Did Beren and Luthien return to Middle-earth on a ship?

[Arvegil145]

For the longest of times, I was under the impression that it was the spirits of Beren and Luthien that returned to their bodies (which were somehow healed in the meantime), practically immediately following their (first) death.

However, looking at the Grey Annals (pp. 69-71 of The War of the Jewels), the timeline just doesn't support this:

1) FA 466: Beren dies fighting Carcharoth.

2) FA 467: In spring, Luthien gives up her life, and dies.

3) FA 467-8: Thingol grieves Luthien's death ("But a winter as it were the hoar age of mortal Men came upon Thingol").

4) FA 469: Beren and Luthien "returned to the world".


I don't know about the funerary practices of the Elves of Doriath, but whatever they were (presumably burial), Beren and Luthien's bodies were in the ground (either literally or metaphorically) for 2-3 years after their deaths - it's not like Thingol knew that both of them would come back to life! Also, I find it hard to believe that, if Beren and Luthien were buried for a couple of years, they would somehow crawl out of the grave, Evil Dead-style!


Which leaves me with a question - if Beren and Luthien's spirits didn't return to their bodies, how did they return to Beleriand?

It seems to me then that Beren and Luthien were re-embodied in Aman (presumably in the manner that the Valar re-embody dead Elves in general; this being a very notable exception, since they were both mortal from then on) somewhere between FA 467 and FA 469.

So, if that is the case, how did these two (newly re-embodied) get back to Middle-earth? As the title of this thread suggests, I think the obvious answer is: by a ship.


And before someone says: "well, mortals are banned from stepping foot in Aman", I'd like to point out that Beren and Luthien were a (basically divine) exception to, well, everything.

[Galadriel55]

My take on that is that, as you say, this twain was an exception to just about everything - including how Elves are re-imbodied in Aman. I don't think that this is an assumption we can make here. Beren is mortal, and as such the rules for however Elves reincarnate really don't apply to him. Whichever way his body gets remade, it is not by the previous template. So why would it have to be in Aman? As for Luthien, she too is re-made as a mortal. This again defies the previous template. There is no precedent. Normal rules don't apply. So I don't think this is a valid assumption.

Regarding being in the earth for 3 years... Is there any indication in canon to say whether their "old" bodies still remained wherever they were entombed, or if it was literally the same bodies re-inhabited? I can only think of a fanfic, where the difficulty is resolved by them being buried in a crypt (rather than literally under the earth), and their bodies remaining unnaturally "fresh" - no direct explanation is made for that, but presumably because of them (or at lease Beren) being suspended in an in-between state of neither living nor yet truly gone.

A further question that arises if they arrived by ship is where did they land, and where did they go. Did they truly steer and dock a ship by themselves, with no seafaring abilities (but a pinch of divine intervention?), in a harbour where no one would take note, and make their way across Beleriand into Doriath, where again they pass through the country unnoticed just to surprise Thingol and the other inhabitants of Menegroth? None of this is impossible, but if you are gonna take the "reborn in Aman" angle, it needs a few further developments.

[Huinesoron]

Beren and Huan, at least, were buried - it's mentioned in the Synopsis V plan for canto 13 of the Lay of Leithian. The canto 14 plan says "release of Beren" and then jumps directly to Beleriand; Synopsis IV just says "the recall of Beren and Huan" (so any boat would have the dog on it too!).

For a moment, I thought NoME answered the question:

Originally Posted by 1.XIX, "Elvish Life-cycles"

Only in one known case, Beren, did the Valar -by special permission of Eru -restore a human body to life and suffer its fea to return.

But, typically, there's a counter-reference:

Originally Posted by 2.XV "Elvish Reincarnation"

The rehoused fea will normally remain in Aman. Only in very exceptional cases as Beren and Luthien will they be transported back to Middle-earth. (How perhaps need not be made any clearer than the mode in which the Valar in physical form could go from Aman to Middle-earth.)

The 1.XIX quote is from 1969, while the other is 1959, so it seems Tolkien's last comment was that Beren's original body was repaired in situ. But if you really want to reconcile the two, 1.XIX also mentions that Elves were rehoused "by healing of the body or complete rebuilding of one" - so Beren's new body could be a "complete rebuild" in Aman.

But still no boat, as far as I can see.

hS

[Arvegil145]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

Beren and Huan, at least, were buried - it's mentioned in the Synopsis V plan for canto 13 of the Lay of Leithian. The canto 14 plan says "release of Beren" and then jumps directly to Beleriand; Synopsis IV just says "the recall of Beren and Huan" (so any boat would have the dog on it too!).

For a moment, I thought NoME answered the question:



But, typically, there's a counter-reference:



The 1.XIX quote is from 1969, while the other is 1959, so it seems Tolkien's last comment was that Beren's original body was repaired in situ. But if you really want to reconcile the two, 1.XIX also mentions that Elves were rehoused "by healing of the body or complete rebuilding of one" - so Beren's new body could be a "complete rebuild" in Aman.

But still no boat, as far as I can see.

hS

Nice find!

Though I wasn't being (too) literal about Beren and Luthien coming back to Middle-earth on a ship: for all I know, they could've been flown back on the backs of the Eagles.