https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4047925414
A tragic love story in a way and one that has gone through many changes in JRR Tolkien notes. Way before the events that transpired in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, the evil Morgath had control of middle earth and he was a despot to be sure who terrorized elf, dwarf and man. Hobbits did not come around yet.
Christopher Tolkien goes through his father’s unfinished notes like the Quenta Silmarillion, Quenta Nodali and a couple of other unpublished tomes and delivers to the reader the story of Beren and Luthien. In the original version Beren is the son of a forester. He is a nodali elf sometimes called a gnome. But this is not your classic gnome but a real elf. One day Beren walks into the forest of Artanor and espies the beautiful maiden Tinuviel dancing to her brother’s music. He spends several days watching her until they finally meet. When they do he is so smitten with her that he asks for her hand from her father, King Tintwelimt., . The king is none to happy about this and he thinks of a way to thwart the young elf’s romantic aspirations. Beren must infiltrate Angaband, Morgath’s stronghold and get a jewel off his crown. This is one of the Silmarillion. Beren becomes a slave for Tevildo, Morgath’s super cat right hand man and believe me this cat is a task master. Luthien fearing the worst pleads for her father to intervene but to no avail .King Tintwelint locks her in a tree house. Using magic her mother taught her she escapes and uses magic to infiltrate Angaband. While wandering over there her and a super hound named Huan devise a plan to fight Tevildo. Later they use sleeping magic to get the jewel but plans go awry. I won’t spoil the end.
In the different renditions of the tale many names get changed and Tevildo morphs first into Thu a feared necromancer to Sauron his most trusted right hand man. King Tinwellint becomes King Thingol and Artanor becomes Doriath.
Beren origins change as well. In the newer versions of the story Beren becomes a man son of Barahir who is caught by Morgath and murdered. Other version contain wars between kingdoms and the ravages of orcs.
The newer versions are more realistic while the earlier version is Faery tale like quality. Would not mind seeing a cohesive story out of this. While there is one at the beginning there are bits and pieces of the newer versions through out the book.
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