The shared gravestone of J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife Edith bears two simple epitaphs: "Lúthien" for Edith and "Beren" for Tolkien himself. These highly significant names reference two characters from The Silmarillion. Beren and Lúthien are a pair of fated lovers who set out on a perilous quest to wrest a coveted Silmaril from the grasp of the demonic Morgoth. In the process they do battle with Sauron, the cruel antagonist of The Lord of the Rings.

In this in-depth exploration of the story, John Carswell brings together various threads of The Silmarillion and seeks to treat the tale of Beren and Lúthien as something like wisdom literature. Numerous insights are extracted in order to bring the reader to a deeper appreciation of one of Tolkien's greatest tales. In the process, a helpful introduction is provided to those seeking a start on The Silmarillion as well as to those seeking to understand how The Silmarillion relates to The Lord of the Rings. All readers will come away with a better understanding of the legend that Tolkien himself called "the kernel" of the Middle-earth mythology.