Huan

A hound of Oromë

Huan was born in the Blessed Realm during the light of the Two Trees, one of the hounds of Valinor that ran with Oromë in the hunt. Oromë gave him to Celegorm, son of Fëanor, who was the huntsman among the princes of the Noldor and often rode with the Vala. Huan was of enormous size and strength, a wolfhound in shape, and he neither slept nor tired. Neither spell nor weapon could hurt him, and he was as wise as the hunters he served. When the Noldor left Valinor under the Doom of Mandos, Huan followed Celegorm into exile, and he shared in the sorrows that followed.

A doom lay on him: he was permitted to speak with words three times before he died, and he could not die until he met the mightiest wolf that would ever walk the world.

Lúthien

After the Dagor Bragollach, Celegorm and Curufin lived as guests in Nargothrond. In F.A. 465 the brothers were hunting on the borders of Doriath when Huan found Lúthien, who had fled her father's kingdom to seek Beren. It was Huan who ran her down under her cloak of shadow and who brought her to Celegorm; and it was Huan who saw, as the Elves did not, what his master meant to do with her. Celegorm shut her in Nargothrond and planned to marry her and let Beren and Finrod rot in Sauron's dungeon. Huan loved Lúthien from the first hour, came to her in her prison, and for the first time in his life spoke. He told her his counsel, brought her cloak, and carried her out of the city by night on his back.

Tol Sirion

The two came to Tol Sirion, the Isle of Werewolves, where Sauron held Beren. Lúthien sang from the bridge, and Sauron sent his wolves out to her one at a time. Huan killed them without a sound. Draugluin, the father of werewolves, came last and was mortally wounded, and dragged himself back to tell Sauron that Huan was there. Sauron, thinking of Huan's doom, took wolf-shape himself and came out, believing that the mightiest of wolves was surely himself. The hound and the Maia fought at the bridgehead, and Sauron could not break free of Huan's grip, though he changed from wolf to serpent to his own dark form. Lúthien offered him the choice of surrendering the tower or being stripped of his body, and he yielded. The isle was thrown down, the prisoners were freed, and Beren was found beside the body of Finrod. Huan carried away the pelt of Draugluin and the bat-fell of Thuringwethil.

The breaking with Celegorm

Celegorm and Curufin, cast out of Nargothrond, came upon Beren and Lúthien in the forest of Brethil. Curufin swept Lúthien onto his saddle; Beren dragged him from his horse; and Celegorm rode at Beren with a spear. Huan sprang against his own master's horse and turned it aside, and afterwards would not obey Celegorm's voice. He left the sons of Fëanor from that hour and did not return to them. Curufin's parting arrow, aimed at Lúthien, struck Beren instead, and Huan hunted the brothers out of the woods.

When Beren rode north alone to attempt Angband, Huan and Lúthien pursued him, and Huan brought the wolf-pelt and the bat-skin, and spoke a second time, counselling the two of them on the disguise and on the road ahead. He did not go with them to the gate, for that was not his part.

The Hunt of the Wolf

Carcharoth, bred by Morgoth for the very purpose of ending Huan, swallowed the Silmaril in Beren's hand at the gate of Angband and ran mad into Doriath. Thingol called a hunt: himself, Beren, Mablung, Beleg and Huan. At the falls of the Esgalduin the wolf sprang at the king; Beren took the blow in Thingol's place and was mortally wounded. Huan closed with Carcharoth and killed him, but the wolf's teeth were envenomed by Morgoth's power, and the doom was fulfilled in both directions at once. Huan came to Beren, spoke for the third and last time, bade him farewell, and died.

Legacy

Huan is the only creature of Valinor that fought in the Wars of Beleriand on its own account. He changed the course of the Quest of the Silmaril at every turn: without him Lúthien would never have left Nargothrond, Beren would have died in Sauron's pit, and the two would not have reached Angband. He chose Lúthien over the master he had served since the days of the Trees, and the tale treats that choice as the wisdom of a creature that saw more clearly than the Elves around it.

Killed by the venomed bite of Carcharoth at the falls of Esgalduin in Doriath, F.A. 466, having slain the wolf; he spoke a farewell to Beren and died.