His preface and annotations are openhearted and engaging. What makes this possible is the grace with which he handles his long-accustomed dual role of guide to both story and history. Written between 19, it sets out the story in tetrameter couplets with some moments that hint at his later voice:Įvery version of the story in the book is incomplete, but under Christopher Tolkien's steady editorial hand, the fragments assemble themselves to give us an impression of the whole. Of these, I found the poem the most enjoyable, despite the archaic tone characteristic of early Tolkien. Editor Christopher Tolkien, the author's son, collaborator and foremost scholar, has also included a long narrative poem, a later prose account and some related fragments. Tolkien's early fairy tale version is the first of three retellings of the Beren and Lúthien story included in the book. 'I have been a lover of fairy-stories since I learned to read,' he later wrote in an essay in which he passionately defended fantasy and 'escapist' fiction: 'Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?'

Tolkien came out of that hell knowing what he wanted to write: fairy tales. it was like a death.' He only survived to write his works because he was struck down with trench fever and sent back to Britain as an invalid.Īuthor Interviews A Reminder To Tolkien Fans Of Their First Love When Tolkien left for the Somme as a second lieutenant, he wrote that 'Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute. World War I was a meat grinder into which Britain's young men were fed with their eyes open. I was going to type something like 'Elves, true love, magical dog, obviously this tale was written in more innocent times' - but that isn't true. The disapproval of Lúthien's father sends the two lovers on a series of perilous quests, but they rescue each other through bravery, music and love - with an assist from a magical dog. The next year, he began composing the earliest version of a tale to which he would always return: The love of Beren, a mortal man, and Lúthien, daughter of the Elven King of the forest realm of Doriath. They finally married when Tolkien was 24 - just a few months before he was deployed to the Somme. Young Tolkien had fallen in love with Edith when he was 16 and she 19, but his guardian disapproved (both he and Edith were orphans). The tombstone in front of me bore the names of Edith Mary Tolkien and her husband John Ronald, but underneath each name was another: 'Lúthien' and 'Beren.' One night in December of 1993, I stood in a frost-bound churchyard in Wolvercote, near Oxford. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Beren and Lúthien Author J.R.R.

The tale of luthien and beren