Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

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Elleth
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Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Elleth »

Earlier this year I received a wonderful thing from Udwin - he had braintanned and smoked the hides of our two goats from the year before:
merf-braintan-goatskins.jpg
merf-braintan-goatskins.jpg (102.51 KiB) Viewed 13853 times
(any faults are entirely my own - I'd not secured them well enough from mice in the barn overwinter, and Udwin managed spectacularly well with what I had to hand him last spring)


I've been trying to figure out what to do with them for months, since as lovely as the work is, it doesn't seem to fit a Dunedain impression, and I don't do much colonial anymore.

Aha! I thought. Why not something in the Beorning fashion?

.. what I forgotten until re-reading the description of Beorn was how he seemed to be adament about not killing animals:

'If you must know more, his name is Beorn. He is ... a skin-changer.'

'What! a furrier, a man that calls rabbits conies, when he doesn't turn their skins into squirrels?' asked Bilbo.

'Good gracious heavens ... NO!' said Gandalf. '... don't mention the word furrier again as long as you are within a hundred miles of his house, nor, rug, cape, tippet, muff, nor any other such unfortunate word!' ...

...

'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 marvellous as himself. 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.

-The Hobbit, Queer Lodgings

It seems odd to me for a bear-man, but there it is in the text. Which implies I imagine that the Beorning-men themselves are quite possibly likewise.

But there are numerous allied tribes in the area between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood if I recall correctly - perhaps it could be from them?



So two part question:
Do we have solid evidence of leather or lack thereof among the men who allied with Beor?
Is there a particular cultural touchstone referenced that might be good for artistic inspiration? Scythian perhaps?


Oh - one more - any ideas what to craft from the hides? It will be some time before I can work my way down to it, but I'd love to start turning ideas over in my head. I've of course been thinking of a bag of some sort, but I'm drowning in bags as it is. :)
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Udwin »

Elleth wrote:It seems odd to me for a bear-man, but there it is in the text. Which implies I imagine that the Beorning-men themselves are quite possibly likewise.
But there are numerous allied tribes in the area between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood if I recall correctly - perhaps it could be from them?
So two part question:
Do we have solid evidence of leather or lack thereof among the men who allied with [Beorn?]
Is there a particular cultural touchstone referenced that might be good for artistic inspiration? Scythian perhaps?
Is the problem with braintan that you don't feel Dunedain would make & use it, or that braintan items wouldn't be found in one's kit? For a Dunedain impression, even if they're not making it themselves, could they obtain it from others in Eriador? Bree (stone houses) seems to be lower-down on the tech ladder...

Short answer: we don't have evidence of leather in the area; wood, wool, straw, pottery, rushes, and metal (likely iron--for knives, and B's axe presumably) are the known materials.

I wrestled with these very same issues last year when I rebranded my Mirkwoodman impression to a 'cultural Beorning'. That topic has a helpful image attached that breaks down the cultural groups in the Anduin sphere before and after the Bo5A. Basically, after the Battle in 2941, the common northMen already in the area rally behind Beorn as the local Big Man ...aside from increased trade opportunities, probably not much changed for them aside from who they called Chief.
Keep in mind that the Only time we see this area is with Thorin & Co. on their way to Erebor, and they basically spend 48 hours on house arrest in Beorn's hall. So while we never actually meet either a fellow skinchanger ('racial Beorning') or a common Beorn-allied Man ('cultural Beorning'), there's a little bit we can glean from Queer Lodgings and the chapters on either side of it.

I imagine that the racial Beornings who maintain their vegetarian code would not kill animals for their furs or skins, but a cultural Beorning who harvests game to eat could make useful materials out of them.

Evidence of material culture in the area:
Beorn keeps sheep, cattle, horses, dogs, and bees. The common Men (who shoot at the Eagles with yew bows) also keep sheep, and as a result wool is well known: Beorn wears a knee-length, sleeveless brown wool tunic (unhemmed); and “For [Bilbo] there was a little mattress of straw and woolen blankets”.
"there were no things of gold or silver in [Beorn's] hall, and few save the knives were made of metal at all."
Beorn's 'serving sheep' carry "a white cloth embroidered at the edges with figures of animals".
Beorn gives the dwarves 'red earthenware pots of honey', and serves mead in 'wooden drinking bowls'--I imagine kuksa-types or similar.
Beorn's furniture are "low-seated with wide rush-bottoms and little short thick legs"--rushes might be from the Gladden?

As we're still dealing with northmen, I personally base my Beorning kit on dutch/danish Bronze Age (mostly based on the description of B's tunic syncing up with BA clothing).
Scythians might be a little too south and east (and mobile) for inspiration (appropriate perhaps for the Wainriders, instead?).
This is a colourized version of Tolkien's second drawing of Beorn's hall (here is the first--weirder perspective), where it seems pretty clearly to be a sort of nordic meadhall. I'm pretty sure John Rateliff suggests that Tolkien based his images of the hall on a reconstruction of a specific viking hall (I don't have the quote in front of me at the moment, will see if I can find it this week.)
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Personae: Aistan son of Ansteig, common Beorning of Wilderland; Tungo Brandybuck, Eastfarthing Bounder, 3018 TA; a native Man of the Greyflood, c.850 SA
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Elleth
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Elleth »

Aha! I had missed that thread! Or more likely, read it at the time but lacked the context to grasp and retain it. Yes, I love your theory and think you've done a grand job.

For my part, the difficulty is fitting braintan into a Dunedain impression - or more specifically my own. Im borrowing on my real world time in Alaska to claim some years in Forochel, but dont know if I can also justify being on the east side of the Misty Mountains. And yes, given my understanding (which may be wrong) that buckskin wasn't known (or at least common) among Europeans prior to the new world, I dont know if I can justify it as a Dunedain material, as nicely as it fits your impression.

Perhaps a gift or oddity from over the mountains?
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by SierraStrider »

Let's not forget how important language was to Tolkien. "Beorn" shows pretty obvious Scandinavian roots. In addition to the Norse origins of the drawing of Beorn's hall, I'd say the Beornings' cultural inspirations would definitely be Norse in character.
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Greg »

My feelings on the matter are a little simple, but I think they get the job done without stretching anything beyond reasonable.

During the 3rd age post-Battle of Five Armies, there was much Dwarven traffic between the Blue Mountains and Erebor, if my memory serves. Bilbo and Frodo spoke often with traveling Dwarves in the shire, and I'm pretty sure they're mentioned as using Bree frequently (after all...where else would they go?)

If Dwarves from Erebor are trading along the Great East Road, hides being as common a trade item as they are and always have been, it stands perfectly reasonable that a particularly interesting and useful type of hide tanned in the Anduin River Valley would make its way into their carts, and out west. Doesn't seem a stretch at all, really, compared to some of the other loose connections we've theorized.
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Ringulf »

Brava! Bravissimo! Inverita!

Greg once again I think you have hit the nail right on the head.
The Dwarven "Traffic" is mentioned and and it was said that the Men-I-Naugrim, the main forest road through Mirkwood, was reclaimed, which along with whatever increase in safety the passes through the Misty Mountains was afforded by the depletion of Goblins after the BOFA, made trade West/East and visa versa much more plentiful. There is even supposed to have been a small number of Dwarves residing in the Shire, my own persona being one of them. Of course the many tertiary sources speak of them as residing in Needlehole, a small village in the Northwest of the Shire on the other side of Rushock Bog from Hobbiton. My own persona is more of a transient craftsman that circulates through the shire's many towns, staying in the crafting areas, as long as there isn't a reputable inn near bye!
In a previous post I mentioned spending time with distant relations in Needlehole but having a Hunting camp on Girdley Island in the middle of the Brandywine. (A perfect little getaway and Rendezvous point to meet with my fellow Rangers.)
I would most likely try and trade with any Dwarves passing through the area and send things back toward my relatives in reconstructed Dale and Erebor. Things like Pipeweed and such that is more common on this side of the mountains. :mrgreen:
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Udwin »

Elleth: remember that Otzi's leggings and loincloth were also braintanned goat. Once you get into later periods with more efficient weaving technology, yes, woven wool/linen fabric becomes the norm, but as I understand it, buckskin (or a similar tanning method) was still common up to (at least) the Iron Age in Europe.

Solidly plausible theory, Greg! Don't know why I never considered it myself. Dwarf-facilitated, cross-mountain trade in dressed or half-dressed skins would also be a great way to explain Frodo's 'shirt of soft leather' that he is described wearing under the mithril coat.
Personae: Aistan son of Ansteig, common Beorning of Wilderland; Tungo Brandybuck, Eastfarthing Bounder, 3018 TA; a native Man of the Greyflood, c.850 SA
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Greg »

Forgot about the Otzi reference. Fantastic!

I usually don't like stretched theories like that...primary sources with direct references being obviously preferable, but this one made a little too much sense to avoid, and the material is just so stinking useful...*gah*.
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Elleth »

Hunh - good points all. Certainly the notion of dwarven traders is interesting.

I'm not certain skins would have been a trade good - is most not all of western Eriador a ruin in the late 3rd age? That would seem to imply that it would be fairly teeming with wildlife itself - unlike the situation in (comparatively) densely settled 18th c. Europe, where the vast forests of North America provided skins and pelts that were hard to come by locally.

On the other hand, comparative advantage is a thing - mostly subsistence farmers might not have as much time as they like for currying leather. I wonder what other goods the Beorning peoples would have to trade - fantastic meads I bet. And I can imagine some nice salted fish from the Anduin. Middle Earth is so very weird when you start to look at the details - effectively early copper age men not far from the trade route with between Dale and the West - how odd.

On the other hand - we have spaceships and mostly uncontacted primitive tribes on earth today, so who am I to talk? :)


Hrm.. as to the hides - what do you all think would be a good use for them, were I to stick to a Beorning-men cultural artifact? Some kind of bag?
I know there's next to no textual basis for a design aesthetic - any thoughts on cultural templates to use as a jumping off point? early early Norse? Scythian / Proto-Indo-European?
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Kortoso »

BTW, new information (or a new article anyway) about Özti's hides:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016 ... chaeology/
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Taurinor »

Elleth wrote:Hrm.. as to the hides - what do you all think would be a good use for them, were I to stick to a Beorning-men cultural artifact? Some kind of bag?
I know there's next to no textual basis for a design aesthetic - any thoughts on cultural templates to use as a jumping off point? early early Norse? Scythian / Proto-Indo-European?
If you were interested in making some sort of bag in a Norse style, you could make a haversack-ish bag with a wooden handle/closure system similar to the Hedeby/Haithabu/Birka finds. Some of the handles were found with wool yarn or cloth fragments attached to them, but it has been suggested that leather could have been used as well.

Image

Image found here, along with a detailed write-up and a link to a tutorial for making a bag in that style.

The handles could be decorated with some Tolkien-inspired motifs, and the style fits with my image of the Beornings (although I haven't put nearly as much thought into that culture as you or Udwin have).
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Re: Beornings, braintan, and a quandry

Post by Le-Loup »

Elleth wrote:Earlier this year I received a wonderful thing from Udwin - he had braintanned and smoked the hides of our two goats from the year before:


(any faults are entirely my own - I'd not secured them well enough from mice in the barn overwinter, and Udwin managed spectacularly well with what I had to hand him last spring)


I've been trying to figure out what to do with them for months, since as lovely as the work is, it doesn't seem to fit a Dunedain impression, and I don't do much colonial anymore.
May I suggest you go over your equipment carefully & make sure there are no improvements to be made. If your gear is all fine then I suggest you store the skins for later use.
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I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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