Beornings History

[Beorn]

The Beornings as a people exists under this name since the time after the Battle of five Armies when Beorn the Skinchanger united the wide spread tribes and scattered Groups the Men of the Northern Anduin Vales under his mighty Axe to clean their Lands from the remnants of the Misty Mountain Goblins of whom small bands roamed still roamed the Mountain Valleys and raided lonely farms. After Beorn's death the Sons of his Warriors proudly called themselves the Beornings (Éo.:"Sons of Beorn") which soon became the name under which the new Northman Nation was known. However the true origins of the Beornings and many of their strange traditions reach far more back into the second and first Age and little is known about their origins since hardly any records were made about the Men of this part of the World in the old times. As can be seen by the straw blonde Hair and blue Eyes of most of the Beornings, they seem to be the descendants of Éothéod farmers who did not follow their King Eorl to the South into Calenardhon but stayed in their ancestral home, but few of them show blood traces which lead into another direction, Men as Beorn himself, taller than most Northmen and with dark Brown or almost Black Hair and light Grey Eyes, Men who are believed to be the last descendants of the Old Tribes of the Misty Mountains who lived there in the first Age and were known to the Wood-Elves as the Ordvir (Ta.:"Mountain Men"). Some People believe that they were closely akin to the Edain of Beleriand and originally belonged to the same people as the ancestors of the Beorians. In the second Age they had close contact with the Dwarves of Dúrin's House who at the time ruled the Misty Mountains and it seems that the Mountainmen spoke a language which was very similar to that of which still many names exist in the Kingdom of Dale near the end of the third Age, and as some of the Bardings just like their King Bard I the Bowman seem also of Darker Hair than most of the Northmen it seems obvious that there were originally close ties between the Men of the Misty Mountains and the ancestors of the Dale-Men. According to the Dwarves the Men of the Misty Mountains called themselves Beriaskhals (Old Rhov.: "fighting Men") or earlier Beriaskbers (Old Rhov.:" fighting Bears") and it was them who first gave the father of the Longbeards the old Rhovanian Name Dúrin. There are old Legends among the Beornings that their forefathers were protected by bears in Mountain Caves and legends speak of "the Gift from the Great Bear" but many of these old traditions are now forgotten or held in secret by the Beornings. At last there are many hints that the Gift of Skinchanging at first appeared among the Beriaskberiar. When the Orcish Hordes of the Northern waste began to invade the misty Mountains and Gundabad was lost the expulsion of the Beriaskhaliar from the Misty Mountains begun, many fled into the Anduin Vales while others fled into the Northern Waste, these were known in the third Age as the Berseggi (Old Rhov.:"Bear-Warriors") or Beroings (Old Rhov.: "Bear-Sons") and were a small people which shared many obvious traditions with the Beornings of the Anduin Vales, although smaller in number and different in Appearance through intermixion with the Forodwaith. Of the early Beriaskhal Leaders in the Anduin Vales only two are told of in the Beorning Myths, Berobrand and Ulfera. It seems that there were serious tribal feuds with the Isumari, Northmen who lived near the Anduin Springs and served the Witch-King of Angmar. These feuds decimated the Beriaskhals so that with the arrival of the Éothéod in the North, who drove away or destroyed the last Servants of Angmar in Rhovanion , the Beriaskhals became a part of the Éothéod people and intermixed with the newly arrived Farmers and Horsemen from the south. But even if the old Mountainmen took over the new language and some traditions they stayed mostly among themselves and did not leave the Anduin Valley when Eorl's Messengers arrived in the North to lead his people into Calenardhon. Too much Beriaskhal blood was shed and too much had the people suffered for their home to give it easily up, so most Mountainmen descendants and some of the Éothéod who were related to them by marriage stayed in the north and lived long as a scattered people without leader. It was Beorn (Éo.:"Warrior"), probably the greatest son of the old Mountain Folk , who again built a Nation out of these scattered Men and his son Grimbeorn (Éo.: "Angry Warrior") and right hand Man Wecca (Éo.:"Guardian") continued his effords into the fourth Age.