BEREN AND LUTHIEN. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. With Illustrations by Alan Lee.
[London]: HarperCollins Publishers. [2017]. First Edition (& 1st printing). Hardcover. Octavo, original black boards titled in gold on spine panel. 288 pp., Appendix, List of Names, Glossary. Illustrated with 9 full-page colour plates, plus chapter headings and illustrated dust wrapper, all by Alan Lee. Canadian issue, differing from the domestic UK edition only in that the front dust jacket flap is priced in Canadian Dollars as well as in UK Pounds. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Fine in Dust Jacket. Item #312779
¶ Beren and Lúthien is a compilation of multiple versions of one of Tolkien's earliest tales of Middle-earth, the story of the love and adventures of the mortal Man Beren and the immortal Elf-maiden Lúthien, edited by Tolkien's his son Christopher. The story takes place during the First Age of Middle-earth, about 6,500 years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Beren, son of Barahir, cut a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown as the bride price for Lúthien, daughter of the Elf-king Thingol and Melian the Maia. His hand was cut off with a silmaril in it; later he was killed by Carcharoth, the wolf of Angband, but alone of mortal Men he returned from the dead. He lived then with Lúthien on Tol Galen in Ossiriand, and fought the Dwarves at Sarn Athrad. He was the great-grandfather of Elrond and Elros, and thus the ancestor of the Númenórean kings. After the fulfilment of the quest of the silmaril and Beren's death, Lúthien chose to become mortal and to share Beren's fate.
Tolkien found the inspiration for many of the ideas presented in the tale in his love for his wife Edith, and after her death had "Lúthien" engraved on her tombstone, and later "Beren" on his own.
Price: $45.00