The origin of Beorn!

[Anamatar IV]

My English teacher went way off topic in class today, as he usually does;), and started talking about Norwegian customs, languages and the such. It just so happens he told us the most common boy name in Norway:

Björn. Pronounced Bee-Orn. This sounds an aweful lot like the Bay-Orn in Tolkien's works. But of course, sound alone wouldn't convince me and it shouldn't convince you! The meaning of the Norwegian word, Bjorn, is bear. Beorn in the Hobbit was....a bear man. I am convinced!

[BlackCaptain]

Tolkien did use alot of Scandanavian and Norweigan words as a backround for his languages and names... But nevertheles.. interesting fact! This also makes 100 posts total in this forum! yay!

[elffriend]

It is possible that Tolkien got his inspiration for Beorn from, the mythologies of the scandanavian countries as he was interested in the myth of Beuwulf.

[Tarlanc]

Bëorn seems to me like the exaggeration of a scandinavian Berserk. These mighty warriors clad themselves in bear-skins for battle and made themselves have a sort of trance so they were convinced to be inhibited by bears-spirits. They tried to get the strength and the fierceness of bears like this. And in this trance they did not feel pain and fought like wild animals.
Bëorn is just a man like this. But he even goes a step further. instead of simply dressing in a bears skin, behaving like a bear and feeling like one, he actually becomes a bear.

Such exaggerations of mythological figures you can find several times in Tolkiens work. The ents, for exapmle, are 'great Birnham Wood' of Shakespeares McBeth really coming to life. And Warg was the title od outlaws in scandinavia. They were often also titled as 'wolves' but in Tolkiens books the Wargs actually have a wolfish form.

So, I think, Bëorns roots lie in the Berserk-Myth.

[Lantarion]

Great points Tarlanc, I hadn't even thuoght of Ents as a reference to Macbeth! :)
But yes Beorn is obviously derived from Scandinavian (though not Finnish ;)) languages, or more likely to Anglo-Saxon terminology (the similarities between Swedsih and English are remarkable). And Beorn was able to turn into a bear.
In fact a more interesting discussion would be abuot what Beorn actually was, in Tolkien's cosmology! Perhaps somebody should start a thread on it (I dno't have time just now).

Anyway I prefer the Finnish word for 'bear', karhu, to the Norse and Swedish forms.. :p :D

[Tarlanc]

As Tolkien puts forth in a letter, Bëorn is a man in his Mythology:

Though a skin-changer and no doubt a bit of a magician, Beorn was a Man. Letter #144

I think this is quite reasonable, because he is dead by the time the war of the Ring takes place. So he can't be a Maia or an Elf.

[Noldor_returned]

I posted a thread in Hall of Fire called 'Origin of Beorn' or something similar. Why dont you check it out

[Walter]

I posted a thread in Hall of Fire called 'Origin of Beorn' or something similar. Why dont you check it out
Yeah ... don't you hate it when that happens? I mean ... you opened a new thread with an interesting topic and the stubborn folk here discusses the topic elsewhere.... ;)

Though, it appears, the stubborn folk here even anticipated your thread... :D

[Noldor_returned]

Thanks Walter. I put another post called 50 most important characters there too.