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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Mar 19 2012, 4:29pm
Views: 1157
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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?
The word 'werebear' was most definitely in usage before 1983. I can trace it immediately to Gary Gygax's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual and the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (both from 1977) along with terms for other lycanthropes such as: Wereboar, wererat, weretiger and (naturally) werewolf. We know that the term 'werewolf' is far older than this. I can trace 'wererat' to Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd and Gray Mouser" novel The Swords of Lankhmar (1968).
Werebear legends can be traced to Scandinavia, ancient Greece, and to Native-American myths.
"Darkness beyond blackest pitch, deeper than the deepest night!
King of Darkness, who shines like gold upon the Sea of Chaos.
I call upon thee and swear myself to thee!
Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!"
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Mar 19 2012, 4:30pm)
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Time
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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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