Beorn

Beorn is a character created by J. R. R. Tolkien as part of his Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in The Hobbit as a "skin-changer", a man who could assume the form of a great black bear. His descendants or kinsmen, a group of Men known as the Beornings, dwell in the upper Vales of Anduin between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains; they are counted among the Free Peoples of Middle-earth who oppose Sauron's forces during the War of the Ring. Like the legendary medieval heroes Beowulf and Bödvar Bjarki, Beorn exemplifies the Northern courage that Tolkien made a central virtue in The Lord of the Rings.