Sebastian Rothwyn
CMT 10: 1601W
Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky
November 16th, 2011
Values of a Five Minute Film
Of Beren and Luthien is a little known story from the Tolkien Lore of Middle-Earth. The story comes from a chapter of The Silmarillion.
Beren was the last survivor of a group of humans who fought against the greatest enemy of Middle Earth, Morgoth, 6500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In his attempt to survive he fled into an elven realm where he met the king’s daughter Luthien. They fell in love, but her father felt him unworthy.
The king sent Beren on a quest to recover the most precious of jewels in the entire realm called a Silmaril which happened to be in Morgoth’s crown. Beren took off on this quest believing he would simply die and Luthien followed. The wolf hound, Huan, which belonged to the elf man who loved Luthien, turned from his master when he tried to kill Luthien. From that point on, the hound also followed Luthien from a distance. They happened to meet ten elves who swore allegiance to Beren’s father in the war and they all went to Morgoth’s castle but were all killed by Sauron, in werewolf form, except for Beren who narrowly escaped death after the last elf and the werewolf killed one another.
At the same time, Luthien was captured and brought to them group but during the battle Luthien, with Huan’s help, freed Beren and they escaped. Feeling that he could not return empty handed, Beren asked Luthien to help him try again. They transformed themselves, using her druidic magic, and snuck in, and then Luthien sang a song that put all present to sleep. Once they slept, she woke Beren who tried to pry the silmaril from Morgoth’s crown. In the process, the dagger snapped, waking up Morgoth and when the group tried to run the way was blocked by a werewolf named Carcharoth. This werewolf bit the hand, still holding the silmaril, off of Beren’s arm and went mad as the light from the jewel burned inside. The group escaped and went back to the realm of the elf king and after hearing the story, the king let the two marry.
Although there is more to the actual story, this is where my five minute movie would end.
There are several value based elements involved including: Authority, Conflict Negotiation, Power, Gender, Ethnicity, Time Period, Background, Character and Belief Systems.
Broken down, the authority is held by the king of the elven realm and parallel to this is Morgoth and his kingdom. In order to resolve the issue of multi-ethnic marriage, the king sends the human on a task as a measure of conflict negotiation, when truthfully he is simply exerting his power over the situation to be rid of the human. It deals with the relationship between a male and a female of divergent ethnicities in a period of time where the two races, one of men and one of elves were at peace but was the beginning of a connection with the “gods” of the realm that would sully their ethnic relationship for a long time. The background of these characters is fairly common mythical lore and assumptions can be made by viewers prior to explanations.
CMT 10: 1601W
Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky
November 16th, 2011
Values of a Five Minute Film
Of Beren and Luthien is a little known story from the Tolkien Lore of Middle-Earth. The story comes from a chapter of The Silmarillion.
Beren was the last survivor of a group of humans who fought against the greatest enemy of Middle Earth, Morgoth, 6500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In his attempt to survive he fled into an elven realm where he met the king’s daughter Luthien. They fell in love, but her father felt him unworthy.
The king sent Beren on a quest to recover the most precious of jewels in the entire realm called a Silmaril which happened to be in Morgoth’s crown. Beren took off on this quest believing he would simply die and Luthien followed. The wolf hound, Huan, which belonged to the elf man who loved Luthien, turned from his master when he tried to kill Luthien. From that point on, the hound also followed Luthien from a distance. They happened to meet ten elves who swore allegiance to Beren’s father in the war and they all went to Morgoth’s castle but were all killed by Sauron, in werewolf form, except for Beren who narrowly escaped death after the last elf and the werewolf killed one another.
At the same time, Luthien was captured and brought to them group but during the battle Luthien, with Huan’s help, freed Beren and they escaped. Feeling that he could not return empty handed, Beren asked Luthien to help him try again. They transformed themselves, using her druidic magic, and snuck in, and then Luthien sang a song that put all present to sleep. Once they slept, she woke Beren who tried to pry the silmaril from Morgoth’s crown. In the process, the dagger snapped, waking up Morgoth and when the group tried to run the way was blocked by a werewolf named Carcharoth. This werewolf bit the hand, still holding the silmaril, off of Beren’s arm and went mad as the light from the jewel burned inside. The group escaped and went back to the realm of the elf king and after hearing the story, the king let the two marry.
Although there is more to the actual story, this is where my five minute movie would end.
There are several value based elements involved including: Authority, Conflict Negotiation, Power, Gender, Ethnicity, Time Period, Background, Character and Belief Systems.
Broken down, the authority is held by the king of the elven realm and parallel to this is Morgoth and his kingdom. In order to resolve the issue of multi-ethnic marriage, the king sends the human on a task as a measure of conflict negotiation, when truthfully he is simply exerting his power over the situation to be rid of the human. It deals with the relationship between a male and a female of divergent ethnicities in a period of time where the two races, one of men and one of elves were at peace but was the beginning of a connection with the “gods” of the realm that would sully their ethnic relationship for a long time. The background of these characters is fairly common mythical lore and assumptions can be made by viewers prior to explanations.
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