Barkrist < is an anglicised cognate of the West Old Norse name Bǫrkrístr (or even East Old Norse Barkrístr where u-affection: a -> ǫ was very rare). Hence derived from ‘Bǫrkr’ meaning ‘bark of a tree’ and ‘rísta’ as in ‘to carve or cut’. Semantically the name refers to his skill as a woodchopper and carver. For he has earned renown among his kin for his carvings and many of their houses were built using the wood he chopped and carved.

While he is mostly called by the name of Barkrist, he is also known by rural Éothéod in the Wold as Beregrist, which translates from Old English to Bear-baker or Barley-baker. For his tasty bread is much desired there. Even others have been prone to change the harsh 'k' consonant in his name to its soft 'g' counterpart, making his name sound like Bargrist.

Barkrist is a Beorning of Wilderland and a Woodman of Mirkwood. His lineage goes all the way back to the first Northmen who settled in the narrows. His ancestors outlived many who had perished to the Great Plague or the warring with the Wainriders, but they were saddened by the shadow that had fallen over the forest. After the Battle of the Five Armies, Beorn invited Northmen from all over Rhovanion to join him in a great feast to celebrate the victory over the goblins of the mountains, and some stayed with him and called him chieftain. Among these men who joined Beorn and became the people known as Beornings was Barkrist's father.

Barkrist grew up in the realm of Grimbeorn in the Vales of the Anduin, near the eaves of Mirkwood. There he lives a rather solitary life in a wooden house not far removed from Woodman settlements for whom he chops trees and tends sheep. Come every autumn he joins his fellow Beornings in their patrols of the mountain pass, and come yule he feasts with them at Grimbeorn's village. For Grimbeorn he deems his chieftain, like his father before him.

But at least once a year he travels eastward with a wagon full of logs, wool and bread for trade with the Men of the Long Lake. A perilous journey, but one he cannot help but undertake, for they have provisions the like which he is incapable of finding in the wild, like barley. Hence he trades not for gold or gems, but for fine ingredients and iron tools for use in carving or the making of arrowheads.

The Bardings of Dale and Lake-town look at him with much curiosity in their eyes, for they know him to be of the Vale-folk and the legend of Beorn the skin-changer is still fresh in their minds. 

Overall he lives a quiet life of good food on the table and a warm hearth at the end of his feet. Shelves stacked with a great many sacks of barley flower, honey pots and milk canisters. He has a large wooden seat standing on a wool rug, placed in front of a brick hearth and a table not far from it filled with walnuts and bread and roasted barley. He churns butter and makes cheese and often falls asleep in front of his hearth with a bowl of each in his large hands.

But the Woodmen know him also as a fierce warrior if provoked, and his strong arms are even envied amidst the line of Grimbeorn. For he is Barkrist, the Giant-slayer, who is said to have slain a giant of great girth in single combat.