History Main / TheLostLenore

* ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'': In "Country of Liars", Kino is greeted by a man waiting for his lover, who left on a journey and had yet to return. Kino learns later that the man was driven mad with grief when he unwittingly killed her during a revolution he took part in. Things get twisted, however, with the dual reveals that [[spoiler:the woman killed was a double and the man's caretaker is, in fact, his lover and that the man is aware of the fact but hasn't let on. Both are content to leave things as they are]].

* In ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'', the death of [[spoiler:Roxy in an alternate timeline]] drove her husband [[spoiler:Rudeus]] mad with grief and rage against the killer, [[spoiler:Hitogami]]. He ended up driving away the rest of his family and killed [[spoiler:Eris]] because he was so paranoid he thought she was working for his enemy. He finally developed a spell to [[spoiler:travel back in time and warn his past self at the cost of his life]].

* Lilith certainly seems to qualify as Abel's Lost Lenore in ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood''. Her murder changed his character forever and he mourned her alone in a cave for 'centuries' afterwards. While Abel later forms strong bonds with other female characters, no one else compares to his memory of her.

** Happens at least twice more in the first game, [[spoiler:between both [[HideYourLesbians implicit]] [[BuryYourGays same-gender pairs]]. Taka and Hina outlive Mondo and Sakura, respectively, with the latters' deaths providing the major driving force behind the formers' plotlines going forward. Taka becomes so obsessed with retaining a spiritual connection to Mondo that he eventually becomes a target and ends up getting killed himself at the story's halfway point, while [[BewareTheNiceOnes Hina]] blames the rest of the group for Sakura's suicide to the point where she attempts to engineer getting ''the entire group of survivors'' ([[DrivenToSuicide including herself]]) executed in retaliation. Hina gets a happier ending, eventually learning the truth — that Sakura sacrificed herself in order to end the killings — and frequently cites Sakura's memory as her motivation for fighting on as she becomes one of the major recurring protagonists in the franchise.]]

** Happens between both [[HideYourLesbians implicit same-gender pairs]] in the first game too. [[spoiler:Taka and Hina outlive Mondo and Sakura, respectively, with the latters' deaths providing the major driving force behind the formers' plotlines going forward. Taka becomes so obsessed with retaining a spiritual connection to Mondo that he eventually becomes a target and ends up getting killed himself at the story's halfway point, while [[BewareTheNiceOnes Hina]] blames the rest of the group for Sakura's suicide to the point where she attempts to engineer getting ''the entire group of survivors'' ([[DrivenToSuicide including herself]]) executed in retaliation. Hina gets a happier ending, eventually learning the truth — that Sakura sacrificed herself in order to end the killings — and frequently cites Sakura's memory as her motivation for fighting on as she becomes one of the major recurring protagonists in the franchise.]]

** Happens between both [[HideYourLesbians implicit same-gender pairs]] in the first game too. [[spoiler:Taka and Hina outlive Mondo and Sakura, respectively, with the latters' deaths providing the major driving force behind the formers' plotlines going forward. Taka becomes so obsessed with retaining a spiritual connection to Mondo that he eventually becomes a target and ends up getting killed himself at the story's halfway point, while Hina blames the rest of the group for Sakura's suicide to the point where she attempts to engineer getting ''the entire group of survivors'' executed in retaliation. Hina gets a happier ending, eventually learning the truth — that Sakura sacrificed herself in order to end the killings — and frequently cites Sakura's memory as her motivation for fighting on as she becomes one of the major recurring protagonists in the franchise.]]

* King Henry VII of England felt this way toward his queen, Elizabeth of York. She died in 1503, and Henry went into seclusion following her death (on her 36th birthday, giving birth to a child who also died); for several days he would allow no one to come near him except his own mother. It's also worth noting that while their marriage was political, [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage it was unusually happy]], with no recorded instances of Henry even being suspected of adultery (unlike many kings of the era). After a time he did allow his courtiers to look for a new wife for him, but his description of what he wanted was almost identical to Elizabeth and, of course, no one could be found who came close. He died six years later, in 1509, having never remarried nor taken a mistress.

* Another male example is in ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}''. Pedro gave up his life for Alma and their three children; it's his sacrifice that created the miracle that gives the Madrigals their gifts. Yet Alma still struggles with the trauma from his horrific fate, and that she couldn't find it within her to grieve him properly is what causes most of the generational trauma in the family.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Jaune is driven to become the best Huntsman he can be by the death of someone he once had strong feelings for. [[spoiler:When his team partner and LoveInterest, Pyrrha, is killed by Cinder, it triggers Jaune to help Ruby in her quest to find Haven Academy and learn who the villains are and what they want. He incorporates Pyrrha's shield metal into his own shield, wears a red sash like she did, secretly trains every night to her training videos, and recklessly challenges Cinder when he confronts her again at Haven. When Weiss -- his first crush -- is almost killed by Cinder, he's so terrified that it'll be like Pyrrha's death all over again, that it triggers the awakening of his Semblance. It's only when he encounters a statue in honour of her in Volume 6 that he has a heart-to-heart with Ren and Nora about his DeathSeeker behaviour since her death. They resolve to continue fighting as though she's still a part of their team.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Jaune is driven to become the best Huntsman he can be by the death of someone he once had strong feelings for. [[spoiler:When his team partner and LoveInterest, Pyrrha, is killed by Cinder, it triggers Jaune to help Ruby in her quest to find Haven Academy and learn who the villains are and what they want. He incorporates Pyrrha's shield metal into his own shield, wears a red sash like she did, secretly trains every night to her training videos, and recklessly challenges Cinder when he confronts her again at Haven. When Weiss is almost killed by Cinder, he's so terrified that it'll be like Pyrrha's death all over again, that it triggers the awakening of his Semblance. It's only when he encounters a statue in honour of her in Volume 6 that he has a heart-to-heart with Ren and Nora about his DeathSeeker behaviour since her death. They resolve to continue fighting as though she's still a part of their team.]]

* Hank Pym of ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' -- then ComicBook/AntMan -- first became romantically interested in young Janet Van Dyne (soon to be [[Characters/AntManHeroes The Wasp]]) because she was a dead ringer for his late first wife Marya Trovaya, who had been murdered by Communists.

** Characters/{{Mockingbird|MarvelComics}} was also one for ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} after her apparent death in ''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers'' # 100 (it was actually a Skrull and she came back at the end of ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion''). Her death led to him leaving the Avengers, spiralling into a deep depression and living in the middle of nowhere, hunting animals to eat. He eventually returned to civilisation after an old mentor helped him to realise that Bobbi wouldn't have wanted him to live that way. Her death still lingered with him, though, and his ideal life in House of M involved being in a relationship with her.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{The Masks We Wear|TeenTitans}}'' Mary Grayson is this for a resurrected John Grayson.

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* Myth/ClassicalMythology:
** Eurydice to Orpheus may be the {{Trope Maker|s}}. He missed her so much [[RescuedFromTheUnderworld he descended into Hades to try and revive her]].
** Hades himself had Leuce, an Oceanid Nymph and his first wife. After her death, he honored her memory by turning her into a white poplar tree.
* GenderInvertedTrope in Myth/NorseMythology: Odr, [[LoveGoddess Freyja]]'s mysteriously absent husband. One source says that he leaves for long stretches of time, but there doesn't seem to be any myth where he actually ''is'' present, so for all intents and purposes he's a missing person. Freyja divides her time between crying tears of gold for him and [[ReallyGetsAround finding companionship elsewhere]].
[[/folder]]

-->-- '''Creator/EdgarAllanPoe''', ''Literature/TheRaven''

The Lost Lenore is another character's deceased love interest. This kind of tragedy is one of TheOldestOnesInTheBook and named for the famous deceased in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's "Literature/TheRaven". In short, the three defining criteria are:

->''Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,\\
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor\\
Eagerly I wished the morrow, vainly I had sought to borrow\\
From my books surcease of sorrow -- sorrow for the lost Lenore\\
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore\\
Nameless here for evermore.''
-->-- ''Literature/TheRaven''

* Is dead (or some equivalent of dead like frozen forever or lost in a dimensional void, or occasionally just genuinely [[ChekhovMIA believed to be dead]]) [[PosthumousCharacter before the story begins]] or dies relatively early in the story

* ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'': A late episode deals with a man named Toru whose fiancee Manami was killed by a Moon=Millenniumon in a lab accident days prior to their wedding. After killing her, said Moon=Millenniumon took over Manami's body to feed on Toru's soul in order to ascend into a world-wrecking [=ZeedMillenniumon=]. He's one of the very few characters of the week with no happy resolution and is seen sobbing while embracing his ex-fiancee's dead, cold corpse after Moon=Millenniumon is dispelled from it.

** ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'': A late episode deals with a man named Toru whose fiancee Manami was killed by a Moon=Millenniumon in a lab accident days prior to their wedding. After killing her, said Moon=Millenniumon took over Manami's body to feed on Toru's soul in order to ascend into a world-wrecking [=ZeedMillenniumon=]. He's one of the very few characters of the week with no happy resolution and is seen sobbing while embracing his ex-fiancee's dead, cold corpse after Moon=Millenniumon is dispelled from it.

** ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'': A late episode deals with a man named Toru whose fiancee Manami was killed by a Moon=Millenniumon in a lab accident days prior to their wedding. After killing her, said Moon=Millenniumon took over Manami's body to feed on Toru's soul in order to ascend into a world-wrecking [=ZeedMillenniumon=]. He's one of the very few characters of the week with no happy resolution and is seen sobbing while embracing his ex-fiancee's dead, cold corpse after Moon=Millenniumon is dispelled from the body.

* Their son, UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, also experienced this. Although he did remarry three more times after her passing, he spent the rest of his life mourning his third wife, UsefulNotes/JaneSeymourRoyalty. She was his only wife to have died naturally while they were still married. She was also his only wife to give him [[HeirClubForMen the son he had always desired]], dying a few weeks after the future Edward VI was born.[[note]]Contrary to popular belief, it was from pneumonia rather than DeathByChildbirth, though frailness from the birth probably contributed.[[/note]] However, contemporary accounts have Henry as more "mildly annoyed" than "tragically destroyed" by news of her death (see the Useful Notes page for more detail). He also began hunting for wife number four only days afterwards. He only retroactively began treating Jane Seymour as a Lost Lenore years later when it became obvious none of his following wives would produce another son.

* Peace, a deceased member of the Sleuth Brigade from ''Manga/TheVoynichHotel'', is this. Aside from having been [[TheChick the glue and diplomat of the group]], she was Leader's first love, and consequently Vixen's then-rival. Her death is a frequent source of drama between the two.

If she left children behind, the children often have considerable emotional baggage to deal with, including a father (or father-figure equivalent) whose grief can render him [[OverprotectiveDad overprotective]], neglectful, [[AbusiveParents abusive]], or [[DisappearedDad absent]]. The children may feel, or even be told explicitly, that they are either too much like the Lost Lenore, or else not enough like her. Angst ensues.

->''"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,\\

Nameless here for evermore."''
-->-- ''Literature/TheRaven'', '''Creator/EdgarAllanPoe'''

* ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'':

* Male example with [[spoiler: Shun]] from ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'', who is this to both the main female and male protagonists of the story. Particularly significant since [[spoiler: neither Saki nor Satoru can actually remember him due to having their memories altered, but they still realize there's someone who they lost]]. He's important enough in the character's lives that when the flashback reel at the end of the series plays, he's the last one.

* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', Kikyou is an unusual and complicated example. She and the title character were in love fifty years prior to the events of the series until Naraku manipulated them into turning on each other and murdered Kikyou, leaving Inuyasha very much affected by her perceived betrayal and her death, and making it possible for the [[MineralMacguffin Shikon Jewel]] to manifest in the present in the possession of Kikyou's reincarnation, Kagome. Matters are then made much more complicated when Kikyou is resurrected and comes back with a bunch of baggage of her own to sort through regarding her death: while she was dead and gone, Inuyasha could make steps in the process of getting over her death and his other past traumas, but once she's back, neither fully dead nor properly alive, he's trapped between his unresolved feelings for her (including his guilt over her death) and his growing feelings for Kagome, and Kagome sadly acknowledges that as much as she loves Inuyasha, she can't compete with Kikyou because Kikyou's death has given her a place in his heart that she can't match, [[spoiler:though she later decides that even if that's true and she ''is'' jealous of Kikyou, she will stop comparing herself to Kikyou ''and'' will love Inuyasha in her own terms]]. When Kikyou is then KilledOffForReal over the course of the series, Inuyasha is finally able to reach closure regarding their relationship; while he still grieves for her, she doesn't haunt him the way she had up to that point. However, she continues to influence the plot with her final death, both by saving Kohaku's life and by leaving behind some of her purifying power in a shard of the broken Shikon Jewel, making it possible for the Jewel to be purified and defeated.

* Leopold's great-great-nephew [[NamesTheSame King Leopold III]] of Belgium lost [[ILetGwenStacyDie his wife Astrid]] in a car accident in 1935 [[AccidentalMurder while he was driving]]. Like Charlotte, Queen Astrid managed to become this to an entire country. After surviving UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and forced abdication and even remarrying, Leopold was known to muse how different things would have been had she lived.

** It's all but stated that in the BadFuture which Future Jade comes from, Valerie's future counterpart is dead, and both [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes the painful loss of his wife]] and the metaphysical loss of his Other has driven Shendu's future self mad.

Related tropes include: CynicismCatalyst, DeathByOriginStory, ILetGwenStacyDie, DeathByChildbirth, CollateralAngst, CrusadingWidower, TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth, TheMourningAfter, VictorianNovelDisease.