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Biography

Early years

And thus in anguish Beren paid

for that great doom upon him laid,

the deathless love of Lúthien,

too fair for love of mortal Men;

and in his doom was Lúthien snared,

the deathless in his dying shared;

and Fate them forged a binding chain

of living love and mortal pain.

— The Lays of Beleriand, "The Doom of Lúthien"

The Quest for the Silmaril

, also known as, was an Elf maiden of Doriath , the wife of Beren Erchamion , and the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar to ever live. Her love of the mortal Edain Beren , for which she was prepared to risk everything, including her life, was legendary and lamented forever in song and story. She and Beren braved Morgoth 's horrors, eventually winning the Silmaril and the respect of Thingol . Though their actions later resulted in both their deaths, their deeds won them the pity of Mandos and a second life in Middle-earth Her romance with Beren was one of the great stories of the Elder Days that were told for many ages after she lived.Lúthien was the daughter of Elu Thingol King of Doriath , and his Queen Melian the Maia Throughout the years before she met Beren, she lived as all the Elves of Doriath did: in a state of perfect blissful peace. She was a woman of incomparable beauty and grace, with night-dark hair, sparkling grey eyes, luminous skin, and a clear heartbreakingly lovely voice that was said to cause winter to melt into spring -She also often enjoyed dancing in the woods of the realm to the music of her good friend Daeron 's flute. He himself soon came to love her jealously, but she did not return it.

Lúthien was remembered in the Lay of Leithian as the first Elven woman to have fallen in love and married a mortal man, Beren, a Man of the House of Bëor whom she met in the woods of Doriath. Their relationship was unlikely from the beginning: Lúthien was not only the cherished single daughter of the most powerful Elven King in Beleriand, but also the daughter of a Maia, a powerful angelic being of the race of the Ainur. Beren was a mortal man on the run from the first Dark Lord Morgoth.

Thingol was desperate not to let Beren marry his daughter, and set an impossible task as the bride price: Beren had to bring to Thingol one of the Silmarils from Morgoth's iron crown. Against monstrous odds, being kidnapped by the Sons of Fëanor and the death of Finrod Felagund, as well as a confrontation with Sauron, the couple achieved the task with help from Huan, the Hound of Valinor, but Beren died as soon as it was completed. In grief, Lúthien lay down and died, passing to the Halls of Mandos. There, in her grief, she sang to Mandos. Her song was of such beauty that Mandos, for the first and only time in his existence, was moved to pity. But Mandos had no authority to allow Beren to live again, so he went before Manwë for advice, who in turn sought out the counsel of Eru Ilúvatar himself. Two choices were then placed before Lúthien; she could either dwell in Valimar with the Valar in bliss forever as reward for all that she had accomplished, or she could be restored to life again with Beren, on the condition that they would both be mortal and die the death of Men. For her love of Beren, Luthien chose the latter.[2]

Later years

After this, she became a mortal and returned to Middle-earth with Beren, and lived briefly in Tol Galen. They had a son, Dior, who was called Elúchil, the Heir of Thingol.[3]

After the sack of Menegroth, Beren returned there and ambushed the dwarves and took Nauglamir back to Luthien. Her beauty combined with the splendor of the gem and necklace to make her home of Tol Galen the fairest land ever to have existed east of Valinor. On her death the Nauglamír was delivered to her son Dior, which led to the ruin of Doriath.[4]

Legacy

The union of Beren and Lúthien was the first between a mortal Man and an Elven maid. Their lineage passed down to the royal House of Elros of the Kingdom of Númenor, and then on to the Dúnedain, men living in exile in Middle-earth, and on to the Kings of the Reunited Kingdom and beyond. Lúthien's romance with Beren is one of the great stories of the Elder Days, and is mirrored by the later romance between Aragorn and Arwen Evenstar. According to legend, her line would never be broken as long as the world lasted.[2]

Etymology

The name Lúthien means "Daughter of Flowers", from the Sindarin luth ("flower").[5] In Doriathrin, Luthien and Noldorin Lhūthien means "enchantress", which is derived from luktiēnē ("enchantress").[6] Lúthien may have been derived from the Old English word Lufien, which means "love".

Tinúviel means "Nightingale", from the Quendian tindōmiselde [note 2]. In Sindarin, it means "Daughter of Twilight", from tinnu ("dusk, twilight") and the feminine suffix -ien ("daughter").[6]

Background

Lúthien is supposed to have been based on Edith Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien's wife. The first tale she appeared in, The Tale of Tinúviel, was in part inspired by Edith and John Ronald's forest walks, in 1917, in Roos, England - as Beren first saw and fell in love with Lúthien in the woods.[7]

Edith Tolkien was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery (North Oxford), and this writing in on her plaque:

EDITH MARY TOLKIEN - LUTHIEN 1889–1971

The name of Beren appears on J.R.R. Tolkien's plaque:

JOHN RONALD REUEL TOLKIEN - BEREN 1892 – 1973

Earlier versions

In various versions of The Tale of Tinúviel, Tolkien's earliest form of Lúthien's tale later published in The Book of Lost Tales Part One, Lúthien's name is Tinúviel, Beren is an Elf, and the character Sauron has not yet emerged. In his place, they face Tevildo, the Prince of Cats, a monstrous giant cat.

Line of the Half-elven

The marriages between Elves and Men are in bold.

The half-elven or the Peredhil are in italic.





Translations



Foreign Language Translated name Amharic ሉጢአን Arabic لوثيين Armenian Լուտհիեն Belarusian Cyrillic Лутhіен Bengali লুথিয়েন Bulgarian Лутиен / Лутиен Тинувиел (Cyrillic) Lúthien / Lúthien Tinuviel (Latin) Burmese ဠုထိဧန္ Chinese (Hong Kong) 露西安 (Lúthien) 露西安·緹努維兒 (Lúthien Tinuviel) Georgian ლუთენი Greek Λούθιεν Hebrew לותיין (Lúthien) לותיין טינוביאל (Lúthien Tinúviel) Hindi ळुथिएन Japanese ルーシエン (Lúthien) ルーシエン・ティヌーヴィエル (Lúthien Tinúviel) Kannada ಲೂಥಿಯನ್ Kazakh Лұтһіен (Cyrillic) Luthien (Latin) Korean 루시엔 (Lúthien) 루시엔 티누비엘 (Lúthien Tinúviel) Kyrgyz Cyrillic Лутhиэн Macedonian Cyrillic Лутиен Marathi लुथेन Mongolian Cyrillic Лутhиэн Pashto لُثِېن ? Persian لوثین (Lúthien) لوثین تینوویل (Lúthien Tinúviel) Punjabi ਲੁਥੀਅਨ Russian Лутиэн (Lúthien) Лутиэн Тинувиэль (Lúthien Tinúviel) Serbian Лутиен (Cyrillic) Lúthien (Latin) Sinhalese ළුථිඑන් Tajik Cyrillic Лутҳиен Tamil லுத்ஹிஎந் Telugu లుథియన్ Thai ลูธิเอน (Lúthien) ลูธิเอน ทินูเวียล (Lúthien Tinúviel) Ukrainian Cyrillic Лутгіен Urdu لوتهیےن ? Uzbek Лутҳиен (Cyrillic) Lúthien (Latin) Yiddish לוטהיען ?

References

Notes