Subject: Which time?
Author:
Posted on: 2013-06-10 16:50:00 UTC
Luthien certainly died first - a year or so after Beren gets Carcharoth'd, and significant amounts of time before the Turin story. A good way to remember this is to realise that the mothers of both Turin and Tuor were Beren's cousins - which makes the Two Ts a generation (~25 years) younger than Beren, and therefore puts their stories after his.
But of course, Beren and Luthien got better, and hung around in Ossiriand for... well, quite some time. We know that they were still alive after the Fall of Nargothrond (and thus the death of Finduilas): when the Dwarves slew Thingol, it was Beren who ambushed them in turn, and reclaimed the Nauglamir - taken from the Sack of Nargothrond - for Luthien.
So, which death is the story talking about? I think it has to be the first, for two reasons: Luthien was apparently distraught over Beren's death when Ulmo put her to sleep, which matches very nicely to her situation after his first death. And, much though I hate remembering this, it's strongly implied that wearing the Silmaril actually shortened Luthien's life - which means she would have probably died first.
Of course, if it was the first death, that means Dior was never born, so neither was Elwing... so neither were Elrond and Elros, the ultimate ancestor of Aragorn... and Earendil never received the Silmaril, so there is no Evening And Morning Star... and no-one would have been able to sail West, so Beleriand still exists, albeit overrun by Orcs. The few remaining Noldor and Sindar would presumably have given up on the western part of the continent eventually, retreated over the Ered Luin... then spent the next thousand years slowly retreating to the Misty Mountains... depending on how much trouble Morgoth had with the remnants of the Edain (no Numenor, remember!), there might be a 'Last Fortified House' at Imladris by the time the War of the Ring would have taken place... but honestly, I think the Free Peoples would have been pushed far east of Mirkwood by then. Perhaps the Lonely Mountain could mark their westernmost outpost...?
hS