Manwë's Account of Beren and Lúthien

    

    Carrying the will of Illúvatar and seeing everything is not always an easy thing to do. It comes with heavy decisions. I can see the destruction that Morgoth and Sauron bring to the world, but I cannot do anything about it. The Valar cannot intervene with the affairs of men. We can only watch. When we have previously gotten involved, too much destruction and chaos ensued. It can often feel hopeless, but we cannot intervene in large aspects. There are always small aspects though. 

While Morgoth and Sauron were busy destroying Middle Earth, lives went on. The lives of Beren and Lúthien were two that I ended up taking a particular interest in. Two young lovers, forced apart by both race and Morgoth’s reign. Beren was after one of the Silmarils, and was captured by Sauron. Lúthien went to rescue him, met some foes along the way, but made it nonetheless. She frees all of the captives, including Beren, and refuses to be separated from him again. Everybody loves Lúthien, so there were many who took this poorly. Despite this, Lúthien and Beren retrieve a Silmaril from Morgoth. The Silmaril is swallowed by Carcharoth, unfortunately. When Beren retrieves it from Carcharoth, he dies. Lúthien is devastated and asks Beren to wait for her in the halls of Mandos. Now, Mandos does his job very well and doesn’t take pity on anyone. Well, almost anyone. As I said before, everybody loves Lúthien, even Mandos. This is where I come in (finally). He brings all of this to me and asks me to see what the will of Illúvatar is. Based on this will, I present her with two options. She can either join the Valar here and forget about this tragedy, or become a mortal and be doomed to a second death with her dear Beren. As expected, she chose the latter and they lived out the rest of their days together. 

Why was I talking about this… oh right, Morgoth. Sometimes I wish I could get involved in the big picture. But, sometimes the little things hold just as much importance. I am confident that the will of Illúvatar always leads in a good direction. There’s always hope, even if it’s not in plain sight. For example, perhaps you noticed that in this little love story, the men and Eldar learned that Morgoth is not as powerful as he may seem. Beren was able to take a Silmaril from him, which is not a small feat. Perhaps one day the rest of the Silmarils can be retrieved…