Disclaimer: #1 Tolkien wrote the Silmarillion, not I.

#2 Nor did I write this story. I am merely posting it for my sister and a friend.

Chapter 1

Part 5

After Beren had gone darkness seemed to fall upon Lúthien. She no longer danced beneath the stars or wandered among the birches of Neldoreth, nor did she call Elindoras and Linwë to talk with them as she had often done before. She sat alone in her chamber, white and unspeaking, like a flower cut off from the sun that has begun to wither.

It was then Elindoras and Linwë learned of the full depth of Lúthien's devotion for Beren.

Lúthien had gone to her mother for counsel, (the only one she would speak to) and with her foresight Melian had seen that Sauron, the servant of Morgoth, had captured Beren. And now Beren lay in the dungeons of Tol-in-Gaurhoth without hope of rescue.

Lúthien must have realized no help would come to him in all of Arda—unless she herself went to his rescue. How she planned to aid him Elindoras and Linwë did not understand. There was no power in Middle-earth that could match the great and horrible darkness of Morgoth, and the idea of a mere elf-maid confronting him was almost laughable. But they did understand the full depth of her loyalty to Beren—for blind though it was, she loved him.

After Lúthien had resolved to fly from Doriath, she made the mistake of going to Daeron the Minstrel for his aid and advice. And Daeron betrayed Lúthien's purposes to her father, Thingol.

Elindoras knew it was partly out of fear for Lúthien's safety that Daeron sought to keep her, but still she despised him for it. He had long been jealous of Beren. And that jealousy had turned to a festering hate that had made him wretched and craven.

Thingol was terrified and amazed by this news of Daeron's. Perhaps he had thought Lúthien's love for Beren was a mere passing fancy, but now he too realized the full extent of it. He realized if he were to keep his daughter with him, he must take measures to prevent her escape.

So Thingol ordered his elves to lock Lúthien in a flet, which he had built in the branches of Hírilorn, (the greatest of the beech trees in Neldoreth.) All the ladders were taken away, and his elves stood guard.

Yet Lúthien escaped. Elindoras and Linwë did not understand how she had managed to do so, for Hírilorn was a tree of amazing height and it had no branches.

Lúthien's guards were found sleeping—a deep sleep that the maidens thought seemed suspiciously like that caused by wine, or (and this was even more likely) enchantments. When questioned, the guards could recall little of anything that had passed before they had dropped off to sleep. They had remained alert and vigilant, they claimed. They had been wide-awake and without trace of weariness. They did not even recall feeling drowsy before they dropped off.

One guard vaguely remembered straining to keep his senses clear, but he said sleep had closed around him like a surge of water. And in spite of his struggles he had been pulled down into its deep darkness. Lúthien had great power, Elindoras and Linwë did not doubt, and she could have enchanted the guards. Yet could she create a rope? No one could scale the formidable Hírilorn without one—and to drop from the flet would be fatal. They wondered if any of the guards had been bribed to give her a rope, but certainly the thought of Thingol's wrath and instant execution would frighten anyone out of attempting that.

Beleg Strongbow would have been blamed for Lúthien's disappearance, (as he had always been particularly sympathetic to her and the plight of the mortal race) but he had left Doriath on some mission at Thingol's bidding long before Beren was discovered. He had not been present during Lúthien's confinement and the whole chain of events that had followed.

So Lúthien's escape was shrouded in mystery. But the fact that she was gone remained.

All Doriath fell into sorrow and silence after her departure.

King Thingol was bowed with grief, and although it was undoubtedly sincere, Elindoras and Linwë could scarcely scrape up much pity for him—after all, he was the one who had sent Beren on the suicide mission and attempted to rule his daughter's heart by force.

Melian was also deeply grieving, but Melian always seemed a little above the maidens' pity. Beren they only considered fortunate to have won Lúthien's favor (though they did not envy his position as Sauron's captive) and they were glad that Lúthien had escaped. True, great peril could overtake her, and they readily admitted she might lose her life. But so her doom was laid, and Elindoras privately liked to think she would do as much for her own beloved.

Of all those involved, the maidens decided Thingol's guards (the ones who had been found sleeping at their post after Lúthien's escape) most deserved their sympathies.