Substance of Elven rings
 

I was just wondering, why would Vilya be made out of Gold?

Simple coincidence? I think not, since Tolkien did not add a detial for nothing. For instance, there was reason that Vilya was the mightiest of the three, and had a sapphire on it, and was a ring of air - to show its similiarity with Manwe.

But why would Vilya be made out of Gold? I can't associate gold with anything in Tolkien's works, except for one phrase "Gold, toys of the dwarves, and iron, their servant." That does not point to anything powerful or majestic.

Of course, gold is a precious substance, but Mithril is much more precious still. It is not fitting that Nenya should be made out of Mithril while Vilya of gold.

It occured to me that Mithril is rather a feminine-like substance, while gold is masculine. Maybe it was becuase Galadriel was a woman while Elrond was a man?

I'm assuming that Manwë liked gold because the Vanyar, who were Golden, were "his" people, just like the Noldor were Aulë's "people." Also, gold is considered more precious than silver (it might be different for mithril), so the most powerful of the Three would probably have the most precious metal.

Actually, what's really interesting about that is that the Quendi generally liked silver better, that mithril was rarer and thus more precious than gold, and that gold was much more of a 'Melkor-element' than silver.

Well, I have indeed asked myself this on many accounts, and it is odd. Manwe himself liked gold, the Quendi liked silver, the noldor liked silver. I believe that with gold, comes evil and corruption; but silver is pure and equally as beautiful.

Hmmm, maybe it is a mixture of both?