BIBLICAL PARALLELS TO MIDDLE-EARTH VII. THE TALE OF BEREN AND LUTHIEN
(SPOILER ALERT! This blog summarizes the chapter "Of Beren and Luthien" from The Silmarillion.)
The Story
After the Battle of Sudden Flame, Barahir and his son, Beren, stayed in the north to fight Morgoth. Sauron, though, sent one of Barahir's men a false vision leading him to betray Barahir's hidden camp. While Beren was scouting, Sauron's Orcs attacked the camp and killed all there. Returning there, Beren buried his father, then pursued the Orcs. Daringly, he recovered from them the ring that the Elvish King Felagund of Nargothrond had given Barahir in payment for saving Felagund's life.
Pursued by Morgoth, Beren fled southward into Doriath, the enchanted realm of the Elvish King Thingol and his wife, the Maia Melian. There, at moonrise on a summer's eve, Beren saw Luthien, Thingol and Melian's daughter, dancing in the woods. She was the most beautiful of all of Iluvatar's Children. Beren fell in love with her. As he ran to her, she vanished.
He wandered the woods in quest of her. He saw her in an autumn evening and a winter night, but could never approach her. At last, though, as spring began, he heard her sing a song more beautiful than any other that had been sung since the Great Music. When he called out to her, "Tinuviel," Elvish for nightingale, she responded to the name as her own. She fell in love with Beren.
When Thingol learned what his daughter had done, he took Beren captive and brought him to the throne for judgment. There, Beren found courage to claim Luthien as his own. Thingol would have slain Beren but for Barahir's ring. Thingol, though, set Beren a task that, if attempted, would surely cause his death. Thingol told Beren that he could have Luthien as his wife if he brought Thingol as her brideprice one of the Silmarils from Morgoth's crown. Melian, hearing her husband's challenge, grieved. By involving himself with the Silmarils, Thingol had brought upon himself the Doom of Mandos.
Beren, saying that Thingol sold his daughter cheaply, set off for Nargothrond to seek Felagund's help. Felagund, recalling the debt that he owed Beren's father, volunteered to help Beren win the Silmaril. Two of Feanor's sons, Celegorm and Curufin, were living in Nargothrond. They warned Thingol that Feanor's Oath made them foes of whoever kept from them a Silmaril. Ignoring their warning, Felagund left Nargothrond with Beren and a small party of Elves to enter Angband, Morgoth's impenetrable fortress.
On the way there, Beren and Felagund slew some Orcs and took their gear as disguises. When Beren's party passed an outlying watchtower, Sauron, its master, called the party of "Orcs" before him to tell him their business. Felagund fought with a Sauron a magical duel that Sauron won, exposing the party as Elves and a Man. He could not, though, learn their names or business. He put them into a dungeon. There, night after night, he sent a wolf to slay one of the party till just Beren and Felagund remained.
Meanwhile, Luthien had been trying to find Beren. After being held prisoner by her father, Luthien had escaped from Doriath, only to be captured by Celegorm and Curufin, who took her to Nargothrond. There they meant to force her to marry Celegorm. With the aid of Celegorm's hunting dog, Huan, one of the hounds of Valinor, Luthien escaped from Nargothrond and reached the watchtower.
There, Sauron's wolf had just killed Felagund. Luthien sang a song that awoke a response from Beren. It also awoke a response from Sauron, who sent a wolf after her. When Huan slew it, Sauron recalled a prophecy that Huan could never die till he met the world's mightiest wolf. Sauron himself, taking a wolf's form, fought Huan. Huan's power and Luthien's song prevailed. Sauron was forced to release Beren and flee in disgrace to Morgoth.
Beren and Luthien wandered long till he found the resolve to send her home and go for the Silmaril alone. Before he could do so, Celegorm and Curufin attacked him and Luthien. Huan fought against his old master. Beren defeated Celegorm and stripped him of his weapons, but Curufin, riding off with his brother, shot Beren with a poisoned arrow. Beren was saved only by a magical leaf that Huan brought him, and by Luthien's song.
As Beren convalesced, he agreed to Luthien's demand to share his path wherever it ran. With her aid, he disguised himself as a wolf. With her as a bat beside him, he set off for Angband. At its gate Beren and Luthien met Carcharoth, the world's mightiest wolf, whom Morgoth had bred in view of Huan's prophecy. With her song Luthien put Carcharoth asleep.
Beren and Luthien went on to Morgoth's throneroom. There, Beren, still disguised as a wolf, slunk under Morgoth's throne. Luthien, dropping her disguise, offered to serve Morgoth as a minstrel. While Morgoth conceived an abominable lust for her, she sang the second mightiest song ever sung by a Child of Iluvatar. One by one Morgoth's minions fell asleep. At length, he, too, fell senseless from his throne. His iron crown rolled from his head.
Luthien awoke Beren. Beren cut a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown. When he tried to cut the other Silmarils from it, his knife snapped. As Morgoth and his minions began to stir, Beren and Luthien fled the throneroom in terror. At Angband's gates, they met Carcharoth, again awake. Luthien, spent from her song before Morgoth, could do nothing against him. Beren tried to raise against him the light of the Silmaril, as Frodo and Sam would raise that Silmaril's light, caught in the Phial of Galadriel, against Shelob. Carcharoth, though, bit off Beren's hand. Driven mad by the Silmaril's holy light in his evil body, Carcharoth ran howling off.
Luthien barely had time to stanch Beren's wound before Huan came to bear her and Beren away from Morgoth's pursuit. With the aid of Huan and the eagles of Manwe, Beren and Luthien returned to Doriath. There, Beren claimed Luthien on the basis of his having a Silmaril in his hand. When Thingol challenged him to produce the jewel, he showed Thingol his handless arm and said that the hand was in Carcharoth. Thingol, at last seeing Beren as a Man of truth and courage, granted him Luthien's love.
This, Beren did not long enjoy. Carcharoth, with the Silmaril's power within him, burst into Doriath and began to ravage the land. Beren, Thingol, and Huan hunted him. In a terrible battle with Carcharoth, Huan slew the wolf, but not before both Huan and Beren were mortally wounded. Beren had just enough time to place the Silmaril in Thingol's hands before he died.
At Luthien's prayer, Beren was detained in the Halls of Mandos and did not pass beyond them to whatever destiny awaited Men. Luthien herself soon sickened and died. Coming in spirit before Mandos, she sang to him the mightiest song of Iluvatar's Chidren, a song of all of the suffering and sorrow of Elves and Men in Middle-Earth. The pitiless Mandos, moved to tears for the sole time, granted Luthien her wish.
She chose to return with Beren to Middle-Earth and live with him there the rest of a mortal life, then share with him Men's destiny beyond the world. In Middle-Earth, in a hidden land of peace, Beren and Luthien had a son, Dior. From him the heritage of Elves and Maiar would reach Men of the present day through his descendants Aragorn and Arwen.
The Parallels
The Tale of Beren and Luthien, to many the greatest of Tolkien's tales, is his most personal. It's the story of him and his wife. As an orphaned teenager under a Catholic priest's guardianship, Tolkien met and fell in love with a fellow orphan, Edith. Once, when she danced for him in a grove of trees, he conceived a story in which she was an Elven princess; he, an outcast warrior forbidden to marry her. The forbidding reflected Tolkien's and Edith's different faiths: he was Catholic; she, Anglican. Indeed, when the priest learned of Tolkien and Edith's relationship, he forebade Tolkien to see her again. Only when he came of age, and Edith turned to Catholicism, could he marry her. On the Tolkiens' grave, the work "Beren" stands below his name; the word "Luthien," below hers.
Still, Tolkien must've seen the parallels between the story of Beren and Luthien and two Biblical accounts of a man who had to undergo an ordeal to gain the woman whom he loved. The first account is that of Jacob, who had to labor seven years to win Laban's daughter, Rachel (Genesis 29:15-29). The second account is that of David, who had to kill a hundred Philistine warriors to win King Saul's daughter, Michal (I Samuel 18:14-29). King Thingol of Doriath, in The Tale of Beren and Luthien, displays both Laban's greed and King Saul's suspicion and pride.
In keeping with Tolkien's statment that, though he detested allegory, he accepted applicability, there's much of the latter in this tale. King Felagund of Nargothrond represents the godly man, who, having sworn an oath to his hurt, yet keeps it (Psalm 15:1-5). Luthien shows Ruth's determination to share the fate of one whom she loves (Ruth 1:16-17). Beren, Felagund, Huan, and Luthien all illustrate the theme of sacrifice that runs through Tolkien's work. Tolkien again plays the "Adam and Eve" theme when he restores Beren and Luthien to a peaceful garden and makes them the parents of a son who, like Seth, is the ancestor of the Deliverer, to be embodied at the end of the First Age as Earendil, at the end of the Second Age as Isildur, and at the end of the Third Age as Aragorn (Genesis 4:25-26; 5:3; Luke 3:23-38).
Mostly, though, as The Tale of Beren and Luthien is one of Tolkien's earliest stories, it's also one of his least Biblical. It borrows its themes of the hunt, shapeshifting, magical animals, and a dark quest of the underworld from the Celtic mythology that fascinated Tolkien in his youth. His tale most directly parallels the stories of Annwn from the Welsh classic, The Mabinogion.
Tolkien's tale ends with a magnificent role-reversed retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus. To this Tolkien gives a bittersweet ending in contrast with the Greek myth's stark tragedy. In the myth of Orpheus, Orpheus wins his true love, Eurydice, from Hades, but loses her on the way back to the earth. In the tale of Beren and Luthien, Luthien wins her true love, Beren, from Mandos, and returns with him to Middle-Earth, but must sacrifice her immortality for the sake of her love. In The Lord of the Rings, Luthien's descendent, Arwen, will make Luthien's bittersweet choice out of love of Aragorn.
In the end, The Tale of Beren and Luthien is a beautiful story. Surely we do no wrong in appreciating it just as that.
The Story
After the Battle of Sudden Flame, Barahir and his son, Beren, stayed in the north to fight Morgoth. Sauron, though, sent one of Barahir's men a false vision leading him to betray Barahir's hidden camp. While Beren was scouting, Sauron's Orcs attacked the camp and killed all there. Returning there, Beren buried his father, then pursued the Orcs. Daringly, he recovered from them the ring that the Elvish King Felagund of Nargothrond had given Barahir in payment for saving Felagund's life.
Pursued by Morgoth, Beren fled southward into Doriath, the enchanted realm of the Elvish King Thingol and his wife, the Maia Melian. There, at moonrise on a summer's eve, Beren saw Luthien, Thingol and Melian's daughter, dancing in the woods. She was the most beautiful of all of Iluvatar's Children. Beren fell in love with her. As he ran to her, she vanished.
He wandered the woods in quest of her. He saw her in an autumn evening and a winter night, but could never approach her. At last, though, as spring began, he heard her sing a song more beautiful than any other that had been sung since the Great Music. When he called out to her, "Tinuviel," Elvish for nightingale, she responded to the name as her own. She fell in love with Beren.
When Thingol learned what his daughter had done, he took Beren captive and brought him to the throne for judgment. There, Beren found courage to claim Luthien as his own. Thingol would have slain Beren but for Barahir's ring. Thingol, though, set Beren a task that, if attempted, would surely cause his death. Thingol told Beren that he could have Luthien as his wife if he brought Thingol as her brideprice one of the Silmarils from Morgoth's crown. Melian, hearing her husband's challenge, grieved. By involving himself with the Silmarils, Thingol had brought upon himself the Doom of Mandos.
Beren, saying that Thingol sold his daughter cheaply, set off for Nargothrond to seek Felagund's help. Felagund, recalling the debt that he owed Beren's father, volunteered to help Beren win the Silmaril. Two of Feanor's sons, Celegorm and Curufin, were living in Nargothrond. They warned Thingol that Feanor's Oath made them foes of whoever kept from them a Silmaril. Ignoring their warning, Felagund left Nargothrond with Beren and a small party of Elves to enter Angband, Morgoth's impenetrable fortress.
On the way there, Beren and Felagund slew some Orcs and took their gear as disguises. When Beren's party passed an outlying watchtower, Sauron, its master, called the party of "Orcs" before him to tell him their business. Felagund fought with a Sauron a magical duel that Sauron won, exposing the party as Elves and a Man. He could not, though, learn their names or business. He put them into a dungeon. There, night after night, he sent a wolf to slay one of the party till just Beren and Felagund remained.
Meanwhile, Luthien had been trying to find Beren. After being held prisoner by her father, Luthien had escaped from Doriath, only to be captured by Celegorm and Curufin, who took her to Nargothrond. There they meant to force her to marry Celegorm. With the aid of Celegorm's hunting dog, Huan, one of the hounds of Valinor, Luthien escaped from Nargothrond and reached the watchtower.
There, Sauron's wolf had just killed Felagund. Luthien sang a song that awoke a response from Beren. It also awoke a response from Sauron, who sent a wolf after her. When Huan slew it, Sauron recalled a prophecy that Huan could never die till he met the world's mightiest wolf. Sauron himself, taking a wolf's form, fought Huan. Huan's power and Luthien's song prevailed. Sauron was forced to release Beren and flee in disgrace to Morgoth.
Beren and Luthien wandered long till he found the resolve to send her home and go for the Silmaril alone. Before he could do so, Celegorm and Curufin attacked him and Luthien. Huan fought against his old master. Beren defeated Celegorm and stripped him of his weapons, but Curufin, riding off with his brother, shot Beren with a poisoned arrow. Beren was saved only by a magical leaf that Huan brought him, and by Luthien's song.
As Beren convalesced, he agreed to Luthien's demand to share his path wherever it ran. With her aid, he disguised himself as a wolf. With her as a bat beside him, he set off for Angband. At its gate Beren and Luthien met Carcharoth, the world's mightiest wolf, whom Morgoth had bred in view of Huan's prophecy. With her song Luthien put Carcharoth asleep.
Beren and Luthien went on to Morgoth's throneroom. There, Beren, still disguised as a wolf, slunk under Morgoth's throne. Luthien, dropping her disguise, offered to serve Morgoth as a minstrel. While Morgoth conceived an abominable lust for her, she sang the second mightiest song ever sung by a Child of Iluvatar. One by one Morgoth's minions fell asleep. At length, he, too, fell senseless from his throne. His iron crown rolled from his head.
Luthien awoke Beren. Beren cut a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown. When he tried to cut the other Silmarils from it, his knife snapped. As Morgoth and his minions began to stir, Beren and Luthien fled the throneroom in terror. At Angband's gates, they met Carcharoth, again awake. Luthien, spent from her song before Morgoth, could do nothing against him. Beren tried to raise against him the light of the Silmaril, as Frodo and Sam would raise that Silmaril's light, caught in the Phial of Galadriel, against Shelob. Carcharoth, though, bit off Beren's hand. Driven mad by the Silmaril's holy light in his evil body, Carcharoth ran howling off.
Luthien barely had time to stanch Beren's wound before Huan came to bear her and Beren away from Morgoth's pursuit. With the aid of Huan and the eagles of Manwe, Beren and Luthien returned to Doriath. There, Beren claimed Luthien on the basis of his having a Silmaril in his hand. When Thingol challenged him to produce the jewel, he showed Thingol his handless arm and said that the hand was in Carcharoth. Thingol, at last seeing Beren as a Man of truth and courage, granted him Luthien's love.
This, Beren did not long enjoy. Carcharoth, with the Silmaril's power within him, burst into Doriath and began to ravage the land. Beren, Thingol, and Huan hunted him. In a terrible battle with Carcharoth, Huan slew the wolf, but not before both Huan and Beren were mortally wounded. Beren had just enough time to place the Silmaril in Thingol's hands before he died.
At Luthien's prayer, Beren was detained in the Halls of Mandos and did not pass beyond them to whatever destiny awaited Men. Luthien herself soon sickened and died. Coming in spirit before Mandos, she sang to him the mightiest song of Iluvatar's Chidren, a song of all of the suffering and sorrow of Elves and Men in Middle-Earth. The pitiless Mandos, moved to tears for the sole time, granted Luthien her wish.
She chose to return with Beren to Middle-Earth and live with him there the rest of a mortal life, then share with him Men's destiny beyond the world. In Middle-Earth, in a hidden land of peace, Beren and Luthien had a son, Dior. From him the heritage of Elves and Maiar would reach Men of the present day through his descendants Aragorn and Arwen.
The Parallels
The Tale of Beren and Luthien, to many the greatest of Tolkien's tales, is his most personal. It's the story of him and his wife. As an orphaned teenager under a Catholic priest's guardianship, Tolkien met and fell in love with a fellow orphan, Edith. Once, when she danced for him in a grove of trees, he conceived a story in which she was an Elven princess; he, an outcast warrior forbidden to marry her. The forbidding reflected Tolkien's and Edith's different faiths: he was Catholic; she, Anglican. Indeed, when the priest learned of Tolkien and Edith's relationship, he forebade Tolkien to see her again. Only when he came of age, and Edith turned to Catholicism, could he marry her. On the Tolkiens' grave, the work "Beren" stands below his name; the word "Luthien," below hers.
Still, Tolkien must've seen the parallels between the story of Beren and Luthien and two Biblical accounts of a man who had to undergo an ordeal to gain the woman whom he loved. The first account is that of Jacob, who had to labor seven years to win Laban's daughter, Rachel (Genesis 29:15-29). The second account is that of David, who had to kill a hundred Philistine warriors to win King Saul's daughter, Michal (I Samuel 18:14-29). King Thingol of Doriath, in The Tale of Beren and Luthien, displays both Laban's greed and King Saul's suspicion and pride.
In keeping with Tolkien's statment that, though he detested allegory, he accepted applicability, there's much of the latter in this tale. King Felagund of Nargothrond represents the godly man, who, having sworn an oath to his hurt, yet keeps it (Psalm 15:1-5). Luthien shows Ruth's determination to share the fate of one whom she loves (Ruth 1:16-17). Beren, Felagund, Huan, and Luthien all illustrate the theme of sacrifice that runs through Tolkien's work. Tolkien again plays the "Adam and Eve" theme when he restores Beren and Luthien to a peaceful garden and makes them the parents of a son who, like Seth, is the ancestor of the Deliverer, to be embodied at the end of the First Age as Earendil, at the end of the Second Age as Isildur, and at the end of the Third Age as Aragorn (Genesis 4:25-26; 5:3; Luke 3:23-38).
Mostly, though, as The Tale of Beren and Luthien is one of Tolkien's earliest stories, it's also one of his least Biblical. It borrows its themes of the hunt, shapeshifting, magical animals, and a dark quest of the underworld from the Celtic mythology that fascinated Tolkien in his youth. His tale most directly parallels the stories of Annwn from the Welsh classic, The Mabinogion.
Tolkien's tale ends with a magnificent role-reversed retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus. To this Tolkien gives a bittersweet ending in contrast with the Greek myth's stark tragedy. In the myth of Orpheus, Orpheus wins his true love, Eurydice, from Hades, but loses her on the way back to the earth. In the tale of Beren and Luthien, Luthien wins her true love, Beren, from Mandos, and returns with him to Middle-Earth, but must sacrifice her immortality for the sake of her love. In The Lord of the Rings, Luthien's descendent, Arwen, will make Luthien's bittersweet choice out of love of Aragorn.
In the end, The Tale of Beren and Luthien is a beautiful story. Surely we do no wrong in appreciating it just as that.
posted by Alfred D. Byrd at 12:52 PM
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