New evidence for the Arkenstone-Silmaril case

[Huinesoron]

I recently saw a satirical discussion asserting that 1) the Arkenstone was a Silmaril, 2) Gandalf recognised it and deliberately hid the whole thing, and 3) this is why he was so fervently unwilling to recognise the One Ring as yet another artefact of Power picked up by that same blasted Hobbit sweet NIENNA. All in fun, but it brought me back here.

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

Let's imagine Maedhros' "fiery chasm" is, or shortly after gave rise to, a rhyolitic volcanic eruption. That's the kind of eruption that forms obsidian - black volcanic glass. The Silmaril could have easily been encased in the stuff, and fairly near the surface. Of course, you'd need to be a miner to retrieve it, and fireproof to boot.

Oh yeah them. ^_^ Obsidian is probably the sharpest blade you can get - in modern times there have been experiments with using it for surgical scalpels - so I can easily imagine the dwarves of the Blue Mountains finding it and going 'score!'. So they chip away at it, hauling it away in chunks - and then they find a piece which seems to glow with its own light...

Man, that Huinesoron chap is such a clown. Obsidian? The Arkensil being mined in the Blue Mountains and lost in Erebor? The direct statement in the narrative of The Hobbit is just a lie? What a fool (Tookish or otherwise).

Obviously the Silmaril was carried from the wreck of Beleriand in a lava tube, probably when Sauron disrupted the magma systems of the world to build himself a volcano down in Mordor. At some point (probably before it moved, but maybe in a deep lava tube under Erebor), it encountered conditions of such high temperature and pressure that it became a nucleation site for a gigantic diamond. It is this - the diamond shell around the Silmaril of Maedhros - that the Longbeards found, cut, and shaped.

This solves a bunch of problems! It was cut by the Dwarves - "it" being the diamond, not the Silmaril itself. It didn't burn Bilbo (/Thorin/Smaug) because he only touched the diamond. It was bigger than a Silmaril (probably), because of the diamond. Gandalf and Thranduil didn't recognise it because what they saw was a diamond.

But a glowing one. I only know of three glowing rocks in the history of Arda, and one of them's up in space. If the Arkenstone is not a Silmaril, then what exactly is it?

But where did the carbon for that huge diamond come from? Well, it's a bit unpleasant, but... how much carbon is there in an Elvish body? Maedhros jumped in holding the blessed thing, right?

hS