Middle-earth

Artifact

The Silmarils

Also known as The Great Jewels, The Jewels of Feanor

Three unearthly jewels made by Feanor to hold the blended light of the Two Trees. Their theft by Morgoth and the oath sworn to recover them set the whole tragedy of the First Age in motion.

Supplementary writingsFrom posthumously published works, notes, drafts or appendices.
Type
Jewel
Forged by
Feanor, in Aman, using the light of the Two Trees of Valinor
The Silmarils

Description

The Silmarils are the greatest work of Elven craft: three crystalline jewels in which Feanor captured and fixed the blended light of Telperion and Laurelin, the Two Trees. They are said to shine with their own living radiance and to be, in effect, the last uncorrupted sample of the light of the Trees after Morgoth and Ungoliant destroyed them. Their beauty made them both priceless and cursed: the desire to possess them, and the oath sworn to reclaim them, cost the Noldor and Beleriand almost everything.

Powers

  • Contained and shone with the undying light of the Two Trees of Valinor.
  • Were hallowed by Varda so that no unclean or mortal hand could touch them without pain.
  • Their light could burn and expose evil, as it did when they were set upon Morgoth crown.

Limitations

  • They could not be remade; Feanor heart was so bound to them that their loss unhinged him.
  • They could not restore the Two Trees themselves, only preserve their light.
  • The oath sworn over them bound the sons of Feanor to an impossible, ruinous purpose.

Line of owners

  1. 1

    Feanor

    Years of the Trees

    Made them and refused to surrender them even to restore the Two Trees.

  2. 2

    Morgoth

    Years of the Trees to the end of the First Age

    Stole them with Ungoliant and set them in his iron crown.

  3. 3

    Beren and Luthien

    First Age

    Cut one from Morgoth crown and carried it out of Angband.

  4. 4

    Thingol, then Dior, then Elwing

    First Age

    The recovered jewel passed down through Doriath until Elwing bore it to the havens.

  5. 5

    Earendil

    First Age onward

    Bore the jewel to the West; it was set in the sky as the morning and evening star.

  6. 6

    Maedhros and Maglor

    End of the First Age

    Took the remaining two by force, and were burned by them as unworthy holders.

Symbolism

Symbolism

The pure light that cannot be possessed without corruption, and the ruin that follows an oath pursued beyond right and reason. They are both the summit of Elven art and the seed of its worst grief.

Fate

One was set in the heavens as the star of Earendil. The two taken by the last sons of Feanor were, in their despair, cast away: one into a fiery chasm in the earth and one into the sea. A prophecy holds that at the remaking of the world they will be recovered and the light of the Trees renewed.

Interpretation

Reasoned analysis — not from the books

The recovery of the jewels at the end of days is a prophecy within the legendarium rather than a narrated event. Tolkien left the matter in the unfinished material, and versions differ.

Characters

In the histories

Sources

  • The Silmarillion · 1977

    Posthumously edited. Contains the Ainulindalë, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion, Akallabêth and Of the Rings of Power.

  • Unfinished Tales · 1980

    Expanded and alternative accounts of the First, Second and Third Ages.

  • The History of Middle-earth · 1983–96

    Twelve volumes documenting the evolution of the legendarium.

  • Beren and Lúthien · 2017

    Multiple versions of the tale, showing how the story evolved.

  • The Fall of Gondolin · 2018

    Assembled versions of the earliest tale of the First Age.

  • The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien · 1981

    Authorial commentary useful for interpretation, but not always narrative canon.

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