Beleg
Beleg Cúthalion; the great bow; the friend of Túrin
Name and Nature
Beleg — Cúthalion, “the Strongbow” — is the greatest archer of the Eldar (some say of all the elves of the First Age), a captain of Doriath and the truest friend of Túrin in his youth. His bow, the “Belthronding” — the famous bow of the wood; his name — the Quenta: — he is among the most loved of the Grey Elves: grave, skilled, loyal.
The Friendship and the Doom
- The foster of Túrin: In the halls of Doriath (where Túrin was fostered), Beleg was his earliest friend and mentor — the archer teaching the boy the ways of the woods.
- The pursuit: When Túrin fled Doriath after the slaying of Saeros, and was then captured by orcs in the wild, Beleg followed to rescue him — the deepest of the tale’s friendships.
- The fatal mistake: Coming upon Túrin in the night, asleep and bound, Beleg (with the black sword from the Hoard — he had brought the Dwarf-blade Anglachel) cut the fetters — but Túrin, waking in the dark, in the confusion Túrin slew Beleg, thinking him an enemy — the great bowman died by the hand of the friend he had come to save. Beleg had “doubted the blade” — the Draugluin — the sword Anglachel had warned (the blade), and so the doom worked through his own aid.
Significance
Beleg is “the friend killed by the friend’s hand” — the archetype of the tragic blunder that defines the curse of Húrin’s line; his death (and Túrin’s grief, and the dark sword, now given its purpose) is the hinge on which the Narn turns from boyhood’s friendship into the full darkness of the tale.
Related
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
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