Texts: Tolkien, “Quenta Silmarillion 11-16,” in The Silmarillion
Discussion Leaders: Louis Renard, Jameson Thomas
Discussion Questions:
- So far in the Silmarillion we have been introduced to a large cast of interesting and unique characters. To start off our discussion for today we want to go around the room and ask everyone to tell us who is the most interesting character to you and why do you feel they are worth paying attention to?
- In Chapter 13 Fëanor’s death comes with little warning and is relayed with not so much as a hint of emotion. What do you make of the sudden death of Fëanor? Does the nature of Fëanor’s death render him a heroic figure or does it suggest something else about his role in the story of this world?
- The abrupt death of Fëanor brings to mind the short lives of men. As they are introduced in Chapter 12, we are reminded that they will not be granted the long lives of the Elves, but instead that “the Doom (or the Gift) of Men is mortality, freedom from the circles of the world” (Silmarillion, xv). How does this ‘gift’ affect the race of Men, especially when contrasted against the Elves? What is implied by Tolkien’s use of the term ‘Gift’ to describe mortality? —Or ‘Doom’ given its Old-English etymology (dōm)?
- The notion of Doom leads inevitably to Mandos, the Doomsman himself. He knows “all things that shall be, save only those that lie still in the freedom of Illúvatar” (19). Throughout the chapters we read for class today, there are frequent mentions of ‘foreknowledge’, and allusions to prophecies prior and still to come. Do these prophecies, Dooms, and the ‘freedom of Illúvatar’ illumine some kind of tension between Free Will and Determinism? Does Tolkien do any work beneath the text in resolving any tension?
- The sheer number of names in The Silmarillion can be overwhelming. Have you devised any methods for keeping track of ‘Who’s who’ and ‘Where’s where’? Are there any names that have caught your attention, or which have a meaning that is especially significant?
- Amidst all of the names, some help to elucidate that nature of inter/intra-species relations in Middle-Earth—Men are called the ‘Children of the Sun’, while the Eldar are ‘Children of the Stars’, the Avari are called ‘Dark Elves’ (Eol in particular), The Vanyar proudly call themselves ‘the First’, while the Noldor are “the Wise’. Can any racial, societal, or class tensions be discerned amidst the lives of the Elves? What effect might Thingol’s outlawing of the use of Quenya have in the realm he controls?
- In myth there are often stories which seek to explain the origins of mundane astrological events like the turning of the seasons. What can we make of the way Tolkien characterizes the sun and the moon in the Silmarillion? In what ways can the circumstances surrounding the birth of these heavenly bodies shape our understanding of the relationship between the sun, the moon and the peoples of Middle Earth?
