Greetings everyone, not to cut into NZ Strider's time, but I wanted to post a
quick message to give an overview of the second half of the Beren and Lúthien
discussion before I have to work this afternoon. Thanks to NZ Strider for
laying such excellent groundwork and for discussing some of the history of this
key story in Tolkien's legendarium. He's always a hard act to follow in
these discussions, but always entertaining and fascinating to read.
I’ll post about two or three sets of questions a day, mostly early in the
morning US Central Time. There will be a post on some of the
illustrations and fan art depictions of moments in the second half of the Beren
and Lúthien saga. I will also venture a little into the "Lay of Leithian"
on Wednesday because I love the extended version of the encounter inside
Angband given in that poem (I'll quote a few meaty passages so you don't have
track down The Lays of Beleriand, but the book is well worth
reading). Nevertheless, I will mainly stick to the text of the published
Silmarillion to make the discussion as all-inclusive and appealing to
the majority of RR posters and lurkers as possible. At the end of the
week there will be an open forum time for others to discuss additional aspects
of evolution of this tale from the History of Middle-earth series, etc., and
other various and sundry matters I didn't cover in the discussion questions.
Just to start the ball rolling, I'll ask a very general question about this
chapter. Why is this tale, with the notable exception of the tale of
Hurin and Turin, the most thoroughly developed and perhaps important episode in
Tolkien's writings on the First Age? Is it the autobiographical
association, or that and other, more complex, issues that made this story so
fascinating to its
creator?
Tolkien, Page from the Book of Mazarbul
