We know from The Hobbit, that Beorn is the last of his race. And we also know that he became a chief of some of the woodmen living in the area and had sons who could also take the shape of a bear.

My question is: how does this happen? How does he have sons? Who is the mother of his children? What human woman slept with a man of that size and gave birth to babies of that size?

So maybe it was more than one question but I would dearly like to know

23/12/2022

“Penny must not succumb to the heat” I’ve been gone for 34 minutes what kind of sunscreen does she use

Unforsaken, 9a

(All sections on tumblr)

(AO3, lagging behind but more polished)

They make it up to the Carrock well before the High Pass clears. Elrohir estimates they probably have as much as a month.

This is good, because it gives everyone a chance to rest — particularly the oxen, who are very happy not to be rotating on and off barges.

This is not so good, because Grimbeorn instantly takes a dislike to the Hirnedhrim.

Elrohir probably should have foreseen this, but did not. (They're just so much better than they were, sometimes it's hard to keep in mind that they still feel off to those with the senses to perceive it.)

Very annoyingly, Grimbeorn is not willing to take Elrohir's word for it that nothing is amiss. He also tries to treat Elrohir as a foolish young man when Elrohir literally met him as a toddler.

Legolas also tries to talk him around, with equally little success.

Grimbeorn actually moderately offends Gimli by not accepting "I am an honorable dwarf and would not be associating with them if they were evil" as an explanation.

Fortunately, Grimbeorn is willing to take Celeborn's word icy stare for 'not your business, back off'. Still, it makes things very awkward.

(Risyind also wants to try to convince him, but everyone is pretty sure that would just make things more awkward, so Khitwê persuades her not to.)

&&&&

The group in Imladris are informed the High Pass is open by Arwen, who has apparently been checking every day with the Orthanc-stone.

(They probably should have sent the Anor-stone south with Elrohir, but they didn't. Communication with the other group has been limited to one-way palantír-viewing and however much connection the twins can manage over the distance.)

(The one-way viewing at least spared the Anduin party a certain amount of, as it were, backseat bargemastering.)

There's one last frantic round of double-checking packing, and then loading bags onto horses, and then they're off. —They're bringing the majority of the possibly-for-dragons weapons, and a large volume of rations (including most of the remainder of Imladris's reserve of lembas). They're also bringing riding horses for everyone who isn't an orc, so they've decided to have the horses carry the baggage that far rather than try to take a wagon over the pass to join the wagons that are already there.

…The horses are possibly slightly affronted by the cargo-carrying — Asfaloth is giving Glorfindel the stink-eye — and definitely still suspicious of the orcs, though they've learned to grudgingly tolerate them.

To avoid any trouble with the Beornings, the orcs divert to go through what used to be Goblin-town.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Elladan says. "Or, I mean — not that I doubt you can deal with whoever might be in there, just—"

"We came through on the way west," Turgon says. "There's no one there."

(It didn't look like there'd been many people there for a long time. Some of it was the Beornings making the pass a much less vulnerable target, doubtless, but Turgon wonders if orcs didn't get steered away, so they didn't get reminded that such a thing was possible.)

(Glorfindel agrees to split up without arguing, possibly because he's got a good enough grip on the Anor-stone by now he should be able to check up on them if necessary.)

The crossing is uneventful.

(…Topside. The orcs get attacked by bats. And not evil bats — quite the contrary, they were probably agitated by the orcs'… orc-ness. They agree not to speak of it.)

(If Glorfindel saw, he doesn't say anything, either.)

They rendezvous with the Wizard's Clay party at the Carrock.

It takes a bit to sort out getting the cargo distributed among the barges, and getting the oxen all rounded up again, and getting the barges past the Carrock — the channel is wide enough, but only just. The river isn't going to be navigable all the way to the Grey Mountains, but they can stay on it a while longer at least.

(Elladan and Elrohir are very relieved that Maglor and Celeborn seem to have gotten better at ignoring each other. Possibly they don't want to risk looking immature in front of Gimli?)

Grimbeorn trades out disliking the Hirnedhrim for being profoundly unnerved by Maglor.

After a few days, they set out.

‘Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.’ —Tolkien, Letter 64

Adrift in the wake of the War, Truva is tasked with discovering the whereabouts of the Blue Wizards — and the origin of her own identity in the process. But answers are not so easily gained, nor is peace so easily maintained.

Sequel to The Lady of the Rohirrim.

Read The Marshal of the Mark: AO3 | FFN

Rating: T+ Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Word Count: 270k Chapters: 41

Category: M/F Relationship: Aragorn/OFC Genre: Action/adventure, mild romance Additional characters: Gimli, Legolas, Éomer, Pallando, Alatar, Radagast, Galadriel, Grimbeorn the Old, Thranduil, Thorin III Stonehelm, Bard II of Dale, Éowyn, Faramir, original Rohirrim, Haradrim, Dwarf, and Orc characters Tags: Post-Canon, Secret Relationship, Friendship, Worldbuilding, Rhûn, Umbar, Harad, Erebor, Iron Hills, Lothlórien, Pelargir, Dol Amroth, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Geopolitics

‘I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations…’

From Feather Unpacks the Hobbit (ep 6):

"Which brings us to Beorn, and their time with Beorn. 

Beorn is a problem. Beorn is one of those things that sticks in the easy understanding that the texts do lay out to us in a way not dissimilar to Tom Bombadil, where it's not immediately or transparently explained how he fits into the world as we understand it - especially as The Silmarillion explains it to us. 

Beorn is described by Gandalf (or at least by Narrator Bilbo speaking through Gandalf) thusly: 

He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug or the other dragons came into this part of the world, and before the goblins came into the hills out of the North. I cannot say, though I fancy the last is the true tale. He is not the sort of person to ask questions of.

At any rate he is under no enchantment but his own. He lives in an oak-wood and has a great wooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly as marvellous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on cream and honey. As a bear he ranges far and wide. I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sinking towards the Misty Mountains, and I heard him growl in the tongue of bears: "The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!" That is why I believe he once came from the mountains himself.

Now there are a few other things we know about Beorn, and one specifically is that is he mortal (or at least that other people thought that he died at some point): his son is the lord of the Beornings by the War of the Ring, and there are reputed to be at least several other skin-changers in the lot of them, so presumably at some point Beorn sired children, and he's not around by the War of the Ring. 

[...]

One possibility is that Beorn himself is one of these Maiar. It would explain his ability to change his shape; it would also explain why he brooded resentfully over the idea of having lost the Misty Mountains to the orcs, and so on. However, given that Grimbeorn his son is explicitly and continually identified as his son, this would require either that this be untrue (and that stories of the Beorning skin-changers also be untrue) and Grimbeorn be somehow adoptive, or it would require that a Maia sired a child with an Atani [human] woman in the midst of the Third Age, which feels a bit off. He'd also have to be both willing to muck around as much as he did, and where he was living, and yet not have attracted Sauron's hostile attention, which seems unlikely. If this were the case, presumably either he did fall afoul of Sauron at some point, or he went off whenever his son got old enough. 

That one also feels a bit off because I feel like it would be hard for even huge numbers of orcs to run a Maia who still has access to a bear-shape off his patch. But it's a possibility. 

However, the more suggestive and compelling possibility to me is that despite the Eldarin claims, Melian was not in fact the only Maia ever to fall for, or procreate with, one of the Children [elves and humans]. 

That she was by far the most powerful, definitely, and I suspect that the occasion for any other would have to be just about as remarkable and spectacular. But I don't think it's beyond possibility that once upon a time, a Maia of Yavanna or Oromë living somewhere in the mountains - very possibly as a bear, but maybe mostly as something else - encountered an Atane at least close to being as special as Beren was, or equivalent to Elu Thingol but mortal, and had a child with him, and that as a result much like the lineage of Elros keeps throwing up these astonishing healers and people who can have a power-level wrestling match with Sauron via palantír and win, there's this other lineage that keeps throwing up Atani who can change their skin - and, as it happens, talk to animals. 

Given that Oromë was a hunter, Beorn's specific avoidance of eating meat and his tendency towards cultivation with his home suggests to me that his lineage comes from Yavanna, which would also contribute to his inclination to like Radagast (who is himself one of Yavanna's Maiar). It would also help explain his a priori dislike of the Khazâd, as Khazâd due to Aulë's not telling his wife about them lack certain harmonics that would make them resonate with living things rather than things-of-craft, and that sets up a tension. 

On the other hand he has a lot of hounds, and Oromë and hounds are a very strong association. 

That's all speculation; we have no real answer. But it's a possibility that makes sense to me, and sometimes speculation is fun. "

"Anyway by mid-winter Gandalf and Bilbo had come all the way back, along both edges of the Forest, to the doors of Beorn's house; and there for a while they both stayed. Yule-tide was warm and merry there; and men came from far and wide to feast at Beorn’s bidding." (The Hobbit)

Thinking about Beorn hosting Yule at his house....

In The Hobbit (book), Gandalf and Bilbo actually stay with Beorn at his home all through Yule-tide, choosing to depart Beorn's home in the following spring. So, they wintered there, likely with other folk who were invited by Beorn. I imagine Beorn's home to be full of light from the Yule log, warmth, and a bounty of baked goods all prepared by Beorn himself. There, Beorn would make safe his home for all the creatures and the folk who stayed there as they descended into the darkest part of the year and celebrated the growing light that gradually returns to them after the solstice.

But I especially want to draw out the line that "men came from far and wide to feast at Beorn's bidding." I do see this as an opportunity for the Northmen to come together (other Beornings, the Eorlingas, and the Men of Dale).

With these populations of folk being so widely dispersed throughout the land that encompasses the North, Yule becomes the one time of year that they travel to be together again and to share in their customs and kinship. For many, many years, Beorn is the host of the Yule gathering, and I can see Bard, his children, and some of the People of Dale making the journey to spend Yule together. Also, some of the Eorlingas would come, too. The horses they rode in would also have refuge in the warmth of Beorn's home.

Beorn would pass before the War of the Ring, but Grimbeorn, his son, would take over as host for Yule. Éomer and his family would go to Grimbeorn's hosting of Yule, and there he would gather with Brand and his kinfolk or (post war of the ring) Bard II and his kinfolk.

lotro gang!

i'm on a bit of a parody writing kick for a crickhollow music event and i have 2 questions

do y'all have a favorite place for free midis and

which is funnier for a "Does Your Mother Know- ABBA" parody: "Does Grimbeorn Know" or "Does Lord Elrond Know" because they both fit the sequence and i'm 🤔

The Marshal of the Mark

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/8ofdW4e

by blueoncemoon

‘Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.’ —Tolkien, Letter 64

Adrift in the wake of the War, Truva is tasked with discovering the whereabouts of the Blue Wizards — and the origin of her own identity in the process. But answers are not so easily gained, nor is peace so easily maintained.

Sequel to The Lady of the Rohirrim.

Words: 6791, Chapters: 1/39, Language: English

Series: Part 4 of The Hidland Chronicles

Fandoms: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings (Movies)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: Aragorn | Estel, Original Female Character(s), Original Rohirrim Character(s), Original Haradrim Character(s), Original Easterling Character(s), Original Orc Character(s), Original Dwarf Character(s), Gimli (Son of Glóin), Legolas Greenleaf, Éomer Éadig, Pallando (Tolkien), Alatar (Tolkien), Blue Wizards, Radagast | Aiwendil, Galadriel | Artanis, Grimbeorn the Old, Thranduil, Thorin III Stonehelm, Bard II of Dale, Éowyn (Tolkien), Faramir (Son of Denethor II), Imrahil (Tolkien)

Relationships: Aragorn | Estel/Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Secret Relationship, mild romance, Slow Burn, Friendship, Worldbuilding, Pelargir, Umbar, Harad, Rhûn, Dol Amroth, Iron Hills, Erebor, Elvenking’s Halls, Lothlórien, Lake-town, Canonical Geopolitics, ‘I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations…’

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/8ofdW4e

You Make Loving You Sound Scary

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3fk768m

by thorinsacorn

Araleas Grimbeorn is the adopted son of Beorn Grimbeorn, who has the markings of the Valar, making him one of the most powerful beings in Middle Earth. Araleas often has visions of the future, and when he has a vision of the mighty Thorin Oakenshield, he is more than confused.

Thorin Oakenshield went his entire life feeling fine. Until one day when a great wind blowed through the lands from the North, he felt like Mahal had swung his giant hammer smack bang in the middle of his forehead. He knew that what created that wind was his One.

How will these two realise their bond? Will it be easy? Or will it be the long way round.

Words: 4884, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: The Hobbit - All Media Types

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Thorin Oakenshield, Thorin's Company, Bilbo Baggins, Fíli (Tolkien), Kíli (Tolkien), Original Male Character(s)

Relationships: Thorin Oakenshield/Reader, Dwalin/Nori (Tolkien), Fíli/Ori (Tolkien), Kíli (Tolkien)/Tauriel (Hobbit Movies)

Additional Tags: im so bad at storylines, this is for all my gay thorin lovers

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3fk768m

men of middle-earth ❅ northmen ❅ headcanon disclaimer

          Beorn was a Skin-changer, a Man who could assume the form of a bear. His people once dwelt in the Misty Mountains, and their legends tell of great spirits who would sometimes dwell alongside them and even take one of them as a mate from time to time. Thus a strain of Maiarin Song came to be among certain branches of these mortal Men, granting those families so blessed longer lives and certain magical abilities.           But when orcs came to the Mountains, they were not numerous enough to fight the monsters off. The orcs slaughtered these Men until only a small number of them remained, enslaved or driven away. Beorn’s ancestors were among the survivors, who fled to the eaves of Mirkwood and scraped out a living for generations. They dwindled further, mingling with other groups of Northmen and Woodmen, until only Beorn’s mother remained of the old people, carrying with her the memories and legends of the Mountains.           When his mother died at the hands of orcs, Beorn discovered he possessed the magical abilities of which she had sung to him as a child: he transformed into a great bear, destroying the goblins, and remained in his bestial form for a full year before he could return to his Mannish body. Grieving and overwhelmed, Beorn retreated ever further from the Woodmen, establishing his own Hall and cultivating his abilities. He treated outsiders with great suspicion, and killed any orcs he came across, and only accepted one visitor to his Halls: Radagast the Brown, an eccentric wizard who claimed to have known the ancestor-spirit who had given him his powers and helped him learn to control them. Often his mind was turned to the Mountains of his people’s origin, and he swore to himself that one day the orcs would be destroyed and he would return to the homeland he had never known.           From Radagast, the wizard Gandalf learned of Beorn, and in a time of need he gambled on Beorn’s hospitality. Fleeing the Great Goblin’s soldiers, Gandalf led the Company of Thorin Oakenshield to Beorn’s Hall, relying on Beorn’s hatred of orcs outweighing his dislike of dwarves. Beorn was not pleased to welcome so many raucous houseguests into his home, but he was deeply troubled by news of the orcs gathering for war, and agreed to aid the Quest for Erebor.           After the Company departed into Mirkwood, Beorn left his Halls in bear-form and scouted out the goblin armies. Angered by their might, he rushed to Erebor as fast as he could and arrived just in time to fight in the Battle of the Five Armies, rescuing Thorin Oakenshield’s injured body and killing the orc-general Bolg. The Battle was won, and the goblins decimated, and seeing at last the value of cooperation Beorn allied himself with the Free-peoples of the North.           Beorn accompanied Gandalf, Bilbo, and the Elvenking Thranduil on their journey back to the west, and he hosted them in his Hall for Yule, along with some Woodmen, his distant kindred, to whom he opened his doors for the first time. This began a lasting friendship between the Skin-changer and the Woodmen, and in the years to come Beorn became a great chief among the Woodmen, taking one of their people as his spouse.           This was Medwed, a mighty warrior and hunter whom he taught the language of beasts. Once they also could communicate with animals, Medwed forsook the eating with meat and adopted their husband’s diet of honey and cream, tending to his beasts and cultivating his hives of giant bees. Medwed bore Beorn one child, Grimbeorn.           When Medwed passed away, Beorn bid farewell to his people and his son, leaving Grimbeorn to succeed him as chief, and at last heeded the call of his heart, returning to the Misty Mountains to seek out the song-spirits who had granted him his magic. It is said by his descendants the Beornings that he still dwells in the Mountains, walking in the shape of a bear and singing with the spirits of old.

“...and I shall go back!”

(2)

Country bumpkin Olkvi meets with her dad in the dead of night during a snowstorm in the Misty Mountains to have him tell her it’s important that she grow up big and strong, because the world depends on her. Sorry, Dad. I don’t think she’s going to be getting much bigger at this point. Even her bear form is fairly small. But she’ll do whatever it takes when she’s not stuck in the crafting halls. Meanwhile big brother is going back to his sheep and bees. Sigh. We all knew saving the world was women’s work.

So uh, people who play Beornings more than I do, does LotRO have a canon explanation for what happens to a Beorning's clothes during transformation?

Week 9: Tolkien Grimbeorn by @bobgar_ornelas #ArtistsBlock #Blockheads #BuyOrnelasArt #art #comicbooks #comics #illustration #ink #artist #drawing #artistsoninstagram #artistsontwitter #Grimbeorn #tolkien #LOTR #Beorn https://www.instagram.com/p/BuhghY8himI/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vr27bzfenjd9

Dear Grimbeorn (1/?)

(For my Lord of the Rings online leveling group. What the leader of the kin thinks on all this. Inspired by @pazithigallifreya‘s own diary entries for her character)  Nearly 5:00 in the afternoon now. The air is humid. A red haze seems to blanket this cursed environment. I am sitting in the shade of these forlorn ruins taken by the Eglain that border the swamps of Agamaur. My companions mill about nearby, but I can only see the dwarf on alert at the northern gateway. Her gaze is fixed to the trees beyond. 

My company and I tarry yet in the Lone Lands. They seem to have accepted the other side of me. The fear I used to see in their eyes when the bear comes out has turned to wonder, which has now seemed to turn into acceptance. Should they see me when the bear goes unchecked...Nevermind. Father, Mother. I have told you that I’ve acquired companions on my errand, though I’ve neglected to tell you of them.

There are the elves. Two of them claim to be over seven thousand (more or less) years. They lead the charge most of the time and are especially hardy. The male one is very fond of his cups. The third is much younger, and I wonder if he was dropped on his head from the flet houses he was surely born in. He has much to learn if he wishes to keep what remains of his head. There’s also a woman from Mirkwood, whom I think i’ve seen once, but my memory grows cloudy. She is loyal and has a good head on her shoulders. Her animal companions are a great boon. A hobbit there is also, and a dwarrowdam from Mordor. Claims she was a slave in the pits of the Dark Tower itself. I find the story almost too fantastic. But there is a look in her eyes that makes me almost believe. She is a good archer. And provides a good chunk of the meat we cook. 

I have grown...fond of them. We are not merely colleges now, but brothers and sisters in arms. Speaking of sisters, Langhar caught up to me. We dealt with the traitor that marked a stain on our kind, but the deed still leaves me saddened. Sister was wounded, but she will recover. 

We go now into the swamps into what may be the biggest challenge we’ve encountered so far. The corruption is unlike any I've seen, and spills out beyond the valley it originates from. My companions say they’re with me. And I trust them with my life.

I only hope I’m not leading them to their deaths.