tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post5188367713294556532..comments2023-11-07T06:20:12.181-08:00Comments on Tolkien: Medieval and Modern: Gems and Life"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"http://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-9764888957510270982017-06-02T23:05:35.133-07:002017-06-02T23:05:35.133-07:00One of the questions raised by the importance of t...One of the questions raised by the importance of the Jewels is why Morgoth wants to steal them in the first place. Why does he want the Silmarils so badly, and it seems to connected to his desire in the Ainulindale to destroy whatever the Valar create. But part of his motivation seems to be, over time, not to destroy, but to mock. This may be due to the fact that he can't completely destroy, at first at least, the Elves. Therefore, he decides to pervert them, thus mocking the creation of Iluvatar. With the silmarils, which he could theoretically destroy by feeding them to Ungoliant, it seems like the perfect way to mock and "troll" the elves. He is drawn to things of great value and beauty, it seems, not to possess them because they are valuable but simply because they are precious to the things they hate<br />-Harry O'Neil Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16047171776160832596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-83055454746312854432017-06-01T18:29:58.175-07:002017-06-01T18:29:58.175-07:00I like the way that you describe the extraordinary...I like the way that you describe the extraordinary properties of the gems here, and I'm particularly interested in your claim that gems, in a sense, are representative of life in Tolkien's work. I believe that this claim can be extended to gems in the primary world as well, even if they do not have the same supernatural properties as the Silmarils or other gems in Tolkien's works. I've always been fascinated with the reflective qualities of gems, and as you have described here, there is no shortage of life imagery in Tolkien's depictions of the Silmarils and other such gems. The connection between gems and spirituality is also interesting to me. As there are religious undertones in Tolkien's descriptions of the Silmarils, gems have been used in worship for hundreds of years as well back in our primary world. Additionally, gems and crystals have fascinated people with some believing that certain gems have the power to absorb and direct certain kinds of energy. I don't know if I buy that, but I certainly believe that gems fascinate humans so deeply for a reason, and perhaps that reason is that the light that they reflect reminds us of the effervescence of life in a figurative sense, whereas Tolkien's gems physically embody this quality.<br /><br /><br />-AH"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-19809520282954524282017-05-14T14:39:28.770-07:002017-05-14T14:39:28.770-07:00Nice close reading of Tolkien's descriptions o...Nice close reading of Tolkien's descriptions of the Silmarils and the Trees. Could you tie their life-bearing properties more closely to the descriptions of the gemstones in the other sources that we read? How like or unlike the gemstones in "Pearl," for example, are Tolkien's gems? RLFB"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.com