Silmarillion - Chapter 19 - Of Beren and Luthien

[Aiwendil]

Lalaith wrote:

The other highlight for me is the nobility of Finrod Felagund...."needing no ring to remind him of the kin of Beor".

Compare that to Turgon and the Fen of Serech. Ha.

That's an interesting point - I had never connected the two incidents, but Finrod's admittance of Beren to Nargothrond could perhaps be seen as a parallel to Turgon's refusal to admit Hurin . . . though of course to consider that here would be getting ahead of ourselves.

Bethberry wrote:

One obviously intriguing question would be why Tolkien produced this story in so many forms, particularly in both verse and prose. Was Doom such an important theme to him?

Certainly Beren & Luthien seems to have been a particularly important story to him. And though one must always be wary of the biographical connection, it is certainly worthy of note that he had the name 'Luthien' inscribed on her tombstone.

Hilde Bracegirdle wrote:

One of my stumbling blocks was the persistant wish that Tolkien had devised other creatures instead of refering to vampires and werewolves.

Though I personally don't find the vampires and werewolves unsuitable, I can see how one might think them a bit out of keeping with the rest of the Legendarium. It's interesting that Tolkien should call creatures like Draugluin 'werewolves', since in real world folklore this word seems to refer specifically to wolf-man shapechangers. The etymology is generally assumed to be 'were' (O.E. 'man') + 'wolf'. However, there is some doubt about this - another theory is that the first element is actually related to 'warg' (outlaw, rogue, wolf). If Tolkien subscribed to this view, then perhaps, at least from an etymological point of view, his application of 'werewolf' would seem more appropriate.

The origin of 'vampire' is not entirely certain, but it seems to be of Slavic origin and may be related to words meaning 'bat'. Since the modern image of the sophisticated, charming vampire arose fairly recently (19th century) it seems possible that here, as with the Elves and Dwarves, Tolkien saw himself as reviving the 'true' lore that had become distorted over the centuries.