Beorn's Hall

The homestead

Beorn's house stood a few miles east of the Carrock in a wide, sheltered country of oaks, flowering meadows and clover, with the dark edge of Mirkwood visible a day's walk beyond. A high thorn hedge enclosed the farmstead, and inside it stood long rows of wooden bee-hives, barns and stables, and the hall itself: a great low building of timber with a hearth in the middle of the floor and a hole in the roof for the smoke, its walls hung with cloaks and its pillars carved from whole tree trunks. There were no servants but animals. Ponies, dogs and sheep laid the tables and served the meals, and no meat was eaten in the house, only cream, honey, bread and fruit.

The master of the hall was Beorn, a huge black-bearded man who could take the shape of a bear and who kept his own counsel about which was his true form. Gandalf said that his people were the last of the ancient Men who had lived in the mountains before the goblins came. He hated orcs and wargs, loved his animals, and did not welcome guests. Gandalf won the company a night's lodging in 2941 by telling their story so well, and in pairs, that Beorn's curiosity outran his temper.

After Thorin's company left with his ponies and provisions, Beorn scouted the mountains, confirmed their tale, and later came in bear's shape to the Battle of Five Armies, where he broke the goblin lines and carried Thorin from the field. He became a great chief afterwards, and the Beornings who gathered round his hall guarded the passes from the mountains to the forest. His son Grimbeorn was their lord at the time of the War of the Ring, still keeping the High Pass and the Ford of Carrock open and taking no meat at his table. In the Fourth Age the Beornings were granted the middle of Mirkwood between Thranduil's realm and East Lórien.

In the upper vale of Anduin east of the Carrock and the Old Ford, between the Misty Mountains and the western eaves of Mirkwood.