Beren Erchamion is one of the heroes in The Silmarillion. He is a failure. He fails at every task that is put before him. Sure, he survived the valley of giant spiders called Nan Dungortheb (the name means Fear-Shadow Valley): although obviously not through any skill of his own because he doesn't have any. Certainly, he cannot claim to rival the likes of Maedhros or Fingon. Yet he earns the love and respect of people of far greater social status and accomplishments. Surely Luthien, Princess of Doriath, has better options than this loser right?
When Beren asks for Luthien's hand in marriage, we get a pretty typical fairy-tale response: her father, Thingol, sets Beren a seemingly impossible task (in this case, obtaining a really shiny gem called a Silmaril). But Tolkien then immediately upends our expectations, by having Beren openly mock Thingol's greed. Now, quick background for those who haven't read my other posts on the Silmarillion: Thingol is the King of the Sindar elves, and the most powerful elven ruler in Middle Earth. Thingol would have been within his rights to chop off Beren's head right there. Fortunately for Beren, he's not that kind of guy. Still, mocking the guy you hope will agree to be your father-in-law in front of his whole court is maybe not the best life decision there Beren.
Or is it? Why is he saying this? is it just because he thinks Thingol is shortsighted and greedy? is it because he thinks Thingol is overrated? is he trying to get himself killed? No, he's saying this for Luthien. She presumably isn't all that happy that her father has decided to sell her off for a fancy gemstone, or that he's trying to get rid of her boyfriend. Now, JRR Tolkien put the name "Beren" on his tombstone, and the name "Luthien" on his wife's. So, this is clearly Tolkien dunking on ancient myths like the story of Jason and Medea, and on the real-life fathers who actually did do this. He's pointing out how misogynistic this setup is, because it implies that the woman's value is the same as that of the object. The value of a Silmaril can be quantified: an expert in gemstones could assess it, and assign a price to it. A really high price, but a price nonetheless. Thingol is therefore setting a price on Luthien: which is tantamount to slavery. A person's life has no price, it can't be assigned a value. Sure, you can assign a price to a person's labor: tally up all the hours of work and assess how dangerous or strenuous it was. However, that is not equivalent to the value of their life. A person's life is, in the most literal sense of the word: priceless. Luthien is a woman, not a rock. Beren is demonstrating here that her will is more important to him than Thingol's approval.
How does Beren fare? well, he does manage to wrest a Silmaril away from the big bad Morgoth: but for his trouble he gets his hand bitten off by a giant wolf. The hand that was carrying the Silmaril. Now, if Beren was a hero in a Greek myth he would either try to trick Thingol, or try to slay the wolf and retrieve the jewel. But Beren is not the hero of a Greek myth. He comes back to Doriath empty-handed. Now again, this doesn't seem particularly smart.
Why come back, if he hasn't succeeded? Because all along, he wanted Luthien to be the agent of her own fate. Luthien is very talented, and extremely capable: and Beren knows this. He saw it in her as she was dancing and singing. She does not know her strength yet however. She does not think she is capable: she calls herself a nightingale. A small and timid bird. But the elvish word for nightingale literally means "daughter of twilight", and the word Luthien means "enchantress". Twilight in elven culture has a special significance: as it is the time when the sky resembles the one the elves first awoke under, before the sun and moon existed. Indeed, the sun and moon were created within Luthien's lifetime (although before Beren's time). Her nickname therefore means more than she realizes. This feeling of hers is understandable, she's comparing herself to her mother: a perfectly normal thing for a girl to do. But Beren isn't comparing her to her mother, or to her father, or to anyone else. None of us can see ourselves accurately. Looking from the outside, Beren sees her as she truly is: both her virtues and her flaws. He wants her to make all the important choices, he wants to follow her.
Beren gets the nickname Erchamion meaning "one-handed", presumably from Thingol's jeering courtiers. This is, for elves, a fairly vicious insult. It's a constant reminder of his failure, of how incapable he is. A constant reminder, that he is powerless to get what he wants: that in the eyes of the world, he is not worthy. But Beren is not the kind of man to pity himself. His mind isn't focused on their words as he kneels before the King, to him all that matters is Luthien. She is inspired by his fearlessness and humility, and angered by the way the others are treating him. She won't get the Silmaril to buy her freedom: but she will do it to teach her father a lesson. And so she does.
What lesson? That compared to his daughter, the Silmaril is worthless. It only caused suffering for Beren and for her: and ultimately it will only cause suffering for Thingol himself. In trying to sell off his daughter, Thingol has put that price on himself. He will later be betrayed and killed by a group of dwarves, so they can have the Silmaril. By undervaluing his daughter, Thingol diminished himself. The slave owner, is only worth as much as he believes his slave is worth: but the slave is worth more.
Now Thingol is not a villain: like most of the characters in Tolkien's stories he is a well-intentioned person blinded to the harm his actions cause by a variety of factors. The most important in this case, is his social position: Thingol is a King. Of course he is tempted to view his daughter through the lens of how she can help him gain or maintain power. He probably wanted her to marry his faithful herald Mablung, or perhaps his cousin Thranduil (yes, Legolas' father), or perhaps a son of his brother Olwe. Maybe he was open to her marrying a human, but Beren would not have been his choice. Although Beren is royal, his father Barahir is the King of the Bëorings, he's the second son. In addition, Barahir has lost his lands to orcs and most of his tribe has been killed. And they're too far away to be of any use to Thingol as allies. Beren is no hero, and won't inherit anything. To Thingol, he's not worth much.
But to Luthien, Beren is worth risking everything. Why? because he understands what is truly important in life. He is a true hero, not because he is capable of great deeds: but because he has the courage to face the truth, to show himself as he really is. She's a Princess, she's used to having people kiss up to her. But it says something about her that she prefers honest Beren to her father's courtiers: even the kindly and talented musician Daeron. He has the courage to allow her freedom: unlike her father who is trying to use her to advance his political goals. Beren doesn't just accept that she has a will of her own: he actively wants her to exercise it. To him, that is not an annoyance or an inconvenience: it is a good thing. He doesn't just recognize that she is capable of doing things he can't do: he actually wants her to do them.
He is surely aware that he will inevitably live in her shadow: the power imbalance in this relationship is legitimately hilarious. Not only could Luthien kill him before he knew what hit him, she also wouldn't have to. I mentioned earlier how she defeated the Big Bad of the story: Morgoth. How did she do it? she did a magical dance and he fell asleep. Luthien has supernatural powers of seduction and persuasion inherited from her mother, Melian: who is an actual angel. Charming Beren would be ridiculously easy in comparison. But, she doesn't need to do that even because this man will treat her right without being told to or threatened or charmed or anything. He will love her because she is more capable than him in every way, not despite that fact. She would never need to violate his autonomy, because he would never even think of violating hers. Because he will humiliate anyone who tries to negate her will without her needing to ask: no matter who they are or what the consequences of that action might be. Because he has no trouble showing the world how vulnerable he is, and indeed how incapable he is.
Why? because Beren knows a secret, a secret that many people never learn. A secret that isn't really a secret, just something that most people never realize because they are often told the opposite. Your value as a person does not depend on what you accomplish. You are valuable, too valuable to be assigned a price, simply because you are human. There is a corollary to this: the only thing necessary for you to be worthy of love, is to be loving. You do not need to be impressive, invulnerable, or fit some vision of perfection. You simply need to care about others, and some of those others will care about you. Beren knows that his value does not depend on him obtaining a shiny jewel from the devil. He knows that he is valuable simply because he exists. He knows that the only thing he needs to do to be worthy of Luthien's love, is to love her and show her that in everything he says and does. He may be a loser, but that is irrelevant.
So he embraces the insulting nickname he was given: and it loses it's sting over the years. It becomes a name associated with a loving husband and father, a gentle, passionate, humble man. He becomes a hero, not because he accomplished anything: but simply because of who he is. In a world of men who take what they want by force: Beren dares to admit that he cannot take what he wants, to instead be open to what others are willing to give him. In a world of men who will coldly take advantage of your weakness: Beren dares to show everyone how easy he is to hurt, and to not take advantage of others. In a world of men who take away others' freedom for their own gain, Beren dares to defend other peoples' ability to make their own choices at the cost of his life. This inherent heroism heavily influences Beren's son Dior. Dior who will give his life so that his daughter Elwing can escape the siege of Doriath with the Silmaril, ensuring that it does not fall into the hands of Feanor's sons (who want it for bad reasons). He's one of the only characters in the entire mythos who has direct contact with the jewel, but does not become obsessed with possessing it (the others being Luthien herself, Eärendil and Elwing). This can only be the influence of Beren.
Luthien's nickname isn't the only one with multiple meanings. See, "Eru" is a title for God: meaning "The One". Erchamion therefore could mean "Hand of God". This fits in the end. Beren disrupted the complacency of Doriath, questioning the way that the people there thought and acted. Beren's actions had cosmic significance. Thousands of years later, Frodo's life would be saved and the Ring prevented from falling into the hands of Sauron: thanks to the power of Melian the Maia, flowing in Beren's great-grandson Elrond. In Tolkien's narrative, it is women who bestow power on men: and it must be through their own free will. While this is a motif taken from Celtic mythology: Tolkien uses it in a unique way. Luthien is not bestowing power on Beren, but on her son Dior. It is not taken from her during the act of sex or some analog to it (see: Nissa Nissa in A Song of Ice and Fire). Rather, she gives it through the act of childbirth, the act of creation. This seems to come about as the result of mixing this motif from pagan literature with the idea of the Immaculate Conception. Tolkien's religious beliefs seemed to center around the idea of creation: he chiefly expressed his love of God through love of nature and through the creation of Middle Earth (or "sub-creation" as he called it). The creative process was something he thought and wrote a lot about. It was something which he felt the modern world was forgetting: like it was forgetting all sacred things. The ultimate act of creation is of course the creation of life.
But here's the real kicker. In venerating the ability of women to create life: Tolkien also respects them as human beings. Tolkien's women are active agents of their own fate: indeed they and they alone have the power to change a person's fate. This is directly stated in the Silmarillion in the story of the Fall of Nargothrond. Orodreth, who has the gift of foresight, states that his daughter Finduilas can save Turin from his fate. This is an interesting motif to introduce because it goes against the normal characterization of fate in both Greek and Germanic mythology. In Germanic myth, the gods themselves cannot avoid their fate: and the same is true in Greek mythology. The idea that anyone can change a person's fate or save them from it is a very Christian one: but this salvific power is usually given to a male Christ. Galadriel's foresight saves Frodo and Sam in Cirith Ungol. For love of Arwen, Aragorn refuses the Ring and chooses to embrace his heritage: saving Middle Earth from quite a pretty pickle. Eowyn changes Faramir's fate: in order to marry a Princess, the Steward's son must become a Prince. Aragorn creates the title Prince of Ithilien for him. Quite a modern notion, which reminds us that these are not ancient legends.
It is of course understandable that feminists would blame the focus on reproduction for women's woes. However, that's just straight up wrong. There is no inherent reason why an individual or a society which venerated a woman's ability to reproduce would not also value women as human beings. Those two ideas are far from mutually exclusive: either logically or emotionally. When we give a person an award for military service, we do not assume that is all that person is good for. The same is true of giving women praise for reproducing. Likewise, when we award a soldier for military service we do not intend to say that all men should be soldiers. What, after all, is the point of soldiers if there are no farmers? Likewise, when a woman is praised for having children: that need not be the same as saying that all women must have children. It takes a village to raise a child after all: everyone should be contributing to the raising of the community's children, whether they decide to produce any themselves is irrelevant. Quit ragging on women for having kids, and quit ragging on writers who point out the obvious: that creativity is a feminine thing. They are not the problem.
The conceptual link between sex and conquest is the foundation of women's oppression, not the focus on reproduction. We speak of the male sex organ as a weapon, and of penetrative sex as akin to killing. We've gotten hung up on those metaphors, repeating them over and over and over again: until we find it very hard to think in any other terms. No wonder then that men rape women solely to prove that they are men. No wonder then that media portrays women as sex objects: prizes to be won. Even media made for and by women: like "If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it". Note that Beyonce speaks of her body as "it", not "me". No wonder that any trait deemed feminine is demonized. To be feminine is to be marked for slaughter: and to be a victim is to be emasculated.
We do not however have to keep using those metaphors. Our language has a fantastic (indeed, mind-boggling) capacity for metaphor creation. We could speak of the vagina as embracing the penis: a metaphor both kinder and more accurate. Vaginas are not just holes after all, they are active organs. Explicit language need not be unkind language.
We all have the ability to make new metaphors for ourselves, simply by speaking or writing. And many of us do this all the time. Our language even has a simple word for this process of creating new metaphors, a word with no really good translation in any other language as far as I'm aware: kenning. It's a present participle of the archaic verb "to know" which still has the same form in modern German: kan/ken. This is also, by the by, the reason we maintain a distinction between "able to" and "can". If you can do something, then you know how to do it (but might not be physically capable): if you are able to do it, you are physically capable (but might not know how). To make a metaphor for something, is to demonstrate that you know it. Or, as Einstein put it, "if you cannot explain it simply, you do not really understand". As Einstein was a native German speaker, it should be assumed this was in fact exactly what he meant. Science is how we come to know things: but art is how we know that we know things.
Creating new metaphors is how culture shifts and changes over time. Myths are the way that we encode and teach metaphors. Nietsche said that myths were useless because the metaphors they encoded were no longer applicable to modern people. Tolkien said: no, we simply need new myths. Yes, the metaphors encoded in the myths of olden days are well...strange and distasteful to us now. But we still need things in that style, of that kind: myths encoding new metaphors. Children still need heroes to look up to. Teenagers still fall in love with heroes and heroines. Adults still need models for how to deal with the situations they encounter in their lives. The failure of our society to recognize the value of Tolkien's women shows only how deeply entrenched these old ideas encoded in old myths still are. But the true heroes in Tolkien's stories do not fail to recognize the value of these women: this is what sets them apart from the other characters in these stories. Furthermore, their brand of masculinity is precisely the antidote to the toxicity that permeates our society. Beren is a modern man, make no mistake: for Beren is Tolkien himself.
