The Tale of Tinúviel
the earliest prose of Beren and Lúthien (Book of Lost Tales, HoME 2)
Nature
The Tale of Tinúviel is the earliest prose telling of the story later known as Beren and Lúthien, recounted by Vairë to Eriol as the first of the Lost Tales after the frame. Its players are Tinúviel, daughter of Tinwelint, king of Artanor (Doriath), and of Gwendeling, and Beren, son of Egnor, a Gnome of the forest-folk of the North. From the dancing in the wood the tale runs to the rescue from the halls of Melko’s cat-prince and ends, unusually for the later legend, in happiness. The gathered modern book of the story is Beren and Lúthien (book).
Contents
Tinúviel’s dancing in the clearings of Artanor and Beren’s first sight of her; his pursuit and capture in the still woods; The revealing of the elf-maid’s secret seasons and her flight, with the music of the wood about her; Beren’s falling into the hands of Melko’s hunting and his being prisoned among the cats of Tevildo, Prince of Cats; Tinúviel’s bold descent to the dark kitchens and halls of the cat-prince, and her release of Beren through enchantment; Their return to Artanor and the wedding-feast of the ending — a happiness the later versions would let slip away.
Composition
Written in the first wave of the Lost Tales (c. 1917), The Tale of Tinúviel preserves the story’s most woodland and elvish form, already bearing the motifs of the dancing, the pursuit, and the great rescue. Published in The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two (HoME 2), with Christopher Tolkien’s notes and drafts. The story would be retold in the alliterative Lay of Leithian (HoME 3) and in the Quenta, and at last gathered into the volume Beren and Lúthien (book).