For the capture of a Silmaril, a supreme victory, leads to disaster. But it is also a fundamental link in the cycle, deprived of its full significance out of its place therein. It is Beren the outlawed mortal who succeeds (with the help of Lúthien, a mere maiden even if an elf of royalty) where all the armies and warriors have failed… Thus he wins the hand of Lúthien and the first marriage of mortal and immortal is achieved.Īs such the story is (I think a beautiful and powerful) heroic-fairy-romance, receivable in itself with only a very general vague knowledge of the background. Here we meet, among other things, the first example of the motive (to become dominant in Hobbits) that the great policies of world history, ‘the wheels of the world’, are often turned not by Lord and Governors, even gods, but by the seemingly unknown and weak - owing to the secret life of creation, and the part unknowable to all wisdom but One, that resides in the intrusion of the Children of God into the Drama. “The chief of the stories of the Silmarillion, and the one most fully treated is the Story of Beren and Lúthien the Elfmaiden. If we’ll look back to the Waldman letter, we’ll remember that Tolkien wrote: In a sense, everything that we’ve read so far has been building up to this story, setting the stage, preparing the reader to understand the gravity and incredible beauty of this story. In letter 165, he calls this story “the kernel of the mythology”. We are on week twelve of our Silmarillion read-along and this week is quite a special one as we are going to cover chapter nineteen, Of Beren and Lúthien. Tolkien, and strive to carry a little piece of Middle-Earth into our own daily lives. Pull up a cozy chair and join us as we chat about the works and faith of J.R.R. You’re listening to Tea with Tolkien, a podcast for the Hobbit at Heart.

Luthien and beren