What form can the skin-changer Beorn take?

The skin-changer Beorn can take the form of a bear.

Beorn is introduced in The Hobbit as a huge man who can transform into a great black bear. Gandalf, Bilbo and the thirteen dwarves visit his home between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood, where he provides food, ponies and advice for their dangerous journey through the forest.

His transformation is more than a visual trick: Beorn retains enormous strength in bear form and uses it in the Battle of Five Armies. He arrives during the fighting, kills the goblin leader Bolg and helps turn the battle in favor of the Free Peoples. His descendants, the Beornings, are later said to inherit the ability to take bear shape.

The term “skin-changer” distinguishes Beorn from an ordinary shapeshifter in modern fantasy. Tolkien connected the character’s name with Old English and Scandinavian words associated with bears and warriors. Beorn’s animal form also fits his fierce temperament, his closeness to nature and his unusual household of animals and bees.