In 1917, according to the Tolkien Society, Tolkien had been sent back to England from the frontlines of WWI so he could recover from an illness. This epic tale of love and adventure is rooted in a romantic moment that took place some 100 years ago. The quest forces the couple to confront Melkor, “the greatest of all evil beings.” Lúthien’s father, who opposes the relationship, gives Beren “an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien,” the book’s publisher says in a statement. Lastly, Aragorn recounts the love story in The Fellowship of the Ring.ĭrawing on these narratives, Beren and Lúthien follows Beren, a mortal man, and Lúthien, an immortal elf. The characters also inspired Tolkien’s epic poem The Lay of Leithian, and they appear in The Silmarillion, a posthumously published history of Middle Earth. The first was titled the Tale of Tinúviel, which was published after Tolkien’s death as a part of The Book of Lost Tales. According to the CBC, the author crafted at least four versions of the story. To compile Beren and Lúthien, the younger Tolkien sifted through his father’s manuscripts and archives, piecing together different iterations of the tale. The novel also boasts illustrations by Alan Lee, who won an Academy Award for his work on the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. As Jonah Engel Bromwich of the New York Timesreports, the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has released the first continuous version of the narrative, which was inspired by the early days of the Tolkiens’ romance.Ĭhristopher Tolkien, the author’s third son, edited the new book, titled Beren and Lúthien. Tolkien and his wife Edith Tolkien is etched with the names Beren and Lúthien-two characters from a fantastical love story that the Lord of the Rings author wrote and rewrote throughout his storied career.

Luthien and beren