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the Silmarils and the Three Rings of Power

Felagund
Rohan


Feb 28 2015, 1:27pm

Post #1 of 6 (1543 views)
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the Silmarils and the Three Rings of Power Can't Post

This has probably been discussed before over the years here, but re-reading The Silmarillion has reminded me of it again.

And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in he airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.

And compare:

Now these were the Three that had last been made, and they possessed the greatest powers. Narya, Nenya and Vilya, they were named, the Rings of Fire, and of Water, and of Air...

All of these artefacts were crafted by the House of Fëanor, none remained in the hands of their makers, all attracted the fatal attention of a Dark Lord, and the ensuing struggles over their possession brought widespread death and destruction - not least for the craftsmen involved.

I can't remember of Tolkien ever made the analogy himself. I don't have my copy of his Letters with me, which may shed some light on this.

Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk


Bladerunner
Gondor


Mar 1 2015, 12:52am

Post #2 of 6 (1518 views)
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Interesting.... [In reply to] Can't Post

Feanor crafted the three Simarils setting into motion a long history of pain and destruction among the Eldar; whereas Celebrimbor, the grandson of Feanor, who also repudiated the deeds of his father Curufin, crafted the rings of Fire, Water and Air that would serve the positive purposes of sustaining, healing, and understanding.


Brethil
Half-elven


Mar 1 2015, 3:30am

Post #3 of 6 (1513 views)
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He was aware of the parallels I think, [In reply to] Can't Post

as he mentions in #131:


"The jewels are recovered (by the final intervention of the gods) only to be lost for ever to the Elves, one in the sea, one in the deeps of earth, and one as a star of heaven."


I wonder if the thematic similarity is that the line of Feanor, with their intuitive nature, sensed the building blocks of the physical world and thus both Feanor and Celebrimor echoed those same elements in creating. Purely hypothetical IMHO there. Its a great detail to notice.








Felagund
Rohan


Mar 1 2015, 10:11am

Post #4 of 6 (1504 views)
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the tragic flaw of the Three Rings [In reply to] Can't Post

Yes, there were plenty of positives about the Three. However, their very existence did inadvertently play a large role in touching off the calamitous War of the Elves & Sauron - as these were the Rings of Power Sauron coveted most (other than his own, of course!).

Also worth bearing in mind Tolkien's view that the Elves' creation and use of the Three were transgressive acts in and of themselves, despite the fair motives (Letter 131). It's essentially that the Elves shouldn't have messed with the natural order by trying to prevent change, and in doing so they left themselves wide open to Sauron's corruption:

...we see a sort of second fall or at least 'error' of the Elves. There was nothing wrong essentially in their lingering against counsel, still sadly with the mortal lands of their old heroic deeds. But they wanted to have their cake without eating it. They wanted the peace and bliss and perfect memory of 'The West', yet remain on the ordinary earth where their prestige as the highest people, above wild Elves, dwarves and Men, was greater than at the bottom of the hierarchy of Valinor. They thus became obsessed with 'fading', the mode in which the changes of time (the law of the world under the sun) was perceived by them... Sauron found their weak point in suggesting that, helping one another, they could make Western Middle-earth as beautiful as Valinor. It really was a veiled attack on the gods, an incitement to try and make a separate independent paradise

Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk


Bladerunner
Gondor


Mar 1 2015, 2:47pm

Post #5 of 6 (1485 views)
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Good point! [In reply to] Can't Post

I had forgotten the context behind their making:

It was in Eregion that the counsels of Sauron, were most gladly received, for in that land the Noldor desired ever to increase the skill and subtlety of their works. Moreover they were not at peace in their hearts, since they had refused to return into the West, and they desired both to stay in Middle-earth, which indeed they loved, and yet to enjoy the bliss of those that had departed.

"Of the Rings of Power in the Third Age" - The Silmarillion


chauvelin2000
Bree

Mar 3 2015, 12:33am

Post #6 of 6 (1457 views)
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A beautifully balanced symbolism . . . Silmarils and Rings [In reply to] Can't Post

Yes, there exists a beautifully balanced symbolism of 'earth, sea, and sky' as that motif applies not only to Fëanor’s Silmarils, but also to the Three great Elven Rings of Power and their Keepers — which symbolism supports John D. Rateliff's suggestion that the 'Silmaril-turned-Arkenstone' was originally that which was seized by Fëanor's last surviving son, Maedhros, who cast it, along with himself, into the volcanic depths of the earth . . .

Originally, in Tolkien's conception, the Three great Elven Rings of Power were 'of earth, sea, and sky', fashioned by no less a figure than Fëanor himself (rather than by Celebrimbor, as it turned out).

Galadriel was originally to have been Kemen the Ring of Earth's keeper; later, of course, she holds Nenya the Ring of Water, Elrond holds Vilya the Ring of Air, and Gandalf Narya the Ring of Fire — so that Earth, Sea, and Sky have been replaced by Air, Water, and Fire. This later arrangement better matches the later 1937 Quenta Silmarillion, in which three Silmarils are lost in the sky (Air), the volcanic fires beneath the earth (Earth > Fire), and the sea (Water).

Elrond's Ring Vilya is thus fittingly akin to his ancestor Eärendil's (formerly Beren / Lúthien's) Silmaril that sails the heavenly Airs (the pure light of which would fill Galadriel's Phial); Galadriel's 'Water' Ring Nenya, fittingly akin to Maglor's Silmaril which was 'cast ... into the sea'; and Gandalf's 'Fire' Ring Narya (< Kemen), fittingly akin to Maedhros' Silmaril which was thrown into a fiery chasm, lost deep within the earth, and which may have become, according to Rateliff, the Arkenstone 'the Heart of the Mountain' — carved from earth's 'Fiery Bosom' (that is, from where it had finally lodged, buried at the heart of an extinct volcano).
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