“A mere maiden”

Abstract

In Tolkien studies, the character of Lúthien Tinúviel has frequently been de- scribed as central to the entire creation of the Eä (i.e. Middle-Earth) universe. As previous scholars have identified, the two major sources of her power are dance and song, which are sometimes described as extensions of her feminin- ity, though this is hotly debated and often outright rejected. Clare Moore, in her 2021 article “A song of greater power,” contends that J.R.R. Tolkien “in- creasingly [...] establishes Lúthien as a figure of power” as the story is written and re-written, wielding song and dance as expressions of self and influence (Moore, 2021, p. 7). Tolkien also “increase[es] her agency and autonomy,” and therefore “presents her as the foremost figure of his entire legendarium by establishing her influence over the history that comes after her,” and part of that power comes from song and dance (p. 7). Following Moore’s close reading work comparing the five major texts that tell the story of Lúthien Tinúviel, I create a corpus for use in R; look at term frequency; create dispersion plots to visualize patterns of occurrences across the various versions of the story; and calculate correlation scores between song variants and dance variants. These are all ways to identify the true sources of her power and their evolutions over the five key manuscripts: The tale of Tinúviel (1917), The Lay of Leithian (1925), Sketch of the mythology (1926), Quenta Noldorinwa (1930), and Quenta Silmarillion (1977). The dispersion plots particularly probe Moore’s argument that the art form of dance gives way to song over time. Lastly, I also consider what weaknesses these R tools bring to studying the Lúthien story, and make suggestions for a text analysis library for Tolkien studies.