Beorn and Thorin Company's Hospitality

Beorn, the skin-changer who shifts between the shape of a huge black bear and a great strong black-haired man, becomes an indispensable ally to Thorin and Company after their harrowing escape from the Misty Mountains. His hospitality, though initially reluctant and suspicious, provides the dwarves and Bilbo Baggins with food, rest, ponies, and vital supplies for the journey through Mirkwood, and his subsequent aid proves decisive in the Battle of Five Armies. The relationship between Beorn and the company transforms from wary confrontation to genuine friendship, marking a turning point in the quest.

Identity and Introduction

Beorn is introduced by Gandalf as "a very great person" who lives in an oak-wood with a great wooden house, keeping cattle and horses that are "nearly as marvellous as himself." He is a skin-changer: sometimes a huge black bear, sometimes a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. Gandalf explains that Beorn is under no enchantment but his own, and that as a man he keeps cattle and horses that work for him and talk to him, does not eat them, and lives mostly on cream and honey. As a bear, he ranges far and wide. The wizard once saw him sitting alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sink towards the Misty Mountains, growling in the tongue of bears: "The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!" This leads Gandalf to believe Beorn once came from the mountains himself.

The Encounter and Testing of the Company

When Gandalf and Bilbo first arrive at Beorn's house, Beorn is gruff and suspicious. He stands before them, a huge man with a thick black beard and hair, great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles, clothed in a tunic of wool down to his knees and leaning on a large axe. He has never heard of Gandalf, though he knows of the wizard's cousin Radagast. Gandalf cleverly introduces the dwarves in pairs, each time continuing his tale of their adventures with the goblins. The interruptions make Beorn more interested in the story, and he keeps him from sending the dwarves off at once like suspicious beggars. Beorn, who never invites people into his house if he can help it and never invites more than a couple at a time, ends up with fifteen strangers sitting in his porch. After hearing the full tale, Beorn declares it "a very good tale!" and says, "If all beggars could tell such a good one, they might find me kinder. You may be making it all up, of course, but you deserve a supper for the story all the same."

Hospitality and Provision

Beorn provides a remarkable feast. His hall is served by four beautiful white ponies and several large long-bodied grey dogs, who carry torches, set up tables, and bring bowls and platters. Snow-white sheep led by a large coal-black ram bear a white cloth embroidered with figures of animals and trays with bowls, platters, knives, and wooden spoons. The company enjoys a supper such as they had not had since leaving the Last Homely House. During the meal, Beorn tells tales of the wild lands and especially of the dark and dangerous forest of Mirkwood. After dinner, the dwarves tell tales of gold and silver and jewels, but Beorn does not appear to care for such things; there are no things of gold or silver in his hall, and few save the knives are made of metal at all. The next morning, Beorn is most jolly and sets them all laughing with his funny stories. He tells them he has been over the river and right back up into the mountains, where he caught a Warg and a goblin and learned that goblin patrols were still hunting for the dwarves. He now offers his help: he will provide ponies for each of them, a horse for Gandalf, and food to last them for weeks—nuts, flour, sealed jars of dried fruits, red earthenware pots of honey, and twice-baked cakes that keep good a long time. He also gives them skins for carrying water, bows and arrows, and crucial advice about Mirkwood: they must not stray from the path, and they must neither drink from nor bathe in a certain black stream that carries enchantment and great drowsiness and forgetfulness.

Guidance and Protection

Beorn advises the company to take a northern route, as the goblins will not dare to cross the Great River for a hundred miles north of the Carrock nor to come near his house. He warns them to ride fast, for if the goblins make their raid soon they will cross the river to the south and scour all the edge of the forest to cut them off. He also tells them that the goblins will least expect them to go north, and that they will have the longer ride to catch them. As the company rides, Bilbo sees the shadowy form of a great bear prowling along in the same direction, and Gandalf later reveals that Beorn has been following them each night, not only to guard and guide them but also to keep an eye on the ponies he has lent. Gandalf tells the dwarves, "Beorn may be your friend, but he loves his animals as his children. You do not guess what kindness he has shown you in letting dwarves ride them so far and so fast."

Role in the Battle of Five Armies

Beorn's most dramatic intervention comes during the Battle of Five Armies. When the battle is at its darkest and the dwarves are making a stand about their lords upon a low rounded hill, Beorn appears alone, in bear's shape, and seems to have grown almost to giant-size in his wrath. The roar of his voice is like drums and guns; he tosses wolves and goblins from his path like straws and feathers. He falls upon their rear and breaks like a clap of thunder through the ring. He stoops and lifts Thorin, who has fallen pierced with spears, and bears him out of the fray. Swiftly returning with redoubled wrath, he scatters the bodyguard of Bolg, pulls down Bolg himself, and crushes him. This act causes dismay to fall on the goblins, who flee in all directions, and ensures victory for the allied forces.

Aftermath and Legacy

After the battle, Beorn travels with Gandalf and Bilbo part of the way home. They stay at his house at Yule-tide, which is warm and merry, with men coming from far and wide to feast at his bidding. Beorn becomes a great chief afterwards in those regions, ruling a wide land between the mountains and the wood. It is said that for many generations the men of his line had the power of taking bear's shape, and some were grim men and bad, but most were in heart like Beorn, if less in size and strength. In their day the last goblins were hunted from the Misty Mountains and a new peace came over the edge of the Wild. Bilbo leaves Beorn's house with regret, for the flowers of his gardens in springtime are no less marvellous than in high summer.