Bookverse Improbabilities
crowdaughter suggested I post these remarks here. So I looked y'all up and now I'm testing the waters!
I've said for a long time that it's never wise to look too closely at the plot details in LotR: Tolkien wasn't writing a character-driven plot, he made it up as he went along, and even when he made major changes, he kept a lot of the original. So ( Read more... )
I agree with Dreamflower's remarks for the most part. Which is not the reason I am commenting.
The question of Why foolishly hold on to the Silmaril? has drawn me in. I really think there is a good short answer to that: weirgild. Somehow, Isildur can be easily understood to be practicing this custom, but apparantly not Elves.
Along with that, the jewel taken from Morgoth had great sustaining and restorative powers. It was very beneficial to the surrounding land even in a benign state. It makes me ponder (story internally). What would happen to the beleagued people of Doriath (having lost Melian and Thingol) or the refugees of Siron (surviving at the edge on the edge) without it in their hands? It also held a lot of hope like all things bearing Light, imho. How worse off would Elwing's people be without it? Unable to feed themselves? Unable to ward off other fell creatures which would venture even closer? Perhaps the Feanoreans might stir up even more aggression from the Enemy by using it? Quite a dilemma for a *concerned* ruler, if you ask me. Then, there is the doom of Earendil and the jewel as a star of hope. Never to happen and all left without that beacon, if it went to Maedhros. Who was laboring under an oath (geas) to gain the jewel in revenge for his grandfather and father (weirgild).
And well, I also think Thingol set an impossible task for Beren with a specific purpose in mind, not out of some ordinary greed or ambition. Problem was Luthien was no shrinking flower of a maiden.
'nuff of that. Went on more than I intended! But, you asked some interesting questions and invited some answers.
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I think both in the case of Dior, and of Elwing, that this argument makes the most sense in my book. For Dior, the Silmaril was the one great treasure left by his mother and his father. Both Beren and Luthien had died to get that Silmaril. They had been restored to life, but Luthien had become mortal. Dior was probably not mortal, but immortal as the Elves, because he married an Elf and became the ruler of Doriath, and I cannot really see that happen if he had been mortal, too.
But if so, that meant that he would never see his parents again, even beyond the breaking of the world. His grandfather, Thingol, had died to keep the Silmaril, too. I can see that he was not about to let it go, even if it would have been wiser (still, I remain with my point that it *would* have been wiser to hand the thing over).
The weregild argument is even more in place with Elwing; for her, her two brothers, her father, her grandfather, and the bigger part of her people had died to keep the thing. It might have been virtually impossible for her to let it go, even to safe her children; it would probably have felt as betrayal. And he had no real guarantee that Maglor and Maedros would indeed have handed over her children unharmed back to her, if she had given in, Her brothers were left in the woods to die out of sheer spite. She might have thought the Feanorians would kill off Elrond and Elros anyway, when she took her jump.
As for the beneficial powers of the Silmaril - could you give a hint where that stems from? I fear I have missed that part when I last read the book.
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I think Dior has to have been mortal. Tolkien says that even one drop of "mortal blood" is enough to do it. The only exceptions are Earendil and Elwing, who were "granted" it, and definitely not born that way, and their sons, "granted" the choice because of their parents. And then, of course, Elrond's kids. (Why not Elros's, she asks?) If you look at the dates, you'll see that all of them "grew up" at a mortal pace. Dior wasn't even forty when he died, and Earendil and Elwing married in their early twenties.
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That the jewel was or could be beneficial to the land and ward off fell creatures when in the right hands was proven by Luthien and Beren. She uses it to enhance Tol Galen. Beren uses it to directly drive off Carcharoth.
The effect on Dior when he dons it the first time is very similar to what it did for Luthien. He is after all their offspring. And Elwing was his surviving child. Look in both chapters "Of Luthien and Beren" and "Of the Ruin of Doriath".
It looks like the jewel works for them the same way the Elessar works for Aragorn. It is powerful for good in the right hands, and corrupted spirits cannot wield its powers.
As an heirloom of their house? Oh yes, of course, it would be treasured for more than its weight and beauty. It is interesting that Maedhros did not think he could wrest it from Luthien, but could from her weaker son. Who by the way seems to have accomplished alot in a few years if the Feanoreans losses in the attack were so severe. ;)
On the subsequent matter of Earendil and Elwing, They were given the choice of mortality or immortality. Earendil left it up to Elwing and she chose immortality for them both.
I think Tolkien left Dior's nature up in the air. And, it would not come into play for the kingship. He was Thingol's by rights through his mother, and there were no others in direct line. Dropping into story-internally mode, it is interesting the he did succeed when there should have been some of Elmo's descendants, such as Celeborn, milling about if Galadhon had unmentioned siblings. But story-externally, Celeborn and Elmo were later additions like Galadriel.
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