Editing Lúthien and Beren (section)

== Analysis ==

{{further|Orpheus}}
{{see also|A mythology for England}}

The [[philologist]] and Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] writes that Tolkien based the tale of Beren and Lúthien [[Tolkien and the classical world|on the classical legend]] of Orpheus in the underworld, and embroiders this framework with story elements from multiple folktales, myths, and legends. These include the Finnish ''[[Kalevala]]'', the Welsh ''[[Mabinogion]]'', the Norse ''[[Saga of the Volsungs]]'', the Icelandic ''[[Prose Edda]]'', the Old English ''[[Genesis B]]'', and the German folktale "[[Rapunzel]]". Shippey comments that Tolkien "had not yet freed himself from his sources – as if trying to bring in all the older bits of literature that he liked instead of forging a story with an impetus of its own."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=294–295}}

[[File:Shippey on Beren and Lúthien's many sources.svg|thumb|center|upright=2.5|[[Tom Shippey]] on some of the many sources for Tolkien's tale of Beren and Lúthien: principally the tale of [[Orpheus]] and [[Eurydice]], but with the addition of story elements from myths, legends, and folktales from different periods.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=294–295}}]]

=== Classical myth ===

{{further|Tolkien and the classical world}}

Peter Astrup Sundt draws multiple parallels between Beren and [[Orpheus]]. More precisely, he compares both Beren and Lúthien and the classical character, as it is Lúthien not Beren who has magical powers, and far from playing a passive [[Eurydice]] to be rescued, or not, from the underworld, she too goes to sing for [[Mandos]], the Vala who watches over the souls of the dead.<ref name="Sundt 2021">{{cite book |last=Sundt |first=Peter Astrup |title=Orpheus and Eurydice in Tolkien's Orphic Middle-earth |pages=165–189}} in {{harvnb|Williams|2021}}</ref> Ben Eldon Stevens adds that Tolkien's retelling contrasts sharply with the myth. Where Orpheus nearly manages to retrieve Eurydice from Hades, Lúthien rescues Beren three times – from Sauron's fortress-prison of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, involving singing; from Morgoth's Angband, with the Silmaril; and by getting Mandos to restore both of them to life. In the original myth, Eurydice meets "a second death", soon followed by the griefstruck Orpheus, whereas Tolkien has Lúthien and Beren enjoy "a second life" after their "resurrection".<ref name="Stevens 2021">{{cite book |last=Stevens |first=Ben Eldon |title=Middle-earth as Underworld: From Katabasis to Eucatastrophe |pages=113–114}} in {{harvnb|Williams|2021}}</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#153, September 1954 to Peter Hastings }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
|+ Peter Astrup Sundt's parallels between Beren/Lúthien and [[Orpheus]]<ref name="Sundt 2021"/>
|-
! Action/theme !! Beren !! [[Orpheus]] !! Lúthien 
|-
| Bond with nature || Yes || Yes || Yes 
|-
| Desperate search for lover || Yes ([[Lay of Leithian]]) || Yes ||  
|-
| Repeated calling of her name || Tinuviel! Tinuviel! || ''[[Eurydice]]n ... Eurydicen''<br/>([[Virgil]]'s ''[[Georgics]]'') ||  
|-
| ''[[Katabasis]]'',<br/>descent into underworld || "Go[es] down" into [[Doriath (Middle-earth)|Doriath]],<br/>the "perilous, terrible, forbidden" city || Yes ||  
|-
| Magical, musical mother ||  || The [[Muses|muse]] [[Calliope]] || The [[Maiar in Middle-earth|Maia]] [[Melian in Middle-earth|Melian]]
|-
| Powerful song ||  || Yes || Yes 
|-
| Magical powers ||  || Yes || Yes 
|-
| Pleads for return of lover ||  || To [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]] and [[Proserpina|Proserpine]] || To [[Mandos]] 
|}

=== Harrowing of Hell ===

{{further|Christian light in Tolkien's legendarium|Hell and Middle-earth}}

[[File:Harrowhell.jpg|thumb|upright| ''[[Harrowing of Hell|The Harrowing of Hell]]'', ''{{lang|fr|[[Petites Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry|Petites Heures]]}}'', 14th-century [[illuminated manuscript]] for [[John, Duke of Berry]] ]]

Robert Steed, in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'', argues that Tolkien echoes and "creatively adapts" the medieval theme of the [[Harrowing of Hell]], in the tale of Lúthien and Beren, and in other places. The medieval tale holds that Christ spent the time between his crucifixion and resurrection down in Hell, setting the Devil's captives free with the irresistible power of his divine light. The motif, Steed suggests, involves a multi-step sequence<!--i.e. an ORDERED list-->:

# someone imprisoned in darkness;
# a powerful and evil jailor;
# a still more powerful liberator
# who brings light, and
# sets the captives free.

Steed describes the tale "[[Of Beren and Lúthien]]" as an instance, where Lúthien sets Beren free from Sauron's imprisonment. Beren is freed from darkness, Lúthien from despair, so, Steed remarks, both of them take on aspects of Christ:<ref name="Steed 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Steed |first1=Robert |title=The Harrowing of Hell Motif in Tolkien's Legendarium |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |date=2017 |issue=58 |pages=6–9 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/download/26/21}}</ref>

{{blockquote|But Beren coming back to light out of the pit of despair lifted her up, and they looked again upon one another; and the day rising over dark hills shone upon them."<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|loc=19 "Of Beren and Lúthien"}}</ref>}}

=== Folktale, fairytale ===
<!--https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beren_and_L%C3%BAthien&oldid=643864963 is cited in Beal 2014 (ref below) as giving popular attention to folk-tales "The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" and "The Griffin" as possible sources for Tolkien's L&B.-->

{{see also|Tolkien and the Celtic}}

[[File:Ysbaddaden.jpeg|thumb|upright|Possible influence from the Welsh "[[Culhwch and Olwen]]": heroic hound, woman with magical powers, warrior seeking her hand in marriage, demanding father. Illustration "Culhwch at Ysbaddaden's court" by [[Ernest Wallcousins]], 1920]]

Several scholars, from [[Randel Helms]] onwards, have noted that Tolkien's tale of Beren and Lúthien shares elements with folktales such as the Welsh "[[Culhwch and Olwen]]". One of these is the disapproving parent who sets a seemingly impossible task (or tasks) for the suitor, which is then fulfilled.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hnutu-healh |first=Glyn |title=Culhwch and Olwen |url=https://www.arthurlegends.com/culhwch-and-olwen/ |website=Arthurian Legends |access-date=6 August 2020 |date=6 January 2020 |archive-date=30 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030021951/https://www.arthurlegends.com/culhwch-and-olwen/ }}</ref> The [[Brothers Grimm]] folktale "[[The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs]]" sets such a task, the King requiring the boy to obtain three golden hairs from the Devil's beard.<ref name="Dickerson O'Hara 2006">{{cite book |last1=Dickerson |first1=Matthew |author1-link=Matthew Dickerson |last2=O'Hara |first2=David |title=From Homer to Harry Potter |year=2006 |publisher=[[Brazos Press]] |pages=141–142 |isbn=978-1-44120-214-7}}</ref><!-- A similar folktale is "[[The Griffin (fairy tale)|The Griffin]]".--> Another is the hound [[Cafall]], matching Tolkien's Huan, hound of Valinor.<ref name="Beal 2014">{{cite journal |last=Beal |first=Jane |year=2014 |title=Orphic Powers in J.R.R. Tolkien's Legend of Beren and Lúthien |journal=[[Journal of Tolkien Research]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |at=Article 1 |url=http://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol1/iss1/1}}</ref> 

Shippey<ref name="Shippey 2010"/> and [[Richard C. West]]<ref name="Beal 2014"/> have warned that claims about Tolkien's use of sources must be cautious, because as Tolkien said, he thoroughly boiled down his "soup" from the original "bones of the ox" of his sources.<!--The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p. 120)--> Shippey agrees with Alex Lewis and Elizabeth Currie that Tolkien very likely used the ''[[Mabinogion]]'', as he certainly knew "Culhwch and Olwen", but finds their suggestion that Tolkien also used von Eschenbach's ''[[Parzival]]'' as an Arthurian source improbable, stating that "similarity does not prove connection".<ref name="Shippey 2010">{{cite journal |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |department=Reviews |title=A Question of Source |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=49 |year=2010 |pages=10–12 |jstor=48614691}}</ref> Shippey adds that the hunt of the giant boar [[Twrch Trwyth]] is a "plausible" model for the hunt of Carcharoth the wolf.<ref name="Shippey 2010"/> On the other hand, he writes, the incomplete fulfilment of Chief Giant [[Ysbaddaden|Yspaddaden]]'s list of items to be supplied for Olwen's hand in marriage does not match the attempt to meet Thingol's demand for the Silmaril, and "the scenes aren't like each other at all!"<ref name="Shippey 2010"/><!--<ref>{{cite book |last=Phelpstead |first=Carl |title=Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature, and Identity |date=2011 |publisher=[[University of Wales Press]] |location=Cardiff |isbn=978-0-7083-2372-4 |page=}}</ref>{{pn|date=September 2024}}-->

The Tolkien scholar [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]], writing in the ''[[New Statesman]]'', notes that it took a century for ''[[The Tale of Beren and Lúthien]]'', mirroring the tale of Second Lieutenant Tolkien watching Edith dancing in a woodland glade [[The Great War and Middle-earth|far from the "animal horror" of the trenches]], to reach publication. Garth finds "much to relish", as the tale changes through "several gears" until finally it "attains a mythic power". Beren's enemy changes from a cat-demon to the "Necromancer" and eventually to Sauron. Garth comments that if this was supposed to be the lost ancestor of the [[Rapunzel]] [[fairytale]], then it definitely portrays a modern "female-centred fairy-tale revisioning" with a Lúthien who may be fairer than mortal tongue can tell, but is also more resourceful than her lover.<ref name="Garth 2017">{{cite news |last=Garth |first=John |author-link=John Garth (author) |title=Beren and Lúthien: Love, war and Tolkien's lost tales |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/05/beren-and-l-thien-love-war-and-tolkien-s-lost-tales |access-date=31 July 2020 |work=[[New Statesman]] |date=27 May 2017}}</ref>

=== Personal life === 

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Grave of Edith and J. R. R. Tolkien
|-
| {{center|1=+<br/> Edith Mary Tolkien <br/> '''Luthien''' <br/> 1889–1971 <br/> John Ronald <br/> Reuel Tolkien <br/> '''Beren ''' <br/> 1892–1973 }}
| [[File:Tolkiengrab.jpg|160px|frameless]]
|}

In a letter to his son [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher]], dated 11 July 1972, Tolkien requested the inscription below for his wife [[Edith Tolkien|Edith]]'s grave "for she was (and knew she was) my Lúthien."<ref name="Letter #340" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#340 to Christopher Tolkien, 11 July 1972 }}</ref> He added, "I never called Edith ''Luthien'' – but she was the source of the story.... It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire where ... she was able to live with me for a while."<ref name="Letter #340" group=T/> In a footnote to this letter, Tolkien added "she knew the earliest form of the legend...also the poem eventually printed as Aragorn's song."<ref name="Letter #340" group=T/> Particularly affecting for Tolkien was Edith's conversion to the [[Catholic Church]] from the [[Church of England]] for his sake upon their marriage; this was a difficult decision for her that caused her much hardship, paralleling the difficulties and suffering of Lúthien from choosing mortality.{{sfn|Carpenter|1977|p=73}}

Edith and J. R. R. Tolkien lie in [[Wolvercote Cemetery]] in north [[Oxford]].  Their gravestone shows the association of Lúthien with Edith, and Tolkien with Beren.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birzer |first=Bradley J.  |author-link=Bradley J. Birzer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyKDAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth |date=13 May 2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-4976-4891-3 |at=pt. 35}}</ref>