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Glorfindela
Valinor
Oct 4 2013, 3:09pm
Post #1 of 12
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Quick question with regard to Beorn
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After the events of the Hobbit, does Beorn manage to continue his line? I seem to remember that he did breed and produce heirs, or am I wrong?
I want to be reassured that his line will not run out, because at the time of the Hobbit he was the only one of his kin left, the others all having been slain. 
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Glorfindela
Valinor
Oct 4 2013, 5:34pm
Post #3 of 12
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That's excellent news! Thank you.
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So the Beornings were all Beorn's kin, and he was in fact their ancestor, given that there were no others of his species left in Middle-Earth at the time of the events of the Hobbit?
was the son of Beorn and also a shapeshifter - he dwelt with the Beornings in the Vales of Anduin before and during the War of the Ring.
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Subaruman
Bree
Oct 4 2013, 6:19pm
Post #5 of 12
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Yes, Beornings were an entire race of shapeshifters descended from Beorn.
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And they fought alongside elves (primarily) in the north during the War of the Ring.
"Here is a book very unsuitable for dramatic or semi-dramatic representation. If that is attempted, it needs more space, a lot of space."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, 1956
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Oct 4 2013, 9:06pm
Post #6 of 12
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Yes, Beornings were an entire race of shapeshifters descended from Beorn. And they fought alongside elves (primarily) in the north during the War of the Ring.
The vast majority of Beornings were not related to Beorn, but were Woodmen of the Anduin Vales who came to follow Beorn as their leader in the years after the Battle of Five Armies. There is no indication that they were skin-changers--with the possible exception of Grimbeorn the Old and other members of Beorn's direct bloodline (and even that is not confirmed by Tolkien).
The idea that the skin-changers were a distinct race was only one possible speculation about Beorn's origins. It is Peter Jackson's decision to go with it as if it were a fact and make Beorn the last of his kind. It is implied in the book of The Hobbit that there could be other skin-changers and that they might take other forms, rather than that of a bear.
'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Oct 4 2013, 9:08pm)
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Glorfindela
Valinor
Oct 4 2013, 10:20pm
Post #7 of 12
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Thank you for all your responses
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On balance, I'm going to take it that there were other Beornings after the events of the Hobbit, because it seems that Tolkien meant it to be so – and I do not want to think of that race becoming extinct!
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Subaruman
Bree
Oct 5 2013, 1:16pm
Post #8 of 12
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Tolkien alludes to the fact that Beornings are descendants of Beorn.
"Here is a book very unsuitable for dramatic or semi-dramatic representation. If that is attempted, it needs more space, a lot of space."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, 1956
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Oct 5 2013, 7:25pm
Post #9 of 12
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Tolkien alludes to the fact that Beornings are descendants of Beorn.
The Beornings did not exist as a group until after the Battle of Five Armies. The homesteaders and other Mannish inhabitants of the Western Anduin Vales who gave there allegiance to Beorn became the Beornings. Tolkien wrote that, for many generations, most of those who were directly decended from Beorn also shared his skin-changing ability. Beornings who were not related to Beorn were not skin-changers. I suggest that you reread your references more carefully.
'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Subaruman
Bree
Oct 5 2013, 11:54pm
Post #10 of 12
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I suppose we'll have to let this one be.
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Since our refereneces seem to be conflicting.
"I suggest that you reread your references more carefully."
OK then.
"Here is a book very unsuitable for dramatic or semi-dramatic representation. If that is attempted, it needs more space, a lot of space."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, 1956
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Oct 6 2013, 12:20pm
Post #11 of 12
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Our references are largely the same
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I supppose we'll have to let this one be. Since our refereneces seem to be conflicting.
I don't know about that. In The Hobbit, Gandalf describes Beorn in the chapter "Queer Lodgings":
He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug or the other dragons came into this part of the world, and before the goblins came into the hills out of the North. I cannot say, though I fancy the last is the true tale. He is not the sort of person to ask questions of.
And in the chapter "The Return Journey":
Beorn indeed became a great chief afterwards in those regions and ruled a wide land between the mountains and the wood; and it is said that for many generations the men of his line had the power of taking bear's shape, and some were grim men and bad, but most were in heart like Beorn, if less in size and strength.
The key word here is "afterwards". Now, The Lord of the Rings, "Many Meetings":
Frodo learned that Grimbeorn the Old, son of Beorn, was now the lord of many sturdy men, and to their land between the Mountains and Mirkwood neither orc nor wolf dared to go.
Later, in the chapter "The Riders of Rohan", Aragorn speaks of the Roharrim:
They have long been the friends of the people of Gondor, though they are not akin to them. It was in forgotten years long ago that Eorl the Young brought them out of the North, and their kinship is rather with the Bardings of Dale, and with the Beornings of the Wood, among whom may still be seen many men tall and fair, as are the Riders of Rohan.
So the Beornings are descended from the Northmen once led by Eorl the Young. Beorn, himself, seems to belong to an even older people who lived in that region first.
'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Glorfindela
Valinor
Oct 7 2013, 1:44pm
Post #12 of 12
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That explains it for me, Otaku-sempal
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Thank you for digging up those references and clearing up this question, which I have long wondered about (before I even saw the LOTR films).
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