Awesome / Beren and Lúthien

• Beren tracks down the party of Orcs which killed his father and his kinsmen, finding their camp by night. As the Orcs are celebrating their victory, their captain waves around the hand of Barahir that he had cut off to prove Sauron that their mission was a success. Beren swiftly springs from behind a rock, slays the captain, takes his father's hand -which was still wearing the ring of Felagund- and escapes before the Orcs have time to react.
• Since he has no family or kinsmen left, Beren spends the next four years living like an outlaw and waging a one-man guerrilla against the evil army occupying his homeland of Dorthonion. He becomes such a pain in the ass that Morgoth puts a very large price on his head. Even so, no Orc attempts to collect the bounty because they are deadly afraid of Beren. Eventually, Morgoth is forced to send an army led by Sauron himself to deal with Beren.
• Beren is pressed so hard that he is finally forced to escape from Dorthonion. Beren flees Southwards and crosses the aptly named Mountains of Terror and the Valley of Dreadful Death, which earned their names because their geography has been warped by the constant magic clash between Sauron and Melian's, and because they are home to the brood of a light-devouring spider-like eldritch abomination. Making his way through those lands and making it out alive was not his lesser deed, but it is the one which Beren will always refuse to talk about.
• When Thingol demands one Silmaril in exchange for Lúthien, most Elves become frightened. However, Beren laughs, mocks Thingol for trading his daughter for one glowing rock, and declares he will succeed where entire armies have failed.
• Beren, Finrod and their ten companions are travelling Northwards when they are intercepted by Sauron himself. Finrod and the Lord of Wolves fight a magic duel with power songs, but Finrod is sadly utterly outclassed by someone who helped sing the world into existence.
  He chanted a song of wizardry,
  Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
  Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
  Then sudden Felagund there swaying,
  Sang in a song of staying,
  Resisting, battling against power,
  Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
  And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
  Of changing and shifting shape,
  Of snares eluded, broken traps,
  The prison opening, the chain that snaps.
  Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
  Reeling foundering, as ever more strong
  The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
  And all the magic and might he brought
  Of Elvenesse into his words.
  Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
  Singing afar in Nargothrond,
  The sighting of the Sea beyond,
  Beyond the western world, on sand,
  On sand of pearls on Elvenland.
  Then in the doom gathered; darkness growing
  In Valinor, the red blood flowing
  Beside the Sea, where the Noldor slew
  The Foamriders, and stealing drew
  Their white ships with their white sails
  From lamplit havens. The wind wails,
  The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
  The ice mutters in the mouths of the Sea.
  The captives sad in Angband mourn.
  Thunder rumbles, the fires burn-
  And Finrod fell before the throne.
• When Lúthien finds out that her lover and her cousin have been imprisoned by Sauron and nobody is willing to go and help them, she decides to handle matters personally. Her father responds by locking her up in a house tree by her own safety. Lúthien retaliates by weaving a magic cloak and using her own spells to climb down the tree Rapunzel-style, put her guards to sleep and flee into the woods.
• Lúthien and Huan arrive at the Isle of Werewolves. Lúthien sings a magic spell which shakes the whole island, and the fortress sitting on it. Sauron sends his wolves and werewolves out to capture her, but they are swiftly killed by Huan. Sauron tries to defeat Huan himself but he is also defeated and forced to flee. Lúthien then sings a spell which brings his whole fortress down, releases Sauron's thralls and captives and rescues Beren out of the tower's pits.

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