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A review by queerofthedagger
Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This one is kind of hard for me to review because while I loved the verse of this actually, and once again deeply admire Christopher Tolkien's work on both forming this into a cohersive narrative as much as possible, while also trying to give context and weight to the differing versions, breaks, and so on in the source material, I will have to admit that I was simply not that much into the story itself. I already wasn't overly invested in the shorter version of The Silmarillion, and that opinion frankly only solidified here.
It's not even that surprising; I've never been the biggest fan of these kinds of fairy tale romances, and in this particular case I just couldn't really form a connection to the supposed heroes of the story. Which is sad! I know this is more or less Tolkien's favourite romance of his legendarium, and I can see why objectively that would be so. Subjectively, though, this was one of the tales where I noticed most how much my own worldview and moral framework clashes on a fundamental level with Tolkien's own. Which is fine, I knew that. But it does mean that, while I can admire the technical and objective skill of the story itself and the way it has been carefully put together here, the narrative itself simply didn't really do it for me at all.
It's not even that surprising; I've never been the biggest fan of these kinds of fairy tale romances, and in this particular case I just couldn't really form a connection to the supposed heroes of the story. Which is sad! I know this is more or less Tolkien's favourite romance of his legendarium, and I can see why objectively that would be so. Subjectively, though, this was one of the tales where I noticed most how much my own worldview and moral framework clashes on a fundamental level with Tolkien's own. Which is fine, I knew that. But it does mean that, while I can admire the technical and objective skill of the story itself and the way it has been carefully put together here, the narrative itself simply didn't really do it for me at all.