Lúthien

Lúthien, also known as Tinúviel, was the immortal princess of Doriath, wife of Beren Erchamion, and most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar to ever live. Her love of the mortal man Beren, for whom she was prepared to risk everything, including her life, was legendary and lamented forever in song and story. She and Beren braved Morgoth's horrors, eventually winning a Silmaril from his crown and the approval of their marriage by King Thingol. Though their actions later resulted in both their deaths, their deeds won them the pity of the Vala Mandos and a second life in Middle-earth.The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XIX: "Of Beren and Lúthien" Her romance with Beren was one of the great stories of the Elder Days that were told for many ages after she lived, and it was said her bloodline will never perish. She was known as the most 'magic' dancer, with Ivárë and Tinfang coming in second.
==Biography==
===Early years===
Lúthien was the daughter of Elu Thingol, the Elven King of Doriath, and his Queen, Melian the Maia.Technically, this makes Lúthien Half-elven, but she is counted among the Elves; the term "Half-elven" was reserved for those with human ancestry. Throughout the years before she met Beren, she lived as all the Elves of Doriath did: in a state of perfect blissful peace. She was a woman of incomparable beauty and grace, with night-dark hair, sparkling grey eyes, luminous skin, and a clear heartbreakingly lovely voice that was said to cause winter to melt into spring - "the song of Lúthien released the bonds of winter, and the frozen waters spoke, and flowers sprang from the cold earth where her feet had passed".
She often enjoyed dancing in the woods of the realm to the music of her good friend Daeron's flute. He himself soon came to love her jealously, though she would not return it.
===Quest for the Silmaril===
Lúthien was remembered in the Lay of Leithian as the first immortal woman to ever fall in love and marry a mortal man, who in her case was Beren, a man of the House of Bëor whom she met in the woods of Doriath. Their relationship was unlikely from the beginning: Lúthien was not only the cherished single daughter of the most powerful Elven King in Beleriand, but also the daughter of a Maia, a powerful angelic being of the race of the Ainur. Beren was a mortal man on the run from the first Dark Lord Morgoth.
Thingol was determined to forbid Beren marry his daughter, and gave him an impossible task as the bride price: Beren had to bring to Thingol one of the Silmarils from Morgoth's iron crown. Against monstrous odds, including being kidnapped by the Sons of Fëanor and the death of Finrod Felagund, as well as a confrontation with Sauron, the couple achieved the task with help from Huan, the Hound of Valinor - but Beren died as soon as the task was completed. In grief, Lúthien soon lay down and died, passing to the Halls of Mandos. There, in her grief, she sang to the Vala Mandos. Her song was of such beauty that Mandos, for the first and only time in his existence, was moved to pity. But Mandos had no authority to allow Beren to live again, so he went before Manwë for advice, who in turn sought out the counsel of Eru Ilúvatar himself. Two choices were then placed before Lúthien: she could either dwell in Valmar with the Valar in bliss forever, as reward for all that she had accomplished, or she could be restored to earthly life again with Beren, on the condition that they would both be mortal and die the death of Men. For her love for Beren, Lúthien chose the latter.
===Later years===
After this, she became a mortal and returned to life with Beren, dwelling briefly on Tol Galen. They had a son, Dior, who was called Elúchil, the Heir of Thingol.The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XX: "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad"
And thus in anguish Beren paid
for that great doom upon him laid,
the deathless love of Lúthien,
too fair for love of mortal Men;
and in his doom was Lúthien snared,
the deathless in his dying shared;
and Fate them forged a binding chain
of living love and mortal pain.
— The Lays of Beleriand, "The Doom of Lúthien"
After the sack of Menegroth, Beren ambushed the Dwarves responsible and took the Nauglamír back to Lúthien. Her beauty combined with the splendor of the Silmaril and necklace to make her home of Tol Galen the fairest land ever to have existed east of Valinor. On her death, the Nauglamír was delivered to her son Dior, which led to the ruin of Doriath.The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XXII: "Of the Ruin of Doriath"
===Legacy===
The union of Beren and Lúthien was the first between a mortal Man and a maid with Elven heritage. Her granddaughter Elwing married Earendil, son of Tuor and Idril, thus becoming the great-grandmother of Elrond and Elros, the first being one of the most influential figures of the Second and Third Age and the second the first King of Númenor. Her lineage passed down to the royal House of Elros of Númenor, and then through Silmariën to the Lords of Andúnië and the House of Elendil. When Aragorn II Elessar and Arwen married, the two lines of Lúthien's descendants were reunited, continuing her bloodline on to the Kings of the Reunited Kingdom and beyond. Lúthien's romance with Beren is one of the great stories of the Elder Days, and is mirrored by the later romance between Aragorn and Arwen Evenstar. According to legend, her line would never be broken as long as the world lasted.
Due to everything she experienced from her decision to become mortal, Elwing decided upon the fate of the Elves for her and her husband, as she did not want to experience the same fate as her grandmother.
==Etymology==
The name Lúthien means "Daughter of Flowers", from the Sindarin luth (derived from loth), meaning "flower".Parma Eldalamberon, Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien In Doriathrin, Luthien (or in Noldorin, Lhūthien) means "enchantress", derived from luktiēnē ("enchantress").The History of Middle-earth, Vol. V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, Part Three: "The Etymologies" Lúthien may have been derived from the Old English word Lufien, which means "love".
Tinúviel means "Nightingale", from the Quenya tindōmiselde.Tin means "daughter", and eventually "child". In Sindarin, it means "Daughter of Twilight", from tinnu ("dusk, twilight") and the feminine suffix -ien ("daughter").
==Background==
Lúthien is supposed to have been based on Edith Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien's wife. The first tale she appeared in, The Tale of Tinúviel, was in part inspired by Edith and John Ronald's forest walks, in 1917, in Roos, England - as Beren first saw and fell in love with Lúthien in the woods.John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War, Part Three, ch. 12, pg. 240
Edith Tolkien was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery (North Oxford), and this writing in on her plaque:
EDITH MARY TOLKIEN - LUTHIEN 1889–1971
The name of Beren appears on J.R.R. Tolkien's plaque:
JOHN RONALD REUEL TOLKIEN - BEREN 1892 – 1973
==In other versions ==
In the earlier versions of The Tale of Tinúviel, Tolkien's earliest form of Lúthien's tale later published in The Book of Lost Tales Part One, Lúthien's name is Tinúviel, and Beren is an Elf. In this versions the character Sauron has not yet emerged and his role is taken by a monstrous giant cat called Tevildo, the Prince of Cats. In another account, Tinfang was the brother of Tinúviel.The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "The Chaining of Melko", Notes, 1.
==Appearances & mentions==
*The Lord of the Rings
**The Fellowship of the Ring (mentioned only)
**The Two Towers (mentioned only)
**The Return of the King (mentioned only)
*The Silmarillion
*Unfinished Tales
*The Children of Húrin (mentioned only)
*Beren and Lúthien
*The Fall of Gondolin (mentioned only)
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Amharic 	ሉጢአን
Arabic 	لوثيين
Armenian 	Լուտհիեն
Assamese 	লুথিয়েন
Belarusian Cyrillic	Лутhіен
Bengali 	লুথিয়েন
Bulgarian 	Лутиен / Лутиен Тинувиел (Cyrillic) Lúthien / Lúthien Tinuviel (Latin)
Burmese 	ဠုထိဧန္
Chinese (Hong Kong)	露西安 (Lúthien)/露西安·緹努維兒 (Lúthien Tinuviel)
Danish 	Lúthien ("Blomsternes datter")
Georgian 	ლუთიენი
Greek 	Λούθιεν
Gujarati 	લુથિયન
Hebrew 	לותיין טינוביאל (Lúthien Tinúviel) לותיין (Lúthien)
Hindi 	लुथिएन
Japanese 	ルーシエン (Lúthien)
ルーシエン・ティヌーヴィエル (Lúthien Tinúviel)
Kannada 	ಲುಥಿಯನ್
Kazakh 	Лұтһіен (Cyrillic) Luthien (Latin)
Konkani 	लुथियन
Korean 	루시엔 (Lúthien)
루시엔 티누비엘 (Lúthien Tinúviel)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Лутhиэн
Malayalam 	ലൂതിയൻ
Lithuanian 	Lūtijen
Macedonian Cyrillic	Лутиен
Marathi 	लुथियन
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Лутhиэн
Pashto 	لُثِېن ?
Persian 	لوثین تینوویل (Lúthien Tinúviel) لوثین (Lúthien)
Punjabi 	ਲੂਥੀਅਨ
Russian 	Лутиэн (Lúthien)
Лутиэн Тинувиэль (Lúthien Tinúviel)
Serbian 	Лутиен (Cyrillic) Lúthien (Latin)
Sindhi 	لوٿين
Sinhalese 	ළුථිඑන්
Tajik Cyrillic 	Лутҳиен
Tamil 	லூதியன்
Telugu 	లూథియన్
Thai 	ลูธิเอน (Lúthien)
ลูธิเอน ทินูเวียล (Lúthien Tinúviel)
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Лутієн
Urdu 	لوتھین
Uzbek 	Лутҳиен (Cyrillic) Lúthien (Latin)
Yiddish 	לוטהיען
==References==
==Notes==
Category:Grey Elves
Category:Fays
Category:Elves of Doriath
Category:Princesses
Category:The Silmarillion characters
Category:Characters in The History of Middle-earth
Category:Sindarin names & words
Category:Characters in Beren and Lúthien
Category:Half-elves
ca:Lúthien
de:Lúthien
es:Lúthien
fr:Lúthien
it:Lúthien
nl:Lúthien
pl:Lúthien
pt-br:Lúthien
ru:Лутиэн
tr:Lúthien
uk:Лутієн Тінувіель
Category:Elves
Category:Elves of Beleriand