The Jewels of Nature

During our last discussion about Trees and Jewels on Wednesday, there was a question posed about the very connection between jewels and trees. Why are they so often portrayed together? What is the connection between the metallic beauty of gemstones and the living beauty of nature? I don’t believe the question was ever fully answered in discussion, and to be honest I don’t think it even can be fully answered, but I wanted to speak a little about the thoughts that I had during discussion but never really spoke out loud. I believe that a connection between trees and gems is light, and how light is reflected – both literally and metaphorically – in trees and jewels. This might sound really roundabout at first but bear with me.

In the Holy Bible, the very first thing that God creates is light (depending on your translation, I suppose). In the Ainulindale it is said, “He [Eru] made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones” and in them he kindled in them “the Flame Imperishable”, and since the Flame has its innermost source in Eru, that must mean that the Flame existed even before the Ainur, unless the Flame is synonymous with Eru himself which means – that’s a different discussion anyway. What’s important is that the Flame Imperishable, the holy light of Eru, existed before aught else, even if Eru didn’t actively create it himself. With these two examples, it’s already pretty clear that light is of extreme significance in the Bible and in Tolkien’s legendarium. We have plenty of examples from Tolkien: the Ainur, the Two Great Lamps of Arda, Varda’s creation of the stars, the glowing Silmarils, and of course the two Great Trees themselves. The Bible has its own share mainly with Jesus being the light of the world. Trees and jewels are pretty obvious, seeing as we spent a good portion of time discussing them in class. Tolkien’s love of trees and forests is indisputable, with the tree-loving Elves, Treebeard/Fangorn the tree shepherd with his Ents, and the aforementioned Great Trees, and for jewels the Silmarils and the Rings of Power. In the Bible we have the Tree of Life, the Tree of Death/Knowledge of Good and Evil, cedar trees, cypress, olive, all kinds, and for jewels we have the 12 jewels for the 12 tribes of Israel. Now, to the point. I don’t think we ever really discussed how light plays into all of this.

    Let’s talk for a second about jewels, or more specifically, fake jewels. There are several methods to determine whether or not a jewel is fake, and some of them depend on how they bend light. For diamonds, light bends so much when passing through that one shouldn’t be able to read words on a page when looking through it. But, besides that, one of the reasons why we love jewels is because they shine beautifully. If you had an outfit made entirely of gems, when you stepped into the light you would sparkle and shine like you were wearing stars. You just wouldn’t get the same effect when using fake gems. A reason I thought of as to why jewels are so important to Judeo-Christian beliefs and Tolkien is because of this property. Not just the fact that they sparkle and look pretty, but because they capture, refract and reflect light. In descriptions from the Bible and various places in Tolkien’s works, you almost get the feeling that the jewels are shining with a mysterious inner light, like perhaps the light of Eru or Jehovah. The jewels were meant to bring this holy light closer to us, to let us see the beauty is a way we can understand and appreciate. Furthermore, we can wear these little lights of God in honor of him and show it to others. Now, there is a thin line here where worship often turns into greed and vanity, but we’ll get back to that.

The question then becomes, how does this tie into trees? Well, as we discussed in class, trees are like the hallmark of nature. They are old and strong and extremely useful, but surprisingly vulnerable, and therefore easily exploitable. In a way, the represent the beauty of nature and expose the folly of man. Nature, at its core, comes from God/Eru. He created everything in the world, and nature was unblemished and beautiful without man. Just as the jewels brought God’s/Eru’s holy light to man, by bejeweling trees, we complete the circle and bring God back to nature. The two Great Trees shined like jewels themselves and were filled with what seemed to be liquid light. They are the epitome of a connection between man, God, and nature. Tolkien took the metaphor further and made trees living jewels, shining for man, god, and nature. I am not sure if this connection is what Tolkien intended by giving so much importance to trees, but I know he held them in very high regard. What I do know is that the Elves are the people of the trees, and they are probably the race closest to Eru, and share some striking similarities to trees, they are both tall, in touch with nature, often paired with jewels, and are immortal and unchanging.

Now back to the darker side of this. There was another thought I had about jewels and trees and light: it was the greed of man. Before, I talked about how people dress themselves up in beautiful jewels to bring God’s light closer to themselves, but there is a line where the focus turns too heavily on the sparkling of the jewels and not the light inside. Same with trees. Men see the uses of the wood and don’t think of the years within the roots. Hundreds of years of growth and life could be ended with just a few swings of steel. Trees are the jewels of nature, and men see them shine like diamonds.

Trees and jewels both capture and represent the holy light of God/Eru, thus bringing him closer to ourselves, but that light can lead to greed that ends up smothering it.

-Lioje Toussaint