Beorn and the Shieldmaiden

Beorn is a skin-changer, a man who can also take the form of a ferocious black bear. When he meets the dwarves and Bilbo in The Hobbit, he is the last of his kind -- his family was wiped out by the evil orcs.

On An Archive of Our Own, author Thorinsmut wrote a story called "Pretty Bird," in which the dwarf Nori is a skin-changer like Beorn, only Nori's animal form is a bird. Meeting Nori, gives Beorn something to think about--maybe he doesn't have to be alone.

Inspired by that lovely fic, I decided to write a story about how Beorn finds his mate.

Also, for this story I have created a new group of Rohirrim, a clan that lives in the mountain steppes and who have darker hair and skin tones than the more common Nordic-looking people of that nation.