A Lay of Luthien by Himring

Chapter 1: Ballad of Luthien's Talents

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Who wove a shadow cloak so potent no other bolt of cloth woven by hand could match it? Luthien!

Who raised her voice in song, breaking the bolt of every prison door when werewolves fallen lay at her feet? Luthien!

Who was the target of the ill-famed bolt from Curufin’s bow and lived despite his wrath? Luthien!

Whose bride-price did the hound of hell bolt down and carry raging in his belly to Doriath, bolting in madness from Angband’s gates? Luthien!

Like a bolt out of the blue, Luthien, the woman no one had expected, left all thunder-bolt-struck! Ah, Luthien!

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Chapter End Notes

Yes, the title words of the chapter title contain an acronym.

Chapter 2: Luthien Renounces the Twilight

The word "cleave" memorably occurs in the conversation between Arwen and Aragorn on Cerin Amroth. Here is an adaptation of that conversation for Luthien and Beren.

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‘Luthien!’, asked Beren. ‘Do you truly not wish to return to the land of your people and the home of your kin?’

Such things were no longer for him—home and kin lost in the darkness that had consumed Dorthonion—but the more cruelly unnatural did it seem to him that Luthien Tinuviel should lose them, too, and for his sake.

‘I will cleave to you,’ said Luthien, ‘wherever you go, for you are my home and my kin, before all others. Whoever separates us now must needs leave me cloven in twain, the very core of me split asunder.’

Chapter 3: Release from Bondage

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In a bound, Huan has Sauron by the throat. And then Luthien has the keys.

Her song unbinds the foundations of the keep, laid in stone and word by the House of Finarfin, corrupted, twisted terribly by Sauron’s will. Chains snap. Barred windows burst open outwards. All is laid bare.

But there are those who cannot be released by song. Of twelve who set out bound for Angband, eleven were destined for Mandos. Beren kneels among the dead, torn flesh, gnawed bones. Iron links lie shattered, but the chains of his grief are heavy on him.

Until Luthien finds him.

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Chapter End Notes

The chapter title is based on the translation of "Leithian" in "Lay of Leithian".

Chapter 4: Luthien at High Speed

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There is no fastness that can keep Luthien in. There is no fastness that can keep Luthien out.

Housebreaker Luthien! Thief Luthien! Luthien, bat burglar!

Huan may be faster than Luthien and captures her, but just as quickly she captures his heart right back: fast friends.

And Morgoth? Far too slow. Those who want to catch Luthien need to get up earlier than that!

Mostly, it is herself Luthien steals away from those who would hold her fast, laying claim to her against her will.

The Silmaril is incidental. That it lays Doriath open to invasion and slaughter, thrice—unfortunate.

Chapter 5: Weathering it Together

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Weather-beaten—no, clubbed, pummelled, and trampled by the world’s weather—Beren blunders into Neldoreth. Luthien appears to him as the goddess of the seasons restoring their rightful balance, above all, the embodiment of spring.

But Luthien is so much older. She was born before the sun rose. She remembers the first spring—and unimaginable cycles of weather before. She was kinder than to make a point of this.

She chooses one season over the ages of Arda, unhesitatingly. What will Beren make of her, once autumn comes and weathers her face? But already they have withstood so much worse together!

Chapter 6: The Dead that Lived

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Luthien, who shimmered among beeches as if she was made of shadows star-dusted, Luthien, who rose to impossible challenges, undaunted, leaving Sauron and Morgoth behind her in the dust—retreats into domesticity? Scrubs, sweeps and dusts, maybe all while wearing a Silmaril? Except, to her, that might not be retreat—she was never afraid to get her hands dirty.

Or: Luthien reigns even among those who refused all kingship after Denethor?

Luthien, mother and ancestress, recedes from our questioning, vanishes behind the spray of Ossiriand’s waterfalls, blows away, too soon, in a quiet sigh of dust.

The nightingale still sings.

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Chapter End Notes

The title is based on Dor Firn-i-Guinar, glossed as "the Land of the Dead that Live", the name given to the region in Ossiriand, where Luthien lived with Beren after their return from the dead. There was a famous waterfall there, which Elwing was named for.