Beren and Lúthien,
a J. R. R. Tolkien story about a romance between a man and an elf, will be released
next year. It is edited by Christopher
Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee.
The Middle-earth tale tells of the love between Beren, the
mortal man, and Lúthien, the immortal elf. Lúthien’s father, an Elvish lord, is against
their relationship, and so gives Beren an impossible task to fulfil before the
two can be married. The two must rob "the greatest of all evil beings,
Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy."
The couple's love story is referenced in The Silmarillion, a
collection of short works by Tolkien that expands the mythology and history of
Middle-earth. “Among the tales of
sorrow and of ruin that came down to us from the darkness of those days there
are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death
light that endures. And of these histories most fair still in the ears of the
Elves is the tale of Beren and Lúthien,” writes Tolkien in The Silmarillion.
The story obviously meant a great deal to the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The
author’s wife, Edith, has the name Lúthien on her tombstone, while Tolkien has
Beren engraved on his.
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