Beorn

Within The Hobbit narrative, Beorn first appears as a solitary skin-changer who receives Gandalf, Bilbo, and the thirteen Dwarves after they flee the trolls and escape Mirkwood. He judges their tale, provides them lodging and supplies, and later acts as a regional chieftain, coming to fight in the Battle of Five Armies where, in bear-form, he kills Bolg and his bodyguards. Tolkien additionally frames his name and character in philological terms: Beorn evokes Old English beorn ('man', 'warrior') and Scandinavian Björn ('bear'), linking him to Northern heroic traditions; his later status as progenitor of the Beornings is presented in-text as historical/ancestral rather than as a mythic cosmogony.

In human form Beorn is of immense size and strength for a man: Bilbo notes that a child could pass between his legs without touching him; he has black hair, a thick black beard, great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles, and wears a wool tunic down to his knees. In bear-form he becomes a 'great black bear' retaining that great strength. He lives in a wooden house with livestock (horses, dogs, sheep, cows), keeps bees and plants clover, and is associated with the Carrock—a large rock on the River Anduin to which he had made steps.

Beorn's principal supernatural ability is shapechanging between man and a great black bear; Tolkien states that for many generations his line retained the power to take a bear's shape in diminished form. He possesses exceptional physical strength and combat prowess in either form; in the Battle of Five Armies his bear-form is credited with killing the Orc-chief Bolg and his attendants. Behaviorally he is an independent, solitary chieftain who judges visitors' trustworthiness (he verifies the company's story before aiding them), provides hospitality and provisions, and periodically leaves home for hours or days for unspecified journeys. Sources note variability among his descendants, some being 'grim men and bad', but most 'in heart like Beorn, if less in size and strength.'