Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. Today’s post is a review of Beren and Luthien by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. I was so delighted to dig into this book as my next outing into the world of Middle-Earth. Given that it is probably the most iconic love story of Middle-Earth, it was the ideal book to be gifted to me by my husband Andrew for Valentine’s Day this year! I wanted to acknowledge that and thank him for a book that I truly adored.
The book is the first Middle-Earth work I have read besides The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I am glad that this was my next read before diving into the full text of The Silmarillion (which is the next Tolkien book I will be reading). I wanted to read this book first, as I am a hopeless romantic (making the love story of this tale a big appeal for me), and I wanted to really understand the story of Luthien and her love with Beren. Luthien is discussed occasionally in The Lord of the Rings, especially where Arwen (who is my favorite character) is concerned, since Arwen is forever compared to her. In fact, Arwen is descended from Beren and Luthien from her father Elrond’s lineage!
Now that I have covered a bit of background for my desire to read this book now, and the fact that my husband kindly gifted me with a copy of it, let’s get deeper into my thoughts on the book itself. The book is a very interesting blend of various versions of the story that Tolkien had written over the course of decades, as he never stopped coming back to this tale to re-tell it and alter details. Truly, Tolkien’s Middle-Earth world, outside of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was forever being edited and changed. In fact, even The Hobbit was edited once before the publication of The Lord of the Rings. The fact that Tolkien was forever making adjustments makes his Middle-Earth lore feel like a truly ever-evolving and living history of this amazing Fantasy world he built! In any case, this evolving nature of the story of Beren and Luthien, in particular, is what led Christopher Tolkien to choose to edit this book in the way he did. I also have to mention here that this story was so important to J.R.R. Tolkien that he even had Beren and Luthien inscribed on the headstone he and his wife share (as their love was certainly part of the inspiration for this story, along with folkloric traditions I will discuss below)! I find that to be beyond romantic and incredibly sweet, making it even more of a reason I wanted to read this story now!
Christopher Tolkien endeavored to create a book with the most complete version of one of his father’s most important tales. I loved reading the story in its many varied forms in the book, and the editorial notes by Christopher Tolkien were fascinating! The story tells the tale of how Beren and Luthien meet, Beren going on a Quest to win Luthien’s hand in marriage, and Luthien using magick to follow him, not to mention so much more. In most versions, Beren is a mortal man and Luthien an immortal Elf, adding some important layers to their story (and how Aragorn and Arwen’s love would one day be compared to theirs). The story itself is beautiful, being both heartwarming and heartrending in turn. It is everything you would want in an epic love story, full of high stakes and love truly conquering all (even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds)! In the story, I can see shades of Orpheus and Eurydice, Sleeping Beauty (and other fairytales), the Norse Swan Maiden tales, and tales from The Mabinogion (in particular, the story of Culwch and Olwen), but with a much happier end result than most of those tales. Clearly, Tolkien created his own very unique take on this type of Faery love story, but as a folklore nerd, it is always nice to be able to see where Fantasy tales took inspiration from!
At the end of the day, this is an incredible work to read to further your knowledge of Middle-Earth, to get immersed in a truly sweet love story, and to see how Tolkien’s art grew and evolved over time. I highly recommend this one as a must-read for Tolkien fans! I hope you have enjoyed reading my thoughts on Beren and Luthien. Have you read this book? Do you want to read it now? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the cover of one of the editions of the book. I found the image on https://www.amazon.com/Beren-Lúthien-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/1328791823.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading
- Beren and Luthien by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien