#song of Beren and Luthien

[eglerieth]

Translating the Song of Beren and Luthien into Sindarin!

i laid nî ann, in glae nî calen

i saew-lûth tond a bain

a mi i lant - ae! - calad

o giliath mi doath silivren

Tinúviel nî lilt ennas

an linnas o thibin altirad

a galad o giliath nî mi finnathdeith

a mi hammadeith silivren

ennas Beren tùliel o ered ring

a dom ranë nu lais

a mivan i heb-edhil duin nornt

padantë air a nírol

cenë mi i saew-lais

a tírant di elven mellys

po colldeith a rainc-hammadeith

a finnadeith sui dae aphadol

elven nestant taildeid lom

han thar emyn nî amarthan an rain

a e rongantë, thalion a lim

a mabant na aglannim o ithil celair

tre-remmen glad mi Neldoreth

is colui horthant na lilthatail

a lefn Beren air eno an rain

mi i dínen tawar lastad

lhaent ennas rem i rimp law

o tail colui sui melhûn-galadh lais

egor linnas eithela nucae

mi thurin gryd potha

hi thern hoda i saew-thrimpim

a mîn-ar-mîn na fírlaw

na lhoss dannant i neldor-lais

mi i rhîw-taur potha

e cestant ín him, raun haer

mivan lais o íniath nî delch hodant

ar calad o ithil a aglann o el

mí menel sui hell potha

colldeith glînnant mîn i ithilgalad

ir bo amoncaw raud a haer

Tinúviel lilthant, a na taildeith nî hodant

hîth o celeb potha

ir rhîw lúda, ad-tolantë

a linnë leithiant i bragol ethuil

sui orthad amrent, a dannad ross

a medhiant nen gwelch

tírantë i edhellys eithela

os taildeith, a ad-cyrant

anírantë arë an lilt a linnon

or i glae algumri

adribant dîn ach lim tolantë

Tinúviel! Tinúviel!

estannenë in di edhel-enethdeith

a tass dîn darant lastad

min luig tarant dîn, a lûth

glimdeid caedant bo dîn: Beren tolant

a amarth dannant bo Tinúviel

han mi raincë hodant silivren

ir Beren cennant mî hent dîn

mîn i dúaith o fingimdeith

i potha gilgalad o i menel

tírantë ennas cenedrilant silivren

Tinúviel i edhel-bain

alfirin gwen edhel-sael

os Beren hantant gwathui fingimdeith

a rainc sui celeb silivren

annan nî i yr amarth ti colant

thar sarn emyn ring a mith

tre-rynd o ang a morn fen

a taurim o dúath alordolel

i sathantgaer mi ti hodant

a ach na vedui ti ad-govannen

a annan-ia ti gwanwen

mi i taur lindant alnaeras

[feydrawings]

Again she fled, but swift he came. Tinúviel! Tinúviel! He called her by her elvish name, And there she halted listening. One moment stood she, and a spell His voice laid on her: Beren came, And doom fell on Tinúviel That in his arms lay glistening. As Beren looked into her eyes Within the shadows of her hair, The trembling starlight of the skies He saw there mirrored shimmering. Tinúviel the elven-fair, Immortal maiden elven-wise, About him cast her shadowy hair And arms like silver glimmering.

[JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, A knife in the dark, Song of Beren and Lúthien]

finally an occasion to post my versions of Beren and Luthien! their meeting had always reminded me of a fairytale, so I took inspiration for the pose & scene from La belle dame sans merci by John William Waterhouse . the story of Luthien and Beren reminds me a little of the John Keats’ poem ‘La belle dame sans merci’, where a knight meets a fairy lady in a forest, that tries to bring him into her subterranean realm, albeit Luthien is a very different character from the fairy lady of the poem. 

Medias: watercolor & sepia ink on paper.

PLEASE DON’T REMOVE THE TRADEMARK NOR REPOST MY ART WITHOUT PERMISSION

[arleniansdoodles]

If you don't mind, I would like to ask:

Are there any happy or joyful moments between Noa and Mae?

Such as Mae singing childhood songs, those rhytmic ones? Or dancing around the campfire? Maybe Noa telling humorous tales from his childhood or him having contagious laugh so Mae laughs too?

It's just that they deserve some happy moments too.

I don't mind at all! I agree, they definitely deserve some happy moments :''')

I assume you're asking about my headcanons; I like to imagine Noa would show Mae how to care for the eagles! He'd teach her the clan's songs and the stories behind them; then he finds out she sings pretty well (Freya Allan has a beautiful singing voice btw) and asks about human songs.

So Mae turns to the old children's tunes and nursery rhymes kept alive in the bunker's archives (maybe her mom sang some to her when she was a kid). Maybe Noa finds the meanings funny or confusing, but either way, he's curious about human music XD

I also headcanon that she teaches Noa (plus Soona and Anaya) how to dance! I don't know if Eagle Clan has any dances, but Mae would show them the "swaying side to side" method loll In turn, Noa teaches Mae how to climb better XD

Thanks for the ask! I love thinking about these two <333

[vsnapdragon]

luthien based off edith tolkien

[aureentuluva70]

-The Song of Beren and Luthien by J.R.R Tolkien

[glorf1ndel]

Pick a ship and a song! 🛳️ 🎵

[maglorslostsilmaril]

Tinúviel the Elven-fair

Immortal maiden Elven-wise

About him cast her shadowy hair

And arms like silver glimmering

(Click for better quality)

[exercise-of-trust]

nothing lasts forever but it might come back around

beren and lúthien and a very well-earned moment of quiet

[nina-silvertuin]

Lúthien Tinúviel

The leaves were long,

the grass was green,

The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,

And in the glade a light was seen

Of stars in shadow shimmering.

Tinúviel was dancing there

To music of a pipe unseen,

And light of stars was in her hair,

And in her raiment glimmering.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

[adwendoodles]

if i dont post anything of this wip i'll go insane. what is it about the leithian that makes me want to make animatics for it?

song from @sewn-with-lilies-fair's commission of an english version of the lay of leithian musical's luthien lullaby

[hamletphase]

playing with music and storyboarding <3

[camille-lachenille]

I was researching something completely unrelated but I passingly saw that hemlock means mortality in Victorian and modern flower language. And my brain immediately thought of the ‘Song of Beren and Lúthien’ in FotR, specifically the first stanza:

The leaves were long, the grass was green,

The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,

And in the glade a light was seen

Of stars in shadow shimmering.

Tinúviel was dancing there

To music of a pipe unseen,

And light of stars was in her hair,

And in her raiment glimmering.

Hemlock is the third element im the description of the glade Lúthien is dancing in, even before we learn her name. We have the long leaves, the green grass and the tall hemlock; two elements traditionally associated with spring and youth, and one heavily associated with death. In two verses we know everything there is to know about Lúthien: she’s youthful and she’s going to die.

The hemlock appears again in the second stanza:

There Beren came from mountains cold,

And lost he wandered under leaves,

And where the Elven-river rolled

He walked alone and sorrowing.

He peered between the hemlock-leaves

And saw in wonder flowers of gold

Upon her mantle and her sleeves,

And her hair like shadow following.

This stanza is from Beren’s point of view, looking at Lúthien. And fact he looks at her through the hemlock leaves tells us he is mortal. Beren looks at Lúthien through the lens of a mortal gaze, and thinks her otherworldly. There is an added layer to it because, in Victorian flower language, hemlock not only means mortality but also more specifically ‘you will be my death’. And, indeed, Beren dies in his quest to obtain Lúthien’s hand.

The last occurrence of hemlock in this song is in the fourth stanza:

He heard there oft the flying sound

Of feet as light as linden-leaves,

Or music welling underground,

In hidden hollows quavering.

Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,

And one by one with sighing sound

Whispering fell the beechen leaves

In the wintry woodland wavering.

I find this stanza more difficult to analyse from a symbolic point of view since it’s mostly a description of autumn and winter coming, but it certainly puts emphasis on the importance of this plant in Beren and Lúthien’s story. As I interpret it, and this is my personal reading, it is an allusion to Beren and Lúthien growing old together and Lúthien choosing to die along Beren.

In The Tale of Tinúviel, the hemlock is also extremely important in the introduction of Tinúviel, and it is more or less a description in much more details of what is hinted at in the Song of Beren and Lúthien from FotR. I can’t put the quote because it’s in French but, very roughly, it says that the hemlock is so tall and dense it looks like Tinúviel is dancing on a white cloud. Then, when Tinúviel sees Beren, she hides under a very tall hemlock and her white dress makes her disappear in the hemlock, looking like moonlight on the flowers. The imagery used in this scene is absolutely beautiful and I can’t make it justice, but what is important is that, upon their first meeting, Tinúviel is metaphorically surrounded by mortality. She is an Elf yet she will die. And Beren, who is an elf too in this version (a Gnome, the proto-Noldor, and I struggle not to picture him as a garden gnome), is doomed to die too from the moment he walks amongst the hemlock in search of Tinúviel.

Last but not least is the Lay of Leithian. Sadly, I don’t have the full Lay of Leithian so I can’t look at the meeting scene but, in an extract given in the French translation of Beren and Lúthien (Christian Bourgois, 2017) it is said that Lúthien wears white roses in her hair (Canto VI, verses 116-117) and there are a few other mentions of unspecified white flowers. White roses mean ‘I am worthy of you’, withered white roses mean ‘transient impressions’, white rosebuds mean ‘girlhood’ and a crown of roses ‘reward of virtue’. I don’t really know what to do with these informations since I don’t have the original text so I can’t say how accurate the translation is, but all of this enhance Lúthien’s ethereal, eternally youthful appearance. It also shows the association of Lúthien with white and light in opposition to Morgoth’s black darkness, I think. But I don’t doubt for a second that the hemlock is an important part of the place where Beren and Lúthien’s meeting.

Anyways, I just love digging this kind of rabbit holes in Tolkien’s poetry, because it gives us so much insight on the characters, and I am almost sure that Tolkien, who grew up in late Victorian England and loved nature, knew of the meaning of hemlock or he wouldn’t have insisted so much on it. I’d love to see if there is a paper out there about flower language/symbolism in Tolkien’s work because I am sure there is so much more of it than what I looked at today.

Sources:

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Song_of_Beren_and_L%C3%BAthien

https://www.gardeningchannel.com/flower-meanings-dictionary-from-a-to-z-the-secret-victorian-era-language-of-flowers/

J. R. R. Tolkien, Beren et Lúthien, Christian Bourgois, 2017

And as a bonus, the Song of Beren and Lúthien in music by Clamavi de Profundis: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=11_aneHVaz8&list=PLR5qYNG5Nf7WFbZ6wr-rr7gDnALA4C8mQ&index=19&pp=iAQB8AUB

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

everytime you kissed me is such a good song for the fairytale-esque tragedy vibes of thingol/melian, beren/luthien, and dior/nimloth. melian thinking of thingol as she waits for his re-embodiment, luthien thinking of beren as she slowly dies of grief over his death, and nimloth thinking of dior as she laments how she can never reach him beyond the circles of the world

[nerdylizard5]

Hi! New on Tumblr, finally daring to jump into the abyss and join the insanity! I’m a scientist IRL but mostly an artist and nerd, here to share and enjoy art and nerdy topics! Here’s a selection of some of my favorite pieces, and to see more check out my Cara profile: https://cara.app/nerdylizard

I love Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, Doctor Who, and more! My OCs are mostly from Lord of the Rings Online, with some D&D, and I absolutely love doing commission art!

[aureentuluva70]

A Million Dreams' "However big, however small, let me be part of it all. Share your dreams with me. You may be right, you may be wrong, but say that you'll bring me along" has Beren and Lùthien written all over it and I love it for that.

[nightskylonging]

Quite a lot of the time I think 'I am a rational, levelheaded person who is not affected by romance, it's nice and all I guess, but I will prioritize my faith/learning/family/job'

And then I listen to Clamavi De Profundis's Beren and Luthien and I remember that actually I am a sap.