Epilogue

It is said that Beren and Lúthien returned to the northern lands of Middle-earth, and dwelt together for a time as living man and woman; and they took up again their mortal form in Doriath. Those that saw them were both glad and fearful; and Lúthien went to Menegroth and healed the winter of Thingol with the touch of her hand. But Melian looked in her eyes and read the doom that was written there, and turned away; for she knew that a parting beyond the end of the world had come between them, and no grief of loss has been heavier than the grief of Melian the Maia in that hour. Then Beren and Lúthien went forth alone, fearing neither thirst nor hunger; and they passed beyond the River Gelion into Ossiriand, and dwelt there in Tol Galen the green isle, in the midst of Adurant, until all tidings of them ceased. The Eldar afterwards called that country Dor Firn-i-Guinar, the Land of the Dead that Live; and there was born Dior Aranel the beautiful, who was after known as Dior Eluchíl, which is Thingol's Heir. No mortal man spoke ever again with Beren son of Barahir; and none saw Beren or Lúthien leave the world, or marked where at last their bodies lay.

*

Beyond this only one small fragment from the latter part of the Lay of Leithian remains and reads thus:

Where the forest-stream went through the wood,

and silent all the stems there stood

of tall trees, moveless, hanging dark

with mottled shadows on their bark

above the green and gleaming river,

there came through leaves a sudden shiver,

a windy whisper through the still

cool silences; and down the hill,

as faint as a deep sleeper's breath,

an echo came as cold as death:

'Long are the paths, of shadow made

where no foot's print is ever laid,

over the hills, across the seas!

Far, far away are the Lands of Ease,

but the Land of the Lost is further yet,

where the Dead wait, while ye forget.

No moon is there, no voice, no sound

of beating heart; a sigh profound

once in each age as each age dies

alone is heard. Far, far it lies,

the Land of Waiting where the Dead sit,

in their thought's shadow, by no moon lit.'

*

End Notes

The text is taken from The Silamrillion, Chapter 20, 1st paragraph. The final lines are taken from the extant fragment noted in The Lays of Beleriand, pp. 308-309.