Essay-Review on
Beren and LĂşthien (2017) By J.R.R Tolkien Edited by Christopher Tolkien
*** Stefan Bernhardt-Radu July 2017
Description: Beren and LĂşthien as shown on the cover of the book, illustrated by Alan Lee
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Tolkien J.R.R.; Tolkien, C. (ed.) Beren and Lúthien (2017). London: HarperCollinsPublishers 2017 Review & Essay --------------------------
Abstract: Establishing a background, this piece briefly discusses the building of J.R.R. Tolkien’s secondary world, its origins as a ‘psychological allegory’ and the implications these have in the reading of this book. The book, it is argued, should be read in tandem with Tolkien’s literary views, the way it is interpreted by Christopher Tolkien, and in what it intuitively elicits from the reader. It later goes on to analyse the book according to Christopher Tolkien’s two aims respectively – to make the book independent from any other writings, and to make the development of the tale, the process of the change of the tale of Beren and Lúthien an intrinsic and essential part in the reading of the book. Finally, this piece will recommend that the book should basically and probably be read by those who either are already initiated into Tolkien’s universe, or those who are researching on the tale of Beren and Lúthien, or into Tolkien’s universe. --------------------------
Background: Sub-Creation and Personal Meaning Yet now did he see Tinúviel dancing in the twilight, and Tinúviel was in a silver-pearly dress, and her bare white feet were twinkling among the hemlock stems (C. Tolkien ed., 2017: 42).
Source: Own Image
In an interview, Christopher Tolkien shared that ‘as a young man he [J.R.R. Tolkien] wrote a book called The Book of Lost tales […]; there already are the early undeveloped forms of the great stories, the great legends which were an inspiration to him throughout his life –
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above all they are… the Lay of Beren and Lúthien and the tragedy of Turin Turambar’. 1 Partly therefore, Beren and Lúthien was written because of the tale’s ‘deeply-rooted presence in his [J.R.R. Tolkien’s] own life’2 (C. Tolkien ed., 2017: 16). That being said, the story of Beren and Lúthien is not an allegory3 – Tolkien is known to have said that he was against them. The tale does not aim to represent reality, to deconstruct it, to break it down in metaphorical parts so as to give insight into its nature – not at all. As a writer, Tolkien wanted to create a secondary, self-meaningful fictional world that was to be independent from the primary reality – a world which he conceptualized as a ‘sub-creation’ (Lefler, 2017). The tale of Lúthien and Beren should be seen rather as a literary veil that invites the reader to personify, to empathize and to feel the fantastic as if it is the normative, promising a self-sustaining existence within the subcreation. However, surely, the story of Beren and Lúthien is not only a simple product of imagination either, and perhaps understanding its operative mechanism would help in the apprehension of the tale. According to Jean Beal, the story of Beren and Lúthien is a ‘psychological allegory’, where, rather than facts and concrete experience, abstract elements of the author’s comprehension and emotions together are the needle threading the literary tapestry into an autonomous fictional world. This is characteristic of the early to mid-20th century New Criticism in which Tolkien activated, that fundamentally aimed to study the anatomy of the work of literature as a self-referential entity (Beal, 2014).
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Christopher Tolkien speaks about "The Silmarillion" (2011) [Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J1JSLzja7E# [Accessed on: 20/06/2017]; it is undoubtedly that the tale has influenced his later writings: See Appendix 1 for an excerpt from The Fellowship of the Ring – where Aragorn briefly tells the tale of Beren and Lúthien. 2 To give the full quote: ‘this tale is chosen in memoriam because of its deeply-rooted presence in his [father’s, J.R.R. Tolkien’s] own life, and his intense thought of the union of Lúthien, whom he called ‘the greatest of the Eldar’, and of Beren the mortal man, of their fates, and of their second lives’. 3 See below a quote from C. Tolkien, or see Lefler N. (2017) ‘Tolkien’s Sub-Creation and Secondary Worlds: Implication for a Robust Moral Psychology’. Journal of Tolkien Research 4 (2). To clarify, an allegory is ‘a story, narrative, or fable in which a moral principle or truth is presented by means of fictional characters and events which stand symbolically for real persons or events’; Source: Opundo (2005) ‘Figure of Speech Dictionary’ [online]. Available from: http://www.opundo.com/figures.php?searchstr=* [Accessed on: 30/06/2017] 3
The book, Beren and Lúthien is then by no means ‘usual’ – it is, to use C. Tolkien’s words, of ‘a somewhat curious nature’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 16). Those who wish to read a single text dedicated to a detailed telling of the story of Beren and Lúthien will perhaps find themselves disappointed – its immersion consists in its multiplicity of texts, as well as in its explanatory meta-texts. The tale is splintered into several scripts from which parts and changes of the tale are revealed. This title is therefore a sub-creation in two ways: it is a book which invites the reader to enjoy the tale of Beren and Lúthien as a self-meaningful journey; and it is a book which focuses on the story of how a story, that of Beren and Lúthien, was constructed in Tolkien’s mind and through his aging pen. The reader needs to be both Tolkien and the characters within the tale(s) he created to be on a similar wavelength with that of the book.
‘The world he [J.R.R. Tolkien] created exists for itself and for what it tells you and for what delight it gives you… It may, of course, contain’ as C. Tolkien added ‘as indeed it does, elements of his own comprehension, his view of the world at large, but not anything out of the primary world’, mentioning for instance, ‘just as it contains no specific reference to the Christian religion [...].’4 The story of Beren and Lúthien, in itself, should be read for what it meant to Tolkien at an abstract level, rather than what it represented concretely in his life in the form of experience5 – and perhaps more importantly even, what it elicits from the reader personally. --------------
Extra Paragraph: The names Beren and Lúthien are carven into the gravestone of John and Edith Reuel Tolkien sitting in Wolvercote cemetery in Oxford, the United Kingdom – a sign alluding to the importance of the story to the author.
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JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien on allegory (2009) [Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqOGX62gys [Accessed on: 19/06/2017] 5 That is not to say that it was not partly ‘inspired by Tolkien’s own romance with his wife Edith’ (Coutras, 2016: 105). This is a question of perception, in that authorial intentions could be divergent from what the reader could potentially understand in terms of the relationship between reality and fiction. This talk is about Tolkien’s desire to view literature per se and not for what it could potentially represent in the primary reality. 4
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Source: Own Image
Editorial Aims Christopher Tolkien was careful to clearly state the purposes of the book he edited, compiling his father’s work together in what he believed was a more or less coherent literary structure of this ‘curious’ sort. Firstly, his wish was to ‘separate the story of Beren and Tinúviel (Lúthien) so that it stands alone’, resulting in a ‘readibly readable text’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 16, 93) and therefore that it would not need any adjacent source to understand it – in particular, The Silmarillion or the 12 volume The History of Middle-Earth. Moreover, and especially, he has attempted to display the ‘narrative, the story of Beren and Lúthien, [as] continually evolving’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 16). He refers to this goal and task repeatedly throughout his work, stating that ‘the present book is expressly devoted to the evolution of the legend of Beren and Lúthien’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 30) or that ‘my (ambitious) purpose in this book is to make a readily readable text [to follow on a previous quote] that shows the narrative evolution of the legend at different stages’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 93). His parenthetical annotation is symptomatic to the difficult task of ‘disentangling’ Tolkien’s
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complex writings. These aims largely frame his work into an approximately 300 page book, and they are likewise the guiding lines of this review.
-------------Extra Paragraph: ‘My father told it [the story of Beren and Lúthien] to me, speaking without any writing, in the early 1930s’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 17) (hint: The Hobbit was published in 1937). It is important to remember that this book is edited by Christopher Tolkien, in the way that he believed would be appropriate – ‘what to include and what to exclude of that ancient world ‘at large’ could only be a matter of personal and often questionable judgement’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 16). It can be argued that C.J.R. Tolkien is then no less a writer than is J.R.R. Tolkien. --------------
Overall Summary Note: This summary operates irrespective of the textual changes inherent in the book. It is important to note again that, given that the tale changes, varied altercations should be expected as one explores the evolution of the story.
To brief a summary of the story is difficult due to the nature of the text, but its presence would aid in contextualizing the review. When the mountainous North, the land of Dorthonion, is infested by orcs, Beren alone at long last survives the crossing to the South in the greener places of Beleriand. Wandering whist hosting a tired and shadowed soul, Beren reaches the ElfKingdom of Doriath, whereupon the banks of the river Esgalduin he catches sight of Lúthien dancing – though not immediately, they ultimately fall in a (the?) love whose fate would eclipse all expectations. Lúthien’s father, King Thingol, nevertheless forbids its fruition, locks Lúthien in a treehouse, and sends Beren to retrieve a Silmaril from Morgoth, the Great Enemy, ostensibly as the exchange value for his daughter, surreptitiously a quest to death. At last, though Beren is captured, he would be joined by an escaping Lúthien and by Huan, the hound of Valinor (land of the Vala). Lúthien is also not a symbol of helplessness, as her powers and 6
achivements exceed that of a normal elf, being the daughter of the Maia Melian (Hint: Gandalf is also a deliberately weakened Maia). Their journey, doubtful and wrought with tribulations, would reach right the very depths of Angband to retrieve a Silmaril from the iron Crown of Morgoth. Something, of course, that Thingol had not planned, was that they would brave this perilous quest together – a togetherness that would disturb the very fabric and laws of existence.
Lúthien Escapes the Treehouse by Ted Nasmith
An Independent Book (Aim One) The summary above was written with the intention of adding a few names that, unless familiar with, would confuse or overwhelm the reader. That is understandable – but it was certainly not desirable to Christopher. After all, one can say the book is his ‘sub-creation’ of how Beren and Lúthien should look like. His first aim was, to reiterate, to make the book ‘a single and well-defined narrative’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 12). To do so, it needed an introduction to the background, the details more or less to flow seamlessly towards and from the story of the couple in order to generate an intelligible story-line. Besides a preface where explanations and aims are given, the book has a chapter entitled ‘Notes on the Elder Days’ (Tolkien C., 2017:
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18-25) that explores important characters and elements in the story and surrounding it. For instance, Morgoth, the Great Enemy is/was the master of Sauron, a Vala, a Great Spirit who was there before the world was existent and helped in (or in his case challenged) the creation of the world, and whose ultimate goal is its ultimate domination He dwells in Angband, his black fortress, in the shadow of the mountains of Thangorodrim which he himself had long ago created – a more complex and ‘dark’ version of Sauron’s later Barad-Dur.
-------------Extra Paragraph: He has written about the Tale of Tinúviel that ‘it is told in an extremely individual style, with some archaisms of word and construction, altogether unlike my father’s later styles’; in the The Lay of Leithian ‘the textual style is very complex’ so that he has ‘neglected’ some of these complicated passages. This reflects both the editor’s focus on clarity, and his authorial powers in ‘neglecting’ passages and details in order to fit his purposes. --------------
The chapter also talks about Beleriand that had once been connected to the MiddleEarth of the Third Age (NB: the temporal landscape of the Lord of the Rings), before being submerged beneath the seas. Then a short introduction is provided, introducing amongst others the Elves, the Valar and Maiar, and Feanor, the Elf mega-erudite who had made the jewels. The chapter is short, and its presence aids greatly towards the understanding of the book. Of course, it also gives a taste of what is to be found much more elaborately in other books. Later on, C. Tolkien also, and crucially for this tale, explains what the Silmarils are. There he also adds, at the start, a very small but arguably sufficient biographical background on his parents’ lives, before speaking of the first appearances of the story of Beren and Lúthien in its The Tale of Tinúviel form. Afterwards, he describes and explains the fundamental altercations in the tale, as well as draws attention to, or in a sense warns the reader of, the different meanings that some words 8
bear or had borne, and, of course, how they changed. For instance, the word ‘gnome’ was used for ‘Elf’ in the first surviving versions of The Tale of Tinúviel, one of the first texts on the story, rather than being the conventional equivalent for ‘dwarf’. This is a sign that he did not wish the reader to necessarily analyse the texts, nor did he wish one to get at any point confused, but to notice and especially enjoy how the story changed – and how the mind of their author shifted as time added to the latter’s past. He upholds this tradition throughout the book by intervening constantly to provide explanations and insight into the scenes behind the making of the story, and quite a little more editorial, biographical and literary background than that. To further ease the understanding of the book, C. Tolkien also adds a Glossary at the end of the book in which he wrote about archaic words that J. Tolkien had been using in earlier versions of the story of Beren and Lúthien. For instance, the first word is ‘an’ which is used by J. Tolkien as the equivalent of ‘if’, rather than an indeterminate article as today’s Englishspeaker is used to. Moreover, he writes a list of names which helps one comprehend and remember (many) names that are used in the book. If one forgets, e.g., what ‘Doriath’ is, s/he can simply verify in this list that it is the Elf-Kingdom of Thingol and Melian (p. 277) – and in turn if one forgets who they are, the list contains their names as well. This all is, to end on this point, a feature of C. Tolkien’s edited books that is harmonious with a more efficient clarity of the book. Therefore, there are two sub-aims stemming from this purpose for C. Tolkien. One of them is to convey clarity in the mass of details – names, places, story timeline, semantics, textual and meta-textual details: none of these are missed. The second, which stems from the first, is for the reader to be able to enjoy the book by having the necessary details which should refuse as much confusion as C. Tolkien could possibly predict, or, in other words, adding the preconditions to be able to read the tale(s) before one actually reads them – the book is supposed to be a journey into Tolkien’s creation of a story, as well as a warm, intelligible lodge hosting the reader.
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Lúthien by Ted Nasmith
Some Negative Aspects of Aim One However, despite its focus on clarity, there are a few negative points which need to be highlighted. For one, though definitely not grave, no map is printed. A map is important especially as the reader explores where the characters geographically are via use of words – it helps picture the story more vividly and memorably. Of course, in the age of internet, the obvious argument would perhaps arise in what regards the ‘googling’ of a map – which would be valid to an extent. However, if one is stranded (un)intentionally with no technology, this line of argument fails. Besides, one of C. Tolkien’s intentions was to make the book independent from other sources – pertaining to the map, an essential visual aid, and inherent element to the story, it is reasonable to say that its lack is miscalculated. Nevertheless, this is no great issue.
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More acute is the book’s incomplete table of contents which can be confusing and even frustrating when in search for certain sections within the book. Whereas it contains some chapters such as the ‘Notes on the Elder Days’, upon arriving at ‘Beren And Lúthien’, the book steers into the strategy of trying to make the reader believe that this is an organic, though compiled, tale within a book and as such should probably be taken as a whole. However, within ‘Beren and Lúthien’ there are various sub-sections – technically, mini-chapters – that are simply ignored in the table of contents, presumably to add that element of immersion. There are over 10 sub-sections which could have been much better organised if added in the table of contents. As such, the readers will probably see themselves leafing through the book to find different passages – which becomes increasingly difficult as one advances in the story. One can argue that, usually, fictional books do not contain table of contents – yet this book, ‘of a somewhat curious nature’, with its multiplicity of texts that are temporally and visibly divergent, would do better if one could spot where the mini-chapters were, so as to be able to track the changes and/or to observe differences for oneself. Clarity is therefore affected by the lack of clear demarcation lines between sections within the table of contents.
-------------Extra Paragraph: So what does ‘create secondary worlds’ mean? Nathan Lefler notes that, for Tolkien, ‘to be human is to tell stories’ (Lefler, 2017: 1). By virtue of their ability to speak and write, humans make ‘new form’ - they ‘bring into being things’. This is what Jean Beal calls the ‘Logos of God’ (Beal, 2014), that humans partly, imperfectly possess by simple virtue of being creations of God – this is very much rooted in the Catholic faith. Therefore, Tolkien believes stories are born with realism, because they are creations of human desire – stories are real because they are personal interpretations of the primary reality. In other words, stories are not untrue, because they bear the truth of human emotion, that, at the same time, is given a secondary reality through the use of the human logos, and this he terms a ‘sub-creation’ – ‘the incarnate
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mind, the tongue and the tale are in our world coeval’ which makes humanity’s ‘primal desires [to] lie at the heart of the Faerie [secondary world]’ (Lefler, 2017). --------------
A Developing Tale (Aim Two) The second aim eclipses the first, the latter arguably being a necessary method to scaffold the second. ‘That narrative,’ C. Tolkien writes, ‘the story of Beren Lúthien, was itself continually evolving, and developing new associations as it became more embedded in the wider story’ (C. Tolkien, 2017: 16). In order to present the narrative as such, while changing, he gathered multiple manuscripts written by J. Tolkien throughout his life. This method of constructing the story by congregating them in an orderly and arbitrary manner has at least two important consequences in what concerns how the book is written. The first is that the story of Beren and Lúthien would technically be better characterized as the ‘stories’ of Beren and Lúthien – as there is a colour palette of texts which employ different writing styles, both in terms of the lexis and in terms of story building. Another is that in the interim C. Tolkien intervenes with literary explanations, draws attention to key differences and possible areas of comprehension difficulty. It is here where the reader is invited to be the author and imagine the story as it changed in the mind of J. Tolkien.
-------------Extra Paragraph: To build the book, in the same order though not entirely corresponding to the final structure of the book, C. Tolkien put together The Tale of Tinúviel , a text called the Sketch of the Mythology, The Lay of Leithian, The Quenta Noldorinwa, The Quenta Silmarillion, The Lost Tale of the Nauglafring and, in an Appendix, later revisions to The Lay of Leithian. --------------
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Lúthien Escapes upon Huan by Ted Nasmith As mentioned in passing before, each of the texts represents a mini-chapter within the wider chapter, or section entitled ‘Beren and Lúthien’. Though not perennially constant, at the beginning and end of each of these chapters, C. Tolkien intervenes with explanations pertaining to the narrative and, if needed, background, to accommodate the text that is to follow. For instance, before the first mini-chapter begins (‘The Tale of Tinúviel ’), C. Tolkien explains that the story is told by an elf called Veanne, the embodiment of the author, to an Englishman by the name of Eriol who comes to the island of Tol Eressea, where elves still lived at that time – indeed, this is set in a believable context which connects the primary reality with the sub-creation. At the end of this mini-chapter, he gives a further background that explains the transition to the next mini-chapter, marking the continuity between one text and another. Without going too much into detail, the texts differ from one another in terms of the form of writing, in the authorial writing style, and in their editorial intentions. Some texts, such as the Lay of Leithian is an epic poem, whereas the Quenta Noldorinwa, for instance, is only prosaic. The composition is changed in that C. Tolkien adds small mini-chapters that provide summaries of the wider mini-chapters (relatively to the whole ‘Beren and Lúthien’ within 13
which all are encompassed). For instance, he adds the The Sketch of the Mythology or the Quenta Noldonrinwa to summarise the longer Lay of Leithian. He also thus illustrates that, the Quenta Silmarillion, for instance is J..R.R. Tolkien’s attempt to depart from the earlier style of writing texts – laden, as they were, with details (Note: this is an authorial rather than an editorial intention). However, at the end, C. Tolkien adds the ‘Lost Tale of the Nauglafring’ which ‘is a notable example of the expansive mode, observant of visual and often dramatic detail, adopted by my father in the early days of The Silmarillion’ (C. Tolkien ed., 2017). The book’s structure reminds the reader frequently – one almost cannot forget – that s/he is in an evolving story whose constant change requires an attentive and inquisitive eye. Again, one of C. Tolkien’s purposes is to facilitate a more or less easy understanding of the book by adding explanations and highlighting key differences – he wishes this book to accomplish another goal - that his audience interacts with these changes as being an important and intrinsic aspect of his father’s writings. To spin this another way, the reader is tasked with enjoying the story of how a story was constructed – to imagine these changes as not being a ‘replace the worse with the better’ type of scenario, but as actually being the story of the story. This probably is the primary theme of the book. By highlighting the evolution, the reader will know of the ultimate fate of Beren and Lúthien, of the outcome of their mission, the origin of enmity between elves and dwarves, and, interestingly, of Eärendil, father of Elros, first king of Numenor, from which Aragorn at last draws from, and Elrond, the Elf Lord of Rivendell. They are strongly interconnected, as the tale of Beren and Lúthien reveals more of the fate of Beleriand as a whole – and the ending of the First Age of Earth. Indeed, Beren and Lúthien ends not with the ultimate fate of the couple, but with the end of the First Age, in which their grand-daughter, from their son Dior, plays, along with Eärendil, a crucial role.
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[See Appendix Two for a discussion on other achievements of Aim Two – namely, the manner in which the evolution of the tale created a dynamic tale within the book].
Tinúviel Reborn by Ted Nasmith
A Negative Aspect of Aim Two At last, there is a piece of criticism worth raising in regards to this aim as well. It can be argued that the book does not offer much that is new, comparatively to the other books. To the reader who is new to Tolkien’s work on the Elder Days, the book offers only little background around the story of Beren and Lúthien – and it focuses more on the textual altercations of the story as it changed in time. This may not be appealing to a new reader who is more ready to absorb than analyse something s/he does not yet know very well. In such a case, The Silmarillion may be more appropriate – as it briefly surveys a great chunk of the Elder Days. To the initiated reader, the story may still not possess enough variation to deem it irresistible – there are changes that concern characters, or additions in terms of plot which are not very long, neither essential to the understanding of Beren and Lúthien. For example, the more detailed narrative of Finrod Felagund and Beren, along with their company, and their 15
capture by the Necromancer Thu is interesting – but it does not offer something substantial. Of course, not only to end this on a positive note, it must not be forgotten that the book both desires to focus only on the tale of Beren and Lúthien, and to frame it more as the story of how a story was created – its propellers consist not only in the tale of and around that of Beren and Lúthien – but how that story was constructed in the mind of its author – as seen from the lens of C. Tolkien. Hence, the above criticism is not debilitating.
Concluding Lines ‘In a letter to me on the subject of my mother, written in the year after her death, which was also the year before his own he wrote of his overwhelming sense of bereavement’, writes Christopher Tolkien at the end of the ‘Preface’, in the end quoting his father saying that ‘the story has gone crooked, and I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos [Note: Mandos is Tolkien’s version of the Keeper of the House of the Dead]’ (C. Tolkien ed., 2017: 17). That this is mentioned in the preface, before any detailed discussion in what regards the tale of Beren and Lúthien, is a telling sign of the personal importance of the tale to both the author and the editor – it is in this that the book manages to scar the attention of the reader above all else, and it should be considered a necessary part, an essential component in the formula required in the reading of the book. As a concluding remark, in spite of its shortcomings both in terms of clarity, and in its depth, the book can be useful to two types of readers: for those who, initiated in Tolkien’s writings, wish to learn more about the tale in itself; and two, it is useful for researchers who require a book which displays some of the main passages and texts on the tale of Beren and Lúthien, towards helping them in their work. Lastly, I will end the review by quoting Christopher Tolkien: ‘In my ninety-third year this is (presumptively) my last book in the long series of editions of my father’s writings’ that he wrote because ‘it goes back a long way in my life, for it is my earliest actual recollection of some element in a story that was being told to me’ (C. Tolkien ed., 2017: 16-17). It can be said that demonstrating the passionate dagger of
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imperfection that motivated his father to write the tale, and which in turn influenced the editor – is per se a powerful motivator towards the reading of Beren and Lúthien, and this element exists necessarily and vitally with the tale.
Afterword Though my initial intentions had fundamentally been to write a short book review, after I spent entire days expanding on my points as if in a deep and curious trance, losing sight of my goal and thus writing substantially more than I had planned, I realised this would not be a conventional book review. In the end: I had to make a choice - either cut out almost everything, and leave the reader with the essential, or try to cut out some text, add careful explanations and liaisons within the remainder, and consider the whole piece also as an essay, within a book review – I finally chose the latter. Therefore, this is an essay & a book review at the same time. More, after finishing writing, I endeavoured to make whatever I had less eclectic and attempted to give it a coherent flow. Nevertheless, I could not keep myself from adding Extra Paragraphs and two Appendices which should provide more insight into the book’s far-reaching implications.
Appendix One Passage from The Fellowship of the Ring
Thousands of years later, Strider and the Hobbits walk upon other lands of MiddleEarth to the safe haven of Rivendell. Under the ruined watch of the Weathertop, Sam begs Strider to tell stories of the Elder Days upon discovering his knowledge of them. Without much pause, Aragorn goes silent in a solemn preparation for something which seems to be beyond the realm of the present bricks of time. At one point, he lifts his voice from soundless murmurs and chants: There Beren came from mountains cold, And lost he wandered under leaves And where the Elven-river rolled, He walked alone and sorrowing. He peered between the hemlock-leaves And saw in wander flowers of gold Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
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And her hair like shadow following. […]
Description: Aragorn humming the tale of Tinúviel in The Fellowship of the Ring
Long was the way that fate them bore, O’er stony mountains cold and grey, Through halls of iron and darkling door, And woods of nightshade morrowless. The Sundering Seas between them lay, And yet at last they met once more, And long ago they passed away, (Tolkien, 2008: pp. 250-252)
The chant is called, as Aragorn explains, the ‘tale of Tinúviel’. This passage told in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring can easily be missed amongst the legions of words, details, names and the Quest to keep the ring from the hands of the Great Enemy etc. – of course, when Aragorn finishes the tale, the readers’ attention is quickly steered to an emerging and unexpected episode so that it seems that this passage was merely anticipating a
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precipitating narrative. However, its importance cannot be exaggerated – from a very long line of people, Aragorn descends from Beren and Lúthien, as Arwen and Elrond do as well. As Tolkien himself wrote, though probably referring to the setting of the First Age: ‘it [the tale of Beren and Lúthien] is a fundamental in the cycle, deprived of its full significance out of its place therein’ (Tolkien C., 2017: 12). Its presence, thus, in The Lord of the Rings, is not accidental – it is the psychological allegory discussed above, for, as the story is inspired from Tolkien’s own emotions and abstract experiences, the theme of the almost impossible, but powerful and fateful love constantly re-emerges.
Appendix Two Extrapolations on the achievements of Aim Two
By means of demonstrating the evolving nature of the tale, there is much more that C. Tolkien is accomplishing. Let us take some examples. The first text – The Tale of Tinúviel rolls the tale in its first known form. In the second and third texts – The Sketch of the Mythology and A Passage extracted from the Lay of Leithian – C. Tolkien is careful not only to highlight the changes that happen, but he adds information that enrich and complicate the background. More concretely, whereas in The Tale of Tinúviel , J. Tolkien in the voice of Veanne mentions that Beren’s father is ‘Egnor the forester’ and that ‘never have I heard how Beren came thither [in Doriath] over the hills’, the reader is told in the other later texts about his father ‘Barahir’, a chieftain of Men – as indeed Beren also becomes, in this second text a man, whereas before he had been an Elf. Barahir, to the initiated reader, signals familiar territories, as he is the man who saves a lord of the elves, Finrod Felagund, in the ‘Battle of the Sudden Flame’ where Morgoth broke the Siege of Angband and defeated the combined forces of men and elves. After the ‘power of Morgoth begins to spread once more’ (C. Tolkien, 2017: 90) Barahir,
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goes into hiding in the lands of Dorthonion, with some of his men, and his son Beren in order to resist Morgoth.
Description: The ‘Ring of Barahir’ as depicted on Aragorn’s index finger in The Fellowship of the Ring.
That being said, there comes a stratum into the story which adds to the depth and tragedy of Beren’s background. The story of Gorlim the Unhappy, one of Barahir’s men, is a distinct and crucial episode within the tale of Beren and Lúthien. Gorlim married Eiliniel, ‘the fortune of his life’, but ‘to war he rode, from war returned/ to find his fields and homestead burned […] /and Eiliniel, white Eiliniel/ was taken whither none could tell,/ to death or thraldom far away.’ As ‘black was the shadow of that day/ for ever on his heart’ being ‘oft sleepless, thinking that she might/ ere evil came have timely fled/ into the woods: she was not dead’, he strays away from Barahir and the company in search for her, but evil sets a trap for him and is captured – the theme of love as one’s own power, but once bereft of, the source of vulnerability, beckons here strongly. Morgoth – or in the appendix, Thu, as the antagonist changes – threatens that his wife, Eiliniel, would be killed if he did not reveal Barahir’s hideout – as fear and love prevail, he ultimately succumbs. Barahir is then found and killed along with the others, apart from Beren – who had gone away hunting. Upon finding concretely of his father’s death, he buries him and the others beneath mounds of stones – Beren is now ‘as cold as stone’, separated from his father, ‘loveless, 20
friendless’ now his life becomes his own and the wrong done to him needs to be avenged in order to prove worthy of it. ‘‘Thy death’, he vowed, ‘I will avenge. Yea, though my fate should lead at last to Angband’s gate’’. ‘Out into the night […] he strode alone’, in search for his ‘ruthless foe’ who had murdered Barahir and, finding them as they were camping ‘with little heed’, he steals amid the unaware orcs and ‘forth then as wolfhound grim there leapt Beren among them. Two he swept/ aside with sword; caught up the ring/ slew the one who grasped him’. This can be seen as Beren’s ritual of initiation as he inherits his father by recovering the ring and avenging his father’s death. He becomes notorious amongst the orcs and to Morgoth himself, or Thu, who hunt him thereafter: ‘In fateful hour was Beren born/ […] As fearless Beren was renowned: […] foretelling that his after-name/ would even golden Hador pass/ or Barahir and Bregolas/ but sorrow now his heart had wrought/ to fierce despair’ and ‘his face was [thus] South from the Land of Dread’ in ‘Beleriand, Beleriand/ the border of the Faery land’ (Tolkien J.; Tolkien, C. ed.: pp. 90-92; 93-102; 257-269). This is where the reader finds the background, the hardship through which Beren goes before he finds Lúthien – the story was consciously perhaps built, as well as respecting the chronological order of Tolkien’s writings, to create this essential and moving episode that connects the reader more to Beren, as the audience better understands his bravery and a sadness which wraps ‘too dark his heart, the wound too deep.’ This dynamic story of a story is therefore by no means constructed chronologically. If one were to map half of it out in a mind plan, the reader goes through a shorter story of Beren and Lúthien until they escape Angband as told by an elf who had not heard the entire story – creating the element of belief that the story can change if told from another perspective – then the story jumps back to the background of Beren, and of Barahir and Gorlim and then about Beren’s quest for vengeance and his initiation; more is told later – going even further in the past, as the book explores the Siege of Angband and its downfall, before Morgoth had even invaded Beren’s land. C. Tolkien prepares to expose the reader to another fundamental change in the tale of Beren and Lúthien – the introduction of Finrod Felagund and Celegrom and
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Curufin, sons of Feanor, maker of the Silmarili and Thu the Necromancer (replacing Tevildo or Morgoth himself). Another important example is the episode that tells the tale of Fingolfin, High King of the Elves who had duelled Morgoth before the gates of Angband. When Beren, alone, arrives at Angband’s gates, a flashback is triggered, for it was there where ‘in that vast shadow once of yore/ Fingolfin stood’ to challenge the ‘monstrous craven lord’. After the Battle of the Sudden Flame, the armies of men and elves were utterly defeated, and Fingolfin was overcome by Morgoth’s ruthlessness, by his cruelty and by the grief he caused, resolving at last to ride steadfast to the fields before the gates of Angband to challenge Morgoth, a Vala of great power, in open battle. Before Morgoth’s tall shadow bearing the mace Grond, stood ‘Fingolfin like a shooting light’. This short duel resembles the biblical duel between David and Goliath or the Homerian Achilles and Hector. Fingolfin fights valiantly but cannot defeat Morgoth – in contrast with David and Goliath – yet before his death, he strikes Morgoth in the heel which would give him a troublesome limp thereafter. Instead of being killed by being struck, like Achilles, Morgoth’s ability to fight is greatly weakened, and his victory comes at great cost. Decided to throw Fingolfin to the wolves, the lifeless body is nevertheless saved by the Eagle King Thorondor. Above all else, this episode adds to the dread and importance of Beren and Lúthien’s quest – they would meet the same foe who had managed to defeat even the highest of the high elves of Beleriand. Their bravery and the weight of their mission is thus further expanded by the telling of Fingolfin’s bravery and ultimate fate. Lastly, the reader will find continuities right to the more known the Lord of the Rings. S/he would learn about Sauron, here in the persona of Thu, whose evil dealings have a long pedigree, and about the ring of Barahir, which is the same that Aragorn wears in the trilogy set more than 6000 years after the tale of Beren and Lúthien. The Ring, in turn, was gifted to Barahir by the Elf-King Finrod Felagund when Barahir saved the latter’s life in the Battle of Sudden Flame, or Dagor Bragollach – a sign of eternal friendship between Finrod and the
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House of Barahir. By extension, Aragorn, in a very long line, partly comes from the House of Barahir, as does Arwen. To end on this point, through demonstrating and focusing on this evolution, the editor manages to make the story interesting and dynamic to the immersed eye – though it may be too much of an analogy in some respects, in a way it can be seen similar to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury method of story-making – compiling multiple authorial perspectives as they change throughout time, he thus built brick-by-brick, through different pens, a cohesive story – in other words, the story of the story of Beren and Lúthien is the story.
References Literature Beal, J. (2014) ‘Orphic Powers in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legend of Beren and Lúthien’ Journal of Tolkien Research 1 (1). Coutras, L. (2016) Tolkien’s Theology and Beauty, Majesty, Splendor and Transcendence in Middle-Earth. New York: Palsgrave Macmillan. Lefler N. (2017) ‘Tolkien’s Sub-Creation and Secondary Worlds: Implication for a Robust Moral Psychology’. Journal of Tolkien Research 4 (2) Tolkien J.R.R.; Tolkien, C. (ed.) The Silmarillion (1977). London: George Allen & Unwin Tolkien, J.R.R. (2008) The Fellowship of the Ring. London: HarperCollinsPublishers Tolkien J.R.R.; Tolkien, C. (ed.) Beren and Lúthien (2017). London: HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Visual Art & Interviews Christopher Tolkien speaks about "The Silmarillion" (2011) [Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J1JSLzja7E# [Accessed on: 20/06/2017] JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien on allegory (2009) [Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqOGX62gys [Accessed on: 19/06/2017]
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Nasmith, T. (1990) Lúthien [online]. Available from: http://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/Lúthien -escapes-the-treehouse/ [Accessed on: 09/07/2017] Nasmith, T. (2004) Lúthien Escapes upon Huan [online]. Available from: http://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/Lúthien -escapes-upon-huan/ [Accessed on: 09/07/2017] Nasmith, T. (2000) Tinúviel Escapes the Treehouse [online]. Available from: http://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/Lúthien -escapes-the-treehouse/ [Accessed on: 09/07/2017] Nasmith, T. (2011) Tinúviel Reborn [online]. Available from: http://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/Tinúviel-reborn/ [Accessed on: 09/07/2017] The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) [Film]. London: New Line Cinema
Further Reading & Material See the Journal of Tolkien Research – it is a rich online and free source of scholarly papers on various topics pertaining to J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings. Link to the website: http://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/ Simon Tolkien: "I don't think JRR would have enjoyed watching the films" (2012) [Online Video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCEqQV5eIjk [Accessed on: 09/07/2017] See Ted Nasmith’s beautiful work at http://www.tednasmith.com.
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