LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 04 - A Journey in the Dark

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Excellent thoughts on the untold stories, Lalwendë! There is yet another, with only the briefest of mentions - Queen Berúthiel and her cats! Apparently Tolkien himself had no idea of their story when he wrote LotR - in Letter 163 he says:

I have yet to discover anything about the cats of Queen Berúthiel.

In Letter 174 he says:

I do not think that anything is referred to in The L. of the R. which does not actually exist in legends written before it was begun, or at least belonging to an earlier period - except only the 'cats of Queen Berúthiel'.

(A similar comment is found in a footnote in Letter 180.) In the Notes on the chapter 'The Istari' in UT, Christopher Tolkien writes:

Even the story of Queen Berúthiel does exist, however, if only in a very 'primitive' outline, in one part illegible.

He goes on to relate that story, which I will not repeat, as I'm sure most people here have read it.

That one line has sparked much interest, so much so that an RPG based on Queen B. and her cats was written on the Downs some time ago!