Q: Who was Beorn’s Wife?
ANSWER: Other than answering with the somewhat glib “Mrs. Beorn was his wife”, I don’t know anything about her. I have never come across any obscure information about Beorn that hasn’t been published on a 100 Tolkien Websites.
We do know that at the end of The Hobbit Beorn summoned many men who lived near him and he held a feast. It’s perfectly reasonable to infer that he may have met or asked for the future Mrs. Beorn to marry him at that feast (although you’d think Bilbo would mention it in his writings).
The Beorn of the Peter Jackson “Hobbit” movies tells Bilbo (who asks if there are any others like him) that he is “the last” — although that is rather ambiguous in my mind. But since Grimbeorn isn’t even mentioned in the “Lord of the Rings” movies it’s really kind of a moot point whether the big bearish skin-changer can find a wife.
In the books Beorn was simply a large man. He should have had as good a chance of attracting a wife as any man with a homestead, enchanted animals, and a reputation for keeping Orcs at least 100 miles away. In my book I think most women would have felt pretty safe as long as they didn’t venture out at night. You could almost read a “Beauty and the Beast” kind of story into that, or maybe something of the story of Psyche and Eros.
If you’re writing fan fiction I think Beorn’s romance and marriage would make an interesting story. He should be a hard man to live with no matter how good-hearted he is. Imagine the struggle between his hatred of Orcs and his need for companionship, or the compromise he would have to make in terms of being “a magician” (as Tolkien describes him) and being a good husband and father. And how would he teach Grimbeorn and any other sons he had about skin-changing? If Beorn had a daughter, would he have taught her magic, too?
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 Does Beorn Mean?
- What Were the Honey-cakes of the Beornings?
- Was Beorn in the Hobbit a Were-bear?
- Beorning Questions
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Well it seems that events of The Hobbit caused some changes in his personality when before meeting Thorin’s company he was gruff, solitary, highly suspicious man, later on he warms up a bit and the fact he invites local people to celebrate Yule with him when not so long ago he wasn’t keen on inviting guests, tells much about his new found attitude. He realized that he can’t shut people out and seclude himself from the wide world affairs. We know that he became a great chieftain. Quite reasonable, with his size and strength and magical powers, I think you once mentioned the possibly of him having ability of dream voyeourism (besides talking with animals, changing form into a bear and possibly altering and mastering animals to breed those amazing trained animals and bees larger than thumb, also some minor illusion making as his home appears strangely magical and Bilbo has some strange experience of illusionary sensations im Beorn’s hall) as he knew what Bilbo was dreaming about in his houses ,,not eaten by wicked bears” 🙂 hehe. He became benevolent protector of people so they gathered for him from wide lands between Mirkwood and Misty Mountains (the majority of those people were recent colonists, probably related to already numerous Woodmen of Mirkwood who searched for more land for themselves) that previously were scattered about, but the fact of great bear gathering Beorn called in the night suggests that there were more of skin-changers out there, at least some of those bears besides ordinary ones could be shapeshifting men, those giant bears bring in mind Beorn himself who was huge in both forms, what do you think? Were there more people like our shapeshifter out there, living in similar fashion, solitary and loosely connected, meetin once in a while on their bear gatherings with normal animal bears joining? 🙂 But even if those were very few in number finding a wife once a new community of men starts forming wouldn’t be difficult, several decades later we know that Beorning are strong and numerous peoples ruling great amount of land, keeping order and taking high tolls from travellers (they would acquire great riches that way and could raise huge well equipped armies, probably trading with Dale, Erebor, Esgaroth and Woodmen settlements), as Beorn himself they weren’t overly fond of dwarves but remained in good relations 🙂 and apparently the Beornings maintained customs of keeping bees and gained fame of best bakers (their honey-cakes are considered a gret delicacy 🙂 ). We are also told that for many generations descendants of Beorn retained his powers and it’s reasonable to assume that Born would have large family, several children at least who would start another branches of bloodlines and spread the gift of our mysterious ,,magician”.