of physical achievements from Beorn's life to set up comparisons, he could be at his physical peak of strength when he "crushed" Bolg, 45 years of age? But equally, he could have been either very young and not yet at full strength there, or long into his dottage and feeling kind of poorly in 2941, but still able to crush a goblin...

[Lanhail]

Andorinha wrote: "Would a human who can "skin-change" into a bear follow bear chronologies of physical development toward a precocious (from human standpoints) sexual maturity? Certainly, a ten year old Beorn fathering a son would alter our schemes considerably and fit both our skin-changers into a more happy time-frame package, but I'm not sure Tolkien ever went into this matter with quite our obsessive tastes for detailed research! Would Tolkien have been aware of all this bear lore?"
I'm sorry Andorinha, for not making myself clear. My thoughts were more comparative between human/bear chronology along the lines of "How old is a bear in human years?" So I was thinking if a male bear is sexually mature during his later "teen-age" years but incapable of wooing a female or fighting off other suitors until attaining fully "adult" status that would have meant fatherhood for a grizzly could come comparatively late in "human years".
It would not surprise me if Tolkien knew something about bears, though I'm sure, for this story, his interest is the Beowulf/berserker/skin-changing lore of legend.

There are alot of reasons why Mrs. Beorn could be absent. She could be dead, visiting her family on the other side of the Carrock, or in the hospital recovering from a bear hug. None of these would be objectionable to Tolkien's RC sensibilities. Even if they lived apart (due to Beorn's emotional immaturity, perhaps, lol) would be ok, especially with Grimbeorn reaching adulthood, as long as there was no divorce or hanky panky with other humans or bears.

Andorinha wrote: "But, with no long list of physical achievements from Beorn's life to set up comparisons, he could be at his physical peak of strength when he "crushed" Bolg, 45 years of age?"
Beorn was chased out of the mountains by goblins at some point in the past (young and not at full strength?) He then set up a homestead east of the Carrock. Did he carve the farm out of the wilderness himself or take over management? If he did the work himself, even with help, it would have taken years and much strength to accomplish all that he did. This work would have conditioned him to "peak" performance.

Yes, this is fun!
Lanhail

[Stormrider]

Perhaps Mrs. Beorn and Grimbeorn were whisked away or kept in another part of Beorn's estate with the arrival of strangers. They may not have been far away at all! Just out of sight for protective reasons. Although mother bears can be very protective of their cubs in their own right, too.

Don't forget about Beorn's other amazing animals. They could have helped Beorn out in building his home. Maybe they could not do a lot of the actual contruction themselves but they could help drag and haul logs and carry other things that might be needed. Beorn would still become very strong building his home even if the animals helped him out.

[Desi Baggins]

Amazing research everyone!!!

My only comment is that the difference with Beorn turing into a bear and a man turning into a werewolf is that Beorn can do it every night and werewolf only on full moons.

[Stormrider]

Lanhail said:

So taken in this context Radagast was interested in "changes of appearance and form". If Beorn was a unique example, being the first of his line, then Radagast's specialty was highly specific and narrow of scope. It seems likely that there were other skin-changing individuals in and around Mirkwood. Perhaps, some of the other bears of Beorn's aquaintance were actually skin-changers, also.

and I replied:

So Radagast did not cast a spell on Beorn, but was studying him. That would make sense. Radagast loved the animals and if a bear could change into a man, then that would probably really intrigue him! Very interesting!

I wonder if Peter Jackson will connect Radagast's studying of Beorn in his Hobbit movies. It depends on how much we actually get to see Radagast and Beorn in the movies, I suppose. Beorn could certainly be a movie all by himself with all the information we dug up above!