'I will tell you the tale of Tinúviel,’ said Strider, ‘in brief – for it is a long tale of which the end is not known . . . though it is sad, as are all tales of Middle-earth . . . yet it may lift up your hearts.'

It all started here. In 1917, while on leave from a brutal war, a young J.R.R. Tolkien watched his wife Edith dance in a hemlock glade. This vision of beauty, a reprieve from the bitter agonies of World War I, inspired the story that led to the creation of Middle-earth.

Tolkien’s Requiem explores the tale of Beren and Lúthien as the doorway through which one may enter into the vast history of Middle-earth, an era which forms the backdrop for the beloved stories of Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn. For fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings hungry for more of Middle-earth yet daunted by The Silmarillion’s complexity, Tolkien’s Requiem serves as a concise introduction to the themes and stories of the First Age.

Any true Tolkien fan owes it to themselves to become familiar with the story that Tolkien called the “kernel of the Middle-earth mythology,” a story so important to him that, in the face of death, it was his final triumphant word.