PAGES 110 111

And so Gandalf proceeded to explain things and then implement his plan , one last thing for the company before they separated now until who knew when.

He told them about Beorn's wondrous great house of wood in an oak wood and of the magical almost horses and cattle who speak to Beorn and work for him.And strange but true the great bear ate a diet of almost only cream and honey

To further heighten the mystery the company was about to encounter Gandalf the wizard told of how he himself found the great Beorn sitting quite alone at the top of the carrock when the moon was falling away towards Misty mountains for the night. And the bear spoke, well growl in bear speech. He said that the day would come when they would perish and he  wondered if he himself would go back ; he from that hour on believed that Beorn in fact came from the mountains himself.

It was still quite a journey up hill, down dale, hot sun, clover , clover, clover as well as a multitude of buzzing great sized bees droning across the distance busy at their work. Bilbo Baggins marvelled at them and the Hobbit thought to himself that if one should harm him he would swell up to one again of his size. Gandalf announced that they were drawing close now as they came to the edge of the bee pastures.

Now came a set of rather wierd instructions. The group was to stay put where they were and only come to the house when he whistled and then only in pairs and five minutes apart besides. Bombar had the insult of being instructed to come alone as he had the weight and distribution of such enough for two.

They arrived at a high and broad wood gate and beyond that they could view lovely gardens and a cluster of low wooden buildings .Side by side when the wizard and hobbit and as they approached the house some exceedingly sleek and intelligent looking horses with fine eyes watched them intently then headed for home to announce the arrival of the strangers coming.

Finally came the courtyard where there were three walls formed by the house itself and its two long wings. right in the middle was lying an enormous oak trunk with many lopped off branches beside it.And then came that wondrous moment when they beheld a huge man , thick black beard and hair to match and great arms and legs , the arms bare.His garb went to the knees and was a tunic of fine wool. He was leaning upon a large axe and when he beheld the pair he told them to be off. Then he laughed and put down the axe, coming toward them with the gruff sounding question, 'who are you and what do you want?" (direct quote page 111 The Hobbit.) 

PAGES 116 to 118)

I apolgize for the long absence, but this waiting daily to know whether my daughter will make it or not has worn me quite down, and now after neurological testing the little one has been found to have soft neurological impairment, we think following a terrible viral illness in which the temperature could not be brought down in time. That has meant speech therapy to bring it back to normal and occupational therapy to bring her spacial sensitivities and such back to normal. A long haul. And finally and it will continue through the summer, i am working on the illustrations and final editing for two children's books. Then the proper bid to the Houses i prefer to buy my books. It is rather daunting but must be finished before fall.

So, I will try my best anyway.

And now comes one of the most amusing segments of the story and in my mind I can see Tolkien sitting by one of the children's bed or in their cozy drawing room telling of how each time Beorn thought that was an end to the calling of dwarves into the house, two more came and two more and it was straining the Skin Changer's patience. Our good wizard told the whole tale, the goblins and such and all their adventures as the dwarves kept coming and bowing . Growling every now and then as pairs of dwarves whom he didn't like any better for being disrupted by them, came trooping in, but without admitting it Beorn had become terribly interested in the part of the story that involved the mountain Gandalf was telling about, he knew it himself. At the telling of the trees and the wargs and such Beorn said he would have given that lot more than fireworks, and they believed him!

When finally the last of the univited guests had made his appearance Bibo realized that , by calling them in at strategic moments the wizard had succeeded in making the Skin Changer interested in what would come next instead of being in an uproar and sending the company on their way with nothing at all.

(page 117 is an illustration of the main part of Beorn's home, with a fire pit in the middle and a hole in the ceiling for the smoke to escape from.

Beorn admitted, as the sun was sinking out the windows that it had been a very good tale. He said Gandalf may have made up the tale but no matter it called for something to eat.

And now in that silent moment magic came to the dwarves, hobbit and wizard, for Beorn now clapped his hands and out trotted four beautiful snow white ponies and long bodied grey dogs and Beorn said something to the creatures in sort of animal language and off they went. The dogs, being capable of walking on two legs set up side boards and trestles near the fire place A ram and a sheep adorned the table with a table cloth and assorted bowls platters, cutlery and at alast, everyone seated, Beorn the host in a big black chair dinner was being assembled and we know how much dwarves and especially hobbits love to eat.

Everyone in this Middle-Earth and the other have their hour of grief and suffering dearest, i am certainly not unique. That is why The Sil and Unfinished Tales and Eowyn mean so much to me. I know those words came from the heart and mind of some one who knew grief and loss too and could share it through his characters in such a way that you felt you could somehow go on in your own life, because you were placed here in this time and in this place, like Bilbo and Frodo, for a purpose. So thank you , dear gentle heart.

I wonder if I am right outside the Crack of Doom , if so i shall reach out to my Sam, and call upon Eru and wish i had Gandalf with me , but I will be alright. It is not me I grieve for, if you take my meaning,

LeeLee, I didn't know either, that you're going through such a horrible times at this moment.

My thoughts are with you and your family right now, especially your daughter! I wish you strength and faith for both f you. I hope everything will be okay soon!

 thank you so very much.

Every gracious thing, every amenity was seen to. The exauisite ponies rolled up to the tables low round cut logs, sanded and smoothed to a polished glean, even Master Bilbo Baggins of the Shire, acccustomed to good living could not sit at ease at the low table.In the soft glow of flickering torches, they dined and not since they left the care of Lord Elrond did they dine so well.

Beorn, all thru dinner told tales in his deep gruff bear like voice about the stretch of travel still before the company.The dwarves in their turn talked of gold and treasure but the Skin Changer was tired now after the feast and was fighting sleep

After the torches had been put to sleep for the night and all that was left for heat and light was the golden and red flames of the fire pit and as he too felt dozy Bilbo thought or imagined that something like magic was taking place , for her heard high up in the rafters the hoot of owls and the wind sounded strange..

Presently the hobbit was jerked wide awake at the sound of the huge door slamming shut, he saw then that Beorn had gone fearlessly out into the black night. The dwarves after much mead had been siting cross legged and began to sing a long song about the wind and its behaviour all along their journey and beyond.

your descriptions are sheer genius, I love to contemplate them.

Yes that is curious to me, why it starts off so overwhelming and beyond comprehension almost, and then at some point it is important, a thread included in the fabric of their lives. Good point.

PAGES 121 AND 122

Just when our little hero was drifting off, Gandalf announced in his wizardy, commanding manner,that for all but Beorn it was indeed time to retire for what was left of the night. And he reminded them of Beorn's warning; that they must stay indoors and not venture out until the sun had risen next morning .if they disobeyed it would be to their own harm.

There were a sort of wood platforms between the pillars in the huge room and the wall, and upon these were made ready lovely beds to sleep on. Bilbo enjoyed a tiny mattress of straw and snuggled under delightful wooley blankets, needed though it was summer, for the embers were low in the firepit and it was chill. The hobbit fell asleep easily but woke up when he heard the ominous sound of snuffling just outside the door. He was afraid, afraid he would be eaten by Beorn, now changed magically into the shape of a bear Fearfully Bilbo Baggins dove under the woolen covers and fell asleep. When he awoke he found it was fully daylight and Bofur ordered him to get up for breakfast, for a great deal of it was now in the stomachs of the dwarves.

bilbo did as instructed and though he enquired where the wizard was he did not find him anywhere until the supper hour and then Gandalf was pummelled with questions and everyone wished to know where  Beorn had disappeared to. Gandalf however would not answer until he had the first nourishment of the day.

Although there was much serious stuff to talk over, even the lofty and mysterious Gandalf could not resisit blowing some smoke rings in such a perfect edifice for the game. Then he settled and told of how he had been tracking bear tracks and saw that Beorn could not have possibly made all the ones present.

Beorn is a skin-changer, and his very name connects (considering etymology) to both 'bear' and 'warrior'.

'He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear; sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard.'

While I see little gain in trying to crack open and explain 'skin-changer' I think we can draw the distinction that Beorn is not 'merely' dominating the will of another bear (when we think a given bear is Beorn), nor 'merely' summoning the strength of a bear.

I write not 'merely' as neither of these things would be easy in itself of course, but whatever the magic involved, I think the reader is supposed to imagine a change of form (not just strength) in Beorn himself, and a form that is beyond a mere apparition of course.  

The question raised in the book is whether or not Beorn was a bear or a Man in origin (in a letter Tolkien will refer to Beorn as a Man but a skin-changer). The power is reinforced later in the text.

'Beorn indeed became a great chief afterwards in those regions and ruled a wide land between the mountains and the wood; and it is said that for many generations the men of his line had the power of taking bear's shape,...'

They took the shape of bears, and Beorn came to the Battle of Five Armies in bear's shape, for example.

In the Saga of Hrolf Kraki, the character Bothvar Bjarki lay in trance while his spirit fought in the form of a monstrous bear. While Tolkien was arguably aware of this type of transformation, even this is the spirit of Bjarki present at the battle (not that this is the intended scenario in The Hobbit in any case).

Tolkien was interested in the Native Americans, yes, and I'll just add Old Norse too, as the legendary berserkers are likely a notable inspiration here.

Anyway, here I think we have enough description to reasonably infer that Beorn himself looked like a bear after 'skin-changing', despite the mystery of Beorn in general. 

And dearest Leelee, Please don't feel obliged to come online here or to post something, even if we say we would like to ''hear'' you again. With all my heart, I love you.

And as Beredras said, we will be waiting for you. There is always a place for you at this wonderful planet. And you know I will always wait for you even if it takes years!