The Afterlife, Reincarnation, and Courtly Love

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by jallanite

The thread http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=2427 was an excellent one. It indicates what I expected, that you can read into the Beren story that Beren and Lúthien were chaste until they eventually married, or that they began to have sex when they first met.

But, as pointed out, Tolkien does not even bother to relate any marriage of Beren and Lúthien.

Well, if, as he wrote in Laws and Customs of the Eldar,

Originally Posted by Mark quoting Tolkien

It was the act of bodily union that achieved marriage, and after which the indissoluble bond was complete

,

then he wouldn't have to describe any marriage ceremony, especially given Beren's escape from the gift. He seems to partake of Luthien's elven heritage. When Arwen gives up her elven heritage, she becomes human, like Aragorn, and so their love follows human conventions.

Perhaps it means that elves didn't need rituals but men (and hobbits) did.