The Laye of Beren and Luthien

This story is of the lives of Beren, the mortal Man, and Lúthien, the daughter of King Thingol of the Woodland Elves, who dwelt in Doriath, a secret realm in Beleriand in the West of Middle-Earth with his Queen Melian, the mighty immortal Maia. And of the glorious Silmarils created in ancient days in Valinor, the Blessed Realm of the Valar beyond the Western Ocean, by Fëanor of the Noldorian Elves. And also of the Ainur, borne from the mind of Ilúvatar, who sang Eä into existence, first as an idea, then as what we have hereafter come to know as reality. After Ilúvatar caused the image the Ainur had created in music to truly be, they entered down into it as the nine Valar, whom Men later dimly perceived as "gods." As they created beauty and bliss in Middle-Earth so Morgoth, once the most favoured of the Valar, destroyed and spread hatred and fear. Dismayed, they retired to Valinor, beyond the Western Ocean, to watch the lives of Elves and Men and all creatures fair or foul, as they grew and flourished and died and grew again in the First Age of Middle-Earth.