Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silmarillion, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Unity vs. Division
Fate, Doom, and Free Will
Pride and Arrogance
Greed, Jealousy, and Obsession
Inevitable Loss
Myth and Memory
Summary
Analysis
During the Valar’s war with Melkor, Tulkas’s descent to Arda drives Melkor to the outer darkness of the world. A period of peace follows, and the Valar finish the construction of the world. To provide light, Aulë makes two lamps, which Varda fills and Manwë blesses before they’re placed on pillars in the north and south. Yavanna’s plants begin to grow, and animals live among them. After Arda is completed, Manwë organizes a feast for the Valar on the Isle of Almaren. This begins the Quenta Silmarillion, or the History of the Silmarils.
The history of the Silmarils, according to the elves, doesn’t begin with the creation of the Silmarils but with the completion of the world and, more importantly, the first creation of daylight. The stars already exist over Middle-earth, but they’re dim. The lamps illuminate the world, making it visible as it has never been before, and driving away Melkor’s shadow.
Themes
Melkor hears about the feast from his spies among the Maiar. Jealous and hateful, he waits until Tulkas falls asleep after the feast, then descends to the north of Middle-earth with his followers and builds an underground fortress called Utumno. When the lands around it wither, the Valar realize he’s returned. Before the Valar can find his hiding place, Melkor attacks, breaking the two lamps and spilling fire across Arda, then hides away again. The Valar focus their attention on salvaging Middle-earth.
Whatever the Valar create, Melkor seeks to destroy—especially light, which is reminiscent of the Flame Imperishable that he can never attack or possess. Melkor has only destructive power—in his hands, light isn’t a creative and clarifying force, but a catastrophic one, burning the land and the work of the Valar. His very presence is destructive, corroding the world around him.
Themes
The Isle of Almaren is destroyed in the fires, so the Valar move from Middle-earth to the Land of Aman on the border of the world next to the sea that encircles Arda. They raise up mountains as a defense against Melkor; Manwë puts his throne on the peak and the rest of the Valar build their houses behind them. The land, named Valinor, grows more beautiful than Middle-earth, and nothing dies or withers there.
Valinor is created as a place exempt from the destruction and loss that exists elsewhere in Arda because of Melkor. The Valar defend it against his attack and, in future days, disallow mortals to enter. It is a land that resists change, for better or worse.
Themes
Beside the gate of the city of Valmar, Yavanna sings a song that grows two trees. One—named Telperion—sheds white light and has flowers that produce silver dew, and the other—named Laurelin—sheds golden light and has yellow flowers. Each day, Telperion blooms first for seven hours, then its light fades as Laurelin’s grows. The Valar consider the first time Telperion bloomed to be the first hour of the first day on Arda and begin to count time.
The Two Trees replace the two lamps as the lights of the Valar’s realm. Composed of growing, living light, they are sacred and untouched by evil. Now that the physical features of the world have been completed, some of the constructed elements—such as the first record of time by the ageless and immortal Valar—also begin.
Themes
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Middle-earth remains in twilight, lit only by Varda’s stars, and the Valar rarely visit it. In their absence, Melkor wanders unchecked. Manwë rules Valinor peacefully, Aulë works as a craftsman, and Ulmo resides in the ocean, ensuring that water and life still run through Middle-earth. Yavanna travels to Middle-earth to heal the growing things Melkor harms and advises the Valar that another war with Melkor is inevitable before the Children of Ilúvatar arrive. Oromë also goes to Middle-earth and hunts Melkor’s monsters.
The Valar disagree on what to do about the threat Melkor poses. Most of them remain in Valinor, overseeing their own domains there, but a few still travel to Middle-earth to ensure that Melkor doesn’t take over the continent completely. In the vision of Arda shown to them by Ilúvatar, the elves awoke somewhere in Middle-earth. If the Valar don’t act, the elves will awaken under Melkor’s rule.
Themes
Since none of the Ainur fully understand the theme of the Great Music that introduced the Children of Ilúvatar, they didn’t add anything to it, making the Ainur the “elders” of elves and men, rather than their creators or masters. Ilúvatar approves of the creation of Arda and names the children that will live there: Quendi (elves) who will “have the greater bliss” in the world and be the most beautiful, and Atani (men) who will be restless but will have the power “to shape their life” beyond the plan of the Great Music. Ilúvatar knows that men will abuse this gift of freedom, but their actions only contribute to the glory of his work.
Ilúvatar is the only creator of all sentient life. He bestows true life and free will on the Ainur, elves, and men, but makes each race with distinct characteristics. To men he gives a special gift—the gift of freedom, which allows the possibility of disobedience. Though no one can subvert Ilúvatar’s plan for the world (which allows for free will within it), men will have the ability to create their own fates after what the Ainur conceived of during the Great Music has come to pass and after their vision of Arda ended. All free will, even used for evil, will eventually create beauty in Ilúvatar’s plan.
Themes
Because of the gift of freedom, also, men will only live for a short time in the world and then depart to somewhere unknown. The elves will live until the end of the world unless they’re killed, in which case they remain in Valinor in the Houses of the Dead. As time progresses, the Valar will envy men for their ability to die, though Melkor makes men fear it. Still, the Valar know that men will join in the Second Music of the Ainur, though they don’t know Ilúvatar’s plan for the elves after the end of the world.
Elves and men will be fundamentally separated after death—elves are bound to the world forever and men are bound to leave the world forever. Though there is naturally loss in this separation, it doesn’t become a frightening loss until Melkor’s influence makes men fear death. The elves’ tradition promises that the separation is only temporary—all division will be healed at the end of the world, though they don’t yet know their own part in it.
Themes
