Beornings were sturdy[1] Northmen[2] that lived east of Rivendell between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood[3] in the upper Vales of Anduin[2] on both sides of the river.[4]
History[]
The Beornings were Northmen, and as such, were descendants of the Edain or their close kin.[2] Specifically, they were closely related to the Men of Éothéod,[2][5] who were most nearly akin to the House of Hador.[6]
In the late Third Age,[7] after the Battle of Five Armies and the decimation of the Northern Orcs, many Northmen gathered around Beorn who became a great chief in the upper Vales of Anduin. It is possible that they were named Beornings because they were the descendants of the people whose chief was Beorn.[1][8]

Beornings as seen in the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game, depicted by Angelo Montanini
The Beornings kept open the passages of the Ford of Carrock and the High Pass in return for tolls which, according to Glóin, were too high. They likely kept the paths clear of creatures such as Orcs and Wolves.[3][9]
In the years leading up to the War of the Ring, the Beornings helped Aragorn, who was taking Gollum to Mirkwood, to cross the Anduin near the Carrock.[10] They also aided Glóin and Gimli on their journey to Rivendell.[11]
During the War of the Ring, Grimbeorn, son of Beorn, was the leader of the Beornings.[3] It is possible that Sauron's forces had attacked them on February 26[12] in the year 3019 because Frodo Baggins saw many things from afar, including the land of the Beornings aflame, when he wore the One Ring on the Seat of Seeing upon Amon Hen.[13] This hints at an attack by Sauron's forces upon the Beornings, though the outcome of this attack is untold.
After the War of the Ring, the Beornings and the Woodmen were given the central Eryn Lasgalen between the Mountains of Mirkwood and the Narrows of the Forest by Thranduil and Celeborn.[12]
Characteristics[]
The language of the Beornings was related to Adûnaic and its descendant, Westron.[2][14] They also spoke Westron as a second language of intercourse.[15][16]
Through many generations, the descendants of Beorn were skin-changers like him, being able to change into the shape of a bear and could speak in both the tongue of Men and of bears.[17] However the origin of this ability is unknown. Beorn "[was] under no enchantment but his own" according to Gandalf.[17] Some of Beorn's descendants were grim and even "bad" though most had personalities like Beorn; none of them matched Beorn in size and strength.[8] It is untold if all Beornings came from the line of Beorn, and thus, were Skin-changers.

Beorn in the form of a giant Black Bear in the Battle of Five Armies
The Beornings seemed to have shared a dislike for Dwarves,[3] perhaps related to the latter's praise of metals and the former's disinterest in it. The Beornings possessed very fine and beautiful animals, and Bilbo says in The Hobbit that Beorn's bees were so big that if they were to sting him, he would swell up like a balloon. They seemed to have the same life-span of mortal Men. It was believed in legend that the Beornings might have originated in the Misty Mountains. They were bitter enemies of the Northern Orcs.[17]
The Beornings hunted neither bird nor beast and their diet consisted mostly of cream and honey.[17] Gimli regarded the Beornings as the best bakers he knew due to their honey-cakes, which was similar to cram[18] in that it was nourishing and made to travel but was tastier. However, the Beornings were reluctant to share them with travelers around the time of the War of the Ring.[19]
Etymology[]
Beorning is an Old English word made up of beorn and -ing.
Beorn originally meant "bear" and in a heroic sense "man".[20] It also means "warrior", "hero", "man of valour" (or poetic "man"). A cognate of beorn in Old Norse is björn, which meant "bear";[21][22][23] In the Scandinavian-speaking countries Björn/Bjørn is a personal name, attested since the 11th century. The English word bear is from the equivalent Germanic word berô.
-ing, or -ingas, is a suffix used in the legendarium to denote such people. Often used for people belonged to a certain leader, descendants of a common fore-father, or a certain land. -ing comes from -ung (derived from Proto-Germanic *unga): Forming derivatives of masculine nouns with sense of "belonging to, son of".[24][25]
In adaptations[]
In video games[]
In The Hobbit Software Adventure[]
Beornings appear in the 1982 video game The Hobbit Software Adventure, in which they help kill the Goblin king after the player frees him from an enchanted, purple shell.
In The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring[]
Beornings appear in the video game The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, in which they can turn into a bear at will, and, when in human form, can heal other units. The most common weapon wielded by the Beornings are yew bows.
In The Lord of the Rings Online[]
In the video game, The Lord of the Rings Online, ancestors of the Beornings were taught the art of skin-changing as a gift by Radagast the Brown, "master of shapes and hues". Evil men jealous of this gift captured a skin-changer and tortured him until he gave the secret away. Hearing of this, Radagast grieved and changed the gift so it could no longer be taught, only passed down to progeny. But the two new Skin-changer tribes - "Gauredain", men of the wolf, and "Ungoledain", men of the spider, - persisted and remained the most bitter enemies of the Beornings, even moreso than the goblins.
In the present day of the game, the Beornings live in and around the Vales of Anduin. Outside Beorninghús they have two notable settlements: Limlók, a village to the north, and Vegbár, a toll-collecting station on the road to the Misty Mountains. Other Beornings live in the wild in small groups or by themselves, as far north as the Grey Mountains, but even those who have little to no contact with their kin to the south still acknowledge Grimbeorn as their chieftain. All Beornings have a special love for honey-cakes, dedicating a large amount of attention and effort to their baking.
In Update 15, "Gondor Aflame", in November of 2014, the Beornings were made playable, uniquely combining the race and the class. They can transform into the shape of the bear at will and perform skills in both man- and bear-form. The player's character is the youngest child of Grimbeorn who is sent by their sire to deliver a message to Strider from Radagast and takes on the adventuring life. Other Beornings also travel away from their home on various errands, ranging from the Lone-lands in the west to the Elvenking's Halls in the east and as far south as the river Limlight.
In The One Ring roleplaying game[]
In The One Ring role-playing game in 2011, Beornings are one of the playable cultures. The game describes them as rough Men, sometimes outlaws, gathered under the banner of Beorn. One of their cultural Virtues is the ability to take control of a "spirit animal" whilst sleeping, a talent taught to some Beornings by Beorn himself.[26]
In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug[]
In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2013, Beorn tells Thorin and Company that in the past Azog hunted him and his people for sport and that, as a result, few of his kind are left. It is one of his prime motivations to help them in the Quest of Erebor.
Translations[]
Foreign Language | Translated name |
Amharic | በኦርኒንግ |
Arabic | بيورنينع ? |
Armenian | Բեորնինգ |
Belarusian Cyrillic | Беорнінг |
Bengali | বেওর্নিঙ |
Bulgarian Cyrillic | Беорнинг |
Catalan | Beornencs |
Finnish | Nahanvaihtaja |
French | Béornides |
Georgian | ბეორნინგ |
German | Beorninger |
Greek | Βεορνινγ |
Gujarati | બેઓર્નિઙ |
Hebrew | בני ביאורן |
Hindi | बेओर्निङ |
Italian | Beorniani |
Kazakh | Беорнінг (Cyrillic) Beorning (Latin) |
Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Бэорнинг |
Macedonian Cyrillic | Беорнинг |
Mongolian Cyrillic | Беорнинг |
Nepalese | बेओर्निङ |
Pashto | بېورنینګ |
Persian | بهورنینگ ? |
Polish | Beorningowie |
Russian | Беорнинги |
Sanskrit | बेओर्निङ् |
Serbian | Беорнинг (Cyrillic) Beorning (Latin) |
Sinhalese | බෙඔර්නිඞ් |
Spanish | Beórnidas |
Tajik Cyrillic | Беорнинг |
Tamil | பெயர்னிங் |
Telugu | బెఒర్నిఙ |
Ukrainian Cyrillic | Беорнінґ |
Urdu | بےورنینگ |
Yiddish | בעאָרנינג |
Races of Arda
Ainur (Valar & Maiar) | Dwarves | Elves | Ents | Great Eagles | Hobbits | Huorns | Men | Petty-dwarves | Skin-changers (Beornings) Servants of the Shadow:
Barrow-wights | Ettens | Dragons (Fire-drakes & Cold-drakes) | Ogres | Orcs (Uruk-hai) | Spiders | Trolls | Úmaiar (Balrogs) | Úvanimor | Vampires | Wargs | Werewolves |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, ch. II: "Many Meetings", pg. 229
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", "Of Men"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, ch. II: "Many Meetings", pg. 228
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, "Unfinished index for The Lord of the Rings", pg. 351 (entry "land of the Beornings")
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers, Book Three, ch. V: "The Riders of Rohan", pg. 369
- ↑ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Part Three: The Third Age, II: "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", Notes, note 4
- ↑ The Atlas of Middle-earth, Regional Maps, "Wilderland"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Hobbit, ch. 18: "The Return Journey"
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. VII: The Treason of Isengard, XIII: "Galadriel", pg. 248
- ↑ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Part Three: The Third Age, IV: "The Hunt for the Ring", "(ii) Other Versions of the Story", text B, second paragraph
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. VII: The Treason of Isengard, pg. 263-4 (note 15)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Great Years"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, ch. X: "The Breaking of the Fellowship", pg. 400
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth, II: "The Appendix on Languages", manuscript F2, pg. 34 (§14)
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", last paragraph
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth,, pg. 72
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 The Hobbit, ch. VII: "Queer Lodgings"
- ↑ Robert Foster, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, ch. VIII: "Farewell to Lórien", pg. 369
- ↑ Tom Shippey, Tolkien Estate, pg. 91
- ↑ The Annotated Hobbit: Revised and Expanded Edition, pgs. 164-5
- ↑ Peter Gilliver, Edmund Weiner and Jeremy Marshall, The Ring of Words, pgs. 95-6
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, pg. 207
- ↑ "-ing" at Online Etymology Dictionary
- ↑ "-ing" at Wiktionary
- ↑ Francesco Nepitello, The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild, pgs. 41-6