[Arvegil145]

For the longest of times, I was under the impression that it was the spirits of Beren and Luthien that returned to their bodies (which were somehow healed in the meantime), practically immediately following their (first) death.

However, looking at the Grey Annals (pp. 69-71 of The War of the Jewels), the timeline just doesn't support this:

1) FA 466: Beren dies fighting Carcharoth.

2) FA 467: In spring, Luthien gives up her life, and dies.

3) FA 467-8: Thingol grieves Luthien's death ("But a winter as it were the hoar age of mortal Men came upon Thingol").

4) FA 469: Beren and Luthien "returned to the world".


I don't know about the funerary practices of the Elves of Doriath, but whatever they were (presumably burial), Beren and Luthien's bodies were in the ground (either literally or metaphorically) for 2-3 years after their deaths - it's not like Thingol knew that both of them would come back to life! Also, I find it hard to believe that, if Beren and Luthien were buried for a couple of years, they would somehow crawl out of the grave, Evil Dead-style!


Which leaves me with a question - if Beren and Luthien's spirits didn't return to their bodies, how did they return to Beleriand?

It seems to me then that Beren and Luthien were re-embodied in Aman (presumably in the manner that the Valar re-embody dead Elves in general; this being a very notable exception, since they were both mortal from then on) somewhere between FA 467 and FA 469.

So, if that is the case, how did these two (newly re-embodied) get back to Middle-earth? As the title of this thread suggests, I think the obvious answer is: by a ship.


And before someone says: "well, mortals are banned from stepping foot in Aman", I'd like to point out that Beren and Luthien were a (basically divine) exception to, well, everything.