Another bite of the Withywaffle is here! In this one, particularly aimed at those who haven’t read the Silmarillion and etc, I explain some of the backstory of Annatar’s quote about the above-mentioned personages. (This does contain spoilers for the Silmarillion)
Transcript (in places paraphrased to make me sound cleverer):
Hello there, folks, friends, hobbits – whatever you are, and welcome back to another bite of the Withywaffle. At the moment, I’m reading the Complete works of Shakespeare, and it’s very funny. There’s a lot of puns and stuff, and everyone plays the fool most of the time. But often, there’s a reference to something in mythology, literature, history, or something; there’s a reference to someone that I don’t understand. That takes away from the story a bit, because then I don’t know what’s supposed to be implied with that.
When you’re watching the Rings of Power, and you haven’t read the Silmarillion and all those other old texts, then there might be some references that you don’t understand. So, if you’re not a nerd, listen [or read?] on while I explain one of them, or if you are, then you can listen anyways just to judge me and see how many mistakes I make in the accuracy of this. [self-conscious laugh]
The quote that we’ll be looking at today is by Annatar. There are lots of good quotes in the Rings of Power, and this is one of my favourites. He said:
“Men are capable of great frailty, but when the darkness falls there are always some that rise forth and shine. Eärendil, Tuor, Beren son of Barahir”
Here he’s referring to three eminent personages from the First Age of Middle-Earth. The Rings of Power is in the Second Age, so this is the age before. These characters feature heavily in the Silmarillion, which I strongly recommend if you haven’t read it. I just want to briefly give you a background of each of these men who have “risen and shone” I won’t be doing this in the order of the quote, as I want to discuss them chronologically, which is actually backwards, so let’s start with Beren.
One of the greatest tales of the First Age, and one of my personal favourites, is the Tale of Beren and Luthien. It’s a romance, and it’s a very good tale. [sigh of contentment] It’s found in the Silmarillion, but there’s also an entire book for it, so you must read that. Beren was a mortal man, and Luthien – well she was a half-elf, the daughter of one of the first elves, who was the king of the elves that didn’t go to Valinor. His name was Thingol. Her mother was a Maiar, which is basically an angel. This is the same thing that Gandalf, Sauron, and the Balrogs are. [though the latter two are fallen] Luthien’s half elf, half Maiar, and she’s the fairest of the Children of Ilúvatar ever to live!
There will be spoilers for the Tale of Beren and Luthien, so if you want it completely unspoiled, maybe you should stop listening [or reading] now, but if you just want a background for Beren, then carry on, carry on.
So, what happened was that one night Luthien was dancing in the woods in the moonlight, to a flute. The story of Beren and Luthien meeting is actually in the Lord of the Rings; there’s a poem about it. Beren sees her there dancing, and he’s healed by the enchantment, because she’s so beautiful. They fall in love with each other there eventually. Then they decide that they want to get married, but what do you have to do before you can marry a girl? You have to ask her father!
Beren goes to Thingol, and says “Oh, can I marry your daughter?” Thingol’s not going to agree. This is a mortal man! This is a scruffy, uncouth, non-elven being. His daughter is the most beautiful girl ever, so he’s not going to give her away just like that. He kind of ironicall says “Oh, as the bride-price you have to pay me a Silmaril, and then you can have her hand in marriage.” Beren says “Okay, I’ll get you a Silmaril.” Now, there are only three Silmarils in the whole world, and at that point, they were all in the possession of Morgath, the Dark Lord, Sauron predecessor. He was even more powerful than Sauron. They were in his crown, and they were his most prized possession. They were in his big fortress, guarded by all kinds of horrible things, so basically impossible to get.
The story is about how Beren and Luthien, through their teamwork, actually manage to break in there and Luthien sings Morgath to sleep. Then Beren gets a Silmaril off the crown, but then, as they’re going out, the Silmaril, and his hand, are swallowed by a wolf, but as a Silmaril will burn any being that it touches that’s not holy, it burns the wolf’s insides. He goes mad, and he rages around, and gets all the way to Thingol’s home in Doriath. Then Beren gets home, and he and Thingol go out hunting the wolf who has the Silmaril – Thingol’s really impressed with their story. This wolf has a showdown with Huan, the hound of Valinor.
Beren is mortally wounded, and he dies there. Luthien also dies of a broken heart, and then both of them are in the Halls of Mandos, where they’re carried after death. Then Luthien wrote one of the greatest songs ever sung; a song of anguish and sorrow, and it moved even the immovable heart of Mandos himself, the keeper of the Dead. He permitted them to live a life together, re-incarnated, a mortal life. Then they lived happily ever after – at least as long as they lived, happy most of the time.
Our next person, Tuor, also had a romance with an Elf. His story is in the Fall of Gondolin, which there’s also a book for. He was a young man who was called by Ulmo to bring news to the hidden elven city of Gondolin, and warn them against Morgath, to tell them basically that the time was ripe to come forth. They don’t listen to him, but he marries the king’s daughter, Idril. His son is Eärendil, the last guy in Annatar’s quote. They don’t listen to Ulmo’s words – Ulmo is the sea god, one of the Valar. Because they don’t listen to him, they are besieged by Morgath, and Gondolin falls, as in the title of the book, but Tuor fight valiantly, and he escapes with his wife and his son Eärendil. Eventually Tuor and Idril sail to Valinor. It’s said among the Eldar that Tuor was the only mortal man to be counted among the Elves, so he became immortal.
Then, lastly, there’s Eärendil. I’m sure you’ve heard him talked about in the Rings of Power – he was Elrond’s father. He married the granddaughter of Beren and Luthien, so all these people are connected in their bloodlines. He was a shipbuilder and a sailor. He had a swan-shaped ship. His story was that he sailed to Valinor to stir up the Valar and to ask them for aid in the fight against Morgath. This worked, and as a reward the Valar built a new ship for him, and in it they put the Silmaril that Beren and Luthien had, because it had been passed down to his wife. The Valar gave it to him, and let him become a star, to sail his ship in the heavens. That’s Tolkien’s story for the morning star, or the evening star, Venus, the brightest star in the sky. In the battle of the Valar against Morgath, Eärendil was the one who slew the greatest of Morgath’s dragons. He played an influential part in that.
Almost all of the characters in the history of Middle-Earth were Elves, so Celebrimbor is becoming arrogant, “What can men do?” Then Annatar reminded him of these great men in the past. It was for a selfish purpose, but it’s still a great quote, and it has a rich backstory. Something we might notice is that these men were considered great because they had such interactions with the Elves, but maybe that’s just why they were considered great among the Elves. There were probably other heroes among the races of Men that the they didn’t know so much about, but these were some of the greatest in the history of men.
That’s all for today. I’ve been Emma, and you’ve been dreaming of great things in realms far away and long ago, so I’ll see you next time!