Beorn and Tom Bombadil [Merged]

[Aglarthalion]

*checks Radagast's entry in Return of the King*

*checks reference in The Fellowship of the Ring*

Quote, from The Council of Elrond:

"...Radagast is, of course, a worthy Wizard, a master of shapes and changes of hue; and he has much lore of herbs and beasts, and birds are especially his friends." - Gandalf

From this quote (and other evidence I won't detail here), I'd say that this would lead most people to rightly believe that Radagast was indeed a shape-shifter.

Beorn was a Man. As Beorn (this is getting a little confusing ) posted, Tolkien clearly states in Letter 144 that though Beorn was a skin changer and magician, there is no doubt he is a Man.

EDIT: Just checked the link Nóm provided. Interesting debate; I would have liked to have been around all those months ago to participate, but now I have nothing to add. It clears up most questions (I should think) about shape-shifters, and the ability to shape-shift. Excellent thread.

 

[Wolfshead]

Ah, so Radagast was a shape-shifter. Then that brings the question, why did he ride around looking for Gandalf when he could have flown and made his journey a lot quicker?

About Beorn, I'm going to spoil the discussion by posting some facts about him from The Encyplopedia Of Arda.

Notes

1 Tolkien makes it clear in his letters that Beorn's lifespan was no greater than that of an ordinary Man. It's very unlikely, then, that he survived much beyond III 3000. (see The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien No 144, dated 1954).

2 In the same letter referred to in Note 1, Tolkien explains that despite his remarkable abilities, Beorn definitely belonged to the race of Men: 'Though a skin-changer and no doubt a bit of a magician, Beorn was a Man'.

3 The etymology of Beorn's name is interesting. The Old English word originally meant 'bear', but evolved over the centuries to the point where it came to mean 'warrior'. So, Beorn's ability to transform from a bear to a man echoes the linguistic development of his name.
The original meaning of Beorn relates to the bear's love of honey, and contains béo, meaning 'bee'. This also appears in the name Beowulf: like Beorn, this means 'bear', but is literally 'bee-wolf'. This bee connection explains the references in The Hobbit to Beorn's bee-pastures and huge bees: 'The drones were bigger than your thumb, a good deal, and the bands of yellow on their deep black bodies shone like fiery gold' (The Hobbit 7, Queer Lodgings).

I bet no one would have spotted that by themselves

 

[reem]

who's Beorn?

i reached the part when Gandalf is taking bilbo and the dwarves to see beorn. who is beorn?? i mean, what info can you give me other than what was already given in the following pages in the Hobbit?
and skin-changer just means changing his shape froom human to animal and vice-versa, right??
excuse any stupid questions
reem

 

[Kahmûl]

Beorn is a distant blood relation to Beron who could change into orcs and wolfs so i guess that Beorn got some of his power and then Beorns son Grimbeorn would probably get it as well!

 

[Eye'r'oof]

Well...
Beorn was a man. Where is he in the LOTR?
He easy could live this much long. About the ethymology - this is an interesting question. Never thought about bee in this word. Probably because I'm from russia and think more about my language
We also have the word meaning a bear build like "who knows where is the honey" The same. And in swedish the word Bjorn means bear also.

 

[FoolOfATook]

I'm not convinced from the phrase "master of shapes and changes of hue" that Radagast was a Skin-changer. It could very easily be taken to mean that Radagast has a talent for "disguising" himself, sort of like when Aragorn tells Frodo that he can avoid being seen, only more so for the brown wizard. It seems to me that something as drastic as an Istari being able to change shapes ala Beorn- something like that Tolkien would at least refer to elsewhere.