Beorn

[The Might]

Nice find there, Gordis!

And also in LotR I cannot recall any time when the Beornings are mentioned as shapeshifters, but only as good, valiant Men with high tolls and not very fond of Dwarves, still keeping the High Pass open. Also, several times the connection to the Eotheod, the Bardings and the Woodmen is mentioned, moving thus into the direction of normal descent rather than explanations like Gandalf's in the Hobbit.

Who knows? Maybe we won't find out what Tolkien really thought of the Beornings, for as he says in letter 187:

... while many like you demand maps, others wish for geological indications rather than places; many want Elvish grammars, phonol*ogies, and specimens; some want metrics and prosodies.... Musicians want tunes, and musical notation; archaeologists want ce*ramics and metallurgy; botanists want a more accurate description of the mallorn, of elanor, niphredil, alfirin, mallos, and symbelmynë, historians want more details about the social and political structure of Gondor; general enquirers want information about the Wainriders, the Harad, Dwarvish origins, the Dead Men, the Beornings, and the missing two wizards (out of five).

And as he had said in the letter 160:

I am not now at all sure that the tendency to treat the whole thing as a kind of vast game is really good – certainly not for me who find that kind of thing only too fatally attractive. It is, I sup*pose, a tribute to the curious effect that a story has, when based on very elaborate and detailed workings, of geography, chronology, and language, that so many should clamour for sheer "information," or "lore."

He didn't necessarily set out to explain everything with a lot of details, and I believe in some other place he says that secrets and unexplainable things belong to this fantastic age his stories take place in.

But, a clear tendency towards simple men, related to other groups in the area and without any great powers, can be noticed.


As for your idea Pitchwife, it is a nice idea but somehow seems fairly unlikely especially considering Radagast's peculiar habits. He loved birds and beasts and the only thing he could maybe fall in love with was a Goldberry-like nature spirit, a spirit rather symbolising animals than plants. I just can't seem him having a romance with a simple woman of the mountains.