The grand architecture...

Timdalf

Timdalf

Active Member
Hi, Middle-earthers, hobbiteers, and Mythgardlings,

I want to raise what I hope will be a positive and fruitful point. A challenge. No work of art can really begin or succeed without having some sort of central focus... even if that center is unconscious at first and emerges in the course of the work's creation. If we begin with this or that (however important and interesting) particular aspect, event, or character without having some overall conception (which of course may and probably will change as this project develops), then I suspect we will get lost in endless detail (however fascinating and worthwhile)...

So, let me pose what is perhaps the most difficult and even unanswerable question:
What do we think The Silmarillion, Tolkien's Legendarium as a whole, is about? Obviously, the various recensions of Tolkien's Silmarillion text are about the history of the Elves. That history is largely about the fragmentation and weakening of the Elves in their struggles with Morgoth and Sauron (which are, however, by and large successful) and thus their eventual departure from Middle-earth. The central image of that process is, as Verlyn Flieger seems to be saying, is light: its fragmentation, dimming, and final decline into material (rather than "magical") potency. The central theme, perhaps, which this illustrates, or manifests, is the awakening of the Elves to the realization that immortality in a mortal world is not the paradise they originally hoped it would be.

Perhaps the way to embody (as all art must be as concrete and specific as possible) these two vectors of meaning is that the visual imagery of our "film" will bring to life the first, and the musical aspect of our "soundtrack" will express the second. They will of course interact and relate to each other, and this is perhaps where the third great over-arching theme (as I see it, and maybe I'm wrong or am missing something essential) is the interaction of Providence and free will. Thus the benevolence of Eru allows the Elves through their struggles and decline to exercise their choices, but also to face the consequences of them, one of which is their increasing wisdom about everlasting life in a mortal and changing world.

Or am I getting way ahead of things here?
 
I don't think you're getting ahead at all, as I agree that it's important to have a theme in mind. Or rather, several major themes, as I think there are a few that run through the Silmarillion. I don't think I can really pin them down in one post, but some of the major ones I've always considered are:

- Hubris/Pride: This is a huge one as it relates to Feanor and his sons, Thingol, Turin, and more. Several of the stories are pretty much Greek tragedies in how much this theme really echoes through. What I think would be really cool to consider and add some interest to this theme would be to relate it to the development of the Elves. What I mean is that it is striking how different the Elves are that we meet in the Third Age versus the First Age. Most of them certainly seem to be wiser and less hotheaded. I would argue that this is because of the experiences of the First Age, either because they directly experiences the events or heard about them in stories. One of the themes then could be how the events of the First Age, particularly as they relate to hubris/pride, serve as lessons to later Elves, and this could obviously tie directly into a frame narrative.

- Destiny/Predestination: Another "oldie but goodie". Definitely a theme that could be explored, particularly as it relates to the Children of Hurin, but also to be seen with Tuor, Earendil, and more. This could tie into a different frame, maybe post-Lord of the Rings, as characters then could be ruminating on how much of the events of the War of the Ring were destiny and how much was under their control. Stories from the Silmarillion could help answer this question.

I'll stop now so that this post doesn't get out of control...
 
I think Tolkien's work in general deals with existential issues of humanity.
In a sense, the elves pose the question: what would mankind be, if mankind hadn't fallen to 'original sin?'
I'm drawing a lot on the History of Middle Earth stuff here -
but I think the core issue throughout is: what is sin, what is retribution, and what is redemption?
 
Professor Tolkien did have some things to say about the themes of the Lord of the Rings in particular, but I think they could apply to the Silmarillion as well:
"But I should say, if asked, the tale is not really about Power and Dominion: that only sets the wheels going; it is about Death and the desire for deathlessness. Which is hardly more than to say it is a tale written by a Man!" (Letter 203, 1957)
"It is mainly concerned with Death, and Immortality; and the 'escapes': serial longevity, and hoarding memory." (Letter 211, 1958)
Note: I took these quotes from Wikipedia because I don't have a copy of the Letters, but I'm going to assume they are correct.
 
Another key theme in the Silmarillion (closely related to hubris/pride) is loving too much the work of ones own hands.
 
Absolutely agree with you Keating about that. One of the lines that I remember clearly from the Silmarillion is Ulmo's warning to Turgon to "love not too much the work of thy hands." I think another theme related to the Silmarillion comes from the second half of that quote "and remember that the true hope of the Noldor lies in the west and cometh over the sea." This is a common Christian theme about putting your faith in God.
 
michael dennis said:
I think Tolkien's work in general deals with existential issues of humanity.
In a sense, the elves pose the question: what would mankind be, if mankind hadn't fallen to 'original sin?'
I'm drawing a lot on the History of Middle Earth stuff here -
but I think the core issue throughout is: what is sin, what is retribution, and what is redemption?
Click to expand...

You're close, but not quite on target here. First, let me quote from Tolkien's famous letter to Waldman:
>>>…There cannot be any 'story' without a fall – all stories are ultimately about the fall – at least not for human minds as we know them and have them.So, proceeding, the Elves have a fall, before their 'history' can become storial….
…Anyway all this stuff is mainly concerned with Fall, Mortality, and the Machine. With Fall inevitably, and that motive occurs in several modes. With Mortality, especially as it affects art and the creative (or as I should say, sub-creative) desire which seems to have no biological function, and to be apart from the satisfactions of plain ordinary biological life, with which, in our world, it is indeed usually at strife. This desire is at once wedded to a passionate love of the real primary world, and hence filled with the sense of mortality, and yet unsatisfied by it. It has various opportunities of 'Fall'. It may become possessive, clinging to the things made as 'its own', the sub-creator wishes to be the Lord and God of his private creation. He will rebel against the laws of the Creator – especially against mortality. Both of these (alone or together) will lead to the desire for Power, for making the will more quickly effective, – and so to the Machine (or Magic). By the last I intend all use of external plans or devices (apparatus) instead of development of the inherent inner powers or talents — or even the use of these talents with the corrupted motive of dominating: bulldozing the real world, or coercing other wills. The Machine is our more obvious modern form though more closely related to Magic than is usually recognised….<<<

Tolkien notes that you cannot have a story without the fall. In other words perfect beings who have no conflicts are not interesting. The Elves indeed are fallen... we see that clearly in so much of their history, and not least with Fëanor et al. He betrays his kin to death for the sake of some baubles (realtively speaking)! What Tolkien is concerned with is the mortality that is the consequence of the fall. Now, I do not pretend to know (yet) how he reconciles the reality that mortality is an inevitable consequence of fallness. Why? Because falleness is to fall away from the Source of Life Himself. How the Elves in his cosmology manage to be everlasting in life, yet fallen, I do not really quite get. But as he says above, he is concerned with demonstrating in his stories that the desire for immortality without first attaining freedom from the slavery to the causes of the fall, ego and the passions (the compulsion for survival or endless life), leads only to endless inner torment, not happiness or bliss. This is overtly imaged in his concept of the Elves becoming increasingly miserable as they live on and on in a mortal world, as all they love continually dies away around them.

Another consequence of his dictum (sense of reality, if you will) that you cannot have a story without the fall is that you cannot have a fall without free will. If you are not free to err, then you cannot fall. And if you are not free to err, you are not worth any story, however it might seem otherwise. The tragedy of the fallen Elves is that they fall from a greater height than do Men, so their agony is greater. The fall of Fëanor is to attempt to deny the important events (like the loss of the Two Trees) and thus time itself. He tries to avoid the consequences of their fall and so falls himself. There is no way to avoid suffering. There is only the response of accepting to go through it regardless of whether it hopeless. That, I believe, is the essence of the Tolkienian-Lewisan concept of "northernness": resolution in the face of certain, albeit a long, defeat.
 
This is a really interesting question. In my mind , when looking closely at a piece of art, there is what is going on in the physical practical sense and what's going on in a deeper spiritual ,even sometimes mythical sense.

When it comes to the former. I often think that the central plot point of the Quenta Silmarillion is the reclamation of the Silmarils themselves. Except for a couple stories (Turin Turumbar comes to mind), they all seem to relate, in some round about way, to claiming the Silmarils. (You could also point at something to do with oaths and oath breaking)

However ,when it comes to the later, I think it could be many different things. Everytime I read Tolkien something different stands out to me. Humility and pride, hope and despair, friendship and love etc. These seem to be recurring themes in a lot of Tolkien's works. (I think they can all fit under the theme of mortality and death, because these states of existence are apart of the human experience.)

I don't think I am experienced enough to pinpoint at just one as being the central theme of the Silmarillion. However, i do think pride seems to come up quite often.
 
Tolkien's elves are individually fallen, yes... but they are not fallen as a race, as are men. Witness the Vanyar... no fall, no curse, like of eternal bliss. (Also, as you say, no story). The elves that have fallen in Tolkien have each individually brought it upon themselves, through kinslaying, defying a ban, etc. This is what I was suggesting - not that elves aren't fallen, or aren't capable of falling. It's that they haven't all as a whole people been condemned by some collective sin.

I realize this next part gets away from the Silmarillion a bit, but I read it in History of Middle Earth somewhere (I think "the Peoples of Middle Earth) - that men when first came to Beleriand, they already had a deep shadow on them from service to Morgoth. They would not speak of the darkness in their past. Those who broke free from that sin are redeemed - but the shadow of that sin is still there and can be perceived by some of the elves. It is something that set them apart from the elves of Beleriand, who were also 'fallen' but in a different way.
 
Well, obviously because the Silmarils crystalize the light of the Two Trees which are the central mythic archetype of the legendarium. Ability to perceive, be close to that light, to be enlightened (not in the 18th century sense, nor in the Buddhist sense, since neither of those were intended by JRRT, but rather the ancient Christian sense) is thus the primary goal of life in Middle-earth. The Elves fall consists of becoming obsessed with the crystalization rather than the source of the Light. Now, I personally see a major problem in his metaphysics by separating longevity from that being in the Light. In Christianity longevity is directly proportional to one's proximity to holiness, to the Uncreated Light. Another problematic in his metaphysic is the issue of free will and the Elves relation to the Music of the Ainur. And that these problems are not clarified but remain ambiguous is, to my mind, a major reason why the tales are so unsettled and unfinished. There is something of the solutions embodied in LotR, but once arrived at Tolkien would have had to go back and rewrite "The Silmarillion" in the light (!) of those solutions. Free will and Providence is resolved by the way it works in LotR: Providence provides the opportunities for free will, determines them, but leaves free will open to one's choices. The treck to the West, to Elvenesse, is a symbol of returning to the Light, to the sacredness it manifests, but the issue of the ultimate destiny of the Elves and the problematic of everlasting longevity remains, it seems, unclarified. But at least JRRT makes clear that death (of the passion imprisoned body) to the service of its resurrection in a pefected form (which is perhaps the core teaching of Christianity) is a blessing, not a punishment or debacle. Otherwise we are condemned to everlasting torment of the passions. How this relates to the Elvish longevity is very interesting to discuss.
 
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