Silmarillion - Chapter 07 - Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor

[mhagain]

An interesting point is that it's the first chapter where there is any substantial dialog between the Elves. Previously, all we've really had was a few quotes from Finwe and Miriel, and a good chunk of Aule/Yavanna/Manwe dialog. Here we begin to move from the more detached "history book" style into something approaching normal storytelling.

The hint of "some shadow of foreknowledge" attributed to Feanor is interesting. We now know that something bad is just around the corner.

Fingolfin's forgiving nature ("I will release my brother") is also of interest to me, as - even though it's more explicit in a later chapter - it sets the stage for what's going to happen shortly.

[Texadan]

For Fëanor began to love the Silmarils with a greedy love, and grudged the sight of them to all save to his father and his seven sons; he seldom remembered now that the light within them was not his own.

...now they grew proud and jealous each of his rights and his possessions...

This, and some things in subsequent chapters, made me think of Thorin Oakenshield. There seems to be a reoccurring warning in the tales about the danger and harm that can come from an inappropriate attachment to things.

[Texadan]

I meant to ask in my last post but forgot: does anyone have a real idea of the size of the Silmarils? I originally thought they were something along the size of a palantír because of the references to the light within them. But if Fëanor "would wear them, blazing on his brow" that's not possible. The size of a really large diamond perhaps?

Edited to fix a typo.

[mhagain]

Well Beren was able to hold one pretty much enclosed in his hand, so they're not particularly enormous.

[Lalaith]

Texadan makes a really good point. I've often wondered about the size of the Silmarils.
To go off on a bit of a tangent - I don't know if any of you have ever watched the original 1933 King Kong, but in that film the ape really varies in size from scene to scene, in what seems a deliberately symbolic move.
I always had a similar feeling with the Simarils. Depending on what episode I am reading, their size varies in my mind's eye. In the Beren/Luthien episode, I imagine the Silmaril they regain as about the size of a large pomegranate or even a small cantaloupe melon...but when Feanor wears all three on his brow, they cannot be bigger than plums.

Does anyone else have that feeling of the Silmarils changing in size?

[Aiwendil]

I've always imagined the Silmarils to be fairly large - just small enough for Beren to enclose one in has hand, but not much smaller. It does sometimes seem that their size is different in different scenes (something I've also noticed in King Kong). But to me this suggests that people's perceptions of them may change, not the Silmarils themselves. A bit like the Ring, it seems to me - though, again, the Silmarils come across (to me at least) as much more passive.

It strikes me that the weight of the Silmarils need not have had the same proportionality to their size as with gems we are familiar with. Indeed, their apparent weight may have fluctuated as well. So I see no particular problem with Feanor wearing them even if they were fairly big.

mhagain wrote:

An interesting point is that it's the first chapter where there is any substantial dialog between the Elves. Previously, all we've really had was a few quotes from Finwe and Miriel, and a good chunk of Aule/Yavanna/Manwe dialog. Here we begin to move from the more detached "history book" style into something approaching normal storytelling.

A good point. There actually seems to be a rather gradual transformation over the course of the first half or so of the book, from the theological to the mythological to the historical. This chapter (or perhaps the previous one) is where we first seem to have real characters in the usual sense.

[Texadan]

You know, I just had a flash memory of the galaxy in "Men in Black". I suppose the Silmarils could have an appearance something like that, small in appearance but when looked into encompassing a lot of space.