Adaptation challenge 5: The Beorn supremacy (or lack thereof)
The Beorn chapter in the book is enchanting and sometimes delightful; even the image of scores of bears of all sizes gathering from dark to nearly dawn is wondrous rather than threatening (since they’re dancing). Indeed, when Tolkien wrote the chapter, Middle-earth was a much less dark and dangerous place than it would later become — recall that in the original edition of The Hobbit, Gollum showed Bilbo the way out with perfect politeness. If left unaltered, “Queer Lodgings” would thus already seem out of place when transplanted into the world of LOTR.
But that is only one of two difficulties it poses to as an opening sequence for The Desolation of Smaug. The sojourn at Beorn’s — this vivid and charming respite from danger — seems to me to be the first spot in the story where the Sauron storyline might easily overshadow Thorin’s quest. One could easily imagine a viewer deciding they are more interested in learning about the imminent return of ultimate evil into the world than the ability of dogs, ponies, and sheep to collaborate on setting the table for dinner. Which would be a shame, really, for all of us who find that scene beguiling.
It would be easy, I think, to fix this problem in a way that would be guaranteed to be effective, yet ultimately unimaginative. There’s much going on in the background of the Beorn visit that could be foregrounded, tweaked, massaged into a plot, and made more than exciting enough, including the nocturnal gathering of the bears, and Beorn’s capture, interrogation, and killing of the goblin and Warg. What’s more, Tolkien leaves a major narrative gun on the wall, unfired: according to the information Beorn gleans from the goblin, not only are goblin and Warg patrols still hunting Thorin and Co., but the entire army may soon go after them. They never do show up.
But if I’m right about what’s going on with the Radagast storyline at this point, none of this seems feasible. The goblins from the Mountains seem to have been replaced by orcs from Dol Guldur, probably led by Azog, and they may be pursuing Radagast as he flees towards Beorn’s halls, and the bears may be needed to defeat them, after Thorin and Co. have left for Mirkwood. So none of these elements could really be used to amp up the Beorn episode. And that suggests an entirely different approach, which might be workable even if these Radagast guesses are all wrong.
Instead of worrying that the parallel Radagast storyline will overshadow the charm of the sojourn at Beorn’s, why not embrace that difference? Cutting back and forth between Thorin and Co. experiencing the delights of Beorn’s hospitality and Radagast experiencing the terror of deadly pursuit could be extraordinarily effective, even if Radagast isn’t headed in Beorn’s direction.
What I have in mind here is a sequence similar to the justifiably renowned one in ROTK where Faramir’s doomed charge across the Pelennor is intercut with Pippin’s song for Denethor. The Beorn episode may be unrivalled in all of Tolkien for its portrayal of the purity of the natural world. All of Middle-earth may be tainted with evil, may be “Morgoth’s Ring,” but there’s hardly a scene in Tolkien where evil seems as distant and remote as it does when Beorn’s animal companions tend to our travelers. It is — to reclaim a very nice word that has been so tainted — precious. Communion with nature is of great value. I can’t think of a better way of reminding us of that, than juxtaposing it with the brutality of evil.
Coming in January: The further challenges of the second and third films.
About the author: Eric M. Van is better known in the real world for spending four years (2005-2008) as a statistical Baseball Operations Consultant for the Boston Red Sox, after being recruited off an Internet fan message board by team owner John W. Henry. In more obscure regions he’s better known as a longtime rock critic for local Boston ‘zines, and as the semi-official historian of re-united postpunk legends Mission of Burma (and as a principal talking head in their biopic). He hopes his next major published works (excluding film criticism at his blog) will be a paper entitled “A Testable Theory of Phenomenal Consciousness and Causal Free Will” and a follow-up book, A Nature of Consciousness. (For his Tolkien-geek credentials, see the bio that appeared with Part One and Part Two of this series.)
The views in this feature are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net or its staff.
