FrontPage
RecentChanges
SandBox
MessageBoard

Search
Members
Projects
Folders
Index

Preferences

Edit




NEW:






The Necklace of the Dwarves

This is an abstract of the story of the Nauglamír, The Necklace of the Dwarves, as it is told in the published Silmarillion (see Annotations):

The Nauglamír was made by craftsmen of Nogrod and Belegost. It was the most famed of all their works from the ElderDays and made for Finrod Felagund.


It was a carcanet of gold, and set therein with gems uncounted from Valinor; but it had a power within it so that it rested lightly on its wearer as a strand of flax, and whosever neck it clasped it sat always with grace and loveliness.
The Silmarillion, "Of the Return of the Noldor"


It was retrieved from Nargothrond by Húrin and given to Thingol, Thingol later had a Silmaril set in it by Dwarves from the BlueMountains.

The greatest works of Elves and Dwarves were brought together and made one.
The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Doriath"

After the work of melding the Necklace and the Simaril was finished, an argument and a fight broke out between Thingol and the Dwarves. Thingol was slain by the Dwarves in their greed.

The Dwarves fled but were pursued to death, and the Nauglamír was retaken. This event caused the war between the Elves and the Dwarves. Dwarves destroyed Doriath and captured the Nauglamír. Then the Dwarves were ambushed by Elves led by Beren. Beren himself killed the Lord of Nogrod, recapturing the Nauglamír.

After Beren reclaimed the Nauglamír he washed it clean of blood in the water of the River Ascar, and from that time on the river was known as Rathlóriel, the Goldenbed.

At this time the Nauglamír came to Lúthien at TolGalen. Lúthien wearing that necklace and that immortal jewel was a vision of the greatest beauty and glory that has ever been seen outside of Valinor.

Lúthien passed it down to Elwing, Elwing married Eärendil, and Eärendil sailed over the sea into the Uttermost West to beg the forgiveness of the Valar and to succoure their help in the fight against Morgoth.

Elwing lives in Valinor wearing the Nauglamír and Eärendil wears the Silmaril on his brow and sails the Seas of Heaven.

Note: Please put everything in exact order of time. This story wanders.

Then, don't use passive voice - "Thingol was slain by the Dwarves". Use active voice - "The Dwarves slew Thingol".

Finally, Elwing lives, as a bird, in the airs between Arda and Eärendil, and flies up to greet him periodically. This is the origin myth for the morning stars Mercury and Venus, respectively.


DtC
Comments and Annotations

The story of the Nauglamír as it is told in the published Silmarillion is a curious issue in itself, because not only does it not quite match with the earlier versions of the tale, but also - as far as I know - J.R.R. Tolkien never wrote it that way. In HoMeXI we find this - somewhat apologetic - statement of Christopher Tolkien:

In the story that appears in The Silmarillion the outlaws who went with Húrin to Nargothrond were removed, as also was the curse of Mim; and the only treasure that Húrin took from Nargothrond was the Nauglamír - which was here supposed to have been made by Dwarves for Finrod Felagund, and to have been the most prized by him of all the hoard of Nargothrond. Húrin was represented as being at last freed from the delusions inspired by Morgoth in his encounter with Melian in Menegroth. The Dwarves who set the Silmaril in the Nauglamír were already in Menegroth engaged on other works, and it was they who slew Thingol; at that time Melian's power was with- drawn from Neldoreth and Region, and she vanished out of Middle- earth, leaving Doriath unprotected. The ambush and destruction of the Dwarves at SarnAthrad was given again to Beren and the Green Elves (following my father's letter of 1963 quoted on p. 353, where the Ents, 'Shepherds of the Trees', were introduced.

This story was not lightly or easily conceived, but was the outcome of long experimentation among alternative conceptions. In this work Guy Kay took a major part, and the chapter that I finally wrote owes much to my discussions with him. It is, and was, obvious that a Step was being taken of a different order from any other 'manipulation' of my father's own writing in the course of the book: even in the case of the story of The Fall of Gondolin, to which my father had never returned, something could be contrived without introducing radical changes in the narrative. It seemed at that time that there were elements inherent in the story of the Ruin of Doriath as it stood that were radically incompatible with 'The Silmarillion' as projected, and that there was here an inescapable choice: either to abandon that conception, or else to alter the story. I think now that this was a mistaken view, and that the undoubted difficulties could have been, and should have been, surmounted without so far overstepping the bounds of the editorial function.

The War of the Jewels, "The Tale of Years"

--ChW


FolderEssays

 
(C) The Tolkien Wiki Community Page last changed: September 8, 2003