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cirdaneth
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Post Beren and Thingol.
on: March 06, 2010 04:46
OK, lets see first where Beren is coming from.

After the Battle of Sudden Flame when the populations of Men and Elves were being driven from the northern lands, Beren’s father, Barahir defended his people efficiently enough for his wife Emeldir to gather the women, arm them and take them and the children to safety in Brethil and beyond. They never saw their menfolk again, for the men were all slain except Barahir, Beren, and ten others who lived as outlaws for a long time, harrying the orcs.

Eventually, Sauron, lieutenant of Morgoth, deluded Gorlim, one of Barahir’s men, with a phantom of his wife, and he betrayed their stronghold. When they were attacked Beren was the only survivor, but he tracked the orcs and retrieved his father’s hand with the ring given to him by Finrod.

The Beren/Luthien story not just romantic, it is the working of destiny. All the characters are instruments in a tale long foreseen by some of them, and resisted by some, especially Thingol, who despite having seen the Light of Aman, doesn’t seem to have learnt much of the ways of the Valar.

Beren is not dim, although I imagine he is pretty traumatised. He is a young man who has lost everything. He spends four years alone in the forest, waylaying bands of orcs, making lightning strikes on camps, until he has a huge price on his head. Then he finds his way into Doriath. So Wow! How did he do that!

When Melian set her Girdle about Doriath she said that none should pass it without permission of herself or Thingol, or one who carried a greater power than herself; but she foresaw, and said, that one of the race of Men would surely come “and the Girdle of Melian shall not restrain him, for doom greater than my power shall send him.” (HoME; XI;50)

My question is:

Why on earth did Thingol think he could resist such a thing? What kind of future did he have planned out for his daughter anyway? Was she to be some kind of dynastic bargaining piece? Elven women were generally free to make their own decisions, so attempts at paternal control were not going to be productive! Is he in denial?
Ilandir
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Post RE: Beren and Thingol.
on: March 06, 2010 04:59
I guess it's a question of doubt. Like in many stories, when characters know they will face something certain, they still want to escape it when it happens - hoping they can change destiny. I think this was the case with Thingol. He knew it had to happened, but when it actually did, he tried to subvert it.
Morwinyoniel
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Post RE: Beren and Thingol.
on: March 07, 2010 05:55
Being in some kind of denial sure was one thing; but, I see pride and arrogance at work here as well. Thingol was proud and stubborn, held himself as a ruler of much more than he actually was, and seems to have thought of Men as an inferior race. And, in this case, it sure was meant by the higher powers that Beren must take up the quest for the Silmaril, regarded as impossible; if Thingol had agreed to give his daughter to him just like that, the jewel probably would never have been recovered, which would in turn have affected future things very much.

Well, Melian understood that this was it, and fortunately, Thingol took heed of her words - unlike later, when he decided not to give the Silmaril to the Fëanorians, which in turn ultimately led to his own downfall.
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