Q: What Does Beorn Mean?
ANSWER: Beorn is an Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word meaning “nobleman”. It is believed to have been derived from the same root as “bear” and Old Norse björn. The word beorn was, according to the Etymology Online Dictionary, merged with Late Latin baro (itself possibly derived from Frankish baro) to produce modern English baron.
Many people associate Tolkien’s name Beorn with “bear”, but in fact the Old English or Anglo-Saxon word for “bear” was bera, itself derived from Proto-Germanic *beron (the asterisk denotes an unattested, theoretically reconstructed word). Tolkien may have had a linguistic joke in mind, and perhaps one that replaced an earlier linguistic joke.
The character Beorn was originally named Medwed, a name that John Rateliff acknowledges as Slavic in origin in his discussion of the possible meanings of the name Radagast. The Russian form medved is said to literally mean “honey eater” and is denoted by Bill Casselman as “an apotropaic circumlocution for ‘bear'”. Casselman identifies Russian med as a cognate for English “mead”. J.R.R. Tolkien was probably aware of several cognates for “mead”, and Tolkien scholars are uncertain of the extent to which Tolkien studied Slavic languages (although he himself indicated he did not master Slavic in one of his letters).
There are traces of Slavic linguistic influences in Tolkien’s fiction, though in relatively rare examples. Some of these traces may simply be vestiges of English borrowings from other languages (such as the word “vampire”). The use of such words, however, is notable simply because Tolkien as a philologist who was constantly studying and sharing the history of words presumably chose his words carefully. A substantial portion of his in-story nomenclature, for example, is drawn from Old English rather than French vocabularies, and that is probably not a coincidental distribution.
Another possible Slavic connection, for example, is the name Vinitharya, vinit-harya, a Gothic word combination that means literally “Wendish warrior” and which is historically attested in many variants throughout the Germanic world from Saxony west to England. Hence, it is not possible to reasonably dismiss these traces of Slavic influence — there appears to be some sort of footprint in Tolkien’s nomenclature which underwent some thoughtful transformations.
Beorn’s close association with honey may be due more to the character’s original name, but perhaps Tolkien felt that the noble skin-changing honey-eater would work better with an Old English name.
See also:
- How Much Land did the Beornings Control?
- What Were the Beornings Like?
- Who Were Beorn’s Followers?
- Did Grimbeorn the Old Have any Sons?
- What Were the Honey-cakes of the Beornings?
- Was Beorn in the Hobbit a Were-bear?
- Beorning Questions
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