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Beren IV
Gondor
Feb 20 2007, 1:25am
Views: 742
Shortcut
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The Women of the Beornings
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Can't Post
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This question occurred to me as I read and was responding to Squire's post on Beorn's hall in our art discussion. My question, in essence, is, what were the women of the Beornings like?
Beorn of course is portrayed as an apparently very masculine individual: the thick dark beard, and the "knotted" muscles are both characteristically male descriptive attributes. Even chopping wood has a very masculine image, although certainly women would chop wood just as men would. We are given the impression that all of Beorn's folk are able to transform into bears, or at the very least a lot more than just Beorn can. As a large, immensely strong, and very hairy predator, bears also have a masculine image, despite the fact that the most dangerous of bears is a mother protecting her cubs. Tolkien alludes to, or implies, that some of his peoples, the Dwarves in particular, have women capable of otherwise passing themselves off as men, even to the point of having beards. One person I can remember even posed the possibility that Gimli may be female, or asking how we would ever know. I'm sure Tolkien never intended that to be true, or that any of Thorin's companions may be female either, although given what I understand about Dwarves in Tolkien, I would hardly be averse to a fanfic in which some of Thorin's companions were female. Nonetheless, Beorn is a Man, or a Man-bear, and not a Dwarf, and the women of Men (kinda inappropriate as a name for a race, huh?) definitely do have some characteristics that identify them as females. Are the Beornings the exception? Or, if not, what are the women of the Beornings like, both physically, culturally, and magically (i.e. can they turn into bears as well)?
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Subject
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User
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Time
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The Women of the Beornings
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Beren IV
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Feb 20 2007, 1:25am
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Paging Mrs. Beorn
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Morwen
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Feb 20 2007, 2:41pm
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Grimbeorn the Old, son of Beorn...
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Reera the Red
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Feb 20 2007, 3:06pm
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With that "nature wizard" so close
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Daeorn Aldalómë
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Feb 20 2007, 5:06pm
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That's a good thought.
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Reera the Red
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Feb 20 2007, 6:27pm
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Will the real Mrs. Beorn please stand up?
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Idril Celebrindal
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Feb 20 2007, 4:45pm
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That's what I was thinking
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Finding Frodo
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Feb 21 2007, 2:59am
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That's what I'd imagined.
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Penthe
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Feb 21 2007, 7:28am
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Beorn has more than one bear,
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Beren IV
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Feb 22 2007, 1:32am
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Human beings and other animals
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Penthe
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Feb 22 2007, 4:17am
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Like something instinctual and nonsentient
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Beren IV
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Feb 23 2007, 12:32am
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That seems to make the most sense. (nt)
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dernwyn
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Feb 22 2007, 3:57am
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What if there wernt any female beornings?
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Hengist
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Feb 22 2007, 3:54pm
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It seemed to be a family trait.
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Reera the Red
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Feb 22 2007, 4:28pm
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maybe...
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PhantomS
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Feb 23 2007, 8:16am
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