80. What If This Housecat Was Actually Really Big?

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: Beren and Lúthien. One of what Tolkien considered his three ‘Great Tales’ at the heart of the legendarium material that eventually formed versions of The Silmarillion, the story of a man and an elf princess falling in love and going through many adventures of high peril, is arguably Tolkien at his most sweepingly romantic. Openly claimed by Tolkien to have elements inspired by his own courtship of his wife Edith, to the point where their gravestone features the names of the characters on it, it started in the early versions almost as a heightened fairy tale before steadily transforming into the even more epochal version in the final published form of the book. The tale is directly referenced by Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings and his own story of love with Arwen is clearly seen – by many of the characters, not necessarily first time readers – as an afterecho of that romance. What makes the early versions of the story so very fairytale-like, and how much of that can be ascribed to the presence of Tevildo, the Prince of Cats? How much did Tolkien’s valuing of the story as a connection to his own life get matched by Edith’s feelings, as much as we know them at all? When does Tolkien’s own somewhat uneven poetic gift really connect in this story, and how remarkable is it that the story went through various written forms? And just how awesome is Huan? (Answer: very.)

Show Notes.

Jared’s doodle. A little extra spooky season for everyone…

Sight Unseen can always be followed on Instagram!

The Le Guin Prize was won by Rakesfall, but it is awesome, check it out! Here’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach doing the honors (and he pronounced Jared’s name right).

Ned’s most recent big piece, on David Bowie and Scott Walker.

That stupid Erebor crypto thing. (And yes, we heard about Earendil as well.)

That stupid Ellison Eagle and Child thing.

The stupid right wing whining about a course discussing Tolkien’s racial tropes thing…isn’t worth directly linking because all the sites talking about it are clearly just whining in bad faith. So why not just read the course description? Or a much more even-handed description of what it’s about than you’ll get from the whiners? (Relatedly, our orcs episode.)

That Rings of Power spy report. Have fun there.

Beren and Lúthien, specifically the book collecting and analyzing all the versions.

Our episodes on the other Great Tales, Túrin Turambar and the Fall of Gondolin.

Our Melian episode…way way long ago.

Tevildo! Truly a feline. (In terms of whether Tolkien liked cats, this is as close as it gets in terms of direct evidence.)

Moulin Rouge! Maybe it shaped you too.

Orpheus and Eurydice, a very foundational myth indeed. (And shoutout to D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.)

Lord Dunsany, one of the greats. (Check out The King of Elfland’s Daughter.)

Rizzoli! Can’t go wrong with a great bookstore.

The Finrod and Sauron song conflict (play the snippet of Christopher Tolkien reading it). Relatedly, The Rap Battle. (Trust us, you’ll know the moment when they hit it.)

Our Inklings episode.

Huan! The ultimate good boy.

The Tolkiens’ gravestone, and the names are there…

Our episode on The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Relatedly, here’s the letter to Christopher, after Edith’s death, where he says ‘she was my Lúthien (and she knew it).’

Christopher Tolkien’s reading of the story, as initially released on Caedmon.

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