Beren and Lúthien. Alan Lee
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them fared a great host who are the sprites [spirits] of trees and woods, of dale and forest and mountain-side, or those that sing amid the grass at morning and chant among the standing corn at eve. These are the Nermir and the Tavari, Nandini and Orossi [fays (?) of the meads, of the woods, of the valleys, of the mountains], fays, pixies, leprawns, and what else are they not called, for their number is very great; yet must they not be confused with the Eldar [Elves], for they were born before the world, and are older than its oldest, and are not of it.
Another puzzling feature, appearing not only in The Tale of Tinúviel, of which I have found no explanation, nor any more general observation, concerns the power that the Valar possess over the affairs of Men and Elves, and indeed over their minds and hearts, in the far distant Great Lands (Middle-earth). To give examples: on p. 78 ‘the Valar brought [Huan] to a glade’ where Beren and Lúthien were lying on the ground in their flight from Angband; and she said to her father (p. 82): ‘The Valar alone saved [Beren] from a bitter death’. Or again, in the account of Lúthien’s flight from Doriath (p. 57), ‘she entered not that dark region, and regaining heart pressed on’ was later changed to ‘she entered not that dark region, and the Valar set a new hope in her heart, so that she pressed on once more.’
As regards the names that appear in the Tale, I will note here that Artanor corresponds to later Doriath and was also called The Land Beyond; to the north lay the barrier of the Iron Mountains, also called the Bitter Hills, over which Beren came: afterwards they became Ered Wethrin, the Mountains of Shadow. Beyond the mountains lay Hisilómë (Hithlum) the Land of Shadow, also called Dor-lómin. Palisor (p. 37) is the land where the Elves awoke.
The Valar are often referred to as the Gods, and are called also the Ainur (singular Ainu). Melko (later Melkor) is the great evil Vala, called Morgoth, the Black Foe, after his theft of the Silmarils. Mandos is the name both of the Vala and the place of his abode. He is the keeper of the Houses of the Dead.
Manwë is the lord of the Valar; Varda, maker of the stars, is the spouse of Manwë and dwells with him on the summit of Taniquetil, the highest mountain of Arda. The Two Trees are the great trees whose flowers gave light to Valinor, destroyed by Morgoth and the monstrous spider Ungoliant.
Lastly, this is a convenient place to say something of the Silmarils, fundamental to the legend of Beren and Lúthien: they were the work of Fëanor, greatest of the Noldor: ‘the mightiest in skill of word and of hand’; his name means ‘Spirit of Fire’. I will quote here a passage from the later (1930) ‘Silmarillion’ text entitled Quenta Noldorinwa, on which see p. 103.
In those far days Fëanor began on a time a long and marvellous labour, and all his power and all his subtle magic he called upon, for he purposed to make a thing more fair than any of the Eldar yet had made, that should last beyond the end of all. Three jewels he made, and named them Silmarils. A living fire burned within them that was blended of the light of the Two Trees; of their own radiance they shone even in the dark; no mortal flesh impure could touch them, but was withered and was scorched. These jewels the Elves prized beyond all the works of their hands, and Manwë hallowed them, and Varda said: ‘The fate of the Elves is locked herein, and the fate of many things beside.’ The heart of Fëanor was wound about the things he himself had made.
A terrible and deeply destructive oath was sworn by Fëanor and his seven sons in assertion of their sole and inviolable right to the Silmarils, which were stolen by Morgoth.
Vëannë’s tale was expressly addressed to Eriol (Ælfwine), who had never heard of Tinúviel, but as she tells it there is no formal opening: she begins with an account of Tinwelint and Gwendeling (afterwards known as Thingol and Melian). I will however turn again to the Quenta Noldorinwa for this essential element in the legend. In the Tale the formidable Tinwelint (Thingol) is a central figure: the king of the Elves who dwelt in the deep woodlands of Artanor, ruling from his vast cavern in the heart of the forest. But the queen was also a personage of great significance, although seldom seen, and I give here the account of her given in the Quenta Noldorinwa.
In this it is told that on the Great Journey of the Elves from far off Palisor, the place of their awakening, with the ultimate goal of reaching Valinor in the far West beyond the great Ocean
[many Elves] were lost upon the long dark roads, and they wandered in the woods and mountains of the world, and never came to Valinor, nor saw the light of the Two Trees. Therefore they are called Ilkorindi, the Elves that dwelt never in Kôr, the city of the Eldar [Elves] in the land of the Gods. The Dark-elves are they, and many are their scattered tribes, and many are their tongues.
Of the Dark-elves the chief in renown was Thingol. For this reason he came never to Valinor. Melian was a fay. In the gardens of [the Vala] Lórien she dwelt, and among all his fair folk none were there that surpassed her beauty, nor none more wise, nor none more skilled in magical and enchanting song. It is told that the Gods would leave their business and the birds of Valinor their mirth, that Valmar’s bells were silent, and the fountains ceased to flow, when at the mingling of the light Melian sang in the gardens of the God of Dreams. Nightingales went always with her, and their song she taught them. But she loved deep shadow, and often strayed on long journeys into the Outer Lands [Middle-earth], and there filled the silence of the dawning world with her voice and the voices of her birds.
The nightingales of Melian Thingol heard and was enchanted and left his folk. Melian he found beneath the trees and was cast into a dream and a great slumber, so that his people sought him in vain.
In Vëannë’s account, when Tinwelint awoke from his mythically long sleep ‘he thought no more of his people (and indeed it had been vain, for long now had those reached Valinor)’, but desired only to see the lady of the twilight. She was not far off, for she had watched over him as he slept. ‘But more of their story I know not, O Eriol, save that in the end she became his wife, for Tinwelint and Gwendeling very long indeed were king and queen of the Lost Elves of Artanor or the Land Beyond, or so it is said here.’
Vëannë said further that the dwelling of Tinwelint ‘was hidden from the vision and knowledge of Melko by the magics of Gwendeling the fay, and she wove spells about the paths thereto that none but the Eldar [Elves] might tread them easily, and so was the king secured from all dangers save it be treachery alone. Now his halls were builded in a deep cavern of great size, and they were nonetheless a kingly and a fair abode. This cavern was in the heart of the mighty forest of Artanor that is the mightiest of forests, and a stream ran before its doors, but none could enter that portal save across the stream, and a bridge spanned it narrow and well guarded.’ Then Vëannë exclaimed: ‘Lo, now I will tell you of things that happened in the halls of Tinwelint’; and this seems to be the point at which the tale proper can be said to begin.
Two children had Tinwelint then, Dairon and Tinúviel, and Tinúviel was a maiden, and the most beautiful of all the maidens of the hidden Elves, and indeed few have been so fair, for her mother was a fay, a daughter of the Gods; but Dairon was then a boy strong and merry, and above all things he delighted to play upon a pipe of reeds or other woodland instruments, and he is named now among the three most magic players of the Elves, and the others are Tinfang Warble and Ivárë who plays beside the sea. But Tinúviel’s joy was rather in the dance, and no names are set with hers for the beauty and subtlety of