Categories: Contemporary Fiction Classic Books & Novels Adventure Books Fantasy Fantasy Books Myth & Legend Told As Fiction Sagas


Beren and Luthien
4.02 (14,884 ratings by Goodreads)
Paperback English
By (author) J. R. R. Tolkien , Edited by Christopher Tolkien


Painstakingly restored from Tolkiens manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Luthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkiens Middle-earth.



The tale of Beren and Luthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.


Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Luthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Luthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Luthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Luthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.


In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Luthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his fathers own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.


Product details

Format Paperback | 288 pages
Dimensions 111 x 178 x 17mm | 150g
Publication date 14 Apr 2022
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Imprint HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
Language English
Illustrations note 20 b/w illus, 8 col plates, Index
ISBN10 0008503966
ISBN13 9780008503963
Bestsellers rank 45,161