The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 2: Reader’s Guide PART 1. Christina Scull

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СКАЧАТЬ her that they should make their way to Thingol. The people of Doriath have sought in vain for Lúthien and grieved for her absence, and Daeron has strayed far away. Thingol has heard that Lúthien had been in Nargothrond but had fled. Just before Beren and Lúthien come to Thingol the king hears that messengers he had sent to Maedhros for aid in seeking Lúthien have been attacked by Carcharoth, who cannot be restrained by the power of Melian from entering Doriath. Beren kneels before Thingol and claims Lúthien as his own: he has fulfilled his quest. ‘Even now a Silmaril is in my hand’, but the hand is no longer on his arm. Thingol’s heart is softened, and ‘Beren took the hand of Lúthien before the throne of her father’ (pp. 184, 185).

      But Carcharoth is drawing ever nearer to Menegroth. Beren rides out with Thingol and his hunters, Mablung and Beleg, and with Huan to seek the dread beast. Carcharoth leaps on Thingol, and Beren receives a mortal wound while defending the king. Huan and Carcharoth fight and slay each other, but before dying Huan speaks for the third time, bidding Beren farewell. Mablung cuts the Silmaril from the belly of the wolf and places it in Beren’s hand; ‘and Beren was aroused by the touch of the Silmaril, and held it aloft, and bade Thingol receive it’ (p. 186).

      In Menegroth they are met by Lúthien who bids Beren wait for her beyond the Western Sea. And his spirit ‘tarried in the halls of Mandos … until Lúthien came to say her last farewell’. The spirit of Lúthien herself ‘fell down into darkness’, and coming to Mandos sang before him ‘the song most fair that ever in words was woven’, in which she ‘wove two themes … of the sorrow of the Eldar and the grief of Men. … And as she knelt before him her tears fell upon his feet … and Mandos was moved to pity, who never before was so moved, nor has been since’ (pp. 186–7). Mandos lays the case before Manwë, who consults the will of Ilúvatar and offers Lúthien two choices: to dwell among the Valar where Beren cannot come, or to become mortal and return to Middle-earth with Beren for a short time, and like him be subject to death. She chooses the latter, ‘that thus whatever grief might lie in wait’, her fate and that of Beren ‘might be joined, and their paths lead together beyond the confines of the world’ (p. 187).

      HISTORY

      The first version of this story, The Tale of Tinúviel in *The Book of Lost Tales, does not survive. Tolkien wrote it in pencil, probably in the second half of 1917, but overwrote it with a second version in ink and erased the pencil text, probably in summer 1919. References in other stories written in the intervening period, however, give some indication of what might have been in the original text. There, as in The Silmarillion, Beren was a Man, not an Elf. An allusion to ‘Tevildo Prince of Cats’ (*The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 47) suggests that Tevildo was already present in the first version. Elsewhere there are references to Lúthien’s parents, Linwë Tinto (> Tinwelint > Thingol) and Tindriel (> Wendelin > Gwendeling > Melian), and to their meeting, foreshadowing that of Lúthien and Beren. They have two children, Timpinen and Tinúviel, who ‘long after joined the Eldar again’ (The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, pp. 106–7; it is impossible to know what Tolkien meant by this phrase).

      In the revised version of The Tale of Tinúviel Tinwelint and Gwendeling, who live in a deep cavern in a hidden realm in the forest of Artanor protected by the magic of Gwendeling, also have two children, Dairon the piper and Tinúviel (her real name, not that given her by Beren) whose greatest joy is dancing. One night in June Beren the Gnome (a Noldo Elf) sees Tinúviel dancing to Dairon’s flute and is enchanted. As in the final version, she flees from Beren and he seeks her. There is no betrayal by Dairon, but Beren steps boldly before her and asks her to teach him to dance. She dances away, and leads Beren to her father’s halls. There is no suggestion that she has already committed herself to him. Tinwelint, who distrusts the Noldoli, is not welcoming, but Tinúviel pleads for Beren because of his great appreciation of her dancing. When Tinwelint asks Beren what he seeks, Beren replies: ‘thy daughter … for she is the fairest and most sweet of all the maidens I have seen or dreamed of’. Tinwelint laughs, and asks for a Silmaril from the Crown of Melko as the price of his daughter’s hand. All present think that he is jesting, but Beren replies: ‘Nay, but ’tis too small a gift to the father of so sweet a bride. … I … will fulfil thy small desire …’ (*The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, p. 13). He leaves, and Tinúviel weeps, fearing that ‘Melko will slay him, and none will look ever again with such love upon my dancing’ (p. 14).

      Beren, travelling towards Melko’s stronghold, is captured by orcs. He pretends that he is a trapper of small animals and birds who wishes to serve Melko. He is sent as a thrall to Tevildo, Prince of Cats, the mightiest of all Cats and ‘possessed of an evil sprite’ (p. 16) with many cats subject to him. When Beren fails in the tasks Tevildo sets him, he is made a scullion in Tevildo’s kitchen. As in the final version, Tinúviel learns of Beren’s captivity, is betrayed by Dairon, and is imprisoned by her father. She achieves her escape in the same way, but the tale describes at length the spells by which she makes her hair grow and gives the cloak and rope made from it the power of compelling sleep. Dairon tries to follow her but becomes lost. On her journey north Tinúviel meets Huan, Captain of Dogs, a friend of Beren and great enemy of Tevildo, who devises a plan to rescue Beren. Tinúviel goes to Tevildo’s stronghold, says that she has seen Huan lying sick in the woods, and offers to lead Tevildo to him. Through a hatch she catches a glimpse of Beren in the kitchen and speaks loudly so that he knows she is there. So deceived, Tevildo with two other cats follows Tinúviel to where Huan lies pretending to be sick. Huan kills one of the cats, Oikeroi, and the other two climb trees to escape him. Huan says that he will not let them come down until Beren is set free. Eventually Tevildo yields, throws down his gold collar as a token of authority to his followers, and reveals to Huan ‘the secret of the cats and the spell that Melko had entrusted to him … words of magic whereby the stones of his evil house were held together, and whereby he held all beasts of the catfolk under his sway, filling them with an evil power beyond their nature …’ (The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, p. 28). Tinúviel returns to Tevildo’s stronghold, speaks the spell, and rescues Beren.

      Tinúviel wanders a long time in the woods with Beren and Huan, but ‘grew at last to long sorely for Gwendeling’. She wishes to return home but does not want to leave Beren. He suggests that the only thing they can do is to find a Silmaril. They consult Huan (who has no restriction on his speech), who gives them the skin of Oikeroi which he had taken as a trophy; Tinúviel sews Beren into it and teaches him how to behave like a cat. They leave Huan and make their way to Melko’s stronghold, Angband. Here the earlier story differs only in detail: Tinúviel pretends that she has been driven out by her father; Beren uses a knife from Tevildo’s kitchen to prise the Silmaril from Melko’s crown; and their escape is aided by Huan, not by eagles.

      Beren feels that he should leave Tinúviel, since he has no Silmaril to give her father, but she persuades him to go in hope with her, for her father might have relented. They find that her father’s realm has suffered in her absence, most recently by the incursion of Karkaras (the precursor of Carcharoth) who, driven mad by anguish, has run wild through the woods and killed many. When they come before Tinwelint Beren declares that he has a Silmaril in his hand, but shows that his hand is no longer on his arm. As in The Silmarillion, Tinwelint’s heart is softened, and he accepts Beren; but in the revised Tale of Tinúviel Karkaras comes on the hunters while they are sleeping, with Beren keeping watch; Beren does not lose his life protecting Tinwelint; Tinwelint, not Huan, kills Karkaras; and Huan survives the fight. Tinúviel is not offered a choice, but Mandos allows both her and Beren to return into the world, warning them that ‘it is not to any life of perfect joy that I dismiss you … and know ye that ye will become mortal even as Men, and when ye fare hither again it will be for ever, unless the Gods summon you indeed to Valinor’ (The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two, p. 40). They return to dance in the woods and hills.

      Since in this version both Beren and Tinúviel are Elves, the conflict between differing fates which becomes such an important element in later versions is absent. Here they are permitted a fate which differs from that usual for Elves who die. Instead of waiting in the Halls of Mandos and being СКАЧАТЬ