Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

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Ringulf
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Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

Post by Ringulf »

I realize that I have been named "Naugathrain" within the group and that my primary identity within the group is that of Ringulf, a Dwarven Ranger. I truly enjoy this persona and veiwing the Merf site through his eyes has often given me a unique perspective. I certainly will not be changing that and of course Ringulf will always be Ringulf, but I have been inspired by several elements recently, to explore a new persona, perhaps within another time period, one that might allow me to be more realistic in the way I approach this site and building a proper "kit".
I have had my particular favorite "heroes" in my study of Tolkien's work and without a doubt Aragorn has always been an inspiration to me. I was ever a Ranger at heart and even as a young child before reading any of the Professor's works, when we all picked heroes, I was Robinhood.
Yet as I look at myself and my life, I do not see the noble Arthedain Cheiftain, member of a proud race of higher, more cultured men, I see my place with the lesser of the Edain as perhaps one of the kin of another hero and favorite archtype of mine within the books: Beorn.
Lately I have been trying to move forward in creation of a Ranger kit being challenged by our new full kit section. But I find myself trapped in the whole fantastic nature of a race that is not human and enjoys a very different technological level from that of the Rangers. (so easy to use modern advancements and just say..."it's Dwarven!"). While I will continue to strive for a better rendition of that, as I feel it a challenge and that it is do-able with great effort and attention to the details of the culture, BUT...I am NOT realy a Dwarf!...yes it pains me sometimes to admit that, but well there it is.
Being six foot tall and mostly human all my life, I think that it is high time for me to take my place among men and figure out with whom I would best fit in if I were placed into Middle Earth.

I have always been very close to nature. I grew up with a Grandpa and Grandma who were naturalists and artists and who taught me so much about the outdoors. We had woods we rambled in and Grandmother's gardens (both vegitable and ornamental, with our back yard neighbor who tended bees). These were my playgrounds as well as a lake and salt marshes, a large Salt water bay and barrier beaches. it was an outdoorsman's paradise of variety and abundance.
Swimming, fishing, boating, hunting, archery birdwatching and animal rehabilitation (we always had several animals around we were taking care of as my Grandparents were known by the entire community as the Go to's for any wounded or stray wildlife that was found. Nowadays you can be jailed for that, but back then you were considered a St. Francis or Radagast if you cared enough to take in the many wild creatures that were negatively affected by man's depridations.)

Now let us add to this my current crafting skill set, that of woodcarving and leatherwork, sculpting clay and such and my current hobbies like Archery, Axe throwing, weapon making, hunting, fishing and boating, and still working with some animal rehabilitators and demonstrators on occasion, and all you need is a big guy with a beard and you have Beorn (or Dan Haggerty), or as I now propose, one of his lesser kin.

So it is that I will introduce to you a boiled down and more realistic version of an ancestrial Kinsman of Beorn (a great leader and chieftan of his people, who in later years became the patron and namesake of the people that were known as the "Beornings".) They were not always called such. Originally one of the five distinct Edain groups the Beijabar(Atliduk) as they called themselves or the Bejaegahar (Rhovanian) as they were called by other Northman groups, were racially similar to the other groups but evolved culturally to be considered a distinctly different people.

I have collected a good amount of information about the Beijabar through several secondary sources, one of the most complete and well thought out in my opinion (as well as what I hope to be well researched) is the information brought forth by Iron Crown Enterprises for the role play game originally released in the early 1980's Called MERP (Middle Earth Role Play) and though I do not believe every bit of the information came right from the pen of the professor himself, I think the standards of authenticity and reliance on primary data and language are much greater than any movie or cartoon thus created.

I shall attempt to use this information very much like frog DNA (as was mentioned in a post not to long ago) to splice in the strands of Tolkiens history while I use a form of experimental or recreational archeology to form my interpretation of what a Northman of the Beijabar group would be like in approximately 1640 of the Third Age.

The fact that the portrayal of Beorn from the new Peter Jackson Trilogy was so disapointing for me and the brand new release of the playable character class of Beorning is now active on LOTRO (and I have very much enjoyed playing it) I have been motivated to delve into this, one of my favorite characters, in a more vital way.

I will continue on this thread to share some of the collected information and graphics and how I am using these to construct my persona and his kit.

Please feel welcome to interject and discuss as well as perhaps even participate in a similar path on this thread :mrgreen:
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed! :mrgreen:
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Udwin
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Re: Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

Post by Udwin »

Congratulations on your decision to tackle a new persona! It's always good to see folks thinking about a culture that's something different from the elite elves and numenorean-descended Men.

However, I would be very wary about using roleplaying books as a research source. Such materials should be regarded as, at best, tertiary sources:
We can easily adapt the typology of sources used in Primary World History for our own Middle-earth uses. To refresh:

Primary sources, of course, are first-hand accounts written by people 'who were there'. Although Tolkien is the true writer, in his conceit as 'translator', these come from the Red Book:
The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings[/u, Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

Secondary sources are those written using (or about) primary sources. For Tolkien, these would be things like Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth, Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth, or Rateliffe's History of The Hobbit

Tolkien scholarship creates a unique situation, as a third category might be said to exist in-between primary and secondary sources, as much of Tolkien's work has been collected from drafts, edited by his son Christopher and published posthumously. This applies especially to the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth series (in which the drafts often conflict with the final publication), but also, to a lesser extent, The Sil, UT, and Children of Hurin.

Role-playing materials attempt--near as I can tell--to 'fill in the gaps' left in the primary and secondary sources: these attempts might be based on existing lore (at best) or fabricated from whole cloth (at worst). Unfamiliar as I am with the MERP, the term 'beijabar' raised a red flag to me, bearing (pun?) little resemblance to either one of Tolkien's languages, or a real-world language used by Tolkien in his scheme of 'translating' English. Tolkien used Norse-derived names to represent the languages of northern Rhovanion in the later Third Age, so for an earlier period I would expect to see words drawn from Old Norse. In contrast, beijabar sounds downright Middle-eastern to my ears!
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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Ringulf
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Re: Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

Post by Ringulf »

I agree with you Udwin and thank you for your encouragement!
My feelings were that this particular Northman group were not going to be too very different from the Nenedain or Woodmen re enactment in many ways and yours in particular was a focal point of why I wished to go this way. I truly enjoyed the way youinterpreted the Man of the Vales. I still have not gone "bare bones historical" with this one as he is still part of a sub culture that is somewhat magical and mysterious, but I feel it is a step in the right direction.
The object in my eyes, is to demistify the group somewhat and get a better understanding of how the bear cult and the surrounding beliefs would effect the character historically without making them into the Vendol of the Thirteenth Warrior!
I also hear what you are saying about any game as a resourse. As I said I have a high regard for what ICE did with their series but that does not mean I will take them as cannonical or first hand information. I have a bit more that is gleened from 1st and second hand (by your definition) and those are more stable souces for an attempt like this.
The linguistics of what I was looking at, suggest that they derived some of the names from anglosaxon 'izing many of the words that had a norse base, as Atliduk is a derivation of the Rhovanian language. I have some of that I will post that should clear up the intent of those sources, it may all still be tripe but I have a picture in my mind that should have the result of being very simple and the way to get there will be by looking into other historical cultures and comparing them rather than basing fiction on other fiction.
Try though I might, I do not think that I will be able to bring forth as scholarly an interpretaiton as you have, or Greg could, (you guys are very good at this type of work) but I am going to take a heartfelt stab at it and trust that my Brothers and Sisters here will help guide me on the right path. :mrgreen:
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed! :mrgreen:
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Mirimaran
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Re: Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

Post by Mirimaran »

I am anxious to see your interpretation, Ringulf!

Ken
"Well, what are you waiting for? I am an old man, and have no time for your falter! Come at me, if you will, for I do not sing songs of dastards!"
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Ringulf
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Re: Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

Post by Ringulf »

Returning to update my search for a character interpritation based on the reletives of Beorn.

One big swing from my original approach is the fact that I descided, after pouring through evrything I could get my hands on about the culture, that it would be far too comfortable, fantastical and down right repetitious to represent a "Beijabar" in TA 1640. All the work is done! I would just have to memorize another's interpretation. And as I said even though I like I.C.E.'s stuff and respect their work, jumping on that band wagon would be familiar, but a rather shallow approach in which I would learn very little, and not particularly historic.

So I have descided to change the time period to that of the third age during the time of Grimbeorn the Old and the peoples known as the Beornings, after that noble ancestrial hero. It also puts me in roughly the same time period as the rest of the forum but in a different culture. I have also descided that it would be better for realism sake that I not be too heavy into the "Warrior Cast" as represented by Beorn himself, but what the vikings would have considered a "Carl". ie: An independent and free craftsman, farmer, fisherman, etc. that lives by a trade (or many) and is not overly devout to the Religious order of the clan. I descided to represent a cousin of a minor Beorning Lord with some mix of Northman blood back a few generations. As such I would be part of the force that could be called up at anytime to defend the settlement or settlements collectively. (like the Fayrd)
I would be a link between the insular Beorning Culture and the other denezins of the Nan Anduin and the Wood. Providing the service of Hunting, Fishing and Husbandry, performed in the custommary way of the Beorning culture, with the proper methods, rights and rituals, so as to keep the law of the people, and to use my skills as a craftsman among my people as well as for limited trade with the outside world.

I would not be as restricted in my diet, and I would not have the ability to actualy "skinchange" though I would have the same strong empathy with Flora and Fauna due to the enviremental skills I would have grown up in. Though not a skin changer, I will pursue the many different historical accounts of men who through whatever means, could bring on a frenzy that would resemble an animal prior to battle very much like the Norse Berzerker, My religious participation will be on a lesser level but there will still be rituals and dancing in skins and such, much like the Bear cults of Scandinavia (which I have found out a great deal and will post a particularly great paper i'm reading about it here later on).

So that is the new intent. I have been crafting kit items and trying to get into the character and cultural aspects so that not too far down the road I can present a fairly complete interpretation :mrgreen:
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed! :mrgreen:
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Daerir
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Re: Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

Post by Daerir »

I dont know if you are familiar with the Elder Scrolls at all, but I see you being a Nord. You got the awesome burly beard and the love of axes. Or in comparison to Ranger's Apprentice, a Skandian which is what Dwarves always put me in the mind of anyway, or well I guess it was more vice versa but you get my meaning.

To put a place marker down somewhere in Middle Earth, I would be inclined to say Forochel in far north Eriador. Or perhaps far west Ered Luin, in the snowy mountain caps.
An archer practices until he gets it right. A ranger practices until he never gets it wrong
~Halt, Ranger's Apprentice
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Ringulf
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Re: Beijabar of The Nan Anduin T.A. 1640

Post by Ringulf »

Daerir wrote:I dont know if you are familiar with the Elder Scrolls at all, but I see you being a Nord. You got the awesome burly beard and the love of axes. Or in comparison to Ranger's Apprentice, a Skandian which is what Dwarves always put me in the mind of anyway, or well I guess it was more vice versa but you get my meaning.
No, I have no idea what you are talking about, absurd! proposterous! :wink:

Image
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed! :mrgreen:
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