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
The elves fear the sea that separates Middle-earth from Valinor until Ulmo comes to Beleriand to talk to them and play music. Ulmo uproots an island and uses it as a ship to carry the Eldar to Valinor. The Teleri are too late to make the crossing with the Vanyar and the Noldor, so they wait beside the sea and Ossë and Uinen teach them sea-lore. Eventually, Ulmo returns to bring them to Valinor. Those who remain with Ossë are called the Falathrim, led by Círdan, and are the first ship-makers of Middle-earth.
The elves continue to become divided by both physical space and experience. Rather than traveling with the other groups, the Teleri remain with Ossë and Uinen, learning about the sea and growing to love it. Though most of them, too, travel to Valinor eventually, they have been changed by their experiences and naturally grow apart from the Vanyar and Noldor.
Themes
The friends of Elwë, unwilling to leave for Valinor without him, are called the Eglath, or the Forsaken People, and wander Beleriand longing for Valinor. When Elwë wakes up from his trance, he is reunited with his people and appears tall and gray-haired, like one of the Maiar. Though he wants to see the light of Valinor’s Trees again, he’s content to see the same light visible in Melian’s face.
Elwë, too, is changed by his experiences—his appearance is altered, he goes by a different name, and he benefits from Melian’s wisdom. Though the Forsaken People are victims of the loss that arises from separation, they are eventually reunited with Elwë and no longer forsaken.
Themes
Ossë calls out after the Teleri on their voyage, and they beg Ulmo to stop. Ulmo sets the island down in the Bay of Eldamar, and the Teleri stay there in sight of Valinor but under the stars. It becomes known as Tol Eresseä, or the Lonely Isle. Both the Valar and Finwë are upset to learn that the Teleri won’t come to Valinor, and Finwë grieves that Elwë was left behind in Beleriand. The Valar create a gap in the mountains so the Vanyar and Noldor can see the stars and so the light of the Trees can touch the Lonely Isle.
The Teleri end their journey just short of Valinor—they aren’t in Middle-earth any longer, but neither have they truly rejoined the Vanyar and Noldor. To accommodate all three groups of elves, the Valar open the mountains to let the light of the Trees spill onto the island and make the stars of Middle-earth visible in Valinor. Though the Teleri aren’t all the way to Valinor yet, all three groups of elves live in the same light.
Themes
Inside the valley, the elves build a city called Tirion and live peacefully. Yavanna makes them a tree in the image of Telperion. A seed from that tree is planted on the Lonely Isle, producing a tree named Celeborn, and a seed from Celeborn later becomes the White Tree of Númenor. While quarrying for stone to build Finwë’s house, masons discover the first gems, and the Noldor begin to cut and distribute them.
Yavanna’s gift to Tirion is not only significant because of its similarity to Telperion, but because, in the future, it will become an important symbol. Its cycles of death and rebirth parallel those of the world—loss and successive growth in new nations. Meanwhile, the elves thrive in Valinor, growing, building, and learning.
Themes
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Finwë’s sons are Fëanor, high-spirited, Fingolfin, valiant and steadfast, and Finarfin, wise and fair. Fëanor’s sons are Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Caranthir, Curufin, Amrod, and Amras. Fingolfin’s children are Fingon, the future king of the Noldor, Turgon, the future lord of Gondolin, and Aredhel the White. Finarfin’s children are Finrod, Orodreth, Angrod, Aegnor, and Galadriel, whose hair is as golden as Laurelin’s light.
The elven narrator provides this information early, listing out Finwë’s descendants and their identifying characteristics before they’re actually born. This indicates both the importance of Finwë’s line for the remainder of the story and the narrator’s commitment to clarity—though the elves don’t know certain aspects of their traditions with certainty, genealogies are well-recorded.
Themes
Eventually, Ossë teaches the Teleri ship-building, and they leave the Lonely Isle and reunite with the other Eldar. They build their own city, Alqualondë, on the shore of Valinor. As time passes, the Vanyar decide to leave the city of Tirion and live on Manwë’s mountain or further inland, out of sight of Middle-earth. The Noldor, however, can’t forget Middle-earth. Fëanor and his sons explore Valinor, rarely living in one place for long.
Though the Teleri finally join the Vanyar and the Noldor in Valinor, the three groups never truly become one community again. They’re united under the guidance of the Valar, but they each reside in different places in Valinor and have different leaders and priorities. The fact that Fëanor chooses to wander—much as Melkor did in the Void—indicates that he thinks differently from the rest of the Noldor.
Themes
