The Tale of Beren and Lúthien





It is told that Beren, after the death of his father and kinsmen, journeyed to the elven land of Doriath, where none dared to tread. He came graven of heart, and bowed with many years of woe. Wandering through the summer woods of Neldoreth, at a time of evening, under moonrise, Beren came upon Lúthien as she danced upon the unfading grass in the glades beside Esgalduin. Then all memory of his pain departed from him, and he fell into an enchantment ; for Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the children of ILuvatar. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes like the starlit evening, and her mantle sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as Shadows of twilight. As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voices of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was her glory and her loveliness... and in her face was a shining light...