Song of Beren and Lúthien

Sometime between the years First Age 503 and First Age 538 of the late First Age, the Lay of Lúthien was likely among many tales and songs that were made in the Havens of Sirion. It was said to be the second longest lay; only being beaten in length by Dírhaval's Narn i Chîn Húrin.

By the time of the late Third Age, the ending of the lay was forgotten and only Elrond in Rivendell could remember it "as it was told of old".

When Aragorn saw Arwen in Rivendell for the first time, he sang an excerpt from the Lay of Lúthien telling of Beren and Lúthien's first meeting in the Forest of Neldoreth.

In the year Third Age 3018, Aragorn sang the same excerpt on Weathertop in the Weather Hills to distract Frodo Baggins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrin Took, and Samwise Gamgee from their fears. Afterwards, Aragorn summarized the lay and explained its history and form to the Hobbits. He also commented that his Westron-translated excerpt was "but a rough echo of" the original since the lay was difficult to translate.

In June of 1925, a poem that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that year, Light as Leaf on Lindentree, appeared in a volume of The Gryphon Magazine, a Leeds University publication. The poem was revised and incorporated into the second version of the Narn i Chîn Húrin where one of Morwen's servants sang the poem as they entered Doriath with Túrin. In this version, Tolkien gave the poem many variations of names including As Light as Leaf on Lindentree, Light as Leaf on Linden-tree, As Light as Leaf on Linden-tree, and Light as Leaf on Linden. This scene in The Lay of the Children of Húrin was deduced by Christopher Tolkien as being the predecessor of the scene of Aragorn singing the excerpt "before the attack of the Ringwraiths" on Weathertop.

Tolkien later reworked the poem into Canto III of The Lay of Leithian.

While writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien made another variation of the poem's name, Light on Linden Tree, and revised it until it came close to the published version.

In an early version of the Rivendell chapters, Bilbo Baggins was to sing Tinúviel, an excerpt from the Lay of Lúthien which may possibly have been the same as Light as Leaf on Lindentree. Tolkien decided against this, having Bilbo sing an early version of the Eärendillinwë instead.

The excerpt consists of nine stanzas of eight lines each, rhymed ABAC BABC. The C rhyme in each stanza is triple: the sixth syllable of the fourth line rhymes with the sixth syllable of the eighth line, and the seventh and eighth syllables of the fourth line are identical (or nearly) to those of the eighth. The poem's metre is iambic tetrameter (four pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables).

Following Aragorn's words, Patrick Wynne and Carl F. Hostetter explain that the English metre tries to imitate what the Sindarin metre (ann-thennath) would have been in the original poem.

The song would be an extract translated from the Lay of Leithian, specifically Canto III.

1978: The Lord of the Rings (1978 film):

Bilbo recites the first five lines, accompanied by Elven musicians, in Rivendell before he is cut off by Frodo's arrival.

2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

After passing through the Midgewater Marshes, Aragorn sings the last four lines of the second-last stabza in Sindarin while keeping watch during the night. Frodo asks who the woman he sings of is. Aragorn tells him "'tis the lay of Lúthien, the elf-maiden who gave her love to Beren, a mortal." Frodo asks what happened to her and Aragorn tells him she died and encourages him to go back to sleep.

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 29/05/2026.