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Beorning questions...
© Michael Martinez
Jan 14, 2000
One of the most fascinating characters of The Hobbit is Beorn, the grim woodsman who lives alone except for his enchanted animal companions. Beorn was a man, though a bit of a magician according to Tolkien because he could change his skin (become a huge bear). Beorn's origins are clouded in mystery. Gandalf tells Thorin and Company more than one account of Beorn's ancestry, and he is none too clear on which is true.
When Gandalf and Thorin's company are brought safely to the Carrock by the Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains, the wizard tells his companions that there are few people living in the district. There are villages of men farther south (probably beyond the Old Forest Road) in the valleys of the mountains and along the river shores. These people are referred to as "Woodmen" in The Hobbit who have been gradually returning north. They are related to the Woodmen of Mirkwood according to Tolkien in the appendix to The Lord of the Rings, but many people wonder if these are the people whom Beorn one day comes to rule.
It's anyone's guess, really, where the Beornings came from or what they were like. They were all men, though perhaps a few were skin-changers like Beorn. Tolkien doesn't say whether Beorn was born with the ability to speak with animals and change his skin, but he does say that many of Beorn's descendants possessed the skin-changing ability. So at some point skin-changing either became hereditary or else the secret was passed on from generation to generation.
The Hobbit mentions that dragons chased most men away from the northern lands, and it implies that the great bears of the northern mountains vanished when the giants appeared some time before the story unfolds. Beorn is associated with both the bears and the northern men. If the skin-changers did not originate with Beorn then they must have lived in the mountains, and Gandalf does reveal he once overheard Beorn express the hope he would one day return to the mountains.
Bilbo actually meets few men in The Hobbit. His first connection with men once he is across the Misty Mountains is the intended raid by the goblins and Wargs. Gandalf overhears the Wargs discussing an intended raid on villages to the south of the Goblin stronghold near the High Pass. Bilbo's next connection with men is Beorn himself, who befriends and assists Thorin and Company on their expedition. Though Gandalf says few people live near the Carrock he does seem to imply that Beorn is not the only local inhabitant, and when Gandalf and Bilbo return with Beorn the next year he summons many men to a feast at his house. So Beorn's people exist at the time of the story, though they may have been strengthened by the woodmen who have been migrating northward.
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