Episode 74 Summary

[Tony Meade]

SESSION 74

Strider explains it all:

• Strider’s prose summary is mostly about the things that the poem didn’t cover, including their deeds, which is in answer to Sam’s request for a story about Elves.
• In a way, this is the mirror opposite of the poem, with Strider only briefly mentioning the meeting of Beren and Lúthien and giving much more about their adventures.
• Note: Arwen did not exist yet as a character when this poem was written, or when it was included in The Lord of the Rings. She was a much later addition. Aragorn is revealed as a descendant of Beren and Lúthien, but the personal significance for him was not there. But having introduced Arwen to the final version, it retroactively becomes more poignant for him. It’s not inappropriate to think about the published text in this way, as having Aragorn and Arwen be a recapitulation of Beren and Lúthien was intentional but wasn’t at first.
• Why does Strider do the poem first before explaining it? Strider chooses to recite the poem before giving the historical context, which partly reveals why he chooses to tell this story at all.
• The Ringwraiths are almost certainly within earshot and can hear Strider telling this story.
• The poem does not mention the enemy’s defeat, but it does deal with hope and joy after sorrow. The first stanza is from our point of view of Lúthien, which is a form of enchantment.
• Beren’s weariness and loneliness are relevant to the hobbits who are alone and road weary in a strange country. Finding Lúthien isn’t just about romance; but it is more about finding hope.
• The changing of the seasons and the cycle of life and death are presented as reason for hope.
• Lúthien’s acceptance of Beren is a joining of the eternal with the transient which is a kind of victory over the darkness as represented by spring overcoming winter.
• The adventures involving destroying prisons are an outward expression of their meeting.

The spell of the song:

• Strider also openly uses Sauron’s name, and speaks with derision of the fact that he was once a servant, and that he is only the leader of Mordor, not the Great Enemy.
• He seems confident enough, after reciting this poem, to speak Sauron’s name. It’s possible that he has already given up on secrecy, but he had already stopped them from saying it before.
• The fact that Sauron had a master who was the real Dark Lord reminds them that all of these older stories took place in a world where threats were an order of magnitude bigger.

Strider shows what he thinks is important:

• Strider emphasizes the social distance between Beren and Lúthien, not only in their rank and political position, but in their being.
• Lúthien was the fairest maiden of all time, and he also describes her as an embodiment of light.
• Strider elides over many major historical points, even avoiding defining the Silmarils.
• He also does not shy away from the defeat of the alliance of Men and Elves by the Great Enemy.
• Strider skips over their adventures at first, focusing on their sorrows and separation. Its only after this that he goes back and tells them a few details of their story.
• Overall, the focus is on their relationship, and how the adventures were all about them being together, both then and afterwards. But he ends the story on the sad note.
• He ends the whole history by describing the fruits of Lúthien’s sacrifice of her immortality, which through the kings of Númenor and their descendants is a note of hope.
• There is a symmetry between Beren’s search for Lúthien in the physical world and her search for him after death. Aragorn seems to emphasize the importance of the latter over the former.

The choice of this sad story:

• Beren’s quest might be more directly relevant to Frodo, but Aragorn focuses on Lúthien’s doom.
• He seems to emphasize that the sadness itself is important to hear, not just the happy parts.
• Note: Sam will remember this story best later when he talks about the characters not knowing the ends of their stories, and that stories that are good to hear are ones they wouldn’t want to be in. Sam will also point out that they are in a continuation of this very story and will point to it as evidence of the way that the world works, with triumph and cost, and hope and sorrow.
• This is a very encouraging story but put in the context of the threats that still exists. There is also a reminder that even eucatastrophes come at a cost, and as a result of sacrifice.
• He also wants to remind them that this adventure is not a there and back again quickly story.
• A happy, encouraging story may not be the best weapon to fight the Ringwraiths in the dark.

Light as leaf on linden-tree:

• The shape of the older version of the poem holds to the same form and patterns of rhyme, as well as having the repeated words much more fixed.
• The experience of the poem is more objective, and we are not invited into the scene.
• Daeron is actually mentioned in this version, so we can guess that it was him playing the in the final version. Tinúviel is also already being named.
• The reversals within the stanzas are merely contrast between his weary feet and hers and Daeron’s nimbler fairy feet.
• In this poem, the rhyming multisyllabic participle word rhymes are broken early with Doriath.
• The use of more proper nouns places it in a more historical context than the final version.
• The story of their meeting is protracted in the early version, as she runs away from him again.
• There is also no calling forth of spring on the part of Lúthien, though the spring is happening.
• In this version, the word “wraith” does not carry the negative connotation it will later.
• Beren’s enchantment calls him forth without his will being involved, and Lúthien’s doom seems to force her to stop. The meeting is mutual, but there is an emphasis on his capture of her.
• The fact that Beren catches Lúthien is both opposed to traditional fairy stories, but also in line with those stories is that he dances with her afterwards.
• This is superficially more traditional, though the story ends with the last stanza. There is no hint of any life or adventures that come after this.
• The last stanza widens the view on the wider context, including the loss of Daeron.

The metatextual history of the Beren and Lúthien story:

• Tolkien may have originally written this poem separately from the Beren and Lúthien story or the legendarium. Beren and Lúthien were inserted later.
• This may have just been a mortal-meets-elf poem, and in those kinds of poems, there is no return from Faerie for the mortal, whether the ending is good or bad.
• There is a sense that Beren will stay in that fairy wood with Tinúviel forever after this.
• There is a tradition that this was inspired by Tolkien’s relationship with his wife, Edith.
• The story of Beren and Tinúviel is in The Book of Lost Tales, but in that story Beren is a Norldorin elf, not a mortal. This is still a star-crossed romance, but between the Noldor and Sindar.
• This version of the poem, which was written after The Book of Lost Tales, may have inspired the change of Beren to a mortal man and the story to that of a mortal/immortal romance.
• It was after this that the Beren and Lúthien story is associated with himself and Edith.
• This poem was a result of Tolkien’s second attempt to write an alliterative version of The Children of Hurin, because the story of Beren and Lúthien kept coming up as he was writing.
• Tolkien then shifts to writing a full version of The Lay of Leithian, after writing this poem.
• This poem was inserted at the point in the Turin story when he is on the road to Doriath, and Turin’s companion Halog sings this tale to comfort Turin, much like Strider and the hobbits.
• The idea of music of mirth and mourning blended echoing in sorrowing hearts carries on the Frodo and the other hobbits, and Frodo could relate to young Turin’s exile from home.
• In the final version, it is Lúthien’s sacrifice that can inspire Frodo’s heart as well. This is why the emphasis is not on throwing down the Enemy.
• Frodo will also be maimed like Beren, and like Lúthien we will leave the Shire forever in the end.
• This story was always intended to be sung at a moment like the hobbits being surrounded by the Ringwraiths at Weathertop, because of its blend of tragedy and heroism.

END OF SESSION