Silmarils
 

Did the Silmarils have any healing capabilities? I know that they were marvellous to behold and all, but what were they good for? Could they heal things/people like the elessar or the elendilmir? The only thing that it did was open the way to the west when Earendil went there, but not much else.
Of course they were revered because they had the light of the two trees in them, but....yeah. Im kind of stumped. They caused more bad than good if you think about it.

They didn't do anything aside from being pretty, as far as I know.

They would apparently burn those of evil intent that handled them.
Although that may not be exactly a use.

[ November 09, 2002: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]

The Silmarils were just vrey beautiful jewels with an extraordinary heat against evil. They reason that it was the Silmaril that opened the way to the West, was because in the Silmarils lay the beginning of it all. If the Simarils weren't made, the Elves wouldn't have gone to the West (in short)!

greetings,
lathspell

I don't think I can agree with this. First of all, as you say, a Silmaril was able to pierce the shadows and enchantments that surrounded Valinor and allow Earendil to come thither. Second, (and I'm sorry I can't provide a reference for this at the moment) it is said that the Elves at the Mouths of Sirion prospered for a time due to the Silmaril. I think they had some power aside from mere beauty.

The Silmarils were called living things, and their crystal was "as is the body to the Children of Iluvatar."

Mandos foretold that "the fates of Arda, earth, sea, and air, lay locked within them."

The Silmarils were made after the Elves had already gone into the West, by an Elf.

I would say that the reason a Silmaril helped Earendil get to Valinor was because the Valar thought that it was beautiful and wanted it near them, covetous wretches that they are.

well...i guess you would only prosper if you were an elf. Otherwise, it would speed your death up. Luthien and Beren died an early death because it was too beautiful and bright for mortals.

I myself think that the Silmarils had a power, what kind i'm not quite sure. In the Silmarillion when Carcharoth the Wolf of Angband wandered into Doriath after swallowing the Silmaril it says, "the might of Melian upon the borders of the land stayed him not; for fate drove him, and the power of the Silmaril that he bore to his torment". As for the Silmarils causing more harm then good, well it wasn't the jewels themselves that caused grief it was the envy and want of them. Hey burrahobbit where in OK are you from? I'm a Tulsan through and through.

*feeling stupid*

That, of course, should be: 'wouldn't have gone back to M-e'

Turoch: You speak about Carcharoth breaking through the Girdle of Melian with the Silmaril burning inside him. Yet I don't think it was the Silmaril that gave him that power, for earlier in the same story Beren breaks through it as well without a Silmaril. I guess it was faith that drove them, and (though I don't have any quotes now) I think Tolkien used this power more than these two times. Maybe it was because their fates were bound together, and with a Silmaril.

greetings,
lathspell

This was also said of Beren and Luthien when the lived on Tol Galen. It said that it was made like Valinor or somethin like that, but the beauty of it along with Luthien was just way too cool for them and it made them die quicker.

I see a few things have been overlooked.

First, the Silmarils are so important because they contain the last bit of light from the Two Trees. And second, they burn those who are evil because they were hallowed by Varda, it wasn't an original quality.

Didn't the the Chapter "Of Beren and Luthien" state that when Mablung placed the silmaril on Beren's hand, he came out of the swoon he was in after bearing the full blunt of Carcharoth's attackon Thingol? Perhaps the silmaril did have some healing properties. Otherwise Beren would have died. After all, the light of the silmarils came from Yavenna's work and the work of the Valars were good.

And as for the "Curse of the Silmarils" (in which they bring death , destruction, increased taxes, etc...) well, it's the same curse that surrounds all great jewels- greed and the power they symbolize. Look at the hugest diamonds or sapphires in our world- they've probably been killed for. That's cause us mortals love riches and power and what do these gems mean? Exactly. For the Elves, it was not only having their most beautiful and advanced creation wrested from them, but it was the same money/power/jewelry thing.

Here, here Lindril Arvilya. I quite agree. The reason that the Silmarils caused so much sorrow and grief was because of the Oath that Feanor and his son's took. That oath and the curse of Mandos doomed them to throw away all in the persuit of the Silmaril.

HA. I've got a Silmarillion power! It is a bit indirect but here goes. Eärendil the mariner sails through the sky with a Silmaril upon his brow right. Wasn't the star thet the elves call Eärendil the same that gave the light which Galadriel gave to Frodo in her Phial? Well that light certinally had an effect on Shelob, i'd say that the Silmaril shows itself to have some interedting properties.

P.S. If my info on Eärendil is skewed don't harass me too much, I haven't read the Silmarillian for awhile.

Since they had the power to help the elf community at the Falas thrive, I always thought they must have power similar to the three elven rings. There seem to be similarities between the refuge of the Falas and those of Rivendell and Lórien, in that they were the last great strongholds of things elfy in Middle-Earth.

After all, they were created from the Two Trees, and kept the memory of their light. They had the power of Nostalgia.

They didn't have the power of "nostalgia" because they weren't merely preserves of light; they were sources of it. The Silmarils essentially had the same powers that the light of the trees had; to pierce shadow and cause growth, beauty, and prosperity.

Since the subject has been raised by Doug and others (less directly), I once read an extensive article which suggested that the power of the Three Rings, air, water and fire, resulted from their ability to "link" to the Silmarils which are lost to Middle Earth in air, water and a fiery chasm. I thought this theory was off base and a bit more than speculative but I thought that I'd bring it up for the sake of discussion.

Sounds fairly unlikely, but its a interesting comment is there anything to back it up?