Daeron was the loremaster of King Thingol in Doriath, and the chief of his minstrels. He devised the Cirth, the runes of the Elves, which the Dwarves who traded with Doriath learned and carried east over the mountains.1,2
He loved Lúthien, Thingol's daughter. When the mortal Beren came into Doriath and found her dancing in the woods, Daeron saw them together and told the king, which brought Beren before Thingol and led to the quest for a Silmaril.3
Later, when Lúthien resolved to go to Beren's aid, Daeron betrayed her a second time, and Thingol shut her in a house built high in the great beech Hírilorn. She escaped, and when she was gone Daeron left Doriath to look for her. He wandered over the mountains into the East and was not seen again. He was counted the greatest singer of the Elves after Maglor son of Fëanor.3
His runes outlived him by thousands of years. Their extended form was remembered as the Angerthas Daeron, and the Dwarves of Moria used a form of it. When the Fellowship found Balin's tomb, Gandalf read its inscription in what he called Daeron's Runes, such as were used of old in Moria.2,4
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 10, “Of the Sindar”
- Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, II, “Writing”
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 19, “Of Beren and Lúthien”
- Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 4, “A Journey in the Dark”