“Do not misunderstand me. I have said this before and I shall say it again: I had every intention of capturing Thingol’s daughter for the purpose of ransoming her against the opening of Doriath. I would even have slain her if it came to that.
The reason I did not subdue Luthien was because she vanished from my sight, not because I hesitated for her beauty– and after that, I assure you, she was the last thing on my mind.
I fought, I lost, and she spared no whispers for me except to demand my surrender, her hound’s jaws locked around my throat. I was not thinking of her beauty then either.
Had Huan not been there to challenge me, had I not moments before held a bloody Drauglin in my lap as he died, it might have been different. But that was not our fate.
…She was unforgettable in many ways; a humiliating lesson against hubris, the first link in a chain that led to my Master’s downfall, a being who knew the true value of immortality, and found it less than the worth of happiness.
In the end, she got the better of both my Master and Mandos himself– need a Maia be forever embarrassed by his loss? I think not.
She may not have thought of me again after that night, but I have often thought of her. I am grateful for what she taught me in defeat; humility has made me more cautious, more patient. And I am grateful to have seen her in the flesh, outside of legend and hearsay: not slender as a willow-wand, but round and glowing as the full moon, surrounded by heaven’s night.”
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 