Beorn vs Beornings. . .

[HLGStrider]

In the Hobbit Beorn is a man: a large, impressive man who can change into a bear and takes in travelers.
In the Lord of the Rings the Beornings are a race of people, supposedly many men, who make good honey cakes and seem to inhabit the land around Beorn's Carrock.
Now undoubtably, Beorn married and had many, many, many descendents. However, it seems a stretch to found a race of people based on what is, at the time of the Hobbit, one man, and an apparent bacholar, by the time of the Lord of the Rings. No one mentions him having a wife or kids, and he seems very solitary, living only with animals.

Isn't it a bit quick?

Why did Tolkien feel it necessary to stretch Beorn into a group? Just for a mention of honey cakes as compare to lembas?

 

[Gothmog]

It is not necessary that the "Beornings" are all decendants of Beorn. The Rohirrim were also known as "Eorlingas" and I doubt that every one of them was decended from Eorl the Young.

Many of the Beornings were most likely decended from men of the area who had taken Beorn as their leader and simply called themselves afrer him in the same way as those who followed Eorl the Young down to Calenhardhon took his name for their people.

 

[HLGStrider]

A good point. However, there is likewise no mention of this in the Hobbit (or anywhere for that matter).

Beorn does not seem to take an army to the battle of five armies (otherwise it would've been the battle of six). He just goes by himself.

He doesn't seem a kingly sort, either. Perhaps a chiefly sort, and if so more of a group of hunters than a group of women, children, old folks, and hunters.

 

[Gothmog]

from FotR: Many Meetings

while Glóin had much to tell of events in the northern regions of Wilderland. 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.
'Indeed,' said Glóin, `if it were not for the Beornings, the passage from Dale to Rivendell would long ago have become impossible. They are valiant men and keep open the High Pass and the Ford of Carrock. But their tolls are high,' he added with a shake of his head; `and like Beorn of old they are not over fond of dwarves. Still, they are trusty, and that is much in these days. Nowhere are there any men so friendly to us as the Men of Dale. They are good folk, the Bardings. The grandson of Bard the Bowman rules them, Brand son of Bain son of Bard. He is a strong king. and his realm now reaches far south and east of Esgaroth.'

This shows that things have changed in the area where Beorn lived since the time Bilbo met Beorn. I would guess from this that after the Battle of Five Armies, at which time Beorn lived alone, men moved to the area around the Carroc settled there and took Beorn (no doubt the most powerful and best leader) as their Chief. Beorn had a wife at some point and a son, Grimbeorn, who then became their lord. And note also that the men of Dale are also called Bardings.

He doesn't seem a kingly sort, either. Perhaps a chiefly sort, and if so more of a group of hunters than a group of women, children, old folks, and hunters.

Do hunters not have wives and children? Do they not grow old? Grimbeorn is not called King but lord.

 

[Maeglin]

Here's a thought, though perhaps not a very pleasant one.
We must not forget that Beorn was able to transform into a bear, so who knows in which form he reproduced? Maybe it was one or the other, or maybe it was both. He may have had children from both races....and as it seems he is both man and bear, I see no reason a child of a bear couldn't be part human. Unless of course you get into the gene pool and everything, but that is a whole different story....

 

[Aglarband]

That and it's a fantasy world, so who's to say it isn't possible for such a thing to happen?

 

[Osric]

I've come across the suggestion that although Tolkien didn't say anything to that effect, maybe the Carrock was a special, perhaps almost holy site to the Northmen of the area.

Thinking about the absence of a Mrs Beorn, this led to the thought that maybe Beorn's Hall was not his only home, maybe somewhere that he (and presumably plenty of friends and relatives at least some of the time, since it was built so large) went to be near the Carrock. The rest of the time he presumably lived somewhere more defensible. Even bears have to sleep!

The Middle-earth of TH and LOTR often comes up with odd-feeling population stuff, especially when it comes to the Northmen. The kingdom of Dale springs up pretty dramatically as well, in the same time period as the line of the Beornings. (More than can be accounted for by a lot of exuberant breeding now the dragon's gone!)

Where are all the Northmen in the time of The Hobbit? Are they scattered, lonely and lordless in the vales of the Misty Mountains and the Grey Mountains, hoping to be overlooked by marauding wolves and goblins? Or is Woodmen Town a metropolis larger than we've previously realised...?

--Os.