Lúthien and Beren

Lúthien and Beren are characters in

The story of Lúthien and Beren, immortal elf-maiden marrying a mortal man and choosing mortality for herself, is mirrored in Tolkien's The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. The names Beren and Lúthien appear on the grave of Tolkien and his wife Edith.

Context

Lúthien was a

Beren saw Lúthien dancing under moonrise in her father's forest, and fell in love with her, captivated by her beauty. He stood in the shadows wishing to be near enough to Lúthien to touch her, but Daeron, her childhood friend and partner in music and dance, noticed Beren and, believing him to be a wild animal, shouted for Lúthien to flee. She saw Beren's shadow and ran away. One day in summer when Lúthien was dancing on a green hill surrounded by

Daeron, who also loved her, reported her meetings with Beren to her father. Though Melian warned her husband against it, Thingol was determined not to let Beren marry his daughter, and set a seemingly impossible task as the

Lúthien had a vision of Beren lying suffering in the pits of Sauron, Lord of Werewolves. Her mother told her that Beren was captive in Sauron's dungeons. Lúthien decided to save Beren, asking Daeron for help, but he betrayed her to Thingol. Thingol then had her guarded in the high branches of a beech tree. Daeron was filled with remorse; Lúthien forgave him and devised a plan to escape. She enchanted her hair into a cloak to lull her guards to sleep, and ran from her prison.^{[T 2]}

On her way to rescue Beren, she found Huan, the Hound of

They came to Sauron's Isle, and Lúthien sang a call to Beren. He answered, but Sauron heard her song and sent wolves to slay Huan, but Huan killed them, one by one. Finally, Sauron transformed himself into the most powerful of all werewolves and went out. Huan flinched, but Lúthien smothered Sauron's lunge in her enchanted cloak. Sauron changed into different shapes, but Huan bested him. Lúthien forced Sauron to surrender the keys of his tower; he fled in the shape of a vampire.[T 2] Lúthien destroyed the Tower. Finding the seemingly-dead Beren, she fell down beside him in grief, but with the rising sun he awoke and they were reunited. Huan returned to Celegorm.^{[T 2]}

Celegorm, Curufin and the dance of Lúthien before Morgoth

Beren pleaded with Lúthien to return to her father, but she refused. As they were about to embrace, Celegorm and Curufin appeared, exiled because of Lúthien's escape from Nargothrond. Seeking revenge, they fought Beren, and Huan again fought on Lúthien's side. Beren defeated them, but spared their lives at Lúthien's request. Beren stole one of their horses, and the couple fled. As she slept, he went to

Lúthien healed Beren, and together they stood before her father's throne. Beren told Thingol that the quest was fulfilled, and that he held a Silmaril in his hand. When Thingol demanded to see it, Beren showed him his stump. The couple then explained what had happened. They were married before Thingol's throne that day. Meanwhile, Carcharoth slaughtered all the living beings he came across in his frenzied flight, both empowered and tormented by the jewel burning his stomach. Beren, Thingol, Huan, and other Elves went to defeat the beast. Beren was attacked by the wolf; Huan killed the beast, but died of his wounds. Beren was carried to Doriath, where he died in Lúthien's arms.[T 2]

Lúthien becomes mortal for Beren

In grief, Lúthien lay down and died, going to the Halls of

Elrond and Arwen were descendants of Lúthien, as was Aragorn, a descendant of Elrond's brother Elros.^{[T 3]}

Genealogy

Earlier versions

In the various versions of The Tale of Tinúviel, Tolkien's earliest form of the tale, as published in

The story is also told in an epic poem in The Lays of Beleriand, upon which most of the finer details of her life and relationship to Beren is extracted from in this article, since The Silmarillion provides only a generalization of the tale.^{[T 11]}

Analysis

Classical myth

Further information: Tolkien and the classical world

Peter Astrup Sundt draws parallels between Beren and

Mandos, the Vala who watches over the souls of the dead.^[4] Ben Eldon Stevens adds that Tolkien's retelling contrasts sharply with the myth. Where Orpheus nearly manages to retrieve Eurydice from Hades, Lúthien rescues Beren three times – from Sauron's fortress-prison of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, involving singing; from Morgoth's Angband, with the Silmaril; and by getting Mandos to restore both of them to life. In the original myth, Eurydice meets "a second death", soon followed by the griefstruck Orpheus, whereas Tolkien has Lúthien and Beren enjoy "a second life" after their "resurrection".^{[5][T 12]}

Harrowing of Hell

Further information: Christian light in Tolkien's legendarium

Robert Steed, in

Mallorn, argues that Tolkien echoes and "creatively adapts" the medieval theme of the Harrowing of Hell

, in the tale of Lúthien and Beren, and in other places. The medieval tale holds that Christ spent the time between his crucifixion and resurrection down in Hell, setting the Devil's captives free with the irresistible power of his divine light. The motif, Steed suggests, involves a multi-step sequence:

1. someone imprisoned in darkness;
2. a powerful and evil jailor;
3. a still more powerful liberator
4. who brings light, and
5. sets the captives free.

Steed describes the tale "

Of Beren and Lúthien" as an instance, where Lúthien sets Beren free from Sauron's imprisonment. Beren is freed from darkness, Lúthien from despair, so, Steed remarks, both of them take on aspects of Christ:^[6]

But Beren coming back to light out of the pit of despair lifted her up, and they looked again upon one another; and the day rising over dark hills shone upon them."[T 13]

Folktale, fairytale

The Tale of Beren and Lúthien also shares an element with folktales of the kind of the Welsh Culhwch and Olwen — namely, the disapproving parent who sets a seemingly impossible task (or tasks) for the suitor, which is then fulfilled.^[7]

The Tolkien scholar

fairytale, then it definitely portrays a modern "female-centred fairy-tale revisioning" with a Lúthien who may be fairer than mortal tongue can tell, but is also more resourceful than her lover.^[8]

Personal life

In a letter to his son Christopher, dated 11 July 1972, Tolkien requested the inscription below for his wife Edith's grave "for she was (and knew she was) my Lúthien."^{[T 14]} He added, "I never called Edith Luthien – but she was the source of the story.... It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire where ... she was able to live with me for a while."^{[T 14]} In a footnote to this letter, Tolkien added "she knew the earliest form of the legend...also the poem eventually printed as Aragorn's song."^{[T 14]} Particularly affecting for Tolkien was Edith's conversion to the Catholic Church from the Church of England for his sake upon their marriage; this was a difficult decision for her that caused her much hardship, paralleling the difficulties and suffering of Lúthien from choosing mortality.^[9]

Edith and J. R. R. Tolkien lie in Wolvercote Cemetery in north Oxford. Their gravestone shows the association of Lúthien with Edith, and Tolkien with Beren.^[10] The stone reads:

+
Edith Mary Tolkien
Luthien
1889–1971
John Ronald
Reuel Tolkien
Beren
1892–1973

Notes

1. ^ There the spirits of dead Elves await re-embodiment in Valinor; the spirits of dead Men await their departure from the circles of the world.^{[T 5]}

References

Primary

1. Houghton Mifflin
   Co., 30 June 1955
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Tolkien 1977, ch. 19 "Of Beren and Lúthien"
3. ^ ^{a b} Tolkien 1955, Appendix A: The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen
4. ^ Tolkien 1987, ch. 3 The Lost Road
5. ^ Tolkien 1977 ch. 7 "Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor"
6. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 20 "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad"
7. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 22 "Of the Ruin of Doriath"
8. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age": Family Trees I and II: "The house of Finwë and the Noldorin descent of Elrond and Elros", and "The descendants of Olwë and Elwë"
9. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers, I The Númenórean Kings
10. ^ Tolkien 1984, book 2, ch. 1 "The Tale of Tinúviel"
11. ^ Tolkien 1985, part 3, ch. 1 "The Gest of Beren son of Barahir and Lúthien the Fay called Tinúviel the Nightingale or the Lay of Leithian – Release from Bondage"
12. ^ Carpenter 2023, #153, September 1954 to Peter Hastings
13. ^ Tolkien 1977, 19 "Of Beren and Lúthien"
14. ^ ^{a b c} Carpenter 2023, #340 to Christopher Tolkien, 11 July 1972

Secondary