Quote:
Originally Posted by skip spence
I'm with Nerwen here, it's highly unlikely that the Arkenstone is meant to be one of the Silmarils.
That said, there are sure lots of similarities between the two gems and they are hardly coincidental. Tolkien probably had the Silmarils in mind when he described the Arkenstone - he of course created the backstory of the Silmarillion long before he ever thought of Hobbits - and recycled that particular idea (a beautiful, radiant gem-stone that stirs up greed despite it's pure origins) for his new children's book, among many other recycled ideas from the Silmarillion, a work he probably never thought would see the inside of a printing press anyway.
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Based on facts, I agree with you. But there is a part of me that says in the face of logic that Prof. T was never that freewheeling with his subjects, there has to be
something there.
But in that line of thinking, if there was any connection, however remote, some footnote would find the light of day. The conclusion that remains, is that there is no connection whatsoever and that the subjects are so remote and disparate that Prof T wasn't thinking about the Silmarils at all when describing the Arkenstone.
Or ... the idea that the Arkenstone was related to the Silmarils in whichever way (it was one, was related to one, reminded someone of one, they were glowy), he felt, would overshadow even the importance of the One Ring, and in any event would take quite a lot of pages for the backstory to explain what one of these Holy Jewels was.
On a side note, in rereading Silmarillion, in
Of the Flight of the Noldor, Morogoth holds all 3 Silmarils in a crystal casket in one hand. So they're not the size of apples unless he has really huge hands. Which I suppose he could have, if he wanted. But I'm reimagining them the size of marbles now.