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sador
Half-elven
Mar 19 2012, 1:14pm
Views: 1113
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A long post deleted! I'll just repeat my answers to your questions.
1. We're told Beorn is a 'skin-changer', both in the story and in the letter quoted above. Why 'skin-changer'?
For the joke of Bilbo calling him a furrier. The Hobbit is first and foremost a comedy.
Why not 'shape-shifter' or 'werebear' - descriptions other commentators often use for Beorn, though, so far as I know, Tolkien never does. Are the descriptions synonymous, as people seem to assume, or can you see real differences between them?
With all due respect to Shippey - he is not "other commentators", implying that Tolkien himself was one!
But as much as I like the word 'werebear' - was it even coined before 1983?
2. What do you think 'he is under no enchantment but his own' actually means?
I like the idea of a curse - but I think it is more stating that others have no power over him; quite like Tom Bombadil.
3. Beorn as an exile... Why do you think it is that it's Beorn the Bear who seems to feel his exile, not Beorn the Man?
I'm not sure; it is probably that it is in a bear's guise that he climbs the Carrock.
Also, is there any significance in the fact that Beorn the Bear seems to be part of a community of bears while Beorn the Man is very much a loner?
I suppose that he needs to become a part of a community of Men to actually go back (and even proceate).
4. When we first meet Beorn he lives alone with only his animals for company, though he has an unusually deep understanding of them which seems to be mutual.
Yes. As a rule, The Hobbit is concerned a lot with animals, and not with trees - the only personality Mirkwood has is that it is, well, huge and dark. The Lord of the Rings is quite the opposite; I've once suggested (question no. 6) this reflects the differet modes in which the books were written.
It is also noteworthy that Beorn is the first character who actually wields an axe - although I suspect that like Shardik he fought with his bear hands. Treebeard would be very suspicious of him!
He's not a 'wild man' as such - he gardens, cultivates, keeps bees - but he doesn't have humans (or dwarves, hobbits, elves etc.) around him and doesn't particularly welcome them.
As long as he doesn't, he will be alone and sterile.
After the Battle of the Five Armies, we're told, he throws a great feast at his house inviting 'men from far and wide' and goes on to become 'a great chief' in the region, also to father a son. Why the change?
I once had a UUT about this.
And just for provocation's sake - is this different from Eowyn?
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Tertiary characters in 'The Hobbit': Beorn
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dormouse
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Mar 13 2012, 9:16am
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No enchantment but his own.
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Otaku-sempai
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Mar 13 2012, 2:20pm
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Agreed.//
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telain
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Mar 18 2012, 3:55pm
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Beorn love
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titanium_hobbit
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Mar 14 2012, 12:19am
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beornings
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elevorn
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Mar 15 2012, 7:09pm
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on were-people
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telain
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Mar 18 2012, 4:12pm
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It's interesting, isn't it....
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dormouse
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Mar 18 2012, 4:46pm
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Aaargh!
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sador
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Mar 19 2012, 1:14pm
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The term 'werebear'
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Otaku-sempai
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Mar 19 2012, 4:29pm
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Well
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sador
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Mar 20 2012, 12:14pm
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Well, well...
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Otaku-sempai
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Mar 20 2012, 8:23pm
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Hmmm....
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Twit
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Apr 4 2012, 7:45am
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