The silmarils are like a virus [Morgoth's Ring]

[toddhoffious]

Can't agree that the silmarils are blameless for the desire of others. Viruses without people are harmless as well, but that misses symbiotic nature of the system.

The silmarils and people coevolved like viruses and people coevolved. The similarils were created precisely to be desirable. They spring from the lust of Fëanor for the gold and silver light shone from Galadriel's hair.

They contain the Light of Valinor! How could they not be desirable? It's like putting cake in front of a starving person and blaming them for being hungry. Everyone is hungry or the light.

And don't forget Fëanor was allowed to create the silmarils by unknown and unreproducible means. It's a legendary artifact. That doesn't just happen, it was allowed to happen, even made to happen because of the effects it would have.

Don't blame the victim here. It's not so black and white as all that.

 

[MithLuin]

Likewise, it's not the silmarils' faults everyone wants them.

They are innately desirable objects, it is true. But one can appreciate beauty without in any way wishing to covet or hoard or possess it. One can simply admire beauty, rejoice in how beautiful it is, and then...continue on. No need to lock it in a vault. I think there is a natural sadness over the fading of a sunset, and of how quickly the beauty is lost. And people certainly do try to capture that image in paintings and photographs. But I wouldn't say that it is normal or natural to want a sunset all to oneself - the natural impulse is to point out how beautiful it is to someone else, so you can enjoy it together. Right?

With the silmarils, they are naturally beautiful light (not unlike a sunset). But they are also...objects that are hoarded and locked away and possessed for much of their existence. Had Fëanor chosen to treat them differently (say, worn them on his person when he attended the feast of reconcilliation on Taniquetal)...the entire history of the Silmarillion would have gone differently. Melkor still may have killed Finwë and earned the name Morgoth and undying hatred and sworn vengeance from Fëanor...but the silmarils would never have been lost. Perhaps they could have been used to rekindle the Trees.

Lúthien is beautiful and wonderful in all ways. And everyone who interacts with her does so with possessive lust (Daeron, Thingol, Celegorm, Morgoth) or selfless love (Melian, Beren, Huan). She's the foil...how everyone reacts reveals something of their persons.

So, to use your analogy...the symbiosis needed be parasitic nor malignant. It could be mutual. There's no reason for the silmarils to cause dragon-sickness...unless the people looking at them happen to be prone to it already.