The Greatest Success Against Morgoth By Elves and Men

[Mithadan]

The Beleriandic wars against Angband, despite some victories in battle, were singularly unsuccessful in accomplishing one of the primary goals of the Noldor - the recovery of the Silmarils. To paraphrase Tolkien, all the efforts of the Noldor failed to result in even a single glimpse of the Silmarils.

But Beren and Luthien, with the aid of Huan, accomplished what all of the might of the Noldor could not. They entered Angband and retrieved a Silmaril from Morgoth's iron crown. It strikes me that there is some underlying significance in this. The Noldor refused to wait for the Valar to avenge the darkening of Valinor and the theft of the Silmarils. They, instead, rebelled against the authority of the Valar, participated in the Kinslaying (though perhaps not all of them) and left Valinor against the will of the Valar, subjecting them to the Doom of Mandos. The Valar knew and the Noldor should have known that they had undertaken an impossible task - to defeat one of the Ainur. They failed utterly and suffered for it under exile.

But Beren and Luthien prevailed. Could the underlying reason for this be, in part, because Beren was a man and had been faithful, and Luthien was of the Teleri and daughter of a Maia, free from the taint of the rebellion of the Noldor? Could only the combination of Men and Elves, free from the taint of rebellion, and coupled with Luthien blood of the Maiar accomplish such a feat?

[obloquy]

In addition to the racial angle you've proposed, the incidental, indirect nature of Beren and Luthien's recovery of the Sils perhaps place them outside of the patterns of fate woven around the Noldor and the Silmarils. Their accomplishment was a byproduct of the discharge of "higher" duties, such as the duty of love and its requisite sacrifices, and the binding nature of faithful oaths, rather than any desire for the gems themselves. One might say (and perhaps Tolkien would have agreed) that in a world doomed to perpetual decline, the only possibility of catching a glimpse or a direct experience of the Golden Age would be not to attempt to recapture it, but to come by its light indirectly through participation of the transcendental. Attempts to concretely possess it in a material sense are doomed from the beginning.

(This is badly written. Understand that when I used the word "transcendental" I didn't mean to invoke something vague and mystical; I meant it much more like the "extraordinary" in Chesterton's famous maxim about the extraordinariness of the ordinary family.)

[Galadriel55]

Interestingly too, even Beren and Luthien were "allowed" to retrieve only one Silmaril, they could not free all three. So even the combination of their lineage was insufficient to carry the task to completion.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Interestingly too, even Beren and Luthien were "allowed" to retrieve only one Silmaril, they could not free all three. So even the combination of their lineage was insufficient to carry the task to completion.

I don't think the Plan ever contemplated the Noldor recovering all three.