#quenta

Uniqueness

Fëanor was a very exceptional elf. He was made “the mightiest in all parts of body and mind, in valour, in endurance, in beauty, in understanding, in skill, in strength and in subtlety alike”¹ and no other elf has ever been described in a way that could be compared to this. In a similar way there were no other gems created that were like the three Silmarils: they are exceptional as well.

Fëanor did not create the Silmarils in a vortex of course: without the Two Trees it's basically impossible to recreate such jewels. But even while the Trees were ailve it was very unlikely that jewels as these could be recreated. Even Fëanor said that “never again shall [he] make their like”¹. With Fëanor being gone as well, it's basically impossible.

Attraction

People have intense feelings for both Fëanor and the Silmarils. There is hardly someone that does not feel some kind of interest, attraction or love for them – or intens hate. They are basically impossible to ignore.

Fëanor has the love and loyalty of many people – first and foremost his father, but also his seven sons, and a large part of the Noldor. He was said to be "a master of words, and his tongue had great power over hearts when he would use it"¹. As a result he had a large following amon the Noldor.

Even Melkor has an eye on him and picks him as his main focus for the corruption he’s spreading among the Noldor. And he’s not the only Vala who pays attention to Fëanor, the others “mourned not more for the death of the Trees than for the marring of Fëanor: of the works of Melkor one of the most evil”¹ – and that is quite a statement. Even ages later, Fëanor comes up when Gandalf talks to Pippin about what or who he would like to see if he would use the Palantíri:

“Even now my heart desires to test my will upon it, to see if I could not wrench it from him and turn it where I would-to look across the wide seas of water and of time to Tirion the Fair, and perceive the unimaginable hand and mind of Fëanor at their work, while both the White Tree and the Golden were in flower!”²

The Silmarils are even worse when it comes to their power of attraction, everyone wants them: Fëanor himself of course, but the Elves and Valar want to see the Silmarils at festivals as well. Melkor obviously wants them, and once they’re stolen the sons of Fëanor want them back. Thingol wants them, Lúthien and Beren want them, Dior wears it, Elwing too, and eventually Eärendil. Almost noone is ready to give them up.

Disaster

What the Silmarils and Fëanor also have in common is for almost all people that come in contact with them to somehow end up involved in one disaster or another.

Fëanor already has an unfortunate start when his birth demands so much energy from his mother that she eventually dies. His father Finwë dies as well, protecting Fëanor’s Silmaril in their house in exil – an exil that Finwë had taken upon himself for the sake of being with his son. All of Fëanor's sons join him in taking the Oath, and end up suffering as a result. The Noldor that follow Fëanor’s rebellion suffer as well, and so do the Teleri that stand in his way. And while Nerdanel herself may remain unharmed, she loses all her son's to Fëanor's quest.

The Silmarils have that effect to some extent as well: once Melkor sets his sight on it, they are a major reason why he specifically targets Fëanor, they are also the reason why Finwë is killed when he tries to defend them against Melkor, and they burn Melkor when he steals them. In a way they become a curse for Fëanor’s sons who cannot rest until they get them back, they are the excuse for Thingol to send Beren to Angband which eventually leads to Beren’s and Lúthien’s death (they get better), it leads to Thingol’s death, to Dior’s, the fall of Doriath and to Elwing’s death. Their main redeeming quality is then that they help Eärendil get to Aman.

The distruction they cause is closely connected to Fëanor: the oath that he and his sons swore seem to be not unlike a curse on the Silmarils. And maybe it is only this powerful of a curse because in origin they are Fëanor's creation. Why else should they bring so much pain and suffering to whoever keeps them? Then Melkor’s desire, Dragon gold and a dwarve’s curse make it even worse.

Impact

Fëanor and the Silmarils both leave the world in a way. Fëanor is dead, and although one of the Silmarils can still be seen in the night sky, it can no longer be reached by the inhabitants of Middle-earth.

Fëanor and his creation, despite being now largely absent in Middle-earth itself, had a huge impact on Middle-earth. For Fëanor it can be said that without him, the Noldor probably wouldn't have returned to Middle-earth. He was the central figure in this movement. Without him, the history of Middle-earth would be drastically different, and we can only speculate what would have happened. The dominion of Melkor in Middle-earth? The early destruction of Beleriand through the interventing army of the Valar? It's hard to say.

The Simarils also left their marks of course. Many people in Middle-earth had been motivated to do something because of the Silmarils – includign Fëanor himself, his sons, Melkor, Thingol, Beren, and so on. Especially relevant is the impact of the Silmaril that Eärendil gets his hands on – without the Silmaril, he would never have reached Aman. Even in later ages, the light of the Silmarils continues to play a role: without its light, Frodo and Sam would never have been able to face Shelob head on.

The Silmaril's impact is Fëanor's impact as well, since he is their maker. In addition, he also has created many other things that lasted through the ages and had an impact on history – the best example after the Silmarils being the Palantirí.

Differences

I'm sure there are many differences to be found between Fëanor and his Silmarils, but I only want to point out what to me is the most important one:

Despite everything that was laid on the Silmarils, they were never corrupted. Their light was never dimmed, they never turned evil – they were made out of some unkown and unbreakable material, and hallowed by Varda herself, protecting them against all evil.

Fëanor wasn’t like that. There was no protection against Melkor’s subtle corruption after the Valar had set melkor free in Valinor, and Fëanor by his firey nature may have been especially receptive for it. Murder, lies, rebellion – “evil” on that scale hadn’t been seen before in Valinor.

The Silmarils couldn’t be corrupted, but Fëanor could fall.

(On a less serious note: my family’s questionable contribution to this topic was that if you take Fëanor’s ashes and press them into a diamond he becomes more similar to a Silmaril.)

FOOTNOTES

In Elvish philosophical thought, there are two fundamental distinctions of Creation (Eä): spirit and matter. (ëala and erma)

The spirit is hard to divide precisely, as there is nowhere laid out a clear vision of it. However, the fëa (or soul) of a person is said to have various aspects. There is the ‘Mind’ of a person (the sáma or sanar). There is the ‘Heart’ of a person (the órë) but this is a rather complex concept which is not a 1 to 1 translation to ‘Heart.’ To quote from Notes on Órë (published in Vinyar Tengwar Issue 41:

 órë in nontechnical language, glossed ‘heart, inner mind,’ nearest equivalent of ‘heart’ in our application to feelings, or emotions (courage, fear, hope, pity, etc.) including baneful ones. But it is also used more vaguely of things arising in the mind (sanar) which the Eldar regarded as sometimes the result of deep reflection (often proceeding in sleep) and sometimes of actual messages or influences on the mind – from other minds, including the greater minds of the Valar and so indirectly from Eru.

 It would seem then that emotions arising in the soul (fëafelmë) as opposed to those arising in the body (hröafelmë) arise in the órë instead of the sáma. However, the órë has two aspects: the fëafelmë, and the warnings or promptings of the soul or of others: the intuition (handë, or ‘understanding’). The former relates to things like hope, perseverance, joy, etc. and the latter relates to hidden knowledge or feelings we cannot explain that come to us from either deep inside our own hearts or from outside. Thus, we have as three major elements the Emotions (strictly of the spirit), the Heart (the wisdom of our own subconscious, or from outside), and the Mind (by which we act on the promptings of the órë).

The physical matter seems to be divided into a few categories based on the Valar. The most powerful of the Valar and Valier seem to come in threes: Manwë, Ulmo, Aulë; and Varda, Yavanna, and Niënna. Now interestingly, these 6 can relate to the Greek ideas of Heaven, Sea, and Earth, but not 1 to 1. Manwë and the Heavens are a clear relation, as is Varda, so Air/Heavens is clearly an element to be considered. Ulmo is clearly related to the sea, and Aulë is clearly related to the underworld (but not in terms of death, just in terms of the caves under the earth.) I think to the Elves, there is a different triad of realms: Sky, Sea, and Earth (not underworld since Death was an aberration in the world, it would have no place in the idealized cosmological balance). Therefore Aulë and Yavanna can clearly be seen to relate to “Earth” well. Niënna, certainly has a relation to water (her tears) but ‘the Sea’ is hardly her best equivalent. She is most associated with death and the soul and the emotions of the soul. This is hard to quantify elementally. However, the three basic elements of Earth, Air, and Water are clearly shown. But the Balrogs are said to have been spirits of Fire, and so is Tulkas, which seems to imply the existence of Fire as an element. Thus, the four Paracleasean elements seem to apply to Middle-earth also, but with an entirely separate category for the Soul and the elements of the spirit (the mind and the heart and the emotions). I have identified the Valar by many physical elements:

Air: Manwë, Varda

Water: Ulmo

Earth: Aulë, Yavanna, Oromë, Nessa

Fire: Tulkas, Vána

Vána I have made Fire because of her association with the making of the Sun, and her command of Ariën, the prime spirit of fire mentioned. Nessa is more difficult to place, but I lean towards the earth, due to her relationship to animals and the woods and grass, as well as her brother Oromë.

However, I have yet to consider the other elemental associations in Middle-earth: the Silmarils and the Three Rings. As we can see, the number three again plays a key role, much like the Greek and Celtic elemental divisions. The three Silmarils each end up in a region of the world, which are seemingly held to be coeval and distinct realms of the creation: one in the heavens, one in the seas, and one in the fires of the earth. Now the first two are all well and good, but the last is somewhat different. It combines the Earth with the depths thereof, and the fires that live there. This division of realms, like the Greek idea, seems to hold the Earth as a shared space combining all three. The Three Rings are Vilya, the ring of Air, Nenya, the ring of Water, and Narya, the ring of Fire. As usual, the first two are all well and good, but the last is interesting. Suddenly Fire fully displaces Earth as the third element considered special. Círdan even describes a duality in fire, distinguishing the ‘fire that kindles’ versus the ‘fire that destroys.’ I suppose this same distinction could be made about the other two (the water that quenches, and the water that drowns; the air that uplifts and the air that storms). In both of these triads, the element of earth is obscured or outright replaced with that of Fire. Ancient Greeks saw four elements of matter, but the Celts saw only three. Perhaps these Rings and Jewels show us that the Elves thought the same, and saw Earth as the combination of all three.

This trio of elements (air, water, and fire) does fit when applied to the three heads of the Valar: Air (Manwë) Water (Ulmo) Fire (Aulë). Aulë as lord of the forge and the underground (where Maedros died amid the subterranean fires), so Fire is appropriate for him. Varda, Yavanna, Oromë, Nessa, Tulkas, and Vána then need to be assigned. Tulkas and Vána are shown (as above) to have associations to Fire. Varda has associations to Air. This leaves Yavanna, Oromë, and Nessa, the erstwhile members of the Earth element. I am genuinely unsure what to do with them, although perhaps (as there are three of them) they can be some combination of each of the three elements. Perhaps Yavanna is Water and Air (as she is a tree reaching from the waters of Ulmo to the Heavens of Manwë in the Ainulindalë) Nessa is Air and Fire, as she is the fleet-footed dancer, and Oromë is Water and Fire, the most terrible in wrath, but the kindest in joy. These three embody the element of earth by being combinations of the three primal elements. Thus we are left with:

Air: Manwë, Varda

Water: Ulmo

Fire: Aulë, Tulkas, Vána

Earth (Mix): Yavanna, Oromë, Nessa

This leaves Niënna, Irmo, Námo, Vairë, and Estë. As I stated above, there are three primary soul elements: the Mind, Heart, and Emotions. However, as in the physical, some elements overlap, and are more ambiguous. This goes quite nicely with the ambiguous nature of Vairë and Estë, about whom we are told next to nothing. Thus, organizing them according to the elements of the spirit:

Mind: Námo

Heart: Irmo

Emotions: Niënna

Soul (mix): Vairë, Estë

Námo is organized thus because of his consideration of the primacy of logic, and the fact that his Justice is based on reason. Irmo I have placed into the category of Heart because he is associated with the very elusive concept of órë very closely, and seems to act primarily through it. Niënna I have placed in Emotions because of her realm of pity, courage, sadness, and hope: all emotions of the soul which she prompts.

Now, these obviously have much bleed-through. Varda and Ulmo have been known to prompt the heart, and Aulë is the lord of learning and knowledge. Niënna has an association with water, and Námo could be argued to be associated with the earth because of the common chthonic connection of the dead and the earth. However, these seem to be the best ways to classify them based on a singular elemental association.

All of this lends more weight to the statement that “Melkor had a share in all the powers of his brethren.” He was the culmination of all, the combination of all three physical elements and the three spiritual elements as well. However, he is said elsewhere to be a kindred spirit to Aulë, so this may be nothing.