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Beren and Lúthien

Written by: Christopher Tolkien,J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Timothy West,Samuel West
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Publisher's Summary

Presented for the first time on audio, the epic tale of Beren and Lúthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves, Men and Orcs and the rich landscape unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth in this unabridged recording read by critically acclaimed father and son, Timothy and Samuel West. 

Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, was deeply opposed to Beren, and imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. Undaunted by Lord Thingol’s challenge, Beren and Lúthien embark on the supremely heroic attempt to rob Morgoth, the greatest of all evil beings, of a Silmaril, one of the hallowed jewels that adorn the Black Enemy’s crown. The tale of Beren and Lúthien, which was written shortly after J.R.R. Tolkien returned from the Battle of the Somme in 1916, was an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion

In this book Christopher Tolkien has extracted the various versions of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which they are embedded. To show something of the process whereby this Great Tale of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he tells the story in his father's 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.

©2017 HarperCollins Publishers Limited (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

What the critics say

"A seamless editorial construct, the capstone to a job Christopher Tolkien began with The Silmarillion." (New Statesman)

What listeners say about Beren and Lúthien

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Good Text, Strange Format.

This story is really wonderful and tragically romantic. The narration is lovely. That being said, the format of the text is rather confusing as it is a collection of various versions of the same story. If you want to simply read the story, you can stop after about the first third. However, this collection does provide a fascinating insight into Tolkien's thought process and world building.

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Please do the History of Middle-Earth Series!!

Timothy and Samual are now the voices of Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien for me. This and the Fall of Gondolin are so well done. It makes the experience so great having them both. If the History was to be done in this way.. it would be amazing.

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Fascinating insight

I loved the various versions that show how Tolkien worked and reworked his story. Thoroughly enjoyed this.

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Essentially A Desk Reference

If you're looking for a detailed expansion of the Beren/Tinúviel legend, you're out of luck. While there are a few more descriptive elements to the story (how Beren came upon Luthien's dancing in Doreath and his captivity with Morgoth's minions, for example), you're better off sticking with the relation of the tale in 'The Silmarillion'.
To be certain, the first hour of the book is an extremely entertaining retelling - and colored with a version of events that I hadn't heard before - but the remainder of the book is a compilation of every mention of the legend that Christopher Tolkien could mine from his father's notes (poems, scraps of verse, snippets of songs, etc).

In the audiobook's favor: the narration from father/son tandem Timothy and Samuel West is genuinely outstanding. Both read with spot-on diction and pacing, comfortable timbre & cadence, and a pitch-perfect tone that makes listeners believe that they are hearing the authors' voices.

Despite the brilliant production values, however, the book is best suited as something to sit in the libraries of diehard Tolkien überfans. A text copy (paper or eBook) of this 7/10-star book would be more valuable to you if given the choice.

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Lacks much of the original version

This was one of my favourite tales of the Silmarillion. I had gotten it hoping that it would expand on a beautiful story, that was key to the first age. I feel the story was ruined by this confusing, unfocused version.

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Beautiful

One of Tolkien's greatest tales. I didn't know I loved poetry this much! This book is like drifting away to music.

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  • Ms. Rhiannon
  • 2020-07-02

very disappointing

Snippets of JRR's storytelling interrupted by Christopher's long winded descriptions of what his father was thinking, and what was happening with the family and what color hat he was wearing when he wrote each passage (okay, that last part was exaggeration but not by much). This is not a book for anyone interested in the story, since the constant commentary made it impossible to follow the flow of JRR's brilliance.

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39 people found this helpful

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  • Megan
  • 2020-05-17

Not a story, but a study of the evolution of one.

This book alternates between notes by Christopher Tolkien & the various manuscripts his father wrote about the title characters. I loved it, but it is a strange experience to listen to it.

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  • papa k
  • 2020-12-23

Beautifully written with Academic Narrative

I was hoping for a synthesis, a beautifully integrated story of these two characters. We get the academic considerations of Tolkien’s variations. While I appreciate the scholarship, my heart just wants a good tale told straight through. Both narrators make it work.

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  • jeremy canaan
  • 2020-06-02

Too much changed

Changing names and making Beren an elf not a man was really odd. Not great

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7 people found this helpful

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  • Phil F.
  • 2021-04-23

This is a scholarly work

It is appropriate to read this book this soon after the recent death of its editor Christopher Tolkien. Be warned that as good as it is, that it is as much a scholarly work as it is a presentation of versions of the tale. Bless C.T. and the work he has done to make his father’s writing available to the world.

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4 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2020-10-12

Love this!

I love hearing the progression of this story and the different iterations that were made throughout Tolkien’s life. It also shows all of the work that Christopher had to put into the Silmarillion to get a final story.

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  • CJDsCurrentRead
  • 2022-08-26

Another fantastic edition of a great tale

**the dual audio is a reader for Christopher Tolkien’s notes, and another reader for J.R.R. Tolkien’s notes and work. It works really nicely.


This one opens with a preface by Christopher, at the age of 93, that I found truly astounding. It kind of continues throughout the book, as the tale is rather short, and has several versions. I think that Tolkien fans are really fortunate that he felt himself to be a protector/scholar of his father’s work, rather than living in its shadow, because he’s the only reason a lot of these things saw the light of day. In this preface he spoke to how his father would often change things, or names, or themes, and how an addition of a single character or thing could influence him rewriting something entirely. I loved how Christopher spoke to how he did not take these versions of the great tales to be canon, or to uncanonize other versions, he was just striving to give fans the most linear, narrative story possible.

Beren and Lúthien, or The Tale of Tinúviel (as the story and chapter are entitled—from The Book of Lost Tales Two), is an extracted version of their love and stealing of a Silmaril from Melkor/Morgoth. I personally kind of found this edited version to erase Beren, in the sense that it did not really include any background on him and his heroics. Lúthien runs from her father and even frees Beren, which is in no way an issue for me, but I think it weighs even heavier when you include who he was. Aka he felt a little useless to me.

Luckily however, this is a rather short extraction. (And that’s not at all to say that I actually found it to be bad! At all!!). The remainder of the book continues on with additional context from Christopher throughout, as well as additional excerpts from various versions and histories that he’s chosen to highlight for this combined edition of the great tale. These excerpts are from the actual lay, and therefore are genuine poetry in rhyme. That’s never been my cup of tea, but you can tell the lyrical prowess that Tolkien had, and the audio most definitely flowed effortlessly. I once again for my first read through miss out on all the illustrations, but we are hightailing it for The Rings of Power prep.

I of course would be remiss if I did not include the fact that it’s said the story originated from Tolkien taking woodland walks with his wife-to-be Edith, and that he found himself to be the mortal in the presence of greatness, a beauty of the Eldar. That is why Beren and Lúthien are inscribed on their tombstones, and I can only imagine the story was continually rewrote as their love grew and changed, and Tolkien wove it into the fabric of middle-earth.

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  • Jeremy Hogan
  • 2020-11-16

great and bad same time!

how to explain the parts that were excellent great poetry, but unfortunately it felt a lot like a book report at other parts. If you love Jared talking to work, I recommend it, I just I don't know

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  • grampa
  • 2020-10-25

best poetry I've ever heard. enjoyable

best poetry l ever heard .best-known work of artists poetry I've ever heard authors poetry

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2020-06-08

Good listen if a bit scattered in presentation.

While narration was very listenable, the story was a little unreachable as it has been too many years since I was a more enthusiastic fan of The Sillmarilion.

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