Comments on Of Thingol and the Silmaril: a sonnet

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.

This is such a wonderfully unique viewpoint, I absolutely love it! And it was a real treat to hear you read it.

This is so lovely and creative and also made me think!!! Writing from the perspective of the silmaril is such an unexpected and rich choice, and it gives such real insight into Thingol! 

I’ve always thought of his obsession with the silmaril as another manifestation of both the doom of Mandos spreading its effect and Thingol’s own guilt around how things went with Lúthien, both of which are very movingly addressed here. But the notion that it also gave him a direct connection back to Valinor and a chance to reclaim a piece of everything he gave up by not returning … ooh, that’s some fascinating stuff! Why wouldn’t he latch on to that and find giving it up again to be impossible??? And it provides so much more of a humanizing perspective (you know, for an elf) than the usual portrait of him as just a greedy guy who was entranced by another pretty, shiny object if it was so much more than that, to include an evocation of old joys and happiness and lost friends. I guess that’s part of what makes this such a perfect poem for a project whose intent was to argue for a more nuanced and sympathetic understanding of him!

I also loved the attribution of sorrow to the silmaril and its identification of commonality with Thingol for having caused unintended grief. Of course Thingol had a lot more agency in the causing of grief than the jewel did, but I love the acknowledgment of Thingol’s mistakes as just that … mistakes. He wasn’t trying to cause harm even if it’s undeniably true that he did. (It’s also QUITE tragic, in a world where the silmaril has sentience, to imagine how it must feel about all of the ills done in its name. That must be incredibly hard to reckon with.) 

I’d also never thought much about the possibility that Thingol and Melian are reunited in Valinor, though I deeply love the idea. Melian’s “end” in the book is so mournful, like she almost disappears into her grief as a wisp of a spirit, that it was hard for me to imagine a happier ending still to come. But, of course, if we believe (as I certainly do!) that Thingol was at heart a good person, if imperfect, then he should be able to exit Mandos and live with her again. So I will cherish that little image, which brings me great happiness!!!

Thanks so much for steering me to this whole Thingol-reclamation project! I loved every part of it — the art, the paper, the interviews and especially your sonnet! ♥️

Thank you so much for this wonderful, thoughtful comment (which I've just enjoyed rereading, as I've taken so long to reply!) I've responded to some of your points elsewhere, but there are still a couple of things to say. :)

I feel as though the poem only really came alive when I decided it would be from the point of view of the Silmaril! Originally it was going to be Thingol addressing the jewel - but I can remember the exact moment when they switched places in my brain…

And then I was influenced by something Finrod says to Beren: ‘For the Silmarils are cursed with an oath of hatred, and he that even names them in desire moves a great power from slumber‘.

I'm so happy to have encouraged you to believe that Thingol and Melian will reunite one day. :) Although she sheds her Elvish form in grief, I believe she's still very much a Maia, and will revive in Valinor in time and wait for him. 

(And I'm also very glad that you've enjoyed all the MA Thingol material!)