Grimbeorn's Animals

Background

The various animals owned by Grimbeorn and his kin are renowned throughout Middle-earth. Aside from the famed honey-bees that are kept by the Beornings, and just like the animals once owned by Beorn, these particular animals utilize their remarkable balance and coordination to help Grimbeorn around the house, particularly in setting and serving the table at meal! The majority of these creatures appear solely in Grimbeorn's House during a special feast, though Grimbeorn's hounds also appear outside of the Vales of Anduin, on sojourns further south...

Lore

"Beorn clapped his hands, and in trotted four beautiful white ponies and several large bodied grey dogs. Beorn said something to them in a queer language like animal noises turned into talk. They went out again and soon came back carrying torches in their mouths, which they lit at the fire and stuck in low brackets on the pillars of the hall about the central hearth. The dogs could stand on their hind-legs when they wished, and carry things with their fore-feet. Quickly they got out boards and trestles from the side walls and set them up near the fire."

In regards to the other animals...

"...others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took and quickly laid on the trestle-tables."

Ref: The Hobbit, Chapter VII: "Queer Lodgings"