The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 2: Reader’s Guide PART 1. Christina Scull
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to me in your hand a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown; and then, if she will, Lúthien may set her hand in yours’ (p. 167). Beren accepts the challenge. Melian tells Thingol that he has doomed either his daughter or himself.
Beren makes his way to Nargothrond and seeks aid from Felagund according to the promise the king had made to Barahir. But Celegorm and Curufin, two of Fëanor’s sons who are living in Nargothrond, influence the Elves against giving aid to Beren. Felagund, therefore, removes his crown and with only ten faithful companions accompanies Beren on his quest. He disguises their band as orcs, but Sauron is suspicious and has them brought to his stronghold. He and Felagund strive against each other with songs of power, but Sauron prevails, and their true forms are revealed. Refusing to tell their names and purposes, they are cast into a pit and one by one begin to be devoured by a werewolf.
Learning of Beren’s plight from Melian, Lúthien wishes to go to his aid, but Daeron betrays her, and she is imprisoned by Thingol in a house high in a beech tree. By enchantment she grows her hair long, and from it weaves a dark robe to conceal her and a rope by which to escape, both charged with a spell of sleep. Meanwhile Celegorm and Curufin go hunting, hoping to hear news of Felagund, and take with them Huan, a wolfhound given to Celegorm by the Vala Oromë. It has been foretold that Huan can be overcome only by the greatest wolf ever whelped. They come upon Lúthien, and even her magic does not enable her to escape Huan. Brought to Huan’s master, she tells her story and seeks help in rescuing Beren from Sauron’s dungeons. But the brothers have no interest in doing so; they keep Lúthien a prisoner in Nargothrond, thinking to force her to marry Curufin. Huan, however, has loved Lúthien from the moment he saw her, and comes to her often. He understands all that she tells him about Beren, but is permitted to speak only three times before his death. He returns to her the magic cloak and, speaking for the first time, gives her counsel. They escape together, Lúthien riding on Huan’s back.
At last among the captives only Felagund and Beren remain. When a wolf comes to devour Beren, Felagund manages to free himself from his bonds and kills it, but is himself slain. As Beren grieves, he hears Lúthien singing outside, and sings in reply. Sauron recognizes Lúthien’s voice and thinks to capture her for Morgoth, but Huan slays all the wolves he sends, including Draugluin, greatest of werewolves, and even overcomes Sauron himself when he takes werewolf form. After Lúthien forces Sauron to yield the spells that control his tower, he flies away in the form of a vampire. The tower crumbles, Lúthien and Huan bring Beren forth, and together they bury Felagund’s body.
Huan returns to his master. When the folk of Nargothrond hear of Felagund’s fate Celegorm and Curufin are expelled. As they ride to join their brethren they come on Beren and Lúthien, who are arguing whether she should stay in safety or accompany him on his quest for a Silmaril. Curufin tries to abduct Lúthien, but Beren rescues her and is then himself rescued from Celegorm by Huan, who now rejects Celegorm as his master. Beren lets the brothers go free but takes Curufin’s weapons, including the knife Angrist made by Telchar of Nogrod, and his horse. As the brothers flee on Celegorm’s horse, Curufin fires two arrows: one is caught by Huan, but the other wounds Beren. Lúthien heals Beren and they reach the safety of Doriath. Beren steals away secretly while Lúthien is sleeping, not wishing her to accompany him into danger.
At the edge of the waste before Angband Beren sets Curufin’s horse free and sings a Song of Parting, believing that he is going to his death. But Lúthien arrives riding Huan, by whose counsel they have collected from Sauron’s ruined stronghold the wolf-skin of Draugluin and the bat-skin of Thuringwethil, a messenger of Sauron in vampire form. Huan speaks a second time and tells Beren that he cannot save Lúthien from ‘the shadow of death … for by her love she is now subject to it’. Beren can turn aside from his fate and they can live in exile for a while, ‘but if you will not deny your doom, then either Lúthien being forsaken, must assuredly die alone, or she must with you challenge the fate that lies before you’ (p. 179). Huan cannot accompany them further, but they may meet again in Doriath. Beren dons the skin of Draugluin and Lúthien that of Thuringwethil, and thus reach the Gate of Angband.
They are challenged by Carcharoth, a whelp of the race of Draugluin raised by Morgoth on living flesh to be the doom of Huan, but Lúthien casts a spell of sleep on him. They make their way down to Morgoth’s hall. Beren slinks beneath his throne. When Morgoth’s gaze strips Lúthien of her disguise she ‘named her own name, and offered her service to sing before him’, and he conceives ‘in his thought an evil lust’ (p. 180). With her song, however, she casts him and all of his court into slumber, and his crown falls from his head. Using the knife Angrist Beren cuts one Silmaril from the crown, but the knife snaps when he tries to take a second. He flees with Lúthien. As they reach the gate, Carcharoth springs at them. Beren tries to daunt Carcharoth with the Silmaril, but the wolf devours both Beren’s hand and the jewel within it. The Silmaril burns his inner parts, and he runs off mad with pain. While Morgoth and his court begin to rouse, the eagle Thorondor and his vassals carry Beren and Lúthien to Doriath.
Lúthien and Huan, who comes to them, heal Beren from the poisonous bite of Carcharoth. For a while they walk in the woods, but Beren, not wanting to withhold Lúthien from her father or have her live in the wild, persuades her that they should make their way to Thingol. The people of Doriath have sought in vain for Lúthien and grieved for her absence, and Daeron has strayed far away. Thingol has heard that Lúthien had been in Nargothrond but had fled. Just before Beren and Lúthien come to Thingol the king hears that messengers he had sent to Maedhros for aid in seeking Lúthien have been attacked by Carcharoth, who cannot be restrained by the power of Melian from entering Doriath. Beren kneels before Thingol and claims Lúthien as his own: he has fulfilled his quest. ‘Even now a Silmaril is in my hand’, but the hand is no longer on his arm. Thingol’s heart is softened, and ‘Beren took the hand of Lúthien before the throne of her father’ (pp. 184, 185).
But Carcharoth is drawing ever nearer to Menegroth. Beren rides out with Thingol and his hunters, Mablung and Beleg, and with Huan to seek the dread beast. Carcharoth leaps on Thingol, and Beren receives a mortal wound while defending the king. Huan and Carcharoth fight and slay each other, but before dying Huan speaks for the third time, bidding Beren farewell. Mablung cuts the Silmaril from the belly of the wolf and places it in Beren’s hand; ‘and Beren was aroused by the touch of the Silmaril, and held it aloft, and bade Thingol receive it’ (p. 186).
In Menegroth they are met by Lúthien who bids Beren wait for her beyond the Western Sea. And his spirit ‘tarried in the halls of Mandos … until Lúthien came to say her last farewell’. The spirit of Lúthien herself ‘fell down into darkness’, and coming to Mandos sang before him ‘the song most fair that ever in words was woven’, in which she ‘wove two themes … of the sorrow of the Eldar and the grief of Men. … And as she knelt before him her tears fell upon his feet … and Mandos was moved to pity, who never before was so moved, nor has been since’ (pp. 186–7). Mandos lays the case before Manwë, who consults the will of Ilúvatar and offers Lúthien two choices: to dwell among the Valar where Beren cannot come, or to become mortal and return to Middle-earth with Beren for a short time, and like him be subject to death. She chooses the latter, ‘that thus whatever grief might lie in wait’, her fate and that of Beren ‘might be joined, and their paths lead together beyond the confines of the world’ (p. 187).
HISTORY
The first version of this story, The Tale of Tinúviel in *The Book of Lost Tales, does not survive. Tolkien wrote it in pencil, probably in the second half of 1917, but overwrote it with a second version in ink and erased the pencil text, probably in summer 1919. References in other stories written in the intervening period, however, give some indication of what might have been in the original text. There, as in The Silmarillion, Beren was a Man, not an Elf. An allusion to ‘Tevildo Prince of Cats’ (*The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 47) suggests that Tevildo was already present in the first version. Elsewhere there are references to Lúthien’s parents, Linwë Tinto (> Tinwelint > Thingol) and Tindriel (> Wendelin > Gwendeling > Melian), and to their meeting, foreshadowing that of Lúthien and Beren. They have two children, Timpinen and Tinúviel, who ‘long after joined the Eldar again’ (The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, pp. 106–7; it is impossible to know what Tolkien meant by this phrase).