"Fair shall the end be," Feanor cried, "though long and hard shall be the road! Say farewell to bondage! But say farewell also to ease! Say farewell to the weak! Say farewell to your treasures! More still shall we make. Journey light: but bring with you your swords! For we will go further then Orome, ebdure longer then Tulkas: we will never turn back from pursuit. After Morgoth to the ends of the Earth! War shall he have and hatred undying. But when we have conquered and regained the Silmarils, then we and we alone shall be lords of the unsullied Light, and masters of the bliss and beauty of Arda. No other race shall oust us!"

     Then Feanor swore a terrible oath. His seven sons leapt straightway to his side and took the selfsame vow together, and red as blood shone their drawn swords in the glare of the torches. They swore an oath which none shall break, and none should take, by the name even of Iluvatar, calling the Everlasting Darkness upon them if they kept it not; and Manwe they named in witness, and Varda, and the hallowed mountain of Taniquetil, vowing to pursue with vengeance and hatred to the ends of the World Vala, Demon, Elf, or Man as yet unborn, or any creature, great or small, good or evil, that time should bring forth unto the end of days, whoso should hold or take or keep a Silmaril from their possession.

     "We have sworn, and not lightly. This oath we will keep. We are threatened with many evils, and treason not least; but one thing is not said: that we shall suffer from cowardice, from cravens or the fear of cravens. Therefore I say that we will go on, and this doom I add: the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda."

     For many ages the elves made war with Morgoth and what started as a battle for the Silmarils became a battle for the existance of all things, for Morgoth hated the elves as he hated all things that were not corrupted within his power and which served him as slaves. Then the age of man came and many noble and proud families fought besides the elves and strove against Morgoth.

     Beren and his family were of the proudest, and noblest of the houses of men, and he was a great enemy of Morgoth, and the foul servants of Morgoth pursued them and hunted them until at last there was only Beren. And he was pursued as an outlaw till he came at last into the hidden elven kingdom of Doriath where no mortal man had yet stepped foot.

     So great was his torment and harships upon the road that be entered Doriath grey and bowed as if by many years of woe, but then he came upon Luthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian, and he fell into an enchantment where all weariness had left him for so great was her beauty.

     Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight. As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was her glory and her loveliness; and in her face was a shining light.

     But she vanished from his sight; and he became dumb, as one that is bound under a spell, and he strayed long in the woods, wild and wary as a beast, seeking for her. In his heart he called her Tinuviel, that signifies Nightingale, daughter of twilight, in the Grey-elven tongue, for he knew no other name for her. And he saw her afar as leaves in the winds of autumn, and in winter as a star upon the hill, but a chain was upon his limbs.

     There came a time near dawn on the eve of spring, and Luthien danced upon a green hill; and suddenly she began to sing. Keen, heart-piercing was her song as the song of the lark that rises from the gates of night and pours its voice among the dying stars, seeing the sun behind the walls of the world; and the song of Luthien released the bonds of winter, and the frozen waters spoke, and flowers sprang from the cold earth where her feet had passed.

     Then the spell of silence fell from Beren, and he called to her, crying Tinúviel; and the woods echoed the name. Then she halted in wonder, and fled no more, and Beren came to her. But as she looked on him, doom fell upon her, and she loved him; yet she slipped from his arms and vanished from his sight even as the day was breaking. Then Beren lay upon the ground in a swoon, as one slain at once by bliss and grief; and he fell into a sleep as it were into an abyss of shadow, and waking he was cold as stone, and his heart barren and forsaken. And wondering in mind he groped as one that is stricken with sudden blindness, and seeks with hands to grasp the vanished light. Thus he began the payment of anguish for the fate that was laid on him; and in his fate Luthien was caught, and being immortal she shared in his mortality, and being free received his chain; and her anguish was greater then any other of the Eldalie has known.

     Beyond hope she returned to him where he sat in darkness, and long ago in the Hidden Kingdom she laid her hand in his. Thereafter often she came to him, and they went in secret through the woods together from spring to summer; and no other Children of Iluvatar have had joy so great, though their time was brief.

     But Daeron the minstrel also loved Luthien, and he espied her meetings with Beren, and betrayed them to Thingol. The King was filled with anger, for Luthien he loved above all things, setting her above all the princes of the elves; where mortal men he did not even take into his service. Therefore he spoke in grief and amazement to Luthien; but she would reveal nothing, until he swore an oath to her that he would neither slay Beren nor imprison him. But he sent his servants to lay hands on him and lead him to Menegroth as a malefactor; and Luthien forstalling them led Beren before the throne of Thingol, as if he were an honoured guest.

     Then Thingol looked upon Beren in scorn and anger; but Melain was silent. "Who are you," said the King, "that come hither as a thief, and unbidden dare to approach my throne?"

     But Beren being filled with dread, for the splendour of Menegroth and the majesty of Thingol were very great, answered nothing. Therefore Luthien spoke, and said: "He is Beren son of Barahir, lord of Men, mighty foe of Morgoth, the tale of whose deeds is become a song even among the Elves."

     "Let Beren speak!" said Thingol. "What would you here, unhappy mortal, and for what cause have you left your own land to enter this, which is forbidden to such as you? Can you show reason why my power should not be laid on you in heavy punishment for your insolence and folly?"

     Then Beren looking up beheld the eyes of Luthien, and his glance went also to the face of Melian; and it seemed to him that words were put into his mouth. Fear left him, and the pride of the eldest house of Men returned to him; and he said:"My fate, O King, led me hither, through perils such as few even of the Elves would dare. And here I have found what I sought not indeed, but finding I would posses forever. For it is above all gold and silver, and beyond all jewels. Neither rock, nor steel, nor the fires of Morgoth, nor all the powers of the Elf-kingdoms, shall keep from me the treasure that I desire. For Luthien your daughter is the fairest of all the Children of the World."

     Then silence fell upon the hall, for those that stood there were astounded and afraid, and they thought that Beren would be slain. But Thingol spoke slowly, saying: "Death you have earned with these words; and death you should find suddenly, had I not sworn an oath in haste; of which I repent, baseborn mortal, who in the realm of Morgoth has learnt to creep in secret as his spies and thralls."

     Then Beren answered: "Death you can give me earned or unearned; but the names I will not take from you of baseborn, nor spy, nor thrall. By the ring of Felagund, that he gave to Barahir my father on the battle-field of the North, my house has not earned such names by any Elf, be he king or no."

     Then Melain leaned to Thingol's side, and in whispered counsel bade him forgo his wrath. "For not by you," she said, "shall Beren be slain; and far and free does his fate lead him in the end, yet it is wound with yours. Take heed!"

     But Thingol looked in silence upon Luthien; and thought in his heart: "Unhappy Men, children of little lords and brief kings, shall such as these lay hands on you, and yet live?" Then breaking the silence he said: "I see the ring, son of Barahir, and I perceive that you are proud, and deem yourself mighty. But a father's deeds, even had his service been rendered to me, avail not to win the daughter of Thingol and Melian. See now! I too desire a treasure that is withheld. For rock and steel and the fires of Morgoth keep the jewel that I would possess against all the powers of the Elf-kingdoms. Yet I hear you say that bonds such as these do not daunt you. Go your way therefore! Bring to me in your hand a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown; and then, if she will, Luthien may set her hand in yours. Then you shall have my jewel; and though the fate of Arda lie within the Silmaril's, yet you shall hold me generous."

     And those that heard these words perceived that Thingol would save his oath, and yet send Beren to his death; for they knew that not all the power of the Noldor, before the Siege was broken, had availed even to see from afar the shining Silmarils of Feanor. For they were set in the Iron Crown, and treasured in Angband above all wealth; and Balrogs were about them, and countless swords, and strong bars, and unassailable walls, and the dark majesty of Morgoth.

     But Beren laughed. "For little price," he said, "do Elven-kings sell their daughters: for gems, and things made by craft. But if it be your will, Thingol, I will perform it. And when we meet again my hand shall hold a Silmaril from the Iron Crown; for you have not looked the last upon Beren son of Barahir."

     Then he looked in the eyes of Melian, who spoke not; and bade farewell to Luthien Tinuviel, and bowing before Thingol and Melian he put aside the guards about him, and departed from Menegroth alone.

     Then at last Melian spoke, and she said to Thingol: "O King, you have devised cunning counsel. But if my eyes have not lost their sight, it is ill for you, whether Beren fail in his errand or achieve it. For you have doomed either your daughter, or yourself. And now is Doriath drawn within the fate of a mightier realm."

     But Thingol answered: "I sell not to Elves or Men those whom I love and cherish above all treasure. And if there were hope or fear that Beren should come ever back alive to Menegroth, he should not have looked again upon the light of heaven, though I had sworn it."

     But Luthien was silent, and from that hour she sang not again in Doriath. A brooding silence fell upon the woods, and the shadows lengthened in the kingdom of Thingol.

     Many dangers and trials did Beren face, and a horror came upon Luthien's heart, and going before Melian she learned that Beren had been taken prisoner by the servants of Morgoth with no hope of rescue, so she sought to flee Doriath and go herself to his aid. Thingol forbad her to go and sought to restrain her but Luthien excaped, and passing through trials of her own she came before the dungeons where Beren was held and freed him.

     Now it is told that Beren and Luthien came in their wondering into the Forest of Brethil, and drew near at last to the borders of Doriath. Then Beren took thought of his vow; and against his heart he resolved, when Luthien had come again within safety of her own land, to set forth once more. But she was not willing to be parted from him again, saying: "You must choose, Beren, between these two: to relinquish the quest and your oath and seek a life of wandering upon the face of the earth; or to hold to your word and challenge the power of darkness upon its throne. But on either road I shall go with you, and our doom shall be alike."

     It was by the power of Luthien that she cloaked Beren and herself in the fell forms of those in Morgoth's service and came unchallenged to the very gates of Angband.

     Then Beren and Luthien went through the Gate, and down the labyrinthine stairs; and together wrought the greatest deed that has been dared by Elves or Men. For they came before the seat of Morgoth in his nethermost hall, that was upheld by horror, lit by fire, and filled with weapons of death and torment. There Beren slunk in wolf's form beneath the throne; but Luthien was stripped of her disguise by the will of Morgoth, and he bent his gaze upon her. She was not daunted by his eyes; and she named her own name, and offered her service to sing before him, after the manner of a minstrel. Then Morgoth looking upon her beauty conceived in his thought an evil lust, and a design more dark then any that had yet come into his heart since he fled from Valinor. Thus he was beguiled by his own malice, for he watched her, leaving her free for a while, and taking secret pleasure in his thought. Then suddenly she eluded his sight, and out of the shadows began a song of such surpassing loveliness, and such blinding power, that he listened perforce; and a blindness came upon him, as his eyes roamed to and fro, seeking her.

     All his court were cast down in slumber, and all the fires faded and were quenched; but the Silmarils in the crown on Morgoth's head blazed forth suddenly with a radiance of white flame; and the burden of that crown and of the jewels bowed down his head, as thought he world were set upon it, laden with a weight of care, of fear, and desire, that even the will of Morgoth could not support. Then Luthien catching up her winged robe sprang into the air, and her voice came dropping down like rain into pools, profound and dark. She cast her cloak before his eyes, and set upon him a dream, dark as the Outer Void where once he walked alone. Suddenly he fell, as a hill sliding in avalanche, and hurled like thunder from his throne lay upon the floors of hell. The iron crown rolled echoing from his head. All things were still.

     As a dead beast Beren lay upon the ground; but Luthien touching him with her hand aroused him, and he cast aside the wolf-hame. Then he drew forth the knife Angrist; and from the iron claws that held it he cut a Silmaril.

     Then Beren moved to go beyond his vow and remove from the crown all three Silmarils, but the knife Angrist snapped and a shard of it smote Morgoth's cheek, he groaned and stirred and all the host of Morgoth moved in sleep, and in terror Beren and Luthien fled but they found the gates held against them by Carcharoth, the greatest among wolves. Luthien was spent, and she had not time nor strength to quell the wolf. But Beren strode forth before her, and in his right hand he held aloft the Silmaril. Carcharoth halted, and for a moment was afraid. "Get you gone, and fly!" cried Beren; "for here is a fire that shall consume you, and all evil things." And he thrust the Silmaril before the eyes of the wolf.

     But Carcharoth was not daunted, and a devouring hunger awoke within him and he took the hand in his maw and bit it off at the wrist, but then the fires of the holy jewel burned within him and seared his flesh and he fled in torment and madness, and Beren lay in a swoon near death for venom was on the fangs of the wolf. Luthien with her lips drew out the venom, and put forth her failing power to staunch the hideous wound.

     Then Beren led Luthien before the throne of Thingol her father; and he looked in wonder upon Beren, whom he had thought dead; but he loved him not, because of the woes he had brought upon Doriath. But Beren knelt before him, and said: "I return according to my word. I come now to claim my own."

     And Thingol answered: "What of your quest, and of your vow?"

     But Beren said: "It is fulfilled. Even now a Silmaril is in my hand."

     Then Thingol said: "Show it to me!"

     And Beren put forth his left hand, slowly opening its fingers; but it was empty. Then he held up his right arm; and from that hour he named himself Camlost, the Empty-handed.

     Then Thingol's mood was softened; and Beren sat before his throne upon the left, and Luthien upon the right, and they told all the tale of the Quest, and all there listened and were filled with amazement. And it seemed to Thingol that this Man was unlike all other mortal Men, and among the great in Arda, and the love of Luthien a thing new and strange; and her perceived that their doom would not be withstood by any power of the world. Therefore at the last he yielded his will, and Beren took the hand of Luthien before the throne of her father.

     But now a shadow fell upon the joy of Doriath at the return of Luthien the fair; for learning of the cause of the madness of Carcharoth the people grew more afraid, perceiving that his danger was fraught with dreadful power because of the holy jewel, and hardly might be overthrown. And Beren, hearing of the onslaught of the Wolf, understood that the Quest was not yet fulfilled.

     In the hunt they came upon the Wolf, and bursting from the thorns Carcharoth sprang at Thingol, but Beren lept before him, stricking with his spear, but the Wolf swept the spear aside and bit Beren upon the breast and felled him even as the Wolf too was slain. Then they took a knife and ripped open the belly of the Wolf; and within he was wellnigh all consumed as with a fire, but the hand of Beren that held the jewel was yet incorrupt. Then the Silmaril was taken and placed in Beren's living hand; and Beren was aroused by the touch of the Silmaril, and held it aloft, and bade Thingol receive it. "Now is the Quest achieved," he said, "and my doom full-wrought"; and he spoke no more.

     Then Luthien met him and set her arms around Beren, and kissed him, bidding him await her beyond the Western Sea; and he looked upon her eyes ere the spirit left him. But the starlight was quenched and darkness had fallen even upon Luthien Tinuviel.

     For the spirit of Beren at her bidding tarried in the halls of Mandos, unwilling to leave the world, until Luthien came to say her last farewell upon the dim shores of the Outer Sea, whence Men that die set out never to return. But the spirit of Luthien fell down into the darkness, and at the last it fled, and her body lay like a flower that is suddenly cut off and lies for a while unwithered upon the grass.

     Luthien came to the halls of Mandos, where are the appointed places of the Eldalie, beyond the mansions of the West upon the confines of the world. There those that wait sit in the shadow of their thought. But her beauty was more then their beauty, and her sorrow deeper then their sorrows; and she knelt before Mandos and sang to him.

     The song of Luthien before Mandos was the song most fair that ever in words were woven, and the song most sorrowful that ever the world shall hear. Unchanged, imperishable, it is still sung in Valinor beyond the hearing of the world, and listening the Valar are grieved. For Luthien wove two themes of words, of the sorrow of the Eldar and the grief of Men, of the Two Kindreds that were made by Iluvatar to dwell in Arda, the Kingdom of Earth amid the innumerable stars. And as she knelt before him her tears fell upon his feet like rain upon the stones; and Mandos was moved to pity, who never before was so moved, nor has been since.

     Therefore he summoned Beren, and even as Luthien had spoken in the hour of his death they met again beyond the Western Sea. But Mandos had no power to withhold the spirits of Men that were dead within the confines of the world, after their time of waiting; nor could he change the fates of the Children of Iluvatar. He went therefore to Manwe, Lord of the Valar, and Manwe sought counsel in his inmost thought, where the will of Iluvatar was revealed.

     These were the choices that he gave to Luthien. Because of her labours and her sorrow, she should be released from Mandos, and go to Valimar, and there to dwell until the world's end among the Valar, forgetting all griefs that her life had known. Thither Beren could not come. For it was not permitted of the Valar to withhold Death from him, which is the gift of Iluvatar to Men. But the other choice was this: that she might return to Middle-earth, and take with her Beren, there to dwell again, but without the certitude of life or joy. Then she would become mortal, and subject to a second death, even as he; and ere long she would leave the world forever, and her beauty become only a memory in song.

     This doom she chose, forsaking the Blessed Realm, and putting aside all claim to kinship with those that dwell there; that thus whatever grief might lie in wait, the fates of Beren and Luthien might be joined, and their paths lead together beyond the confines of the world. So it was that alone of the Eldalie she has died indeed, and left the world long ago. Yet in her choice the Two Kindreds have been joined; and she is the forerunner of many in whom the Eldar see yet, though all the world is changed, the likeness of Luthien the beloved, whom they have lost.