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Museum-Quality Matte Paper Print available in two sizes:
12" x 16" (30cm x 40cm): $35.00
24" x 32" (60cm x 80cm): $48.00
 
“Anyway by mid-winter Gandalf and Bilbo had come all the way back, along both edges of the Forest, to the doors of Beorn's house; and there for a while they both stayed. Yule-tide was warm and merry there...” - The Hobbit, Chapter XVIII: The Return Journey
 
This fine art print depicts the lovely time of rest and recreation Bilbo and Gandalf enjoy in spending Yule-tide at the hall of Beorn near the end of their long journey in The Hobbit. The hall is hung with greens, lit with beeswax candles, warm with the company of animals, and well-provided with a feast of bread, honey, fruit, nuts, clotted cream, and other earthy fare. Bear-like Beorn presides at the festive board, laughing with his guests over one of Gandalf’s tales, as he once did when Thorin and Company first came to visit him. Look and you will see the coal-black ram, one of the white ponies, a long-bodied grey dog, and owls flying about in the rafters under the starry sky.
 
Bilbo Baggins has been through many trying and astonishing adventures by this point in the story, and it’s lovely to see him enjoying one of Tolkien’s merciful moments of “recovery, escape, and consolation” in the house of Beorn after so many harrowing experiences. Third Age Middle-earth, of course, does not yet have Christmas, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s use of the word “yule” calls to mind the pre-Christian winter feast of “jul”, celebrated in a manner that Professor Tom Shippey suggests might be called “virtuous paganism,” borrowed from Beowulf and exemplified through Tolkien’s legendarium.
 
My historical cookbooks speak of jul long ago in which Northern folk decked their halls with greens and covered their floors with insulating straw in which they would nestle down and feast on heaps of bread, hearty porridges, and winter storage apples. The straw ornaments which still hang on the Christmas trees of Sweden recollect these times and it’s a depiction that would not feel out-of-place in Beorn’s dwelling. Given what the character of Beorn owes to the bear-men of Norse mythology, I hoped I could capture in this fine art print the Danish spirit of hygge - that warm and cozy feeling of relaxing with friends and family at home and sharing simple pleasures. By hanging this museum-quality print in your own home, you can celebrate some of the most charming moments in the beloved writings of J.R.R Tolkien year-round, or give this print as a gift to someone special to wish them a very merry god jul!