Sunday, February 9, 2020
Natural v. Unnatural/Supernatural In-Class Exercise
The Skin-Changer within The Hobbit, Beorn, is an unnatural and/or supernatural creature. Beorn, because of his transformative abilities, can be compared to other mythological or scary beings in a variety of stories across the world, such as the werewolf and shapeshifter. This creature is supernatural because, clearly, shifting between a human being and an animal is not of the natural world ... at least not in our natural world. Not only was Beorn included in The Hobbit to add to the magic and fantasy of Tolkien's novel but to emphasize the idea of not judging a book by its cover. Beorn's character allows us to understand that not everything is as it seems and that not every creature we perceive as ugly or dangerous is a monster. This concept is something that I truly enjoy and welcome while reading novels from all genres.
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One of the more interesting aspects of Beorn to me is how he bridges the gap between natural and unnatural/supernatural. As you’ve pointed out, his ability to shapeshift is definitely unnatural! It is even unnatural to Bilbo – when he hears the word “skin-changer” Bilbo asks if that mean a man who “turns [rabbits] skins into squirrels”, and the dwarves don’t have another guess before Gandalf explains the true situation (The Hobbit, Ch 7).
ReplyDeleteAs another person pointed out in a blog post, Beorn’s animals are also unnatural (the ponies bringing food and items to the table, setting it for the Company). However, unlike the Eagles, who are clearly unnatural in that they are giant (able to carry Men and Dwarves easily) and that they are able to talk to the company (which most other creatures cannot), Beorn’s ponies appear normal at first glance! At most they have “very intelligent faces”, before they demonstrate their more unnatural side by bringing in seating, setting the table, and bringing the group food.
Unlike the Eagles, who were able to speak to (and be understood by) the company, Beorn’s animals do not speak in any recognizable language, although they do speak to Beorn (“they have gone to tell [Beorn] of the arrival of strangers”). Beorn, however, doesn’t talk to the animals in a common, recognizable language – he breaches the gap between Men/Dwarves/humanoids and animals, speaking to them “in a queer language like animal noises turned to talk” (The Hobbit, Ch 7).
Like you said, “not everything is as it seems” – and even though Beorn and his animals may seem natural at first glance, there is more to them than meets the eye.