Beorn

The ancient English word beorn means "bear", but in Anglo-Saxon poetry it was often used as a synonym for the words "man", "warrior" or "leader". Its equivalent is the Old Norse word bjorn ("bear") ^{[2] [3] [4]} . As the translators M. Kamenkovich and V. Carrick note in the comments to The Hobbit, “Tolkien creates a hero who is both a bear and a man. In essence, Beorn is an old word that has acquired fabulous flesh and blood. This technique is very characteristic of the linguistically oriented work of Tolkien ” ^[5] . The name "Beorn" names various historical and legendary figures of the Anglo-Saxon period . The most famous of them is Björn (Beorn) Iron-faced , who headed with his brothers the invasion of the Great Pagan Army in England in 865 ^[3] . In the " Book of Lost Tales ", a collection of Tolkien's early works, this name is given to the uncle of the navigator Eriola ^[6] .

According to the description given in The Hobbit, Beorn is a very tall, muscular man with black hair and a thick black beard. Dressed in a woolen tunic that reaches the knees. In animal form, he is like a huge black bear. Beorn is very quick-tempered, has few friends and is ruthless to his enemies, in particular to goblins. He does not eat meat, but feeds mainly on honey and cream. Beorn is the only owner of the secret of preparing special honey pies that can be stored for a long time and are very nutritious ^[7] .

Beorn lives alone, in the upper valleys of the Anduin between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood . His estate is located in an oak grove. It is surrounded by flower-planted fields that are used as bee lands. The fence is a thorn hedge, which is probably a reference to English and Irish folklore , where the blackthorn symbolizes the supernatural nature of the area and its inhabitants ^[8] . In the courtyard there are several log buildings (barns, stables and sheds) and a long low wooden house. In the possessions of Beorn live and serve intelligent animals whose language he understands. To the west of his home, on the Anduin River, is Carrock Rock, in which Beorn knocked out the steps. One night, Gandalf saw him on top of this rock. Beorn looked towards the Hazy Mountains and said in a bearish language: “The day will come, they will all disappear, and then I will go back” ^{[9] [10]} .

According to Gandalf, Beorn's origin is not exactly known. According to one version, he is a bear, a descendant of large bears that lived in the mountains before the advent of the giants. According to another version, which Gandalf considered more believable, Beorn is a man, and his ancestors lived in the surrounding lands even before dragons and goblins arrived there ^[11] .

July 20, 2941 of the Third Age, Bilbo Baggins, along with the Dwarves and Gandalf the Gray, having left the chase of goblins and wargs , found refuge with Beorn. Hearing Gandalf's story about the squad's adventures in the Misty Mountains and the surrounding area, Beorn personally verified his truth by catching the goblin and warg and interrogating them. After two nights in his house, Thorin and his companions continued their journey. Beorn provided them with provisions, presented with bows and lent his ponies to the dwarves and the hobbit to carry luggage (subject to release them after coming to the borders of Mirkwood), and Gandalf - the horse on which he left for the White Council . After this, Beorn secretly accompanied travelers to the edge of the forest, providing them with protection ^{[12] [13]} .

Following the death of the dragon, Smaug Beorn took part in the Battle of the Five Armies at Erebor , where, speaking on the side of people, elves and gnomes, he dealt a sudden blow to the personal guard of the goblin army commander Bolg , the son of Azog :

And then, when despair already seized the defenders of the Mountain, Beorn himself appeared - no one knew where he came from. He came alone, in the guise of a bear, so fierce that it seemed more enormous than usual. His roar was louder than the rumble of drums and guns, he scattered wolves and goblins to the right and left, like feathers. He attacked them from the rear and broke through their barrier. The Dwarves were still fighting on a round, low hill. There Beorn stopped, picked up Thorin, pierced by enemy spears, and carried him out of the battle.

Then he quickly returned and with redoubled fury attacked the enemies; no one could resist him, no weapon took him. He swept the guard of Bolg, knocked him down and trampled him. Horror gripped the goblins, and they rushed in all directions.

- Tolkien J.R. R. Chapter 18. The way back // The Hobbit, or There and back / Transl. from English N. Rakhmanova - S. 241

Beorn accompanied Bilbo and Gandalf on the way back to his home, where they stayed until spring. For the Yule holiday , Beorn invited many guests. After the Battle of the Five Armies, he became the ruler of a vast area in the Anduin valleys between the Hazy Mountains and Mirkwood. His descendants, the Beornings, for a long time retained the ability to turn into a bear ^[14] . By the time of the War of the Ring, the Beornings were ruled by his son Grimbeorn Old . Despite the fact that the fees for passing through their land, according to the gnome Gloin , were high, the descendants of Beorn still kept the traditions of their hospitable ancestor and the trading routes in their possessions were completely safe - neither the orcs nor the wolves dared to invade ^{[ 15]} . After the fall of Sauron, the Beornings and foresters took possession of the central part of Mirkwood, located between the kingdom of Thranduil in the north and the state of Celeborn in the south ^[16] .

In the drafts of the story, Beorn’s character was called the Russian word “Bear” ( Medwed ). Initially, one of the chapters of The Hobbit, later renamed The Unprecedented Refuge, had the same name. According to Douglas Anderson, Tolkien learned this word from the work of his friend Raymond Chambers in , professor of English at University College London . In a study of stories about the sons of bears and their relationship with Beowulf , Chambers briefly outlined the plot of a Russian tale of Ivashko-Medvedko, a half-man half-bear. In the outline of The Hobbit, the name Medvedko was Englishized and took the form of Medwed ^{[17] [18] [19]} . However, in the notes written after compiling the chapter “The Bear”, Tolkien noted the need to change the name and did this while working on the penultimate chapter, when describing the character’s participation in the Battle of the Five Armies ^{[20] [21]} .

The mention of the Grimbeorn and the Bearings in the drafts of The Lord of the Rings first appears when writing the chapter Galadriel (The Mirror of Galadriel in a published novel). In an early version of the narrative, Celeborn invites the members of the Fellowship of the Ring to stop participating in the campaign if they believe that their actions were enough; he promises to help Gimli get to the country of the Bearings. Subsequently, when it became apparent that no one from the Brotherhood could disappear from the plot at this stage, Tolkien transferred the information about the beorning to the conversation of Frodo and Gloin in Rivendell ^[22] .

The character depicts the use of the motives of Scandinavian mythology in the Tolkien novel. Thomas Shippy notes the similarities between Beorn and Bedvar Bjarki ( dr. Scand. Bǫthvarr Bjarki - “warlike teddy bear”), the hero of the Scandinavian “ Saga of Zhololva Zherdinka ", Who had the ability to call on the battlefield a huge bear, while being in a kind of trance ^{[23] [24]} . Douglas Anderson compares Beorn with Bedwar’s father, Bjorn ( dr. Scand. Bjorn ), who, due to a curse in the daytime, became a bear, and at night regained his human appearance ^[25] . The author of The Hobbit Story John Reitliff also notes the influence of the brothers of the hero of the saga, Frody and Thorir: like Frody, Beorn has extraordinary power and is a hermit, and later, like Thorir, becomes the ruler of the people ^[26] .

Beorn's appearance in the Battle of the Five Armies resembles the behavior of the Berserkers - warriors who in the battle were distinguished by fury and great strength ^[27] . Another common feature of Beorn and berserkers is the ability to change shape. In the book, Gandalf characterizes him as being able to “change the skin” ( English skin-changer ), turning into a bear. In Scandinavian mythology, this ability was attributed to berserkers, and the word berserkr itself , according to one version, is translated as “bear skin” ^[28] .

Researchers also compare Beorn with Beowulf from the eponymous Old English poem, whose name translates as "bee wolf", that is, "bear". Beorn’s resemblance to him is manifested in physical strength - Beowulf “breaks down swords with clumsy strength and clumsiness, tears off his hands, crushes ribs” ^{[23] [29]} . He kills the standard bearer of the Franks , crushing him in his arms, which resembles a "bear’s grip" ^[30] . Both characters prefer to fight without weapons ^[31] . Like Beowulf, who showed the hand of the monster Grendel killed by him in the palace of Heorot, Beorn put near his house the head of a goblin and the skin of a warg, whom he captured and killed after interrogation ^[29] .

In The Road to Middle-earth, Thomas Shippy describes Beorn as a “rude and insensitive” character ^[32] , and later explains:

Tolkien over a rather long stretch of the narrative ... using many examples, explores and paints that rude, uncouth, intolerant, but also independent manner that is so characteristic of the Old Norse heroes ... Beorn demonstrates this behavior most clearly.

- Shippy, T. A. The Ring as an “Equalizer” // Road to Sredzemlye / Per. from English M. Kamenkovich

Beorn's house is modeled on the German honey hall , one example of which is Heorot - King Hrodgar's palace in the poem Beowulf : an oblong hall with a hearth located in the central part, separated by wooden pillars ^{[33] [34]} . This resemblance is noticeable in the Beorne Hall illustration drawn by Tolkien for the first edition of The Hobbit. An early version of this drawing is based in part on a depiction of a medieval Norwegian hall published in the book of E.V. Gordon " Introduction to the Old Norwegian language "(1927) ^[35] .

According to Marjorie Burns, the character of Beorn combines sometimes the opposite characteristics of a warlike Viking and a peaceful Englishman. Being a fierce warrior, brutally cracking down on enemies, he does not hunt, does not eat meat and keeps his lands in order. Flower fields and a garden near his estate resemble the landscapes of the English countryside and the Shire . Beorn combines various extremes, being simultaneously “ruthless and kind, a bear and a man, a homebody and a wanderer, a berserker and a pacifist” ^[36] . Burns compares Beorn with Bertilac de Haut-Desert, the lord of the mid- 14th-century English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , which Tolkien translated into modern English: both characters have an impressive physique, live in an oak forest located in the wild, far from civilization , and can change appearance ^[37] .

John Reitliff notes that bears also play an important role in other stories composed by Tolkien for children: for example, the Karhu bear and his nephews Paksu and Valkotukka in “ Letters of the Christmas Grandfather ” or three bears in “ Mr. Bliss ” ^[38] . The episode in "Letters of the Christmas Grandfather", where Karhu fights with goblins, recalls Beorn's participation in the Battle of the Five Armies ^[39] . The idea of ​​animal servants who can talk to humans can come from a series of works by Hugh Lofting about Dr. Doolittle ^[40] .

Some scholars see Beorn as the predecessor of Tom Bombadil , a more developed character from the Lord of the Rings novel. Both heroes possess power and mysterious abilities, the origin of which is not explained by the author, and are closely related to nature. They live near a dangerous forest and help the heroes by providing them with shelter in their home and helping out at a critical moment (thanks to Beorn, humans, elves and gnomes win the battle, and Bombadil saves the hobbits in the Graves ) ^[4] .

Beorn is illustrated by Ted Nesmith ^{[41] [42]} , John Howe ^[43] , Mikhail Belomlinsky ^[44] , Greg and Tim Hildebrandtov ^[45] , Anke Eismann ^[46] and Jeff Murray ^[47] . In the 1968 Hobbit radio show, Beorn was voiced by Denis Hawthorne ^[48] . In the 1977 film “ The Hobbit ” and the television play “The Fairytale Journey of Mr. Bilbo Beggins, The Hobbit, ” the character is missing ^{[49] [50]} .

In the films “ The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ” and “ The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ”, the role of Beorn was played by Swedish actor Michael Persbrandt ^[51] . According to the concept of the filmmakers, the character’s appearance was implemented in such a way that in the human appearance he had some “bestial” features. The hair was made to resemble a horse’s mane, the nose was modified to look like a bear’s, and two “animal” fangs were added to the teeth. The height of the character in the film is 8 feet (2.4 meters ). Director Peter Jackson did not want Beorn's appearance in animal form to fully match the real bear. In this regard, the designers created the concept of a bear with a modified anatomical structure and an atypical way of movement. A hump appeared on his back, which made him resemble a wild boar. Initially, it was assumed that the bear would have blue eyes, like that of an actor, but in this way he did not look intimidating enough. As a result, it was decided that the character in both a human and a bear form will have dark brown eyes. Given that Beorn comes from the northern lands, his speeches gave a Swedish accent ^{[30] [52]} .

Beorn’s house is described in some detail in Tolkien’s work, but in this form he repeats the architecture of Meduseld - King Rohan’s palace in the movie The Lord of the Rings . According to Peter Jackson, in “The Hobbit ” it was necessary to create something else, while partially preserving the author’s description. In the film, the house has a simpler architecture, more based on a village estate. The roof of the building is covered with turf like Viking houses . Following the example of the Devonian long house part of the room is intended for animals. Various wood motifs from Scandinavian mythology (the Yggdrasil tree, the crows Hugin and Munin , the snake Nidhogg ), the image of a green man from medieval art, and traditional Maori ornaments were used to decorate wood carvings in the interior of the house. When creating the design of Beorn's chair, the Viking thrones were taken as a basis ^[52] .

According to Matthew Razak, a columnist for Flixist.com, in the film, Beorn’s character “seems particularly wasted, and Perbrandt does not give him the significance that he deserves” ^[53] . Reviewer Patrick Nash expressed the view that the scene with his participation lacks the sense of mystery that was in the book and “made it so interesting when reading” ^[54] . NJ.com critic Stephen Whitty praised the character for his impressive appearance ^[55] , and Jonathan R. Luck praised Michael Perbrandt’s acting ^[56] . Valeria Zharova from the newspaper " Interlocutor " criticized the special effects in the film, affecting, in particular, the bearish appearance of Beorn ^[57] . Boris Ivanov, a columnist for the Film.ru site, criticized the director’s decision to devote just a few seconds of screen time to Beorn, calling it “character betrayal” ^[58] .

Comments

Sources

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• An article about Beorn in the Tolkien.su encyclopedia (neopr.) . Date of treatment January 5, 2017.