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 (whose names both mean "bear"), Beorn exemplifies the Northern courage that Tolkien made a central virtue in The Lord of the Rings.