Quote:
Originally Posted by The Hobbit
The great jewel shone before his feet of its own inner light, and yet, cut and fashioned by the dwarves, who had dug it from the mountain long ago, it took all light that fell upon it and changed it into ten thousand sparks of radiance shot with glints of the rainbow.
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I would suggest that the Dwarves could not possibly "cut and fashion" a Silmaril. It would be impervious to their earthly tools. Again, the Silmarils are sacred, and Morgoth himself was caused great agony at the jewel's touch, it burned Charcharoth's stomach, and burned the hands of Maedhros and Maglor. It would certainly cause pain in the hands of any greedy Dwarf, Thorin included. And even Bilbo, who walked about with the Arkenstone in his pocket, had no effect from the stone -- in direct proximity to the One Ring! One would think that such a sacred and living jewel would certainly react to the presence of such an abominably evil thing in direct opposition to it.
As someone mentioned "literary borrowing" in the case of the Arkenstone, wherein Tolkien transfered some of the qualities of a Silmaril to describe a gem of like appearance, he did the same when describing the ElfKing's subterranean manse in Mirkwood, which is a near identical description to Menegroth, the city of King Thingol in Doriath. Like but not identical.
I am not sure why this inane debate continues.