Beorn(Arda Annual)

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

I have heard of this article but could not find it on line. Beorn is clearly portrayed as a man of great size. The analogy I have seen for him before is the "berserker" of northern tales.

As so often with Tolkien, names and words are what got him going- whether as seriously as Earendil or as playfully as Smaug. Here he's taking advantage of a couple of things. Bjørn in Old Norse (for which beorn would be the unrecorded OE cognate) meant (usually) "man, warrior" but plainly originally meant "bear" (from Proto-Germanic *beron), as it does in modern Swedish- hence Beorn is both a warrior and a bear. Compare the bear-avatar Bödvar Bjarki ("Littlebear") from Hrolf Kraki's Saga, a character thought by some to originally have been the same as Beowulf ("Bee-wolf," kenning for bear).* Another Beorn-ingredient, given that he's a bee-keeper and honey-eater!

There is also a connection to the berserker of legend and (perhaps) history, since it's uncertain whether the ber-element before -serk (sark, shirt) meant "bare" or "bear," another bit of linguistic ambiguitity which surely delighted Tolkien.

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*Although Tolkien didn't use the idea in Sellic Spell, there's reason to think that Beowulf originally was a were-bear who actually transformed; look at the fight with Grendel, and the suggestion that when fighting unarmed the hero was invulnerable.