Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Hello all!

I have been conceptualizing and putting together a Beorning/Woodman kit as my first persona. I had been mulling some other ideas around, but I felt that a Beorning or a Woodman would fit best with my location, physical appearance, and personal interests. I've got it in my head that the character would most likely be from around the late 2000's of the Third Age, more specifically around the time the first men began to travel to the Vales and name Beorn as their Chief. Perhaps his family made the trek to the Vales when he was young, or maybe he was simply born into the tribe of Beornings with no real cultural ties to the life before as a Woodman. Regardless, I was thinking of leaning into a shepherd or bardic style occupation. Shepherd makes sense right off the bat, but I was curious if a Bard/Storyteller would be a profession amongst the Beornings.

During the concept stages of the kit itself, I took heavy inspiration from Udwin and his Beorning Kit. I think it is a great representation of the historical inspiration for the Northmen of Middle-Earth, while still having some personal flair that seems to point towards an older culture. Specifically, I felt the fringe was a great addition to the kit. So when designing my own tunic, I decided that a fringed overtunic would be my main piece. From there, I decided on some simple Thorsberg style trousers. winingas, and simple leather turnshoes. Overall, I wanted the color scheme to represent muted and earthy tones. I also decided on a tablet woven belt to try and cut down on the amount of leather used in the kit (Beorn probably wouldn't be too fond of a bunch of unnecessary leather.)

Since I live in Colorado where the weather is VERY turbulent, I figured I would find ways to implement different layers. For my lightest layers, I figured the short-sleeved brown tunic would be fine. In the event I needed a little extra layering, I included making a simple natural linen tunic for underneath. For the heaviest layer, I thought that a cream/natural colored klappenrock coat could be an interesting addition to help break up the layers and add some comfort. When I was looking for hoods, I tried to look for styles that I felt represented the Woodman best. I stumbled on the Orkney Hood and thought it looked really good with a fringed tunic.

I guess on top of just sharing my thought process with you all, I was wondering if any of this seemed too disjointed or disconnected for a persona? I know that most of the pieces span across different time periods and locations, but I felt that overall it was a good look for a common Beorning persona. Let me know what you all think! This is my first big step into Middle-Earth Reenactment, and I would love to hear from the experts!
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https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipM ... MYg-18dYKT

First thing - double-check your link for the image - doesn't seem to be working!

Shepherd or bard are great angles for a Beorning/woodman. Not knowing how much division of labor their culture has, I don't know if I'd call them 'occupations' or 'professions', but they're definitely skillsets that would be present - assuming that Beornings are like Rohirrim and have an oral epic poetry culture instead of writing.

Can you explain what you mean by late 2000s of the Third Age? Keep in mind that the Beornings don't seem to come into being as an entity until after the Bo5A - so just the last 80 years of the Age Prior to that, they seem to be just woodmen and northmen living in separate villages, chiefdoms, or small kingdoms, and while Beorn may have been an important fellow in the local community, it's apparently only after killing Bolg and returning home that Beorn unites them into the Beornings.
***Derp, just saw your signature. "Late 2000s" made me think of early 21st-century CE, but 2985 makes perfect sense.

So glad my fringed direction has been an inspiration. Definitely agree about limited leather. I've always adored the Orkney hood, can't wait to see what you do with it.
(Also, check your PMs re: Tbjergs!)

Looking forward to being able to see your concept!

First of all, I love folks going non-Ranger on their first personas. Tolkien's world is so large and interesting and I love when folks explore the nooks and crannys of it.

I think going non-leather / tablet woven belt is absolutely the right call. I definitely get the sense of leather not being explicitly verboten but looked down on for sure.

I don't know whether it's Udwin's influence on my mental picture, my interest in real-world reenactment with the Anglo-Saxons and such, or something else, but I see klappenrocks and warrior coats a bit more Rohirrim or Dalish. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility and I admit it's definitely just my mental picture but that's my two cents.

The Orkney hood is awesome. I'm waffling back and forth on whether I want to add fringes to my hood myself but it works for Beornings in any case.

I like the idea of winnegas but also look into the Søgård Mose II legwraps as well. They've got a certain "barbaric" flair that I think could also work for Beornings. Kinda like Udwin's legggings.

As far as the Bard/Storyteller angle goes, I think it definitely works. I don't see them as have much writing, if any. I could almost see it druidic in a sense. Not religiously as there wasn't much for religion in Middle-earth but with that same sense of ritual and ceremony. Perhaps they gather in groves to tell the tales of their history. That sort of thing.

All in all, you are on the right track and I'm really looking forward to seeing it!

Udwin- Thanks so much for the heads up on that link! I converted it to a Google Photos link instead! Hopefully everyone can see it now!

That was kind of my thought process too! I had tried to figure how labor would be divided between the people, so I assumed that having multiple skillsets for the persona to dabble in could be good for building them up, but also for allowing me to dip my hands into different trades and skills.

Sorry about the time mix-up! I definitely coulda made it more clear in my initial message, but I'm glad that my idea for TA 2980's makes sense!

You have no idea how much of an inspiration your kit has had! I constantly go back and reference your photos to try and emulate some of the essence you've so perfectly captured! I'm always afraid I'm taking too much inspiration! But I do enjoy the fringed concept and think I'd like to apply it! (I will most certainly message you back regarding the trousers! Sorry, work got hectic and I got a little sidetracked!)


Cimrandir- Thank you so much! I do enjoy the ranger kits that I see, but I just felt that both the Ithilien and Dunedain didn't fit my personal style or what I wanted to represent in a Middle-Earth persona!

Glad you think both the tablet woven and Orkney style hood were good calls! I figured it would be hard to completely leave leather out of a kit, but I wanted to try and stay true to Beorn's way of life as much as I could. Leather turnshoes will be about it for me as far as animal hide is concerned.

The klappenrock was definitely more of a "I threw it on last minute" idea, so I'm not completely married to the concept. I definitely got more Rohirrim and Dale vibes from it as well. I will most likely leave it out, but I appreciate your feedback on the matter! I just looked at the Søgård Mose II legwraps and I've gotta say that I'm a big fan! Will honestly most likely swap out the winingas for these instead!

I'm glad the bard angle makes sense as well! I'm rather fond of storytelling, singing, and playing instruments, so I thought it'd be a cool thing to incorporate into the persona! I definitely viewed it this way as well! Druids and their oral history almost immediately popped into my head while doing some concepting of Beorning/Woodman bards.


Thank you both again for all the great feedback! I really appreciate it! I'll keep you all filled in on my progress!

Photo link still not working, darnit. If you're able to shrink or compress to less than 256kb, you can attach it directly.

I love the concept!

I suggest setting up an Imgur account and following the instructions on the post abt linking images into your posts. It’s actually super easy!