I'm Completely Confused by Beorn

[00:00:00]Bayor has to be one of the strangest beings that I've ever come across on Middle Earth. I am struggling to understand him and where he fits into Middle Earth. He's a skin changer, but I don't think I've ever encountered one in Middle Earth before, so I don't really know how to compare him to anything else or understand him even. He seems to hate dwarves, but he also hates goblins and orcs, maybe more, but why?

[00:00:24]And he can talk to animals in a really strange language. He's got to be one of the most interesting beings in Middle Earth. So, I want to talk about him. I want to talk about what Gandalf believes about him and what I think he may be doing for the narrative of The Hobbit.

[00:00:38]So, let's begin. The first thing to understand is that Gandalf doesn't really even understand him all that much. I just got to the chapter where they hang out in the home of Bayorn and Gandalf and explaining him to the dwarves seems to lack a full understanding of even who this being is to start. He has guesses and he thinks his guesses are right, but they're just that. They're guesses. In explaining who he is, Gandalf says, "The somebody I spoke of, a very great person. He can be appalling when he is angry, though he is kind enough if humored. Still, I warn you, he gets angry easily. His name is Bayor. He is very strong and he is a skin changer. Sometimes he is a huge black bear. Sometimes he is a great, strong blackhaired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smog or the other dragons came into this part of the world and before the goblins came into the hills out of the north. I cannot say though I fancy the last is the true tale. He is not the sort of person to ask questions of. And so from this one instance, we have a better understanding of Borin and that he's hard to understand and that no person really understands him. No one really knows where he comes from. But interestingly enough, when I was reading this section, I was trying to figure out in my head who Bayor most closely resembles. I thought he was kind of like the woses or like a gonbury gone being this being that is so in tune with nature and kind of feeling like an indigenous person in Middle Earth that he has wisdom beyond the kind of present tense wisdom of Gandalf and I also thought he reminded me a bit of Tom Bombadil too like he's a character who almost feels like an anomaly in Middleear that I don't fully understand and I even thought he kind of resembled a little bit of a tree beard mainly because tree beard his appearance is one that he's treelike but He's not at the same time. Like, was he a tree that became an ant or is an antual being that was created to just shepherd the forest and isn't really like a tree? And because of that skin changing element though, I felt that, you know, Treebeard was the most similar to him because his skin is described in it and it's really strange. And he seems to possess this ancient wisdom kind of similar to Tree Beard as well.

[00:03:06]But Tolken actually does give us in the appendices who Bayor actually is closest as akin to and that is actually the Rohi. He writes, "Aayal the young was the lord of the men of the Athead. That land lay near the source of Andwine between the furthest ranges of the Misty Mountains and the northernmost parts of Murkwood. The Atheaded had moved to those regions in the days of King Arnol II from lands in the veils of Andwine between the Carrick and the Gladen and they were in origin close akin to the Bejornings and the men of the West of the forest. So Baron was close akin to the Roherim before they were really the Roherim. But that doesn't really explain that much about him either because he does not seem like someone from Rohan.

[00:03:51]He can change his skin and he can become a great big bear. I don't think Aayom or The Theodan or Aayowin really could do that at all. But maybe they could and maybe that'll totally transform how I read it for the second time. I don't know. But Ganov gives another interesting description of him that helps a bit more to understand who he is. And it kind of helps me, but at the same time, not. He says, "At any rate, he is under no enchantment but his own."

[00:04:14]Now, this is fascinating because I would probably say that the only other person who might be described [music] like that is Tom Bombadil. And even that wording of him is really strange to me. Does Gandalf believe that all other beings are under some kind of enchantment? Or is this more like the Tom Bombadil line that says Tom remembers the first raindrops and the first acorn? He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless before the dark lord came from the outside.

[00:04:39]He's the eldest. So, it doesn't seem like he's bound by anything. And in the same way, so is Bayorn.

[00:04:46]Gandalf keeps going, though. He says he lives in an oak wood and has a great wooden house. And as a man, he keeps cattle and horses, which are nearly as marvelous as himself. [snorts] They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them, neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees. and lives most on cream and honey. This is the dream life.

[00:05:12]But this description also reminded me a bit more of like a tree beard or a wos.

[00:05:17]Someone who is so in tune with nature and the world around them that they don't need anything else from the outside world. He's like totally self-sufficient. And I can't help but think about how this seems like the ideal man for Tolken. Yes, Aragorn and Phamir are probably his ideals, but maybe this is what Tolken himself aspired for. someone who is just a bit of a hermit and who lives and breathes in nature and has a relationship with the world that is so deep that he can himself become nature. Bayor feels like nature but the last thing that Gandalf says about him is probably the best and I want to let's let's talk about it. He says as a bear he ranges far and wide. I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrick at night watching the moon sinking toward the Misty Mountains and I heard him growl in the tongue of bears. The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back. That is why I believe he once came from the mountains himself. So he is waiting for the goblins to die and for him to be able to go back home to the mountains.

[00:06:18]Now this is so interesting to me because Bayorn is old. Now he actually dies in between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I believe he dies of natural causes or just naturally at least. And he passes the kingdom and the chieftainness to his son who where's his wife? That's the question. Did the goblins kill her?

[00:06:38]And is that why he's like, you know, dead set on revenge? I think he dies peacefully. Yet in this section, it feels like Bayorin has this belief that he's going to live a long time now.

[00:06:46]Gandalf could have seen him do that thousands of years ago for all we know.

[00:06:50]We don't really know, but he seems to have this patience that he knows things are going to pass away or things are going to get better and balance out. He longs for the days when the goblins will be gone. He seems to have the patience that Samis had when he looked at the stars in Mordor and thinks that this is this is only a light and passing thing and that there's beauty out there that's untouchable. Bayorin has that belief, but it's a little bit different. It's it's like a belief in time to heal things or just at least to level things.

[00:07:19]Eventually, if Sauron were to possess the one ring, he would fall in the end.

[00:07:22]He believes that that there would might be time that passes hundreds or thousands of years later that he would fall but he would fall eventually and maybe it would be from the orcs betraying him or from you know the ranges betraying him but he believes that that things are going to change because of time and that is something I feel like a lot of wise people possess not freaking out over small things that happen or even large things that happen knowing that time will balance all things out believes this he almost doesn't seem to be you know and he believes this so deeply, he almost doesn't seem to be taking an active step in the goblins destruction. Although he does later when he goes to fight off the wolves and the goblins in the mountains.

[00:08:00]But here, Bayor is in his bear form and he's just looking at his home in longing, wanting to go back, but not having the ability to go back yet. It almost seems like because he's just letting things play out, that's why he's doing this. And it also makes for a huge theme, too, because I think The Hobbit is really about your home. And Bayor is kind of displaced right now. He's in a land that he's settled in, but it's not really home for him. He longs for home.

[00:08:25]And so, Bayor is just a strange being that I don't really understand. But for me, I think he represents the ideal man apart from society. I think Tolken may have created a deal man who participates in the world, and that is Phamir and Aragorn. And then an ideal man who is separate from the world. This is the ideal man who doesn't worry that deeply about the affairs of the world around him, but he's like an island that is focused on his own needs, but in a really unselfish way at the same time.

[00:08:54]He's got to be one of my favorite side characters, though. I am loving Boor and I kind of find him just strong and capable and a force to be reckoned with.

[00:09:01]I love him, but I'm also really confused by him and I just wanted to talk about it. So, without any spoilers, let me know what you think. Are you also confused by Bayor? What do you think of him? Do you think that Tolken had some vision in mind when he was creating Borne Bayor? I keep saying that wrong.

[00:09:16]But let let me know in the comments.

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