Fëanor and the Silmarils: The Jewels That Doomed the Elves

Quick Answer: The Silmarils are three jewels made in Valinor by Fëanor, the greatest craftsman of the Noldor. He set inside them the blended light of the Two Trees. When Morgoth destroyed the Trees and stole the jewels, Fëanor and his seven sons swore the Oath of Fëanor, which led the Noldor into exile, three Kinslayings and the long wars of the First Age. In the end one Silmaril sails the sky with Eärendil, one lies in a fiery chasm in the earth, and one is in the sea.

The Silmarillion is named after these three jewels, and almost every tragedy in it traces back to them. Fëanor's pride, Morgoth's greed and Thingol's covetousness all turn on the same small objects. Even The Lord of the Rings carries a last trace of them in Frodo's hand on the stairs of Cirith Ungol.

This guide covers what the Silmarils were, the life and death of the Elf who made them, the Oath, each jewel's fate, the Elvish behind the names, and how the adaptations handle them. For the meaning of Fëanor's own name, see our dedicated post on Fëanor's name meaning; here we summarise it and move on to the story.

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Who Fëanor Was

Fëanor was the eldest son of Finwë, King of the Noldor, and his first wife Míriel, called Serindë for her skill at needlework. His birth exhausted Míriel's spirit; she went to rest in the gardens of Lórien in Valinor and her spirit departed to Mandos. The Silmarillion, "Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor," says that Fëanor grew swiftly, as if a secret fire were kindled in him.

His mother-name, Fëanáro, means "spirit of fire," from Quenya fëa "spirit" and nár "fire". Fëanor is the form adapted to Sindarin. His father-name was Curufinwë, joining curu "skill" with his father's name. Both names fit him exactly.

Finwë married again, to Indis of the Vanyar, and had two more sons: Fingolfin and Finarfin. Fëanor resented his half-brothers and his stepmother, and that family rift is the seam Melkor later worked at.

The greatest of the Noldor

Fëanor was, in the words of The Silmarillion, mightiest in skill of word and hand among the Noldor. In Tirion he improved on the letters of Rúmil to create the Tengwar, the script Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings credits to him. He made the first gems that outshone those of the earth, and the palantíri are said in the Appendices and Unfinished Tales to be likely Noldorin work of that age.

He married Nerdanel, daughter of a smith, and they had seven sons: Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Caranthir, Curufin, and the twins Amrod and Amras. Nerdanel was patient where Fëanor was fiery, and they became estranged as he grew harder.

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The Making of the Silmarils

At the height of his skill Fëanor began a long and secret labour. The Silmarillion does not tell how the jewels were made; Tolkien says only that their inner fire was made of the blended light of the Trees, and that their substance was something Fëanor alone understood. He made three.

Their properties, from "Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor":

• They shone by their own light, even in darkness, and took in light and gave it back more beautiful.
• Varda hallowed them, so that no mortal flesh or evil hand could touch them without being burned and withered.
• Mandos foretold that the fates of Arda, earth, sea and air, lay locked within them.

Fëanor wore them on his brow at festivals, but he grew possessive, rarely showing them except to his father and sons. He began to forget that the light in them was not his own making.

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Melkor, Exile and the Theft

Melkor had been released from the Halls of Mandos and lusted after the jewels the moment he saw them. He spread rumours among the Noldor that the Valar meant to keep them captive and that Fingolfin meant to supplant Fëanor. Fëanor forged swords, and in Tirion he drew his sword on Fingolfin.

For that he was banished for twelve years to Formenos in the north of Valinor, where he built a fortress and stored the Silmarils in an iron chamber. Finwë went with him out of love.

The Darkening

At a festival on Taniquetil, the Valar asked Fëanor to give up the Silmarils so Yavanna could use their light to heal the Trees, which Melkor and Ungoliant had just destroyed. Fëanor refused. The Silmarillion adds a painful detail: even had he agreed, it would not have saved him, because word then came from Formenos. Melkor had gone there in the dark, slain Finwë at the door, and taken the jewels. He fled to Middle-earth, where Ungoliant demanded them and was driven off only by his Balrogs.

It was then that Fëanor named him Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World, and the Elves called him by that name ever after. Morgoth is Sindarin; Melkor is the Quenya name he had among the Valar. The common folk-reading of Melkor as related to love is wrong: Tolkien derives it from a root meaning "mighty". For the demons who served him, see our guide to the Balrogs of Middle-earth.

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The Oath of Fëanor

Fëanor returned to Tirion and spoke to the Noldor by torchlight. He called them to follow him back to Middle-earth to make war on Morgoth and take back the jewels. Then he and his seven sons swore an oath, as "Of the Flight of the Noldor" tells it, calling on Manwë and Varda and the holy mountain as witnesses. They vowed to pursue with vengeance and hatred to the ends of the world anyone, Vala, demon, Elf or Man, who should keep a Silmaril from them.

The Oath mattered in three ways:

1. It was unbreakable. Swearing by Ilúvatar and the Valar bound them beyond any later regret. Several sons tried to evade it and could not.
2. It aimed at everyone. "Elf or Man" included their own kin, and it ended up meaning exactly that.
3. It overrode the quest. Over time the sons cared less about defeating Morgoth than about possessing the jewels.

The first Kinslaying: Alqualondë

The Noldor needed ships. The Teleri of Alqualondë refused to give up their beloved swan-ships, and the Noldor took them by force. Many Teleri died. This was the first Kinslaying, told in the same chapter.

The Doom of Mandos and the burning at Losgar

As the host marched north, a voice, that of Mandos, pronounced the Doom of the Noldor: tears unnumbered, betrayal, and a fate that would turn their every deed to ruin. Finarfin turned back. Fingolfin's people went on.

Fëanor took the ships across the Sea first, then at Losgar burned them, leaving Fingolfin and his people behind. They made the terrible crossing of the Helcaraxë, the Grinding Ice, on foot. That betrayal split the Noldor for an age.

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The Death of Fëanor

Morgoth's armies attacked the newly landed Noldor in Mithrim, and in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, the Battle under the Stars, the Noldor won. Fëanor rode on ahead in pursuit, deep toward Angband, with only a few companions.

He was surrounded by Balrogs. Fighting on alone, he was struck down by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs. His sons came too late and carried him back. As "Of the Return of the Noldor" tells it, he cursed Morgoth's name three times and laid the Oath on his sons. Then he died, and his spirit was so fiery that his body fell to ash and was borne away like smoke.

He never saw Middle-earth in daylight. The Sun rose for the first time only after his death.

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The Fate of Each Silmaril

Morgoth set the three jewels in his Iron Crown in Angband, and they burned his hands black. For most of the First Age they stayed there, out of reach of anyone.

The first jewel: Beren, Lúthien and the sky

Beren, a mortal man, wished to marry Lúthien, daughter of King Thingol of Doriath. Thingol set a price he thought impossible: a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown. Beren and Lúthien entered Angband together; Lúthien sang Morgoth to sleep, and Beren cut one jewel from the crown. The tale is in our post on Lúthien and Beren.

That jewel then passed through more ruin:

• Thingol had it set in the Nauglamír, the necklace of the Dwarves, and was murdered by Dwarves over it. Doriath fell. See our guide to Doriath and the Girdle of Melian.
• It passed to Beren and Lúthien's son Dior. The sons of Fëanor attacked Doriath for it, the second Kinslaying.
• Dior's daughter Elwing escaped with it to the Havens of Sirion, which the sons attacked in the third Kinslaying.
• Elwing cast herself into the sea with the jewel, was turned into a white bird by Ulmo, and reached her husband Eärendil.

Bearing the Silmaril, Eärendil passed the Enchanted Isles and reached Valinor. The Valar answered his plea, and he was set to sail the heavens with the jewel on his brow. It shines as a star, which Men called the star of hope.

The second and third jewels: earth and sea

In the War of Wrath the Host of the Valar overthrew Morgoth. The two remaining jewels were taken from his crown. The two surviving sons, Maedhros and Maglor, demanded them, and when refused, stole them from the camp of the Valar.

But the jewels burned their hands, and they understood that they had lost any right to them. As "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath" tells:

• Maedhros, in anguish, cast himself into a gaping chasm filled with fire, and the jewel went with him into the earth.
• Maglor cast his jewel into the sea and wandered the shores forever after, singing in grief.

So the Silmarils came to rest in sky, earth and sea, the three realms Mandos had foretold.

The prophecy of their return

Earlier versions of the legendarium, published in The History of Middle-earth, include a prophecy in which the Silmarils are recovered at the end of days and the Trees rekindled. Tolkien did not keep this in the published Silmarillion, so treat it as a draft idea, not the canonical ending.

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The Silmarils in The Lord of the Rings

The jewels have been gone for two Ages by the time of the War of the Ring, but their light has not.

• Galadriel's phial holds water of her fountain catching the light of Eärendil's star, which is the light of a Silmaril, which is the light of the Two Trees. When Frodo raises it in Shelob's lair, he is holding the oldest light in the world.
• On the stairs of Cirith Ungol, Sam realises that the phial's light comes from the same jewel Beren cut from the Iron Crown, and that they are still inside the same great tale.
• Aragorn's song of Lúthien at Weathertop, and Bilbo's song of Eärendil in Rivendell, both retell parts of the Silmaril story.

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The Language of the Silmarils

Quenya names

The Silmarils were made in Valinor among the Noldor, so the original names are Quenya. The Quenya plural is Silmarilli; Silmarils is the English plural Tolkien used. We do not give a word-by-word etymology of Silmaril here, because the element meanings are not in the attested vocabulary we rely on.

The Tengwar connection

The most lasting thing Fëanor made was not a jewel but an alphabet. The Tengwar are still the script readers use to write Elvish, and our Tengwar alphabet guide explains how it works. To see your own name in Fëanor's letters, try the Tengwar name generator.

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Fëanor and the Silmarils on Screen

This section covers adaptations, not the books.

Peter Jackson's films never mention the Silmarils by name. Eärendil appears only through Galadriel's phial ("the light of Eärendil, our most beloved star" in the film's wording), and the Kinslayings are absent.

The Rings of Power draws on the period more directly, under the limits of its licence. Its prologue shows Valinor, the Trees and the war with Morgoth, and the series mentions Fëanor and a Silmaril. Several elements are show inventions, not Tolkien:

• Mithril holding Silmaril light. The series ties the origin of mithril to a battle over a Silmaril and makes mithril essential to the Elves' survival. Nothing like this is in Tolkien's books.
• Celebrimbor and Fëanor's legacy. The show emphasises Celebrimbor as Fëanor's grandson and heir, which is consistent with Tolkien's late writings, but the scenes and dialogue around it are written for the series. See Celebrimbor and the Rings of Power.

Because the series lacks the rights to The Silmarillion, it can allude to these events but not adapt them. The book version remains the only full telling.

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Why the Story Still Matters

In his long letter describing the legendarium (Letter 131), Tolkien ties the Silmarils to the creative impulse and its danger of turning possessive. Fëanor made something beautiful out of light he did not create, then treated it as wholly his. The Oath is what happens when that possessiveness is sworn into law. It is the same temptation the One Ring later embodies, and Tolkien's letters draw that link: the desire to own and control what should be given freely.

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People Also Ask

What are the Silmarils? Three jewels made by Fëanor in Valinor, holding the blended light of the Two Trees. After Morgoth destroyed the Trees, the Silmarils held the only light of the Trees left in the world.

Where are the three Silmarils now? One is in the sky with Eärendil, one in a fiery chasm in the earth with Maedhros, and one in the sea, thrown there by Maglor.

What was the Oath of Fëanor? Fëanor and his seven sons swore to pursue anyone, Vala, Elf or Man, who kept a Silmaril from them. The Oath was unbreakable and led to three Kinslayings.

How did Fëanor die? He rode ahead after the Battle under the Stars, was surrounded by Balrogs and mortally wounded by Gothmog. His body fell to ash as his spirit left it.

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Learn the Language Fëanor Spoke

Fëanor spoke Quenya and wrote it in the letters he invented. Our free Elvish course teaches both Quenya and Sindarin, with every lesson free for signed-in members, and you can test what you know with the Tengwar quiz.

Related Reading

• Elves of Middle-earth: Kindreds, Immortality and Languages Explained
• Fëanor Name Meaning: "Spirit of Fire" and the Maker of the Silmarils
• Valinor: The Undying Lands of the Valar Explained
• Beren and Lúthien: The Tale of the Silmaril, Told from the Books
• Celebrimbor and the Rings of Power: The Smith Who Made the Three
• Doriath and the Girdle of Melian: Thingol's Hidden Kingdom Explained
• Balrogs of Middle-earth — Valaraukar, Durin's Bane and Gothmog
• Tengwar Alphabet: Complete Guide to Tolkien's Elvish Writing System