What do you think a Silmaril looked like?
 

I'm really intrigued with the idea of the Silmarils; gems made of a mysterious substance and held the light of the two trees in them. They must have been something special for them to spawn all the violence and suffering that followed their making. What do you think they looked like? Personally, I see them looking kind of like a shard of magicite from Final Fantasy VI (I know! I'm so unimaginitive!).

I picture them being clear gems, like diamonds, that will reflect many different colors when they catch the light (blues, purples...)

I always pictured the Silmarils as being silver-white, and shining with their own radiance like lights.

I think that they would have been sort of clear, but slightly opaque, maybe opal like. O.K. that made no sence.

I pictured them as mother of pearl.

Oh, they must have been exactly like my eyes!!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Vanity aside, I picture the Silmarils to have an intense, yet extremely captivating Venus-like glow, with a bit of diamond, and pearl, and moon on the water, and milky sunrise thrown in. The kind of things you could stare at for hours, if not days, if not your whole life, if you weren't careful.

I see them as shining intensely bright, as if a star fell from heaven and landed in one's hand. Perhaps the color varies slightly, perhaps they glow more gently than a star, but I still see jewels remarked for their brightness than for their clarity or color. Yet still, they must be surpassingly beautiful, and most important of all, intensely desirable...

Orbs of living light just the size to fit comfortably into an elven hand.

i imagines them as milky diamonds, which glow occasionally, and from afar look like stars. with corners but rounded...

I imagined them as perfectly clear diamond like objects except when looked at they would flash with a brilliant gold or silver depending upon the time.

...not until the Sun passes and the Moon falls, shall it be known of what substance they were made. Like the crystal of diamonds it appeared, and yet was more strong than adamant, so that no violence could mar it or break it within the Kingdom of Arda. Yet that crystal was to the Silmarils but as is the body to the Children of Ilúvatar: the house of its inner fire, that is within it and yet in all parts of it, and is its life. And the inner fire of the Silmarils Fëanor made of the blended light of the Trees of Valinor, which lives in them yet, though the Trees have long withered and shine no more. Therefore even in the darkness of the deepest treasury the Silmarils of their own radiance shone like the stars of Varda;

I think they looked like a chunk of coal. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Coal it is, Zif. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I think they shone subtly, glistening like stars. Unlike gems, which sparkle only as they are moved, the inner cool light of these stones flickers even as your hand holds them steady, mesmerizing, sparkling and shimmering, ever-changing in seemingly limitless variation.

Ordinary gems only reflect the ambient light, and it is only one type at a time. But the Silmarils inner light shifts and changes: Now a brilliant blaze like sunshine rippling on the water, now a soft blending of light and shadow, showing angles and facets. The closer one looks, th more one sees.. color of every hue and season, some unnamed..

Btw, what exactly is adamant?

I'm a beginner in fantasy. Is it some metal or just something really strong?

Adamant should be another name for diamond. I don't know if adamant takes another meaning in some fantasy works. I highly doubt it.

Great description, Niphredil Baggins! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Hey Guys ! very good question!

Silmarils look like me , of course, cute! Lol
(I'm not a stone of vision for nothing, héhéhé) [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

By the way, I'm also called Sil, (short for silmarillien), cuter isn't it [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Oh my! I think I 've really abused of my " black magical plants infusion" ( in our world translation: coffee) I use for energy! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

ok, seriously I imagine silmarils like a precious stones which change of aspects and names according to the person who will use.
it.
In the chinese astrology, each person is linked to a stone symbol wich reperesents the person's qualities.
So I can just speek for me , silmaril is a saphire round-sphere stone. Blue is my color and blue stones are my stone. Sphere, because it'a perfect and infinite form.

As a magical instrument, it's a receptacle of the past, present, and futures lights that it is only seen in the seer mind.

Duh, a theory like an other... where's my cup, btw?

[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I always pictured silmarils as being small, so you could hold one in the palm of your hand, and perfectly round. I think they must have had a kind of glass like appearance, but opaque. I think they glowed with their own light, but not too brightly. lol, great description, eh? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Well, I'm not exactly sure. Since they held the light of the Two Trees, normally they must have glowed a bit with silvery light with just a hint of goldenness, but when they encountered other light reflected it back in whatever color that light was, only brighter, more radient. I think that if you were up close to them the glow wouln't be overpowering, but the sort of thing that you notice even if you're far away. They had to be small, since at times Feanor wore them apon his brow, unless he had a really big head. (wait a sec...) Tolkien thought at least at one point that they were also spherical in shape, as is mentioned in Lays of Beleriand in the unfinished poem "The Flight of the Noldoli"
But now we come to another question- how didFeanor wear them?

I'm not exactly sure what Adamant is, but I do know that Galadriel's ring, Nenya the ring wrought of mithril with the white stone that shone with it's own light, was allso known as "the Ring of Adamant". [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]