Guess Who's Coming to the Disaster - Page 9
© Michael Martinez
It is the strangeness of love which leads all of Middle-earth to the fateful choices that its heroic individuals make. Tolkien's love is tortured and tainted; it's pure and noble as well. But it is often bound up with the fates of nations, and Tolkien uses love to break down barriers his characters weren't even aware existed. Had it not been for Beren's love of Luthien, and her reciprocation, Morwen would not have had a friend in Thingol. And had Turin not been raised in Doriath, would he have brought down Nargothrond and slain Glaurung? Would the wars of Beleriand have been protracted because Hurin's son grew up a slave, untrained in the arts of war by the greatest warriors of the Sindar?
Every time love broke down some boundary, Middle-earth was changed. Both Elves and Men were enriched by their experiences with one another. But in the end, it was the great loves they shared which led them to their victories. Every star-crossed lover in Tolkien went on to achieve something vital Beren and Luthien took a Silmaril from Morgoth; Turin killed Glaurung; Tuor and Idril saved Earendil; Earendil and Elwing reunited and found a way to Valinor; Aldarion and Erendis set into motion events which led to the Downfall of Numenor and the salvation of the Faithful Dunedain; Treebeard's loss of Fimbrethil laid the foundation for his friendship with Merry and Pippin; and Aragorn's rejection of Eowyn (because of his love for Arwen) set Eowyn on the path to her removing a terrible evil from Middle-earth.
Maybe The Lord of the Rings wasn't intended to be the culmination of a long history of loves and broken (or sorely tested)` relationships, but the appendices are filled with hints and glints of the mighty relationships which forged the destiny of Middle-earth. It may be that Tolkien knew what he was doing after all, and he just didn't clutter up the finale of the long tale with endless distractions. After all, it was his lifelong dream to tell the great stories that were in his heart. The Lord of the Rings was in a way an endless distraction for Tolkien, who really wanted to sit back and talk about lost loves, forbidden loves, and how fantastic women can be in a fantasy world.
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