The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Hobbit2 - Chapter 07

jallanite · 06-30-2012, 10:10 PM

Beorn’s animal servants have always seemed very fitting to me, like something I have encountered in a genuine folktale. Yet I have not discovered any such folktale.

Of course, in the Odyssey, Book 10, on Circe’s island Eurylochos and his men, and later Odysseus alone, encounter outside of Circe’s palace lions and wolves that fawn on them as though the beasts were tamed. These are explained as men turned into the form of beasts by Circe.

But that is not very close.

John Rateliff in his The History of The Hobbit, Chapter VII, “Medwed”, strongly suggests that here Tolkien is borrowing from the tales of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting, a series of books owned by the Tolkiens and much enjoyed by the Tolkien children. In these books Doctor Dolittle is a naturalist who has learned the various languages of animals so that he can communicate with them. Some animals live with him and serve the function of servants and are also his friends.

This is a wonderful series of books, in my opinion. Unfortunately the version now being sold are censored versions, supposedly for racism, but that doesn’t account for a respectful mention of Charles Darwin being suppressed.

For the earliest books in the series (now in public domain and uncensored) see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/501 ,
http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/lofti...post-00-h.html ,
http://gutenberg.ca/ebooks-australia.../0607841h.html , and
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1154 .

Beorn is borrowed from the Icelandic Hrólfs saga Kraka (“Hrólf Kraki’s Saga”). See http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/Hrolf%20Kraki.htm , beginning at chapter 24 for the part dealing with Björn (= Beorn). Such adaptation as has occurred is very, very free, just the use of the name and the idea of a man turning into a bear. But this tale is well worth reading on its own.

One sees here that source criticism often does not reveal very much. I imagine that Tolkien invented a werebear mainly from his own imagination and named him Medwed. The well-known Icelandic story of Björn was only one of many things in the background. Later Tolkien decided that the Old English name Beorn was better, as it was considered to be equivalent to Old Norse Björn because of similarity of sound, although the Old English form Beorn means ‘man, prince, warrior’ and is cognate with baron while the Old Norse Bjǫrn or Björn means ‘bear’. To say that Tolkien’s character Beorn derives from the Icelandic character Bjǫrn over-simplifies to the point of being inaccurate.

I do not think that a skin-changer who can take on a bear’s shape at all unfitting for Tolkien’s later writing where he wrote of Tom Bombadil and Treebeard. Werewolves are mentioned in a number of places in The Silmarillion and a werebear is at least no more juvenile in conception.

That the story of Tolkien’s Beorn remains untold is one of the things that makes it interesting. In The Hobbit we have not fallen just into a single tale, but into a whole world and we are only being shown a small part of it.

06-30-2012, 10:10 PM	#3
jallanite Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Toronto Posts: 479	Beorn’s animal servants have always seemed very fitting to me, like something I have encountered in a genuine folktale. Yet I have not discovered any such folktale. Of course, in the Odyssey, Book 10, on Circe’s island Eurylochos and his men, and later Odysseus alone, encounter outside of Circe’s palace lions and wolves that fawn on them as though the beasts were tamed. These are explained as men turned into the form of beasts by Circe. But that is not very close. John Rateliff in his The History of The Hobbit, Chapter VII, “Medwed”, strongly suggests that here Tolkien is borrowing from the tales of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting, a series of books owned by the Tolkiens and much enjoyed by the Tolkien children. In these books Doctor Dolittle is a naturalist who has learned the various languages of animals so that he can communicate with them. Some animals live with him and serve the function of servants and are also his friends. This is a wonderful series of books, in my opinion. Unfortunately the version now being sold are censored versions, supposedly for racism, but that doesn’t account for a respectful mention of Charles Darwin being suppressed. For the earliest books in the series (now in public domain and uncensored) see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/501 , http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/lofti...post-00-h.html , http://gutenberg.ca/ebooks-australia.../0607841h.html , and http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1154 . Beorn is borrowed from the Icelandic Hrólfs saga Kraka (“Hrólf Kraki’s Saga”). See http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/Hrolf%20Kraki.htm , beginning at chapter 24 for the part dealing with Björn (= Beorn). Such adaptation as has occurred is very, very free, just the use of the name and the idea of a man turning into a bear. But this tale is well worth reading on its own. One sees here that source criticism often does not reveal very much. I imagine that Tolkien invented a werebear mainly from his own imagination and named him Medwed. The well-known Icelandic story of Björn was only one of many things in the background. Later Tolkien decided that the Old English name Beorn was better, as it was considered to be equivalent to Old Norse Björn because of similarity of sound, although the Old English form Beorn means ‘man, prince, warrior’ and is cognate with baron while the Old Norse Bjǫrn or Björn means ‘bear’. To say that Tolkien’s character Beorn derives from the Icelandic character Bjǫrn over-simplifies to the point of being inaccurate. I do not think that a skin-changer who can take on a bear’s shape at all unfitting for Tolkien’s later writing where he wrote of Tom Bombadil and Treebeard. Werewolves are mentioned in a number of places in The Silmarillion and a werebear is at least no more juvenile in conception. That the story of Tolkien’s Beorn remains untold is one of the things that makes it interesting. In The Hobbit we have not fallen just into a single tale, but into a whole world and we are only being shown a small part of it. Last edited by jallanite; 07-01-2012 at 12:39 PM.