He ran to her, and again she tried to escape and he cried Tinúviel. One day in summer when Lúthien was dancing on a green hill surrounded by hemlocks, she sang, awakening Beren. He stood in the shadows wishing to be near enough to Lúthien to touch her, but Daeron, her childhood friend and partner in music and dance, noticed Beren and, believing him to be a wild animal, shouted for Lúthien to flee.

It was published in the 1990 Tolkien Calendar.īeren saw Lúthien dancing under moonrise in her father's forest, and fell in love with her, captivated by her beauty.

Lúthien - a gouache painting depicting a scene from The Silmarillion by Ted Nasmith.

The name Beren means 'brave' in Sindarin. It literally means 'daughter of the starry twilight', which signifies ' nightingale'. The epithet Tinúviel was given to her by Beren. The name Lúthien appears to mean 'daughter of flowers' in a Beleriandic dialect of Sindarin, but it can also be translated 'blossom'. The story of Lúthien and Beren is mirrored in The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. Lúthien was first cousin once removed of Galadriel, whose mother, Eärwen of Alqualondë, was the daughter of Thingol's brother. In contrast, Lúthien's descendant Arwen was called Evenstar, the Evening Star of the Elves, meaning that her beauty reflects that of Lúthien. Beren was the son of Emeldir and Barahir, a man of the royal House of Bëor of Dorthonion. She is described as the Morning Star of the Elves and as the most beautiful daughter of the one god, Ilúvatar. Elrond was Lúthien's great-grandson and Aragorn was descended from her via Elros and the Royal Family of Númenor. Lúthien's romance with the mortal man Beren is considered the 'chief' of the Silmarillion tales by Tolkien himself he called it 'the kernel of the mythology'. At her birth, the white flower niphredil bloomed for the first time in Doriath. She was born in the Years of the Trees, according to the Grey Annals. Lúthien was a Telerin ( Sindarin) princess, the only child of Elu Thingol, king of Doriath, and his queen, Melian the Maia, making her half-royal, half-divine. The names Beren and Lúthien appear on the grave of Tolkien and his wife Edith. The story of Lúthien and Beren, immortal elf-maiden marrying a mortal man and choosing mortality for herself, is mirrored in Tolkien's The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.

Their story is told to Frodo by Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings. It appears in The Silmarillion, the epic poem The Lay of Leithian, the Grey Annals section of The War of the Jewels, and in the texts collected in the 2017 book Beren and Lúthien. The complex tale of their love for each other and the quest they are forced to embark upon is a story of triumph against overwhelming odds but ending in tragedy. Lúthien is an elf, daughter of the elf-king Thingol and goddess-like Melian.

Beren and luthien book