An Overview of The Silmarillion: Part Two
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| This is a photo of Tolkien's vision for Beleriand and its environs. It is a fold-out map contained in my first edition of The Silmarillion. Tolkien's attention to detail in geography and linguistics help distinguish him from other writers in the fantasy genre. |
Note: This is the second part of a series of essays summarizing J.R.R. Tolkien's greatest literary work. You can read Part One here. I will not repeat links to various characters or events. See Part One for those.
Because she brought them into being, Yvanna longs for the Light of the Trees, which now only exists in the Silmarils. The Valar ask Fëanor to break the jewels so that the light, perhaps, the Light might be restored by Yvanna’s work. But Melkor had earlier lied to Fëanor, saying the Valar would try to take possession of the jewels from him. He is proud and vain of his great work and refuses to give them up. Instead he locks them away with other jewels of the Noldor for safekeeping.
Or so he thought. Melkor manages to break into Fëanor’s home, murders his father and steals all of the jewels of the Noldor. In this way the killing of the Two Trees is followed by the first murder in Valinor, the Blessed Realm. All of this is Melkor’s victory. For this Fëanor curses Melkor and calls him Morgoth, which means “the black foe of the world.”
With Ungoliant, Morgoth returns to Middle-earth from Valinor. The gigantic spider demands more payment for killing the trees. Morgoth feeds her all the jewels except for the Silmarils. Ungoliant, in her insatiable appetite, attacks Morgoth in an attempt to take them. But Morgoth is able to summon the Balrogs from the ruins of Utumno, deep in Middle-earth. They counterattack and the spider withdraws, her fate unknown.
Morgoth then builds the new might fortress of Angband in the north, rising up three unscalable mountains, Thangorodrim, around it and places the Silmarils in an iron crown for his head. Meanwhile, Fëanor is furiously driven by the theft of the jewels and the murder of his father. He makes an oath of vengeance, along with his seven sons, against anyone, Morgoth or Elf or Vala, who tries to take the Silmarils. Galadriel, who is later featured in the Ring trilogy, is introduced at this point in the story. She stands in favor of Fëanor, though she refuses to take the same oath.
Fëanor will lead many of the Noldor back to Middle-earth to retake the Silmarils. He seeks the assistance of the Teleri who can sail them on to Middle-earth. But this Elfish clan is carefree and contented, refusing to get involved. Fëanor gathers his forces and attacks the Teleri. After this Kinslaying, where many Teleri are “wickedly slain” by the Noldor, enough ships are captured to take Fëanor and his followers back to Middle-earth.
Meanwhile, Galadriel and many others take the long, arduous route. Valinor is but a part of a larger continent, Aman. Aman has a mountainous passage in the frigid north, a long march through the icy expanse that takes you to Middle-earth by foot. (This explains why Fëanor wanted those sailing ships.) Many of them are lost in the journey and Fingolfin, Fëanor’s half-brother, blames Fëanor for this.
At this point The SiIlmarillion backs up a bit to tell the reader what transpires on Middle-earth during the three ages of Melkor’s captivity. The only half-Maiar, half-Elf character in the whole story, indeed, one could argue a character who embodies a central theme in Tolkien, Luthien’s birth takes place during the first age of captivity. Also during this time, her mother, Melian, brings life by starlight (since there is no light source for Middle-earth at this time) to the plants and animals of Beleriand where Thingol and his Elves (the Sindar) dwell. The Dwarves are not yet hostile with the Elves. They roam into this region and ally themselves with Thingol. They learn the language of the Sindar.
During the second age of Melkor’s captivity, Melian, being a Maiar and gifted with limited foresight, warns that evil will return to the region. With the Dwarves assistance, the Elves prepare for this with mighty fortifications and the crafting of weapons, which the Sindar have not needed up to now.
With the third age of captivity, Orcs begin to scout out areas of Middle-earth from Melkor’s old fortress in the north. By the time Morgoth returns, the Orcs are ready and mass in great numbers. They attack the Elves in the First Battle of Beleriand. The Orcs are defeated but many Elves and Dwarves are slain. Further west, the Orcs are victorious, however, and drive the Elves back to the rim of the sea.
After this, Melian uses her special powers to shroud Thingol’s kingdom of Doriath so that nothing may pass into that region without the knowledge and permission of her husband. Many Elves withdraw into there for protection. Morgoth roams freely across Middle-earth except for Doriath and the coastal lands still controlled by the Elves.
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| A closer look at Doriath and the surrounding area. |
The Maiar place the flower and the fruit in the sky bringing forth the Moon and the Sun over Middle-earth. Morgoth hates all light but the Sun particularly. He summons dark clouds and rains to hide the Sun over his stronghold of Angband. Though the new light is splendid and allows the natural world of Middle-earth to finally flourish, it is only an echo of what the Trees were.
This diminishment of light is a major theme for Tolkien. The pristine nature of creation is marred and, while beauty is renewed, it does not match what was existed before – a theme Tolkien held as a result of his post-World War One malaise and his personal view of the perpetual nature of the Fall of Man. He writes: “But neither the Sun not the Moon can recall the light that was of old, that came from the Trees before they were touched by the poison of Ungoliant. That light lives now in the Silmarils alone.”
With the Sun and Moon in place Men come forth for the first time. There is some controversy within the Tolkien community about when the First Age begins. With the creation of Arda? With the coming of the Elves? For me it is with the coming of Men. For everything that happened before the race of Men is like a prelude to the how The Silmarillion moves on from here. Men have no Vala to assist them, therefore, unlike the Elves, they instinctively fear the Powers of the Valar.
The first Men are attracted to the rising Sun and move eastward towards it. They roam Middle-earth freely because Morgoth has withdrawn his forces into the cloud-filled north blocking the light of the Sun. No harm initially comes to Men for they are in remote eastern places. They are the Second Children of Ilúvatar. Here we come to another of the many philosophical aspects of the book. The nature of mortality and immortality.
Tolkien sees mortality as a gift. Death is the “Gift of Men.” For Men are part of Ilúvatar’s final musical theme, which none of the Valar understand. Middle-earth shall be subject to the fates and desires of Men in ways that go beyond what the Valar once sang. (An improvisation in the Ainulindalë?) In exchange for this Men will die and ultimately pass in freedom beyond the Circles of the World. In this way, unlike Elves, the tendencies of Men will change over time (though some things remain human, like the desire for power). For, while many things change slowly, death means that the influence of each generation will eventually fade.
This draws an interesting insight into the nature of Elves. By the time of The Lord of the Rings Elves have apparently evolved in their appearance: “Their bodies indeed were the stuff of Earth, and could be destroyed; and in those days they were more like the bodies of Men, since they had not long been inhabited by the fire of their spirit, which consumes them from within in the courses of time.” In some interesting ways, Tolkien sees immortality as a curse. The fire of the Elves physically transforms them through the Ages of Time and they are afflicted with the knowledge of how light and other things have faded with Time.
Fëanor and his Elves sailed to Middle-earth before the Sun and the Moon were set. Morgoth’s forces immediately attack them but the Orcs are completely wiped out in the Battle Under The Stars. Fëanor’s rage against Morgoth is so great that he immediately attempts to besiege Angband without understanding its power. There he and his kin are soon surrounded by Balrogs. In one of the greatest struggles contained in the The Silmarillion, Fëanor is mortally wounded by Gothmog, the Lord of the Balrogs. So great is Fëanor’s spirit that his body turns to dust upon his death.
Morgoth feigns surrender, offering a Silmaril in exchange for peace. Fëanor’s eldest son, Maedhros, meets with the Dark Lord but is captured and hung by his wrist atop the highest peak of Thangorodrim. It is about this time that the Sun and Moon begin their movement in the sky. Morgoth retreats as, after an incredibly arduous trek, Fingolfin leads the rest of the Noldor through the icy north with Galadriel. His clan remains divided over the consequences of Fëanor’s conduct.
Fingon, son of Fingolfin, is friends with Maedhros. He schemes to heal the rift between his people by rescuing the chained Elf. But, the task is too great and Fingon appeals to Manwë, who, holding birds most dear of all creation, sends the King of the Eagles, Thorondor, to carry Fingon up to Maedhros. Fingon cannot unchain his friend so he cuts off Maedhros’s wrist, the two returning to their people with the aid of the Great Eagle.
Meanwhile, in Doriath, Thingol is not pleased at the return of these Elves and their subsequent claims over various lands. He attempts to control where they can and cannot settle which angers Fëanor’s sons. Galadriel, however, becomes a guest of Thingol and eventually marries Celeborn in Doriath. She gains much knowledge in her conversations with Melian.
For their part, the Dwarves assist the Elves in many ways and attain the height of their craft. They assist in the construction of Nargothrond, a great fortress to guard against Morgoth. They also make the necklace, Nauglamír, their most renowned work of art in the Eldar Days.
Eventually, Morgoth attacks once again in the Glorious Battle (which the Elves call Dagor Aglareb). Here the first dragon, Glaurung, comes forth, but sooner than Morgoth desired for it is still young and does not possess its full power. The dragon and all of Morgoth’s forces are once more defeated and the Elves lay siege to Angband for 400 years. During this time, Glaurung matures while Morgoth only conducts random raids in the north where his forces occasionally capture some Elves. In this way he learns of the divisiveness within the Noldor due to the lies he has sown. He delights in this.
Nevertheless, a unity emerges between Elves. Most of the Noldor and Sindar ally themselves and 200 years of peace follows. The Noldor, having been to Valinor, are greater of mind and body, and greater warriors. The Sindar, however, are more skilled in music and wood craft and nature. They learn the language of the Noldor.
Turgon, the son of Fingolfin, is guided by a Vala to Tumladen, a massive, hidden vale. He returns to the Elves and says nothing of this discovery. After Dagor Aglareb, he sends his best craftsmen to the vale. In secret over many years a great city is built, Gondolin, the Hidden Rock. Gondolin is fashioned after Tirion and Turgon grows two trees, one silver, the other gold, Glingal and Belthil, which are obviously in honor of the original Two Trees of Valinor. All during this time, Turgen, his clan, and many other Elves simply slip away, vanishing “company by company” through the years so that when Gondolin is completed Turgen and his family are the last to enter this secret realm and its gates are sealed.
Meanwhile, due to their frequent, deep conversations, Melian reads Galadril’s mind and learns of the treachery of the Noldor, something no one spoke of at this time. She tells her husband of Feanor’s killing of the Teleri and of his troubles with Fingolfin, splitting the clan and causing so many deaths. Thingol confronts the Noldor sons and learns of the validity of this deceitfulness. He proclaims that the Noldor tongue will not be used in Doriath. They will speak on Sindar there. Thus the High Speech of the West is restricted. Obviously, for Tolkien, much of this story involved languages.
A handy use of languages is the naming of places and rivers and plains and mountains and swamps. The naming of things in language inherently means something, it has a linguistic lineage. Naming geography on a continental scale has a certain depth to it. Tolkien took great care to construct an extensive geology and natural world in The Sillmarillion. An entire chapter is devoted to nothing but describing all the various landscapes of Beleriand and how these features are populated by various Elves and Dwarves. Such care to geographic detail, along with the fictional generation of languages, gives Tolkien a special power in his genre. All that vast space of linguistically created nature and culture is imbued in the characters and breathes into everything he writes a larger sense of life and history.
In this way, Tolkien is unmatched in all of fantasy literature.
(to be continued)
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