Essay timeee! (For vibes more than anything else, I’m bored.) Celegorm wanted Luthien’s hand but would never have assaulted her, and the reason is in why he wanted to Marry Luthien at all. Lemme explain.
(I will get to the ‘Celegorm was enamoured by her’ section later on. But this will explain my thoughts behind that part.)
Key:
Yellow - Luthien specific
Pink - C+C’s goals
When we look at this part, we have to consider what Celegorm and Curufin’s goals were. Sure, Luthien was beautiful, but the intention behind the marriage was entirely power based. Marriage as a form of alliance, as was historically common across the world. So why is that?
Celegorm and Curufin wanted the Silmarils. But they knew to get anywhere near Morgoth they’d need the full might of the elves behind them. Marrying Luthien would have given them control over the Sindar’s armies - especially bearing in mind they were the probably the largest or next largest group after the Noldor.
But even before this, let’s look at what prompts this thinking at all.
This seems to be a direct result of Finrod’s perceived failure. Say what you will, I’m sure there was some closeness between Finrod, Celegorm, and Curufin for him to so willingly let them into his city. Even aside from a good heart, I take it to mean they were friends. A friendship that somewhat persisted into the First Age.
Finrod goes to get a silmaril with Beren. Pretty much a suicide run to begin with, but more to the point, they *know* what Morgoth can do. They’ve seen Maedhros’ scars. The long term impacts of his torture. Know they were lucky Maedhros was intentionally kept alive.
Morgoth has no reason to keep Finrod alive as far as they know. So even if he got past the mass of orcs and other creatures, the moment he came across Morgoth, and Morgoth found out he wanted a Silmaril, he’d be dead. (Hopefully. The alternative is so much worse.) If he wasn’t already.
Essentially, C+C have no reason to believe in his success.
So what do we do. We have an oath (whether you believe it’s self imposed or not, they certainly believed in it.) We have a dead cousin. We have Morgoth’s biggest victory yet that just decimated the Noldor.
Then Luthien arrives and their political brains start turning. Because say what you will, both of these brothers are clearly smart when they want to be, and definitely politically ambitious.
…and now we have a way to potentially take down Morgoth.
Luthien’s hand in marriage is a rudimentary version of Maedhros’ Alliance in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, but in a way that would make it very difficult for the Sindar to stay out of it entirely. Especially if their princess is living with a Noldor prince in the line of fire.
They don’t want to start a war with Thingol, that would immediately weaken their standing across the Noldor and take away their claim to the Sindar’s armies. Thingol would put all his resources into saving his daughter from the Noldor, very much not what they want. They need his power as leverage over the other Noldor Princes - even as far as Maedhros and Fingon - for total compliance from all the Elven factions.
If they were going to harm Luthien physically to threaten his compliance, they’d have done so already. And more to the point, they know it wouldn’t work. Everyone knows Thingol loves his daughter. Hurting her or threatening to do so won’t force his hand to compliance, rather the opposite. So they need another way.
And I think their idea was physical separation of father and daughter. Like. “Accept me as Luthien’s husband and I’ll let you see your daughter again.” Kind of thing.
Hence locking up Luthien serving a double purpose. Keeping her nearby for if Thingol agrees. And using her as a political prisoner so to speak. “We already have her locked away here. Don’t think this is an idle threat. If you don’t agree, she’ll stay a prisoner. If you agree, at least you’re ensuring she gets a good life as a princess and you can see her too… if you comply.”
No where in this passage do we see any physical threat towards Luthien from the men. The focus is always on how to convince Thingol to agree, not on traditional Elven marriage. Because nothing about this is traditional. It’s entirely a power grab, no matter the reasons, and a first look at elves potentially doing what would become common human practice. Marriage for alliance.
Now I’m not defending C+C’s actions here, you don’t go locking up women and marrying them via a father’s agreement against their will. And I think if they’d explained their plan to Luthien, or at least their problems, we could have gotten something from that, even if not exactly what they wanted.
Some of you might be thinking ‘Sakura. You’ve completely ignored the earlier section about Celegorm and Luthien’s meeting.’
Not at all. Let me explain.
There’s no doubt Celegorm did find her beautiful, but based on his actions in the following paragraph and that her beauty is never mentioned regarding his intentions behind the marriage, I don’t think she was in any danger.
Or there would have been some indication or reference to allure or beauty on Celegorm’s part. But after this one line, we don’t see any reference to it again, even as Luthien escapes.
I’m not saying beauty didn’t play a part at all. But I am saying his ‘enamour’ with her didn’t turn him into a predator. Celegorm is many things, but this isn’t one of them.
