New evidence for the Arkenstone-Silmaril case

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

If the Silmaril had been floating around in magma for a long time, wouldn't it have become crusted with lava? Then the dwarves could have basically scraped it off.

the cutting and fashioning could be the scraping off of accumulated gunk from the surface of the gem.

I think this idea can be discounted with relative ease. 'Cutting' is the process of chipping away pieces of a raw gemstone once it has been freed of the rock in which it has been found, and were this not enough Tolkien adds 'and fashioned': the Arkenstone had been cut and polished just as any stone must be if it is to achieve the visual effect that the gem has on Bilbo. Both the author of the work and the Dwarves who found the Arkenstone would have been well aware of that fact, but even if the phrase "cut and fashioned" was intended to mean "cleaned of enclosing material" one would expect there to be some memory of this: finding a ready-cut gemstone in a natural seam would be like digging out a complete candelabrum from a vein of silver. There is simply no such thing as a naturally-occurring cut stone, and to find one would be so great a marvel that it would be remembered in legend for centuries, even millennia. This is why it is a stumbling block to the Arkenstone being a Silmaril.

Another block in my opinion is the absence of any evidence that Tolkien intended this. The recovery of one of the Silmarils by the Dwarves appears to run counter to all his predictions about them, and one would expect there to be some mention of so major a divergence somewhere in The History of Middle-Earth or his letters explaining it or at least indicating that he was considering making the connection. I just don't see the similarity between the Arkenstone and the Silmarils as a particularly compelling piece of evidence: Silma is also (according to the Silmarillion) "Like the crystal of diamonds", and I think we're all agreed that a diamond is not a Silmaril. Perhaps the Arkenstone is a diamond.

As for the longing of Thorin and his folk, and the great avarice pertaining to the Arkenstone, why need we look any further than the fact that it was a huge gem, cut by a master craftsman? Imagine the Second Star of Africa from the Imperial State Crown, only twice the size and up for grabs and you can probably imagine the severity of the "dragon sickness" it could cause. If it were part of an ownerless hoard that made a combination of Sutton Hoo, the Mildenhall Treasure and the Crown Jewels look like the contents of a second-rate pawn shop it becomes a lot easier to appreciate how battles might be fought over it. They have certainly been fought over less.

I'm not about to discount the parallels between the Arkenstone and the Silmarils, though. Thorin almost echoes the Oath of Fëanor when he says in Chapter XVI

...I will be avenged on anyone who finds it and withholds it.

To me, though, this is not an indication that the Arkenstone of Thráin is a Silmaril, but evidence that Tolkien had the great Fëanorian jewels very much in his mind when writing The Hobbit. The 1930s were a time during which he was writing the Lay of Leithian and revising the extant Silmarillion with a view to publication, so it seems to me not at all surprising that he should include a great gem that causes strife. In any case the divisive effects of great wealth was a matter close to Tolkien's heart, as we can see from its frequent embodiments, and indeed from this passage:

...he did not reckon on the power that gold has upon which a dragon has long brooded, nor with Dwarvish hearts. Long hours in the past days Thorin had spent in the treasury, and the lust of it was heavy on him. Though he had hunted chiefly for the Arkenstone, yet he had an eye for many another wonderful thing that was lying there, about which were wound old memories of the labours and the sorrows of his race.

The Battle of the Five Armies arises from the regrettable fact that rather too many people have a claim on the treasure, not least the men of Dale, who have killed the dragon, and whose stolen goods are intermingled with the treasure of Erebor. Only to the Dwarves is the Arkenstone a great temptation, and that because it is an heirloom of Thorin's house that has become a symbol of the Kingdom Under the Mountain. For me, though, the Heart of the Mountain is no more a Silmaril than Thorin is Maglor.

[ April 28, 2003: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]