It has been told how the House of Bëor was well-nigh destroyed, and Barahir would not forsake Dorthonion, even when it had become a region of such horror and dark enchantment that even the Orcs would not dare pass that way, unless driven by some great need. Twelve companions remained to Barahir, and they were hard put to it.
In the south the forest highlands of Dorthonion rose into mountainous moors, and in the east of those highlands there was a clear lake, Tarn Aeluin, wild with many heaths and untamed grasslands, and even in the days of the Long Peace none had dwelt there. The waters of Tarn Aeluin, however, were held in reverence by the Eldar, for it is told that in ancient days Melian herself had hallowed that lake. It was here that the outlaws fled and made there their dwelling, and Morgoth could not discover it. But the heroic deeds of against the Orcs enraged Morgoth, and he commanded Sauron to find them and smoke them out.
Among the twelve that remained to Barahir in those days was a certain Gorlim son of Angrim. His wife Eilinel was lost, for when he returned from war, he found his dwelling plundered and forsaken. So he fled to the outlaws bound to Barahir, and he proved fierce and desperate, but ever doubt gnawed at him, thinking that perhaps his wife was not lost, and that she wandered hopelessly in the hills. And so, he was accustomed to return in secret to his house that stood alone amid the woods, and this was soon detected by the agents of Sauron.
In the Autumn of the Year, he came to the house at dusk and he wondered much, for he descried as it were a light from one of the windows, and coming warily he looked within. There he saw Eilinel, her face worn with grief and hardship, and it seemed to him that she called upon him. But even as he cried out to her, the fire was blown out in a cold wind, he heard the howling of Wolves, and on his shoulders he felt the iron hands of Sauron's servants. And so, Gorlim was brought into the very presence of Sauron, being deceived about his wife and promising to reveal the dwelling place of Barahir if he might be restored to her. And Sauron said unto him: ''I hear now that thou wouldst barter with me. What is thy price?'' And Gorlim answered that he would be set free and restored to his wife. Sauron smiled and said: ''This is a small price for so great a treachery. So shall it surely be. Say on!'' But Gorlim would have drawn back, knowing the peril of treating with the servants of the Enemy, but he was daunted by the eyes of Sauron, greatest and most terrible of the Maiar, and he betrayed the outlaws. Great indeed was the joy of Sauron, and he mocked Gorlim, for the being he had seen mourning in the house was but a phantom devised by the arts of Sauron to ensnare him, and Eilinel was dead. ''Nonetheless,'' said Sauron, ''I will grant thy prayer and thou shalt go to Eilinel, and be set free of my service.'' And Gorlim was thus put cruelly to death.
And so the outlaws were ensnared, and all save one were slain. For Beren, son of Barahir, was far from the dwelling upon an errand. As he slept that night, it seemed to him that in his dreams he saw the figures of carrion birds sat upon trees, dripping blood from their beaks upon the leaves, and when he woke, he looked across the lake, and the unquiet spirit of Gorlim came to him to warn him of the danger, and that he repented of his deeds before Sauron. And rushing back to the lair, Beren found that they had indeed been betrayed. And as he looked up across the lake, he saw indeed the carrion birds of his dreams, and they croaked at him in mockery. There, Beren buried the bones of his father and raised a cairn over him, and swore upon it an oath of vengeance. Thenceforth he forswore war and hatred against all save the servants of Angband, and first pursuing the murderous Orcs, he came to their camp by night and slew their captain, who holding aloft the hand of Barahir (upon which was his Ring, the token of Felagund), boasted of their heinous deeds. And Beren saved the Ring, and escaping the arrows of the Orcs, he fled.
Beren dwelt for four more years as a solitary outlaw in Dorthonion, and the birds and beasts not in the service of Morgoth befriended him, and they aided him, and as of that day he slew no living thing not in the service of Angband. At length, so great a hurt did he do to the servants of Morgoth that Morgoth put a price upon his head no less than the price of the High King of the Noldor, and the Orcs fled rather at the rumour of his name than sought him out. And so, Sauron was sent against him, and he brought hither the fiercest Orcs and Werewolves and other fell beasts. Under the sorcery of Sauron, Dorthonion became now wholly filled with evil and dark phantoms, and all clean things were fled far away, and at length even Beren fled the land. He came southwards into the Mountains of Terror, where dwelt the foul brood of Ungoliant, a land where not even the Eldar would dare to tread, and there he descried afar the Kingdom of Doriath, where dwelt Thingol and Melian, Lord and Lady of Beleriand, and it came into his heart that he might enter the forbidden kingdom.
And so, weary and hungry after a long and lonely exile, Beren, first of Mortal Men, came within the borders of Doriath, and the Girdle of Melian and the will of the King might not stay him, and wandering in the Summer months among the fair woods of Neldoreth, he came upon Lúthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian at a time of evening under Moonrise, and at that point, the history of Elves and Men changed...
The above painting is by Ted Nasmith and is called simply ''Lúthien.'' Not quite as I imagined her, but then I guess that the art shows more of the subjectivity of the artist...
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