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erendur · 2 days ago

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The Doriath royal family, a cursed family and its jewellery

I have been thinking for a while about the relationship between the Doriath royal family and their particular brand of tragedy, that is to be unable to let go of that Silmaril, and of how this fits into the pattern of the grand tradition of the Cursed Jewellery in Germanic/Nordic myths (most notably in the myth of Sigurd/Siegfried ; a piece of jewellery or treasure to which a curse is attached, and that brings destruction to its owners, who are unwilling/unable to get rid of it), from which Tolkien clearly took inspiration, even if of course he did his own thing with it.This started small, and then I tried to make it more coherent, and then this.

So the main idea, as you can imagine, is that the Silmaril is cursed (cf for instance Tolkien's letter to his editor which should be in the introduction to most editions of the Silm, that says just that), and that Thingol and co's problem is that they keep hanging on to it. And no, I am not going to define super precisely what I mean by "curse" (neither did Jirt !), and proceed with vibes instead (or enter into a discussion of whether a holy object can also bear a curse ; Tolkien used the word "curse" and I'm running with it ; and also unsurprisingly Tolkien seemed to have changed his mind about that as well so...).

(In terms of how the Doriath family's story fits the general pattern/tropes of tragedy, I'll refer to this post, that puts it more succinctly than I would (we know from the beginning that they are doomed (not Mandos doomed, just regular doomed) ; they have multiple occasions to be not doomed ; we know they won't take them), and run with it.

So here goes : the Doriath royal family, their curse(s), their jewellery: I'm going to proceed generation by generation, because I feel it is thematically important there, starting of course with :

1. Thingol

Thingol is the one with whom the whole Silmaril-shenanigans begins. We all know about how he asks Beren for that Silmaril, and I have made a longer post about it, but if I sum it up here :

Fate brings Beren to Doriath and allows him to enter the Girdle ; Beren is brought in front of Thingol after having sworn not to kill him ; Beren is at first unable to speak (too impressed), and Lúthien answers Thingol's questions for him, but Thingol then insists he speaks for himself, and then" it seemed to him (Beren) that words were put into his mouth" (ominous) ; those words are a comparison between Lúthien and jewels, and an expression of his desire for Lúthien and his determination to possess her (ew, but beside the point) ; Melian at that point tells Thingol to be careful about what he is going to answer, because he won't be able to kill Beren, and their fates are tied together ; Thingol does not listen to her advice, but answers Beren, using the same vocabulary and comparisons Beren himself has used (with the words that he felt "had been put in his mouth"), expressing his desire for a Silmaril, and asking Beren to get him one, hoping to get him killed, and that's how, the text tells us, "he (Thingol) wrought the doom of Doriath, and was ensnared within the curse of Mandos". The end of that scene is even more ominous : "A brooding silence fell upon the woods, and the shadows lengthened in the kingdom of Thingol."

The wording of that demand "I too desire a treasure that is withheld", and the fact that Thingol picks it from Beren, is significant : Finrod tells Beren soon after that "It is plain that Thingol desire your death ; but it seems that this doom goes beyond his purpose, and that the Oath of Fëanor is again at work. For the Silmarils are cursed with an oath of hatred, and he that even names them in desire moves a great power from slumber (...)."

So basically, if we go back to our ingredients of tragedy and curse, we already have a lot there : fate bringing Beren to Doriath ; fate putting words in Beren's mouth, that Thingol unwisely echoes (in spite of advice to the contrary) ; Thingol expressing a desire for a Silmaril, and also wanting to go around his oath not to kill Beren by having him killed indirectly (bad) ; Thingol asking for a cursed jewel, and the expression of that desire "moving a great power from slumber". Thingol thereby bringing upon himself "the curse of Mandos", and putting into motion "the doom of Doriath". The end of that story is already written (he, and his kingdom, are doomed). But Thingol could still stop it, at that point, and at several moments after ; but he doesn't, and we know he won't.

The next time we see Thingol, he is given an opportunity to change his stance Silmaril-wise, and maybe, his fate. Beren and Lúthien return. He could let it go, and let them marry. He does not, but "he looked in wonder upon Beren, whom he had thought dead ; but he loved him not (...)". Not only does seeing Beren alive, when he had sent him to his death, does not change his mind, but he reiterates his request for the Silmaril (the very cursed piece of jewellery, at that point). He is sticking to his fate, and his doom.

Another opportunity to change the course of things comes after Carcharoth is slain : Beren is slain, but, dying, gives Thingol the Silmaril that has been removed from the beast's stomach. I'm thinking with my Greek mythology brain on here, and not my Nordic mythology one, but if a cursed item of jewellery that originally eluded you makes it way to you via the stomach of an animal, it is very, very bad news. If it's given to you by your son-in-law who is dying because of the hellish beast AND the cursed jewel, it's even worse news. At that point, if you care at all about Thingol, you should be yelling at him to throw the cursed thing into the nearest river.

But there we reach the end of the story of B&L and it moves on to Beren and Lúthien's happy ending, leaving Thingol and his choice of what to do with the jewellery pending.

After that we meet Thingol and the Silmaril is in the next chapter, where it is mentioned in the context of Maedhros asking for it. And things seem to have happened between Thingol and the Silmaril in the meantime !

Melian tells Thingol to give the Silmaril back to Maedhros, another opportunity to get rid of it, but of course, for tragic reasons, he does not.

We are told : "Thingol was filled with anger, thinking of the anguish of Lúthien and the blood of Beren whereby the jewel had been won, despite the malice of Celegorm and Curufin. And every day that he looked upon the Silmaril the more he desired to keep it for ever ; for such was its power".

I find two things very interesting in there : the first one that Thingol seems to completely forget the role he played in the "anguish of Lúthien" and the "blood of Beren" being spilled, or, indeed, why Lúthien was in a position to be subjected to the malice of C&C in the first place (she was alone in the woods without protection because she was escaping from Thingol - as villainous as C&C are in B&L, she could have had even worse encounters (C&C were in the woods themselves because they were hunting down wolves sent by Morgoth, for instance), and they seem like an easy, if justified target for his anger).

Now, while his motivations and his angry reaction to Maedhros' "haughty" demand, as well as his anger at C&C and his downplaying of the antagonistic role he had in the B&L business make perfect psychological sense, I'm also interested in the fact that his angry response is also mentioned in the same breath as his growing, greedy, desire for the Silmaril. That string of arguments for not returning the Silmaril sounds very motivated by the nefarious influence the Silmaril is having on him, and I think we are meant to read it that way. Comparisons with the One Ring come to mind. Isidulr also comes up with some bullshit excuses to keep it. And like Isildur, Thingol is advised not to keep his cursed jewellery by someone wiser (Melian).

As a result of his decision, the union of Maedhros is weakened, and C&C swear destruction on Thingol and his people. This is not meant to be read as a good decision. A motivated one, but not a good one.

We go back again, finally, to Thingol in the aftermath of the Túrin situation. Thingol is even more under the sway of the Silmaril as before : "For as the years passed Thingol's thought turned unceasingly to the jewel of Fëanor, and became bound to it, and he liked not to let it rest even behind doors of his inmost treasury ; and he was minded now to bear it with him always, waking and sleeping". I think here that the reference to Fëanor is not innocent (on top of the text always referring to the Silmaril as Fëanor's when not presenting the point of view of members of the Doriath family). Like Fëanor did, Thingol now loves the Silmaril with a greedy love.

He decides to have the Silmaril set in the Nauglamír. Now, what could possibly go wrong, by having the jewel-cursed-with-an-oath-of-hatred-and-stolen-from-the-Devil's-crown-by-the-guy-you-sent-on-a-quest-in-order-to-get-him-killed-and-subsequently-retrieved-from-the-stomach-of-a-hellish-beast-and-handed-out-to-you-with-his-dying-breath-by-same-aforementioned-guy-that-you-wanted-dead set into the necklace-that-was-the-most-prized-possession-of-your-kinsman-whose-death-you-provoked-by-asking-for-the-cursed-jewel-and-that-has-been-recently-retrieved-from-a-dragon's-hoard-from-the-ruins-of-aforementioned's-kinsman-kingdom-(ruin in part provoked by you)-by-a-very-cursed-guy-after-he-killed-a-dwarf-for-it ? At this point if curses and bad vibes were radioactive, the kingdom of Doriath would just melt.

Note that Húrin, while angry (he misunderstood the nature of the relationship between Túrin and Thingol), still spells it out for him : "For this is the Nauglamír, whose name is known to many among Elves and Men ; and I bring it to thee out of the darkness of Nargothrond, where Finrod thy kinsman left it behind him when he set forth with Beren son of Barahir to fulfil the errand of Thingol of Doriath".

But at that point of course Thingol is wayyy too far in. He proceeds with his plan, is killed by dwarves, in a scene in which Thingol's greed is matched by the Dwarves', and his "pride" and "wrath" (two very defining characteristics of Thingol) are matched by theirs as well. Angry, prideful, greedy Thingol is killed by angry, greedy, prideful dwarves (they want the necklace, and lash out at Thingol out of greed and anger when he hurts their pride). He really shouldn't have insisted on Beren talking.

That is also the end of his kingdom. According to the notes in The War of the Jewels, Tolkien apparently changed his mind several times about the chapter "The fall of Doriath", and the final version in the Silm took quite a lot of editing/decisions on Christopher Tolkien's part. What is clear though from the different versions and chronologies we have there is that, for Tolkien, this it it : Thingol's death means the fall of Doriath. Dior's tenure as king is an attempt at restoration, minus the Girdle but with a Silmaril instead (what could possibly go wrong ???) Cf also Celeborn's beef with dwarves.

2. Beren and Lúthien

They are the heroes of B&L of course, so get off more lightly than Thingol, but it does take two divine interventions to get there, which is never a good sign ;

Beren, hero that he is, reads also very much like an instrument of doom. Again, his presence in Doriath is due to fate, he is instrumental in forging Thingol's fate (see above), and he also brings death and destruction to Finrod and Nargothrond.

He is also instrumental in bringing forth his and Lúthien untimely demise, courtesy of the Silmaril, and in passing down the cursed jewel to his descendants. On top of the fact that Beren knows for sure of the Oath of Fëanor (Finrod told him about it), remember this during the fight against the dwarves after Thingol's death :

"In that battle by Sarn Athrad Beren fought his last fight, and himself slew the Lord of Nogrod, and wrested from him the Necklace of the Dwarves ; but he dying laid his curse upon all the treasure. Then Beren gazed in wonder on the selfsame jewel of Fëanor that he had cut from Morgoth's iron crown, now shining set amid gold and gems by the cunning of the Dwarves ; and he washed it clean of blood in the waters of the river." The rest of the treasure of Menegroth recovered from the Dwarves is thrown in the river because of the curse, "but Beren took the Nauglamír and returned to Tol Galen".

The Silmaril gets an extra curse out of the episode, and do I need to spell out how bad an idea it seems to be keeping and wearing a piece of jewellery many times cursed that you have "wrested" from an enemy you have slain and "washed" of its blood ? The vibes are not good. Note also the "but" : that necklace should have gone into the river with the rest.

So, yeah. Beren is given PLENTY of opportunities to let go of the Silmaril : during the quest, after escaping from Sauron, when Lúthien gives him the choice to fulfil his oath to Thingol, or go away, he chooses to go with oath ; later on, when he gives the Silmaril to Thingol ; after fighting the dwarves. He does not. Curse. Tragedy.

At some point Tolkien had considered having Melian go to Tol Galen and get mad at Lúthien for wearing the Silmaril, telling her it has been "unhallowed" by having been in contact with Morgoth. It's not in the final version, but you can't tell me the vibes are good anyway.

Sure enough, about Beren and Lúthien's death, we are told that "The wise have said that the Silmaril hastened their end."

3. Dior

Dior takes part in the fight against the dwarves, and then goes on to try and restore Doriath. The odds are not exactly on his side : there is no more Girdle, a lot of Elves have been killed in the fight against the dwarves, the treasure of Thingol is gone, and to top it off Doriath is completely isolated and with almost no allies.

Out of its traditional allies : Nargothrond is no more (courtesy of the Silmaril quest) ; the dwarves have become enemies (courtesy of the Silmaril) ; Cirdan is not in any position to help (courtesy of Morgoth courtesy of the failure of the alliance of Maedhros courtesy of the Silmaril quest).

Let's add to the mix that Doriath is no longer protected by the Noldorin kingdoms to the North and East, destroyed in the Nirnaeth (in part as a result of the Silmaril quest), and that Morgoth is in a position of unprecedented power.

So at this point, the question is : shall it be death by dwarves (in revenge), or by Morgoth ?

It turns out to be death by Fëanorians, thanks to the Silmaril ! Dior, like his father before, unwisely refuses to return it, C&C remember that they had vowed destruction on the people of Doriath, plus, you know, the regular Oath.

Dior and his people seem to be under the same fascination, Silmaril-wise, as Thingol had (minus greed, I would say). They seem to think that its influence will be positive, instead of perceiving it to be very at the root of so many of their problems ! They look very much like moth attracted to light, leaving them seemingly completely unaware of danger.

But like, a blessing, really ? Fëanorians aside, it's still very much MORGOTH'S Silmaril (as in, he will want it back), and Dior should know first hand what manners of curse and bad vibes are attached to it, even if he does not perceive the Fëanorians as a threat prior to the attack.

He does not let go of it, because, like his father and grandfather, he seems unable to. Curse, tragedy, you get the gist.

4. Elwing

Once we reach Elwing, she is the 4th generation of the family "cursed" with the Silmaril, and it seems to me that thematically her thing is that she keeps keeps making the same doomed choices her family and herself have made :

like Thingol, she cannot let go of the Silmaril because of what it represents (grief, family heritage : it is "the jewel which Beren had worn and Lúthien had worn, and for which Dior the fair was slain") ;

like her father, she puts the Silmaril over making alliances (the Fëanorians offer "friendship", along with presenting demands) and she and her people seem blinded by the Silmaril's "blessing", overlooking the danger it represents (on top of the Fëanorians, Morgoth is still in the picture...I get the dwarves are too far away.)

her own doom seems to be to choose to save the Silmaril, over saving her own family. Twice she is in a situation where her family is under attack - by the same attackers-, and twice she flees to save the Silmaril, leaving twin boys behind (and I'm talking thematically here, not entering into details about how she could have smuggled her brothers out of Nargothrond, the respective size of Silmaril vs boys or her youth : I think that the fact it happens twice means something)

The way I see it, Elwing is also the one by which the "family curse" is broken : by throwing herself into the sea, she saves the Silmaril but also her own children from having to care for it. The Silmaril is gone, Elrond and Elros' story won't centre around caring and dying for it. She gets a kind of happy ending out of it thanks to divine intervention.

To go back once again to my point about tragedy, all of these are choices. She could let go of the Silmaril, at any point. She could choose the twin boys over the Silmaril. She doesn't.

5. Parallels between the Fëanorians and the Doriath royal family

I think that they are in a way meant to be mirroring one another : while the Fëanorians' actions are defined by their doomed, increasingly desperate attempts at regaining the Silmarils that always escapes them, the Doriath royal family is defined by their equally dogged determination in not letting go of the Silmaril. It ends in tragedy, for both. It ends in utter destruction for the Fëanorians, and in not completely but almost utter destruction for the Doriath royal family (they have the Valar, divine intervention and only murdering non-Elves on their side).

I also find it interesting that in the case of the Fëanorians, we see the same people making the same ill-fated choices over and over again, ending, again, in their utter destruction. In the case of the Doriath royal family, however, the pattern is generational. It's generation after generation of the same family that keep making the same choices, and then die.

I'd end up with an open question, which is, what would the Doriath royal family have done, if "their" Silmaril had been taken away from them ? Imagine for instance that, instead of Beren and Dior getting to the Dwarves first, Celegorm and Curufin did (like Tolkien at some point imagined), and retrieved the Silmaril (like Tolkien did not imagine) ?

Would they have let it go ? Or, given that we know how determined they are to keep it, and also perfectly capable of violence of their own, would they have launched an attack of their own against the Fëanorians to get it back ? Or anyone else who would have gotten their hands on it, for that matter ?