Daeron
the minstrel of Doriath; the invention of the runes
Name and Nature
Daeron — the minstrel and loremaster of Doriath, the king’s counsellor in song and secret-lore; of him the Quenta says he “was the greatest of the loremasters” — more surely: he was the inventor of the runes (in the later tradition, of the Cirth — the runes of the Sindar), and his music was second only to Lúthien’s — he was — his fame as the maker of the great lament and the.
The Unrequited Love
In the tale, Daeron
loved Lúthien (his cousin), the king’s daughter, in vain — “the pride of his love” — and when Beren came, the minstrel’s jealousy and grief bit; he betrayed the lovers’ secret to the king — the Quenta: — his “love unrequited” — the act by which Beren’s quest was begun (and the ruin entailed).
- At the last, in sorrow and disfavour, Daeron left Doriath in grief — his fate is unknown (some hold he sought the sea, and his songs the echoes by the shore).
Significance
Daeron is the tragic artist-minstrel of the tale — the jealous genius whose creation (the runes) is a gift to the world, but whose love, unreturned, embittered him into the betrayal that set the doom of Doriath in motion — a shadow-side of the “wise: the maker undone by the heart”.