[Nerwen]

Beorn is definitely a Man. There is a direct word-of-author statement to this effect, in The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien: "Though a skin-changer and no doubt a bit of a magician, Beorn was a Man". Enigmatic he may be in other ways, but his species isn't.

And denethorthefirst, in your last post you state flatly that it is impossible for a Child of Ilúvatar to alter its hröa, then in the very next paragraph you admit that Felagund "obviously" could, at least according to The Lay of Leithian, but then you say that doesn't count because it's in "non-fundamental ways". Don't you think your reasoning here is a bit all over the place? I mean, either the thing is a absolute, categorical impossibility or it isn't. I don't think there's a middle ground on that one.