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.

 

[Walter]

Originally posted by Anamatar IV
The meaning of the Norwegian word, Bjorn, is bear. Beorn in the Hobbit was....a bear man. I am convinced! [/B]

Rightfully convinced. Beorn (basically the same name as the nordic Björn) is derived from "bear" and also an old english word, meaning "man" or "warrior" (phrases or words "strong as a bear", German "bärenstark" still resemble that connection).

Also Beowulf ("bee-wulf") is a honey-eater, a bear...

See also Tolkien's elaboration on the name Beorn in "The cottage of Lost Play" (HoMeI)

 

[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..

 

[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...

 

[Noldor_returned]

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

 

[childoferu]

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.

Wow, you learn soooooooo much from TTF

 

[jallan]

See http://www.northvegr.org/lore/oldheathen/034.php for an English translation of the Icelandic Hrólf Kraki Saga which includes a man named Björn who is changed into a bear by day. The story begins in chapter 24.

Note that, in the tale, Helgi is the same person as the Halga in Beowulf, Hróarr is the same person as King Hrothgar and Aðils is the same person as Eadgils. Hrólf is Hrothgar’s nephew Hrothwulf. Some scholars speculate that Björn’s son Boðvar Bjarki and Beowulf were originally identical. Hjórvarð, who finally slays Hrólf is identical to Hereward who is also mentioned in Beowulf.

Accordingly this saga is much discussed in Beowulf writing and must have been well known by Tolkien.

 

[Alcuin]

...Some scholars speculate that Björn’s son Boðvar Bjarki and Beowulf were originally identical. ...

Accordingly this saga is much discussed in Beowulf writing and must have been well known by Tolkien.

Of course! Beowulf = “bee-wolf” or “bee-hunter” and … is a kenning for “bear”. Tolkien’s Beorn lived in a the midst of a great “bee-farm”. Tolkien’s sketch of Beorn’s house strongly resembles E.V. Gordon’s “Sketch of a Norse Hall”. (Tolkien Artist & Illustrator, pp 122-126, much of which is comparative illustration. Gordon, like Tolkien, was also a philologist, was four years younger, the two worked together on projects, and he died the year after The Hobbit was published.)

Tolkien wrote a lot on Beowulf: Beowulf: the Monster and the Critics, a complete prose translation, and an incomplete verse translation. Is anyone here familiar with them? Are there any parallels in his writings on Beowulf to his description of Beorn or the Beornings?

(The comparison cannot be pushed too far: Beowulf traveled by sea and lived on islands and along the shoreline; Beorn traveled by land and lived in the midst of the Vale of Anduin, and so forth... but are there any other “Easter eggs” in Tolkien’s descriptions?)

 

[Simon C]

The ents, for exapmle, are 'great Birnham Wood' of Shakespeares McBeth really coming to life.

Quite possibly. Tolkien was quoted by Humphrey Carpenter in his biography as being less than impressed by the use Shakespear had made of trees going to war in Macbeth, and vowed to himself to make them "really go to war".

 

[jallan]

I don’t suggest that Tolkien’s Beorn was based on the Norse saga Beorn in any other way than his name and being able to turn into a bear.

“Björn” means bear in Icelandic but “Beorn” means primarily warrior in Old English, which Tolkien would have known well. Presumably the author of the Norse Björn story also knew that Björn mght also mean “warrior” and that was the reason that this name was chosen.

If you want to read another conclusion, see the essay at http://www.lightspill.com/schola/nando/hobbit_beowulf.html . Frankly, that arrticel seems to me to be mostly pretentious nonsense, in which, for example, the author, Jonathan A. Glenn, makes Beorn to be a representation of Jesus Christ.

Without claiming specific influence, Beorn's manner and noise here may be noted as similar to descriptions in the biblical book of Revelation; for example, St. John reports "a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunder" (Rev. 14:2). Thus Tolkien sets Beorn apart from the other characters in the novel, giving him powers and associations denied even to Gandalf.

Glenn starts with the statement “Without claiming specific influence” but the rest of his argument depends on the specific influence, even though in The Hobbit Beorn’s voice is not mentioned at all in the Battle of the Five Armies but the voice is all that is mentioned in Rev. 14:2. I find this mode of non-reasoning to be rather silly. I also find Bonnie Jean Christensen’s original article to be silly. Of course Tolkien has taken, probably mostly subconsciously, from Beowulf. But forced comparisons between works don’t convince.