#lay of leithian

[nochd]

This was on @whatareyoureallyafraidof's post where they put up this:

And I responded with this image:

and promised in the tags to elaborate if asked. And, @frodo-the-weeb, I will. But it's going to get long and I'm going to have to split it up into several reblogs.

First of all, since not everybody in the world is a Silmarillion enthusiast, let me explain what we're referring to.

One of the stories in the Silmarillion, and possibly the one Tolkien cared about the most, is the tale of Lúthien and Beren; a highly condensed version of a narrative poem called the Lay of Leithian, which Tolkien began writing in the 1930s and tried to get his publisher interested in after the success of The Hobbit.

(Their readers said no, and they tactfully asked him to focus on his Hobbit sequel instead. "The result," in Tolkien's own words, "was The Lord of the Rings.")

The skeleton of The Lay of Leithian is as follows; I'm intentionally leaving out a bunch of information that weaves it into the overarching story of the Silmarillion but isn't relevant to the thesis I'm advancing here.

Lúthien, an Elven princess and enchantress, falls in love with a mortal man, a ranger called Beren. Her father, the Elven King Thingol, disapproves and sends him Beren off to fetch one of the jewels from the crown of the Dark Lord Morgoth. Lúthien tries to join Beren but her father imprisons her in a tower to stop her, only it's actually a treehouse because they're forest elves. Lúthien magically grows her hair long and uses it to escape. By the time she catches up with Beren he is chained in the dungeons of Morgoth's second-in-command, Thû (whom Tolkien later renamed Sauron). She rescues him with the help only of a dog, who defeats Thû himself in single combat. They then live in the forest together for quite some time, but Beren feels bad about being the reason she can't go home to her family, and still intends to finish his mission and get the jewel. He leaves one morning while she's still asleep, so as not to put her in danger, and then when he's on the threshold of Morgoth's underground fortress in the far North of Middle-Earth she catches up with him again and he accepts that she's not going to be put off. Together they enter Morgoth's fortress and make their way to his throne room. They are in disguise but Morgoth is not fooled and uncovers Lúthien in front of everyone, declaring his intention to make her one of his many slaves. Lúthien offers to sing and dance for him, which is the way she works her magic. She puts everyone in the throne room to sleep, including both Beren and eventually Morgoth. She wakes Beren and he takes the jewel and they flee, but as they get to the outer door they are stopped by Morgoth's guard-wolf, who bites off Beren's hand holding the jewel.

That's as far as Tolkien ever got with the poem, but we have the synopsis in the prose Silmarillion to tell us the rest of the story; again cutting it down to the quick, Thingol accepts Beren as his son-in-law, Morgoth's guard-wolf attacks Doriath, Beren goes and hunts it but is mortally wounded, his spirit goes to the Halls of Waiting in the Undying Lands where the dead in Middle-Earth go, Lúthien also goes there and, again through her magical song, persuades Mandos the god of the dead to let him come back. Mandos offers her a choice: live on immortally as an Elf without Beren, or return to Middle-Earth with Beren but both of them will grow old and die. She chooses the latter.

Tolkien created Lúthien as a portrait of his wife Edith, which makes Beren a picture of himself. We know this for a fact because he had LUTHIEN written on her grave when she died, and when he joined her in it two years later the name BEREN was written for him:

Now on the lower right side of my response image you'll see Pauline Baynes' illustration of the Lady in the Green Kirtle from The Silver Chair, one of C. S. Lewis's Narnia stories. A quick synopsis of the Lady of the Green Kirtle's part in the story:

The Lady is a witch who rules a gloomy kingdom underneath Narnia, accessible through a fissure in the earth in an old ruined city far to the North. Before the story opens she has enspelled and kidnapped King Caspian's son Prince Rilian, whom she intends to send leading an army to conquer Narnia in her name. For twenty-three hours a day he is her willing slave and lap-dog; to maintain the spell, he must be bound to the titular silver chair for the remaining hour, during which he is sane and aware of his imprisonment. The protagonists, Eustace and Jill and their guide Puddleglum, meet her and Rilian unawares on their journey to the North; she sends them astray and almost succeeds in getting them eaten by giants. Eventually they rescue Rilian from the chair, but she sings a magical song which very nearly puts them all to sleep but for Puddleglum's intervention. Foiled, she transforms into a serpent, attacks them, and they kill her.

It is my contention that the Lady in the Green Kirtle is Lewis's caricature of Lúthien, with the enslaved and befuddled Prince Rilian representing Beren; and further, that Lewis knew or recognised that Lúthien and Beren were a literary portrait of the Tolkiens, so that The Silver Chair is ultimately a nasty commentary on their marriage.

In forthcoming reblogs I will lay out my evidence for this thesis.

[edennill]

Very tense performances of the Leithian in Eregion, featuring:

Celebrimbor discreetly leaving the audience for the duration of the Nargothrond Incident(s)

Galadriel not-so-discreetly leaving the audience for Finrod's death

Annatar leaving for Lúthien's arrival in Tol-in-Gaurhoth

[thelien-art]

Huan; Hound of Valinor

From a month ago

Support me on Ko-Fi; early access drawings + WIP + COMM discounts

[elena-kukanova]

In the meantime, a whole plot bundle has come together

Fen of Serech

[thetiredprometheus]

Celegorm and Curufin explaining the Luthien situation to Maedhros

[tanoraqui]

my real Leithian hot take is that Thingol did not mean it. He did not value his daughter at 1 Silmaril - he did not "value" his daughter like a thing to be paid for, ever. He did not mean to set her would-be-betrothed a politically fraught and inevitably deadly task, or even a Legendary Impossible Task. He did mean to tell Beren to fuck off and never darken their treestep again, but he said, "Bring to me in your hand a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown; and then, if she will, Lúthien may set her hand in yours." the same way you or I would sarcastically say, "I'll do that when Hell freezes over" - and the great and terrible harmony of the Music of Ëa itself rose to back his words, in a chorus that would echo throughout Arda and reprise until the very End of Days, and every since person in the room with the faintest Song-sense went, oh fuck; except Beren, who, being a Man, had only the very faintest Song-sense anyway, just went, "Bet."

(This didn't entirely help Thingol's case in his daughter's eyes, because he very much had intended for Beren to fuck off and die, albeit only in the way that Men always do and Lúthien, in her father's eyes, was never supposed to; and when it was clear that this was now a Legendary Impossible Task, he very much did have her locked in a treehouse rather than let her go help her lover. He still made some Choices. But he didn't start All Of That; That just happened.)

[abomination-unto-nuggan]

Fingon: Why is Beren crying on the floor?

Lúthien: He took one of those 'what person are you?' quizzes.

Fingon: And?

Lúthien: He got Maedhros.

[sometimesartmostlychaos]

I made this concept art recently for the outfits of Thuringwethil, the vampire and messenger servant of Sauron in the Silmarillion! They were for a little presentation I gave at the Hern Ennorath (Australian Tolkien fan club) zoom meeting, just about my plans for cosplaying her again! Hope you like these 🥰🦇🖤

[verecunda]

If Sauron was hanging about Eregion for about four hundred years, then I'm assuming he didn't spend the whole time cooped up in the smithies, but also had to maintain his Friendly Neighbourhood Emissary of the Valar persona by mingling with the populace, taking part in their social calendar, attending their festivals, feasts, hunts, etc.

As one of the great tales, the Lay of Leithian must be a particularly popular subject for Elvish art, whether in song, poetry, maybe even in theatrical performance, and I find it impossible to believe that Sauron could have avoided hearing or seeing some rendition of it during his time among the Elves. And sure, maybe the bits with Finrod and Gorlim would occasion him a private chuckle, but the rest of it... well, he really doesn't appear to advantage!

Let's just say, if you were in the audience at such a performance - say, oh, the bit where Lúthien and Huan rescue Beren from the Isle of Werewolves - just say you were able to tear your attention from the drama on stage for just a second and happened to look around, you might be somewhat surprised to catch a glimpse of Lord Annatar sitting bolt upright in his seat, wearing a decidedly fixed smile, one hand rubbing unconsciously at his throat...

[serene-faerie]

Was thinking about Celebrimbor and Lúthien's friendship again

And then I had this thought

Sometime in the Second Age, Celebrimbor is telling Annatar all about how he was once friends with Lúthien Tinúviel. He helped her escape from Nargothrond, and turned against his uncle and father after that. He speaks of Lúthien so fondly, wishing that he could've seen her again before she died.

Meanwhile, Annatar's just having a 'Nam flashback to the time when Lúthien and Huan completely kicked his ass and took Tol-in-Gaurhoth from him, but he's desperately trying to hide it behind the most tense smile he's ever had on his face.

And Celebrimbor is just completely oblivious to his discomfort lmao

[thelien-art]

Lúthien Tinúviel

"-for Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight."

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien

[velvet4510]

Please never forget the huge number of people who Lúthien Tinúviel saved.

Of course, her getting the Silmaril eventually allowed Elwing and Eärendil to bring salvation to all of Middle-earth years later; we all know that. But that’s not what I’m referring to.

Never think that Beren was the only person saved by Lúthien’s direct actions during her lifetime. An entire tower full of Sauron’s captives in Tol-in-Gaurhoth were saved and set free when she took control of the island.

She didn’t just grab her boyfriend and run. She tore open all of the dungeons and enabled dozens, if not hundreds, of people to escape with their lives. If it weren’t for her, all of those prisoners would’ve died in torment.

Lúthien is far more than a devoted girlfriend; she’s a true hero of Middle-earth who single-handedly saved at least a dozen lives!!!

[kitty--white]

Sauron: Who the fuck are you?

Finrod (philosophically): Who the fuck are any of us?

[tilion-writes]

"Then Felagund upon the head Of Orodreth set it: 'Brother mine, till I return this crown is thine.' Then Celegorm no more would stay, and Curufin smiled and turned away."

For the @candcweek prompt "Oaths" -> Fëanorian Oath!

This line from the Lay of Leithian has always really stuck with me for some reason. The C&C brainrot is real.

[solmarillion]

"Lúthien Tinúviel, more fair than mortal tongue can tell."

I'm so excited to share the first photo from this magical shoot of my Lúthien cosplay at Zenkaikon! My photographer did such an amazing job with the direction of the shoot and the edits- with the magic of photography, red brick Lancaster can look like Middle-earth ✨️

I'll be bringing Lúthien to Otakon when I host the Tolkien Meetup Fri 10-11am! Hope to see you there! ❤️

📷 @ brittanylee.artistry (IG)

[naarisz]

Lúthien doodle :)