Silmarils

Last updated

The Silmarils (Quenya in-universe pl. Silmarilli [sil.maˈril.li] , lit. 'radiance of pure light') [T 1] are three fictional brilliant jewels in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, made by the Elf Fëanor, capturing the unmarred light of the Two Trees of Valinor. The Silmarils play a central role in Tolkien's book The Silmarillion , which tells of the creation of Eä (the universe) and the beginning of Elves, Dwarves and Men.

Contents

Tolkien, a philologist, derived the idea of Silmarils, jewels that actually contained light, from the Old English word Siġelwara; he concluded that Siġel meant both sun and jewel. Scholars have remarked on their similarities to the Sampo in the Kalevala and to the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend. They have described the Silmarils as embodying Elvish pride in their own creation, or a Biblical desire for knowledge of good and evil as in the Genesis story of Garden of Eden. Verlyn Flieger analyzes The Silmarillion as a story of splintering of the created light, which in her view Tolkien equates with God. The light is embodied first in two great lamps atop tall pillars to light Middle-earth. When these are destroyed, the light is held in the Two Trees of Valinor, and Fëanor crafts the Silmarils using their light. When the trees are killed, the last available splinters of the created light in Middle-earth are the Silmarils. When the Silmarils are scattered, to Earth, Sea, and Sky, the skyborne one becomes Eärendil's Star. The Elf-lady Galadriel collects light from the star and captures a little of it in the Phial of Galadriel, which enables the Hobbit protagonists of The Lord of the Rings to fulfil their quest.

Fictional history

J. R. R. Tolkien describes the history of the Silmarils in his book The Silmarillion , published after but in fiction long preceding the events of The Lord of the Rings . The Silmarils—"the most renowned of all the works of the Elves"—are created by Fëanor, a prince of the most skilful clan of Elves, the Noldor, from the light of the Two Trees of Valinor. [1] The Silmarils are made of the crystalline substance silima. [2] The Silmarils are hallowed by the Vala Varda, who kindled the first stars, so that they would burn the hands of any evil creature or mortal who touched them without just cause. [T 2]

Together with the evil spider Ungoliant, the rebellious Vala Melkor destroys the Two Trees of Valinor. [T 3] Later, at the healing effort of the Valar, one of the trees bears a silver flower, and the other bears a golden fruit, just before they die. These are sent to the sky, and became the Sun and the Moon, to illuminate Middle-earth against Melkor. But neither sphere radiates the original light of the trees, free of Ungoliant's poison. [T 4] The Silmarils then contain all the remaining unmarred light of the Two Trees. Therefore, the Valar entreat Fëanor to give them up so they can restore the Trees, but he refuses. Then news comes that Melkor has killed Fëanor's father Finwë, the High King of the Noldor, and stolen the Silmarils. After this deed, Melkor flees from Valinor to his fortress Angband in the north of Middle-earth. Thereafter he wears the Silmarils in his Iron Crown. [T 5]

Maglor casts a Silmaril into the Sea: painting by Ted Nasmith, 1997. It was used on the front cover of HarperCollins's illustrated edition of The Silmarillion in 1999. Maglor casts a Silmaril into the sea by Ted Nasmith.jpg
Maglor casts a Silmaril into the Sea: painting by Ted Nasmith, 1997. It was used on the front cover of HarperCollins's illustrated edition of The Silmarillion in 1999.

Fëanor is furious at Melkor, whom he names Morgoth, "Dark Enemy of the World", and at the Valar's desire to take the gems for their own purposes. Together with his seven sons he swears the Oath of Fëanor, which binds them to fight anyone who withholds the Silmarils from them. This terrible oath results in much future trouble including mass murder and the war of Elf against Elf. [T 5] Fëanor leads many of the Noldor back to Middle-earth. His flight, during the First Age of Middle-earth, leads to unending grief for the Elves and eventually for the Men of Middle-earth. [T 5] Five major battles are fought in Beleriand, but ultimately the Noldor and all the people who took the oath fail in their attempt to regain the Silmarils from Morgoth. [T 6] [T 7] [T 8]

One of the Silmarils is recovered by Beren and Lúthien through great peril and loss, when Lúthien sends Morgoth to sleep with her singing and Beren cuts it from his crown. The werewolf Carcharoth attacks them as they leave Angband and swallows Beren's hand containing the Silmaril; this drives Carcharoth mad. He is killed by Huan the Hound, who dies from his wounds, and the Elf-captain Mablung cuts the Silmaril out. [T 9] It is taken to the Valar in the West by Eärendil, heir of Beren and Lúthien, as a token of repentance for Fëanor's rebellion. The Valar then set this Silmaril as a star in the sky. [T 10] The other two gems remain in Morgoth's hands, until they are taken from him by a servant of the Vala Manwë at the end of the War of Wrath. However, soon afterwards, they are stolen by Fëanor's two remaining sons, Maedhros and Maglor, as they try to fulfil the oath they had sworn so many years before. But the jewels burn their hands, in denial of their rights of possession, as they had burned Morgoth's hands before. In agony, Maedhros throws himself and his Silmaril into a fiery pit, and Maglor throws his Silmaril into the sea. Thus the Silmarils remain in the ocean, the earth, and the sky—their light present but inaccessible to those in Middle-earth. [T 10]

According to a prophecy of Mandos, following Melkor's final return and defeat in the Dagor Dagorath (Battle of Battles), the world will be changed and the Silmarils will be recovered by the Valar. Then Fëanor will be released from the Halls of Mandos, and he will give Yavanna the Silmarils. She will break them, and with their light she will revive the Two Trees. The Pelóri Mountains will be flattened, and the light of the Two Trees will fill the world in eternal bliss. [T 11] [T 12]

Origins

Sigelwara

Imagemap with clickable links. Tolkien's Sigelwara etymologies, leading to major strands of his Legendarium including the Silmarils, Balrogs, and the Haradrim. Tolkien's Sigelwara Etymologies.svgseal
Imagemap with clickable links. Tolkien's Sigelwara etymologies, leading to major strands of his Legendarium including the Silmarils, Balrogs, and the Haradrim.

The idea of the Silmaril is connected to Tolkien's philological exploration of the Old English word Siġelwara, which was used in the Old English Codex Junius to mean "Aethiopian". [6] Tolkien wondered why the Anglo-Saxons should have had a word with this meaning, and conjectured that it had once meant something else, which he explored in his essay "Sigelwara Land". [T 13]

He stated that Siġel meant "both sun and jewel", the former as it was the name of the Sun rune *sowilō (ᛋ), the latter from Latin sigillum, a seal. [T 13] [5] He decided that Sigelwara's second component, Hearwa, was related to Old English heorð, "hearth", and ultimately to Latin carbō, "soot". He suggested this implied a class of demons "with red-hot eyes that emitted sparks and faces black as soot". [T 13] The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey states that this contributed to the sun-jewel Silmarils, and "helped to naturalise the Balrog" (a demon of fire). [7] The Aethiopians suggested to Tolkien the Haradrim, a dark southern race of men. [T 14]

Sampo

The Forging of the Sampo, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1893 Gallen Kallela The Forging of the Sampo.jpg
The Forging of the Sampo , Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1893

Another likely origin is the Sampo in Elias Lönnrot's 1849 Kalevala , a text that Tolkien studied with interest, thinking to use it in a story in 1914. The Tolkien scholar Jonathan B. Himes states that the Sampo is the "central mythic object" in the Kalevala; it gave its owner "socio-economic supremacy". Himes suggests that Tolkien reworked this into "the world war among all races of Middle-earth for the moral and terrestrial stability offered by the Silmarils". Himes writes that Tolkien's approach was to present moral conflicts and medieval pagan thought plainly; to fill in gaps from other sources; and to make the scale global. His goal was to create a mythology through "feigned history". Lönnrot's account of the Sampo is vague, leading scholars to speculate as to its nature. One view is that it was "a world pillar which grinds like a gigantic mill under the 'decorated lid' of the sky." Himes comments that Tolkien wanted something more comprehensible, so he chose to split the Sampo's parts into desirable objects. The pillar became the Two Trees of Valinor with their Tree of life aspect, illuminating the world. The decorated lid became the brilliant Silmarils, which embodied all that was left of the light of the two Trees, thus tying the symbols together. [8]

The scholar of mythology and medieval literature Verlyn Flieger writes that the similarities between the Sampo and the Silmarils are "obvious". She states that in both cases, the fates of the objects are "clear but their significance is ill-defined"; in particular, their "medium (light) is not congruent with the message (greed and possessiveness)." She adds that the Silmarils share attributes with the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend, being the "symbolic centre" of their story, having a "mystical dimension", being called "holy", and being the objects of "a life-changing quest". Unlike the Sampo, which brings wealth, the Silmarils bring pain, misfortune, and death, in her view contradicting their light-filled nature. [9]

Analysis

Creative pride

Shippey comments that the Silmarils relate to the book's theme in a particular way: the sin of the Elves is not human pride, as in the Biblical fall, but their "desire to make things which will forever reflect or incarnate their own personality". [10] This Elvish form of pride leads Fëanor to forge the Silmarils, and, Shippey suggests, led Tolkien to write his fictions: "Tolkien could not help seeing a part of himself in Fëanor and Saruman, sharing their perhaps licit, perhaps illicit desire to 'sub-create'." [10]

The critic Jane Chance views the Silmarils as "created things misused by their creators", like indeed the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings; and like it, they give their name to their book and help "to unify the entire mythology". [11] She sees the theme as straightforwardly Biblical, the Silmarils symbolising "the same desire for knowledge of good and evil witnessed in the Garden of Eden." [11]

Splintered light

Flieger states in her book Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World that Tolkien equates light with God and the ability to create. [12] In her view, the whole of The Silmarillion can be seen as a working-out of the theme of Man splintering the original white light of creation, resulting in many conflicts. [12]

Verlyn Flieger's analysis of the splintering of the Created Light, with repeated re-creations [13]
AgeLightJewels
Years of the Lamps Illuin and Ormal atop tall pillars
ending when Melkor destroys both Lamps
Years of the Trees Two Trees of Valinor, giving light to Aman Fëanor crafts 3 Silmarils with light of the Two Trees.
ending when Melkor strikes the Two Trees, and the giant spider Ungoliant kills them
First Age Last flower and fruit of the Two Trees
become the Moon and the Sun.		There is war over the Silmarils.
One Silmaril is buried in the Earth,
one is lost in the Sea,
one sails in the Sky as Eärendil's Star.
Third Age Galadriel collects light of Eärendil's Star
reflected in her fountain mirror.
A little of that light is captured in the Phial of Galadriel.
Hobbits Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee
use the Phial to defeat the giant spider Shelob.

The light begins in The Silmarillion as a unity, and is divided into more and more fragments as the myth progresses. Middle-earth is peopled by the angelic Valar and lit by two great lamps; when these are destroyed by the fallen Vala Melkor, the world is fragmented, and the Valar retreat to Valinor, which is lit by The Two Trees. When these too are destroyed, their last fragment of light is made into the Silmarils, and a sapling too is rescued, leading to the White Tree of Númenor, the living symbol of the Kingdom of Gondor. Wars are fought over the Silmarils, and they are lost to the Earth, the Sea, and the Sky, the last of these, carried by Eärendil the Mariner, becoming the Morning Star. Some of the star's light is captured in Galadriel's Mirror, the magic fountain that allows her to see past, present, and future; and some of that light is, finally, trapped in the Phial of Galadriel, her parting gift to Frodo, protagonist in The Lord of the Rings , to counterbalance Sauron's evil and powerful Ring that he also carries. At each stage, the fragmentation increases and the power decreases, echoing Tolkien's theme of decline and fall in Middle-earth. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

Eärendil the Mariner and his wife Elwing are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They are depicted in The Silmarillion as Half-elven, the children of Men and Elves. He is a great seafarer who, on his brow, carried the Morning Star, a jewel called a Silmaril, across the sky. The jewel had been saved by Elwing from the destruction of the Havens of Sirion. The Morning Star and the Silmarils are elements of the symbolism of light, for divine creativity, continually splintered as history progresses. Tolkien took Eärendil's name from the Old English name Earendel, found in the poem Crist A, which hailed him as "brightest of angels"; this was the beginning of Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology. Elwing is the granddaughter of Lúthien and Beren, and is descended from Melian the Maia. Through their progeny, Eärendil and Elwing became the ancestors of the Númenorean, and later Dúnedain, royal bloodline.

Valinor or the Blessed Realm is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the home of the immortal Valar on the continent of Aman, far to the west of Middle-earth; he used the name Aman mainly to mean Valinor. It includes Eldamar, the land of the Elves, who as immortals are permitted to live in Valinor.

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Noldor are a kindred of Elves who migrate west to the blessed realm of Valinor from the continent of Middle-earth, splitting from other groups of Elves as they went. They then settle in the coastal region of Eldamar. The Dark Lord Morgoth murders their first leader, Finwë. The majority of the Noldor, led by Finwë's eldest son Fëanor, then return to Beleriand in the northwest of Middle-earth. This makes them the only group to return and then play a major role in Middle-earth's history; much of The Silmarillion is about their actions. They are the second clan of the Elves in both order and size, the other clans being the Vanyar and the Teleri.

Finwë and Míriel are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Finwë is the first King of the Noldor Elves; he leads his people on the journey from Middle-earth to Valinor in the blessed realm of Aman. His first wife is Míriel, who, uniquely among immortal Elves, dies while giving birth to their only child Fëanor, creator of the Silmarils; her spirit later serves the godlike Vala queen Vairë. Finwë is the first person to be murdered in Valinor: he is killed by the Dark Lord Morgoth, who is intent on stealing the Silmarils. The event sets off the Flight of the Noldor from Valinor back to Beleriand in Middle-earth, and its disastrous consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fëanor</span> Character in J.R.R. Tolkiens Middle-Earth

Fëanor is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion. He creates the Tengwar script, the palantír seeing-stones, and the three Silmarils, the skilfully-forged jewels that give the book their name and theme, triggering division and destruction. He is the eldest son of Finwë, the King of the Noldor Elves, and his first wife Míriel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thingol</span> Fictional character

Elu Thingol or Elwë Singollo is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in The Silmarillion, The Lays of Beleriand and The Children of Húrin and in numerous stories in The History of Middle-earth. The King of Doriath, King of the Sindar Elves, High-king and Lord of Beleriand, he is a major character in the First Age of Middle-earth and an essential part of the ancestral backgrounding of the romance between Aragorn and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings. Alone among the Elves, he married an angelic Maia, Melian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fingolfin</span> Fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium

Fingolfin is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, appearing in The Silmarillion. He was the son of Finwë, High King of the Noldor. He was threatened by his half-brother Fëanor, who held him in contempt for not being a pure-bred Noldor. Even so, when Fëanor stole ships and left Aman, Fingolfin chose to follow him back to Middle-earth, taking the dangerous route over the ice of the Helcaraxë. On arrival, he challenged the Dark Lord Morgoth at the gates of his fortress, Angband, but Morgoth stayed inside. When his son Fingon rescued Maedhros, son of Fëanor, Maedhros gratefully renounced his claim to kingship, and Fingolfin became High King of the Noldor. He was victorious at the battle of Dagor Aglareb, and there was peace for some 400 years until Morgoth broke out and destroyed Beleriand in the Dagor Bragollach. Fingolfin, receiving false news, rode alone to Angband and challenged Morgoth to single combat. He wounded Morgoth several times, but grew weary and was killed by the immortal Vala.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Elves or Quendi are a sundered (divided) people. They awoke at Cuiviénen on the continent of Middle-earth, where they were divided into three tribes: Minyar, Tatyar and Nelyar. After some time, they were summoned by Oromë to live with the Valar in Valinor, on Aman. That summoning and the Great Journey that followed split the Elves into two main groups, which were never fully reunited.

<i>Nightfall in Middle-Earth</i> 1998 studio album by Blind Guardian

Nightfall in Middle-Earth is the sixth studio album by the German power metal band Blind Guardian. It was released on 28 April 1998 through Virgin Records. It is a concept album based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, a book of tales from the First Age of Middle-earth, recounting the troubled history of Beleriand as the Elves battle with the Dark Lord Morgoth. The album contains not only songs but also spoken parts narrating parts of the story. The cover depicts a scene from The Silmarillion, the elf Lúthien dancing in front of the Dark Lord Morgoth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Arda</span> History of J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional universe. Time from that point was measured using Valian Years, though the subsequent history of Arda was divided into three time periods using different years, known as the Years of the Lamps, the Years of the Trees, and the Years of the Sun. A separate, overlapping chronology divides the history into 'Ages of the Children of Ilúvatar'. The first such Age began with the Awakening of the Elves during the Years of the Trees and continued for the first six centuries of the Years of the Sun. All the subsequent Ages took place during the Years of the Sun. Most Middle-earth stories take place in the first three Ages of the Children of Ilúvatar.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Two Trees of Valinor are Telperion and Laurelin, the Silver Tree and the Gold Tree, which bring light to Valinor, a paradisiacal realm where angelic beings live. The Two Trees are of enormous stature, and exude dew that is a pure and magical light in liquid form. The craftsman Elf Fëanor makes the unrivalled jewels, the Silmarils, with their light. The Two Trees are destroyed by the evil beings Ungoliant and Melkor, but their last flower and fruit are made into the Moon and the Sun. Melkor, now known as Morgoth, steals the Silmarils, provoking the disastrous War of the Jewels. Descendants of Telperion survive, growing in Númenor and, after its destruction, in Gondor; in both cases the trees are symbolic of those kingdoms. For many years while Gondor has no King, the White Tree of Gondor stands dead in the citadel of Minas Tirith. When Aragorn restores the line of Kings to Gondor, he finds a sapling descended from Telperion and plants it in his citadel.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, Elves are the first fictional race to appear in Middle-earth. Unlike Men and Dwarves, Elves are immortal, though they can be killed in battle. If so, their souls go to the Halls of Mandos in Aman. After a long life in Middle-earth, Elves yearn for the Earthly Paradise of Valinor, and can sail there from the Grey Havens. They feature in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Their history is described in detail in The Silmarillion.

Morgoth Bauglir is a character, one of the godlike Valar, from Tolkien's legendarium. He is the primary antagonist of Tolkien's legendarium, the mythic epic published in parts as The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valar</span> Divine or angelic race in J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium

The Valar are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are "angelic powers" or "gods" subordinate to the one God. The Ainulindalë describes how some of the Ainur choose to enter the World (Arda) to complete its material development after its form is determined by the Music of the Ainur. The mightiest of these are called the Valar, or "the Powers of the World", and the others are known as the Maiar.

<i>The Silmarillion</i> Collection of J. R. R. Tolkiens mythopoeic works

The Silmarillion is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by Guy Gavriel Kay, who became a fantasy author. It tells of Eä, a fictional universe that includes the Blessed Realm of Valinor, the ill-fated region of Beleriand, the island of Númenor, and the continent of Middle-earth, where Tolkien's most popular works—The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—are set. After the success of The Hobbit, Tolkien's publisher, Stanley Unwin, requested a sequel, and Tolkien offered a draft of the writings that would later become The Silmarillion. Unwin rejected this proposal, calling the draft obscure and "too Celtic", so Tolkien began working on a new story that eventually became The Lord of the Rings.

J. R. R. Tolkien built a process of decline and fall in Middle-earth into both The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien's monsters are the evil beings, such as Orcs, Trolls, and giant spiders, who oppose and sometimes fight the protagonists in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Tolkien was an expert on Old English, especially Beowulf, and several of his monsters share aspects of the Beowulf monsters; his Trolls have been likened to Grendel, the Orcs' name harks back to the poem's orcneas, and the dragon Smaug has multiple attributes of the Beowulf dragon. The European medieval tradition of monsters makes them either humanoid but distorted, or like wild beasts, but very large and malevolent; Tolkien follows both traditions, with monsters like Orcs of the first kind and Wargs of the second. Some scholars add Tolkien's immensely powerful Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron to the list, as monstrous enemies in spirit as well as in body. Scholars have noted that the monsters' evil nature reflects Tolkien's Roman Catholicism, a religion which has a clear conception of good and evil.

In Tolkien's legendarium, ancestry provides a guide to character. The apparently genteel Hobbits of the Baggins family turn out to be worthy protagonists of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is seen from his family tree to be both a Baggins and an adventurous Took. Similarly, Frodo Baggins has some relatively outlandish Brandybuck blood. Among the Elves of Middle-earth, as described in The Silmarillion, the highest are the peaceful Vanyar, whose ancestors conformed most closely to the divine will, migrating to Aman and seeing the light of the Two Trees of Valinor; the lowest are the mutable Teleri; and in between are the conflicted Noldor. Scholars have analysed the impact of ancestry on Elves such as the creative but headstrong Fëanor, who makes the Silmarils. Among Men, Aragorn, hero of The Lord of the Rings, is shown by his descent from Kings, Elves, and an immortal Maia to be of royal blood, destined to be the true King who will restore his people. Scholars have commented that in this way, Tolkien was presenting a view of character from Norse mythology, and an Anglo-Saxon view of kingship, though others have called his implied views racist.

J. R. R. Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic, embodied Christianity in his legendarium, including The Lord of the Rings. Light is a major Christian symbol, denoting God and creation in the Old Testament, and the action of Christ in the New Testament.

References

Primary

  1. ↑ Tolkien, J. R. R., "Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies — Part Two" (edited by Carl F. Hostetter and Patrick H. Wynne), in Vinyar Tengwar , 46, July 2004, p. 11
  2. ↑ Tolkien 1977, Chapter 7, "Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor"
  3. ↑ Tolkien 1977, Chapter 8, "Of the Darkening of Valinor"
  4. ↑ Tolkien 1977, Chapter 11, "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"
  5. 1 2 3 Tolkien 1977, Chapter 9, "Of the Flight of the Noldor"
  6. ↑ Tolkien 1977, Chapter 13, "Of the Return of the Noldor"
  7. ↑ Tolkien 1977, Chapter 18, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand"
  8. ↑ Tolkien 1977, Chapter 20, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad"
  9. ↑ Tolkien 1977, Chapter 19, "Of Beren and Lúthien"
  10. 1 2 Tolkien 1977, Chapter 24, "Of the Voyage of Eärendil"
  11. ↑ Tolkien 1986, ch. 3: "Quenta Noldorinwa"
  12. ↑ Tolkien 1994, Part 2, "The Later Quenta Silmarillion", "The Last Chapters of the Quenta Silmarillion"
  13. 1 2 3 J. R. R. Tolkien, "Sigelwara Land" Medium Aevum Vol. 1, No. 3. December 1932 and Medium Aevum Vol. 3, No. 2. June 1934.
  14. ↑ Tolkien 1989, ch. 35 p. 435 & p. 439 note 4

Secondary

  1. ↑ Chance, Jane (2003). Tolkien the Medievalist. Routledge. p. 209. ISBN   978-1-134-43971-3.
  2. ↑ Drout, Michael D. C. (10 October 2006). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 612. ISBN   1-135-88034-4.
  3. ↑ Nasmith, Ted. "Maglor Casts a Silmaril into the Sea". Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2022.. It was on the front cover of Tolkien, J. R. R. (1998). The Silmarillion . Illustrated by Ted Nasmith. HarperCollins. ISBN   978-0-261-10366-5..
  4. ↑ J. R. R. Tolkien, "Sigelwara Land" Medium Aevum Vol. 1, No. 3. December 1932 and Medium Aevum Vol. 3, No. 2. June 1934.
  5. 1 2 Shippey 2005, pp. 48–49.
  6. ↑ Shippey 2005, p. 54.
  7. ↑ Shippey 2005, pp. 49, 54, 63.
  8. ↑ Himes, Jonathan B. (2000). "What J.R.R. Tolkien Really Did with the Sampo?". Mythlore . 22 (4). Article 7.
  9. ↑ Flieger, Verlyn (2014). "The Jewels, the Stone, the Ring, and the Making of Meaning". In Houghton, John Wm.; Croft, Janet Brennan; Martsch, Nancy (eds.). Tolkien in the New Century. McFarland. pp. 68–71. ISBN   978-0-7864-7438-7.
  10. 1 2 Shippey 2005, p. 274.
  11. 1 2 Nitzsche 1980 , pp. 131–133
  12. 1 2 Flieger 1983, pp. 44–49.
  13. ↑ Flieger 1983, pp. 6–61, 89–90, 144-145 and passim.
  14. ↑ Flieger 1983, pp. 6–61, 89–90, 144–145.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.