They are the most renowned work of craftsmanship in the History
of Arda - three great gems of incredible beauty, radiant with hallowed light. Yet,
these gems, incomparable in their greatness, would lead to division, conflict, and death.
Today, on Nerd of the Rings, we cover the nature and history of The Silmarils.
The Silmarils, or Silmarilli in the high-elven tongue of Quenya, were constructed by Feanor,
known as the greatest of all the Noldor. It is said that when he came to his full might,
he was filled with a new thought - pondering how the light of the Two
Trees might be preserved. It is possible that Feanor had some foresight of a doom to come,
and thus sought to preserve this most sacred of light. According to Unfinished Tales,
a source of Feanor’s inspiration for capturing the light is Galadriel’s hair.
"...and her hair was held a marvel unmatched. It was golden like the hair of her father and
of her foremother Indis, but richer and more radiant, for its gold was touched
by some memory of the starlike silver of her mother, and the Eldar said that the light of
the Two Trees had been snared in her tresses." Feanor was so enamored with her hair and its
phenomenon of radiating with the light of the two trees, that he would ask her for a tress
three times. However, Galadriel would deny him all three times, refusing to give him so much
as a single strand. The significance of this request, denial, and the number of times would
come into play many millennia later when the Fellowship receives gifts in Lorien.
Denied the hair of Galadriel, Feanor sets to crafting his great work in the Year of the Trees
1449 in the elven city of Tirion. For the following year, keeping in mind
that Valian years are equal to 9.5 solar years, Feanor would toil over his gems,
attempting to capture the light of the silver tree Telperion, and the golden Laurelin.
During this process, and in order to achieve his goal, Feanor invents a crystalline substance
called Silima. "Like the crystal of diamonds it appeared, and yet was more strong than adamant,
so that no violence could mar it or break it within the Kingdom of Arda." Indeed,
it is said that only Feanor himself could tell how silima could be broken or unmade.
Finally, in YT 1450, Feanor succeeds in preserving light from the Two Trees in
three gems made of Silima, just a soul is held within a body. Feanor, whose great creations
included the Palantiri, Feanorian Lamps, and the writing system of Tengwar,
completes the greatest of all his creations - The Silmarils. Varda hallows the Silmarils,
making them so that no mortal flesh, nor hands unclean, nor anything of evil will might touch
them, but would be scorched and withered. And Mandos fortells that the fates of Arda, earth,
sea, and air, lay locked within them. As for Feanor - his heart is fast bound to his creations.
Feanor would wear his great jewels at festivals in Valinor. And it is said that all who dwelt in Aman
were filled with wonder and delight at the work of Feanor. Among those who admire this work is the
vala Melkor. Melkor, who had been released from ages long captivity 50 years of the trees earlier,
covets the silmarils, and the very memory of their radiance was a gnawing fire in his heart.
Melkor secretly, and subtly, begins sewing lies among the elves - seeking
to destroy the relationship between them and the valar. Among those most effected
is Feanor - whom Melkor hates above all. It is said Feanor begins to love the silmarils
greedily and grudged the sight of them to all save to his father and his seven sons.
For Feanor seldom remembered now that the light within the silmarils was not his own.
Feanor would go so far as to believe his younger half-brother Fingolfin sought to
usurp his place as heir to their father Finwe and steal the silmarils. After drawing a sword
upon his brother, Feanor is banished from the elven city by the Valar. So,
YT 1490, Feanor takes the silmarils and his family to Formenos. In solidarity,
Finwe would also move to the fortress to be with his eldest son.
Five years of the trees later, during a feast where Feanor and Fingolfin are reconciled,
Melkor and Ungoliant would destroy the Two Trees,
plunging Valinor into darkness. With the two trees extinguished,
the silmarils are the only source of their light remaining. The valar ask Feanor to give up his
gems - for they could use them to resurrect the trees themselves - but Feanor refuses, saying:
For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only;
and in that deed his heart shall rest. It may be that I can unlock my jewels,
but never again can I make their like; and if I break them, I shall break my heart,
and I shall be slain; first of all the Eldar in Aman.
But Mandos spoke “Not the first.”
Unbeknownst to Feanor, Melkor had traveled to Formenos, where he killed Finwe and stole the
silmarils. Finwe’s is the first blood shed over the great jewels, but it is far from
the last - for the following centuries would be filled with conflict over the gems. Even among
the dark allies there is conflict, as Ungoliant attempts to devour the silmarils in her insatiable
thirst. But Melkor would not give them up, even though their holy light burned his hands and
ceaselessly tormented him. Morgoth escapes with the help of his balrogs, and sets the jewels in
an iron crown, which he would never remove - even though it was a great burden upon him.
In my video on Feanor, I highlight the Feanor’s rage and the dark deeds that come from the loss
of his Silmarils. But he would not be the only one driven by the jewels. For his seven sons
also swore his oath to pursue any - friend or foe - who should withhold a silmaril from them.
Over 400 years later, the Sindarin King Thingol of Doriath would task the man Beren with retrieving
a silmaril from Morgoth’s crown in order to win the princess Luthien’s hand. Through great trials,
Beren and Luthien would come to Angband itself and recover one of the silmarils.
However, during their escape, they are confronted by the werewolf Carcharoth,
who bites off Beren’s hand containing the silmaril.
Like his master’s hands before him, Carcharoth’s evil insides burn from
the hallowed light of the silmaril. The wolf would run rampant, tormenting the lands in
his madness until he comes to Doriath, where he is slain in a great fight with Huan the Hound.
Thingol would take the silmaril and keep it for his own, and in an event covered
in greater detail a few weeks ago, he would have it set in the dwarven Nauglamir necklace,
combining the greatest work of craftsmanship of both kindreds. In the Silmarillion,
we find a description of the marvellous silmarils, which would cause so much turmoil:
And the inner fire of the Silmarils Fëanor made of the blended light of the Trees of Valinor,
which lives in them yet, though the Trees have long withered and shine
no more. Therefore even in the darkness of the deepest treasury the Silmarils of their
own radiance shone like the stars of Varda; and yet, as were they indeed living things,
they rejoiced in light and received it and gave it back in hues more marvellous than before.
This one silmaril in particular would be the cause of the most bloodshed
among the free peoples themselves. Dwarves would kill Thingol for it,
then Beren and the green elves would kill the dwarves for killing Thingol. The jewel would
then come to Luthien, who would wear it until her second death in 503 FA.
Upon her death, the Silmaril is brought back to Doriath and given to her son Dior, now king of
his Grandfather’s realm. However, the Sons of Feanor - who would not dare to attack Luthien,
are stirred by their Oath when hearing it came to Dior. (506 FA) The Feanorians sack Doriath
in their hunt for the gem. Dior and three of the sons of Feanor are killed in the battle. However,
the silmaril would escape in the hands of Elwing, Dior’s daughter.
Elwing would come to the Havens of Sirion, where she would meet her future husband Earendil.
However, the Sons of Feanor would still pursue the gem she carried. 32 years after the sack of
Doriath, the remaining four Sons of Feanor come to the Havens of Sirion demanding the silmaril.
Once again, they are refused, and the third kinslaying of elves against elves comes to pass.
Elwing, rather than be captured or give the Feanoreans the silmaril her grandparents had
recovered, jumps into the sea. The Sons of Feanor are left with no silmaril,
and two more of them are slain, leaving only the two eldest - Maedhros and Maglor.
By the power of the vala Ulmo, Elwing would be given the form of a white bird and come to her
husband’s ship out in the sea. Returning to her bodily form, she accompanies her
husband as he sails to Valinor, rousing the Valar to finally act against Morgoth.
Earendil’s ship is blessed by the Valar to fly, and while he would take part in the coming war
of wrath, he would forever after sail the skies with the silmaril upon his brow. The light of
this silmaril is known from then on as the Star of Earendil, and would shine in the horizon in
both the morning and the evening. Now when first Vingilot was set to sail in the seas of heaven,
it rose unlooked for, glittering and bright; and the people of Middle-earth beheld it from
afar and wondered, and they took it for a sign, and called it Gil-Estel, the Star of High Hope.
The two remaining silmarils, however, remained with Morgoth upon his crown until the very end
of the 40-year War of Wrath. Upon his defeat, Morgoth is bound in chains, the silmarils are
taken from him, and his iron crown is beaten into a collar for his neck. Soon after this,
Maedhros and Maglor would sneak into the victorious camp and steal the silmarils, though
they are found before they can escape. Eonwe, the herald of Manwe, allows them to leave with
the silmarils rather than be slain. Each brother takes a silmaril and goes their separate ways.
However, they discover that, like Morgoth and Carcharoth, they are burned by the silmarils, due
to their many evil deeds in their pursuit of the gems. Thus it becomes clear to Maedhros and Maglor
that their works were in vain - for they had no true right to the gems and were indeed unworthy of
them. In his agony, Maedhros throws himself into a fiery chasm and Maglor casts his out to sea,
thus the final resting places of the silmarils is as Mandos foretold: earth, sea, and air.
As with so many things in this wondrous world, Tolkien’s silmarils are referenced and even
play a role far beyond their main story. Feanor’s grandson, Celebrimbor, would make the three elven
rings of power correspond to each of the elements where the silmarils rested - water, air, and fire.
And most notably, the light of Earendil’s star (as reflected in Galadriel’s mirror) would be
placed within the Phial of Galadriel, given to Frodo to aid him on his journey to dark places.
And by his side, we would find Samwise Gamgee, who calls to mind
the tale of Beren and Luthien when they found themselves in the darkest depths of Mordor:
‘No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from
the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger
than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief
and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Eärendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that
before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you!
Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’
Finally, in Tolkien’s abandoned tale of the end of Arda, known as the Dagor Dagorath,
it was foretold that Morgoth would return for one final battle and destroy the sun
and moon before his defeat. At that time, Feanor would finally break his silmarils:
Thereafter shall Earth be broken and re-made, and the Silmarils shall be recovered out of
Air and Earth and Sea; for Eärendil shall descend and surrender that flame which he
hath had in keeping. Then Fëanor shall take the Three Jewels and he will break them and
with their fire Yavanna will rekindle the Two Trees, and a great light shall come forth. And
the Mountains of Valinor shall be levelled, so that the Light shall go out over all the world.
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