The Lay of Leithian (reading verse)

While the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are by far the most well known of JRR Tolkien's stories, that's not actually where he started building his world. Way back during WWI, as a young man, Tolkien started working on his own grand myth, including the creation of the universe, the rebellion of the most powerful of the gods, the birth of the children of Ilúvatar and much tragedy that followed. What's called the First Age began with the awakening of the first Elves, saw the Great Journey of many of the Elves across the western Sea to Valinor, the crafting of the glorious Silmarils, the darkening of the Two Trees that lit the world, and the flight of many of the Noldor, a class of powerful Elves who'd lived in the West. These Elves came back to what we refer to as Middle Earth, and settled in a land called Beleriand, which didn't exist by the Third Age and the tales of hobbits. (I go through all this in a bit more detail in my post on The Fall of Gondolin, if you're interested.)

It seems hard to deny that these tales, not the ones he wrote later and are more famous, were Tolkien's life passion. He started with them, fiddled with and rewrote them several times and struggled to fit the pieces together just right. It wasn't until he'd died that the Silmarillion was published in 1973, put together by his son and steward Christopher, but these were, for the most part, the most barebones structure of most of JRR's vision. Over time Christopher published all of his father's surviving writings in the History of Middle Earth series (12 volumes from 1983 to 1996) but these books aren't particularly accessible (they meticulously detail the complicated development over decades and are filled with notes, commentary etc.). More recently Christopher Tolkien, at the very end of his own life, focused on three Great Tales of the First Age, the one's JRR fussed endlessly over, and published a separate book for each. These were The Children of Húrin (2007), Beren and Lúthien (2017) and The Fall of Gondolin (2018). I've now read all of these, which trace the evolution of the each of these three tales over time, and show their completion or lack thereof. For example the Children of Hurin, the tale of Túrin Turambar, is by far the most complete. The Fall of Gondolin is the least. Beren and Lúthien, our subject today, is somewhere in between.

The tale of Beren and Lúthien is one referred to in the Lord of the Rings, when Aragorn (then called Strider by the hobbits) sings of the original love story between Elf and Man. (I mentioned this before in my critique of the Rings of Power s1). This happens in both the book (Fellowship, 'A Knife in the Dark') and the extended edition of the first movie (the Midwater Marshes scene). He sings in the book to cheer the hobbits upon Weathertop, with the Ringwraiths approaching, yet the tragic nature of the tale abounds as well, especially if you know Aragorn is also in love with an Elf princess, exactly like his way-back forefather.

But the eventual death of an immortal Elf who loves a mortal Man is only the (near) ending of the story, which is an epic one. Beren, one of the Edain, discovers Lúthien (or Tinúviel) dancing in the forest, her father's magically protected kingdom, and immediately falls in love. It must be said that even among Elves Lúthien possessed mystifying beauty, and was described as the fairest being of all the Elves or Men that ever lived. Her father was Elvish royalty, Thingol, king of Doriath and lord of the Elves who never left Middle Earth. Her mother Melian was a literal goddess (a Maia), who'd existed since the beginning of time and was known for her singing in the gardens of Valinor. The crazy part is Lúthien loved Beren back. Beren comes before Thingol and asks for his daughter's hand. The king tells Beren that he may wed Lúthien only if he recovers a Silmaril and brings it to Doriath. This is a seemingly impossible ask, with the three Silmarils part of Morgoth's crown, inside his fortress, in the great north dominated by the evil one's powers. But nevertheless Beren departs on this quest. His first attempt fails, where he and a few Elf friends are captured by the Necromancer (aka Sauron) and Beren barely escapes with his life. The second attempt involves Beren and Lúthien striking out together, he was never going to make headway without her. They disguise themselves with magic and gain entry to Morgoth's halls. There Lúthien dances yet again and puts everyone, including Morgoth himself, to sleep. Beren is able to cut a Silmaril from the crown but gets greedy and goes for another, awakening the sleeping darkness. From there it's not a clean escape. There's more, regarding the ultimate fate of the Silmaril and the hero/heroine, but we're not going to get into that now.

Okay, that's the gist of the story in its most presentable form. Like the Fall of Gondolin this story evolved over time and there is no actual longer-form version brought all the way to completion by Tolkien, so we have the official short version in the Silmarillion and pieces of other versions worked on in his lifetime. The very first version of this story ('The Tale of Tinuviel,' written in 1917) is a fascinating one, where Beren is captured by Morgoth's creatures and given to an evil lord of cats (Tevildo). At one point I considered writing about how Tolkien was clearly a dog person. One of the greatest heroes of this story, Beren and Lúthien's greatest ally, is Huan, a king among dogs, and one of the villains was this cat. Beren in this version is also an Elf, so a lot changes afterward.

Beren and Lúthien (atop Huan), by Alan Lee

What I found to be far and away the best, though sadly incomplete, version of Beren and Lúthien is called 'The Lay of Leithian,' written between 1925 and 1931. It was early enough that not all details perfectly line up with the Silmarillion, but no matter. This one is all in verse, with every line containing exactly eight syllables and each pair of lines rhyming. Yet even with these constrictions what Tolkien produced was incredibly engaging. I haven't felt this way reading Tolkien since my first read-through of the Lord of the Rings, all those years ago. It's that good.

'Then Lúthien will not go home,

but weeping in the woods will roam,

nor peril heed, nor laughter know.

And if she may not by thee go

against thy will thy desperate feet

she will pursue, until they meet,

Beren and Lúthien, love once more

on earth or on the shadowy shore.'

(p. 169-170, when Beren tries to leave Lúthien behind)

Beneath them ranged with spear and sword

stood Morgoth's sable-armoured horde:

the fire on blade and boss of shield

was red as blood on stricken field.

Beneath a monstrous column loomed

the throne of Morgoth, and the doomed

and dying gasped upon the floor:

his hideous footstool, rape of war.

About him sat his awful thanes,

the Balrog-lords with fiery manes,

redhanded, mouthed with fangs of steel;

devouring wolves were crouched on heel.

And o'er the host of hell there shone

with a cold radiance, clear and wan,

the Silmarils, the gems of fate,

emprisoned in the crown of hate.

(p. 203-204, entering Morgoth's lair)

She let her flying raiment sweep,

enmeshed with woven spells of sleep,

as round the dark void she ranged and reeled.

From wall to wall she turned and wheeled

in dance such as never Elf nor fay

before devised, nor since that day;

than swallow swifter, than flittermouse

in dying light round darkened house

more silken-soft, more strange and fair

than sylphine maidens of the Air

whose wings in Varda's heavenly hall

in rhythmic movement beat and fall.

Down crumpled Orc, and Balrog proud;

all eyes were quenched, all heads were bowed;

the fires of heart and maw were stilled,

and ever like a bird she thrilled

above a lightness world forlorn

in ecstasy enchanted borne.

(p. 210, Lúthien putting everyone to sleep)

Before his feet he saw amazed

the gems of Fëanor, that blazed

with white fire glistening in the crown

of Morgoth's might now fallen down.

To move that helm of iron vast

no strength he found, and thence aghast

he strove with fingers mad to wrest

the guerdon of their hopeless quest,

till in his heart there fell the thought

of that cold morn whereon he fought

with Curufin; then from his belt

the sheathless knife he drew, and knelt,

and tried its hard edge, bitter-cold,

o'er which in Nogrod songs had rolled

of dwarvish armourers singing slow

to hammer-music long ago.

Iron as tender wood it clove

and mail as woof of loom it rove.

The claws of iron that held the gem,

it bit them through and sundered them;

a Silmaril he clasped and held,

and the pure radiance slowly welled

(p. 212-213, Beren cutting out the Silmaril)

I was enamored with the excerpts from the Lay of Leithian, and sad once again when this version ended abruptly and prematurely. Beren and Lúthien's love for each other is tremendously endearing, and their partnership incredible to follow. How this tale interconnects with the rest of Tolkien's First Age, with how the sons of Fëanor lead directly to the fall of the remaining Elvish kingdoms in mad pursuit of the Silmarils, with how Beren and Lúthien's granddaughter goes on to marry Eärendil and save Middle Earth, etc., is all fascinating as well. But my greatest takeaway from reading this book will be Tolkien's beautiful verse, and a wish there was more. You can just tell how important this story was to him, and it appears to confirm that this was the favorite among his own work.

This cover is awesome but I'm pretty sure it's showing the duel between Morgoth and Fingolfin, which I don't think is in that book

What's most amusing is that it wasn't all that long ago I couldn't get through any verse at all. I'd skip the songs when I read the Lord of the Rings as a kid. I've really struggled to comprehend anything in that format most of my life. Now I'm loving the old, let us say original, style of writing. As stated before Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a great read. Obviously I loved the Iliad, even the old-ish translation by Fitzgerald. After reading excerpts of the Lay of Leithian I had to go and buy the whole thing, contained in a book called the Lays of Beleriand (published 1985, the History of Middle Earth book 3). And then there's the Odyssey (this time Fagles), which I need to read before Nolan's adaptation premieres in July. Guess I'm delving deeper into poetry.