'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Episode 5: What is a Silmaril and why is it important to the Elves?
JRR Tolkien began the Middle Earth saga with ‘The Hobbit’ in 1937 and went on to write the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy in the mid-1950s. With the epic conclusion of ‘LOTR’, everyone wondered if they will ever be reading about Middle Earth again. However, at the time, Tolkien was already working on another novel called ‘The Silmarillion’ which was divided into five parts, and each of them was focused on different important stuff about Middle Earth. One of the sections was called ‘Quenta Silmarillion’, which chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age, including the wars over three jewels, the Silmarils.
Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy talks briefly about the aforementioned jewels, but they were never really explored in any of the projects based on Tolkien’s works. However, Amazon’s ‘The Rings of Power’ have finally given us a glimpse of what these jewels are and why they are so important for the Elves. In Episode 5, we saw Durin traveling with Elrond (Robert Aramayo) to meet the High-King Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker). After the meeting is over, Elrond gets to know that Gil-Galad was lying to him and that the High King had different plans. Gil-Galad told him that one of the mineral ores found by the Dwarves is none other than ‘Silmaril’, which might turn out to be really important for their existence.
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Elrond tells the story of the battle that took place in the Misty Mountain in which one of the Elven warriors with the purest of heart poured all his light into the tree to protect it. On the other side, it was Balrog of Morgoth who channeled all his hatred to destroy it. The lightning struck the tree at the same time. Their conflict forged a power, which is now buried in the depths of the Earth, and Gil-Galad believes that Ore founded by Dwarves contains that power. He took Elrond toward the trees they had in their kingdom and made him see how badly it was being affected by the darkness that lurks in Middle Earth. The High King also noted that he sent Galadriel to the Undying Lands because he thought if her pursuit of finding evil is stopped, the situation might get better. However, the situation has worsened and if something is not done in near future then Elves might perish.
Celebrimbor told him the same thing and said that he has tested the ore and nothing diminishes its light. The ore can very well be the reason of their salvage.
Now, that’s where the Silmaril comes into the picture. The Elves need that Silmaril to make sure that their species continue to live without any problems. The light of that Silmaril will touch every part of Middle Earth so that the Elves and other people can live in peace.
Gil-Galad requests Elrond to break the oath and tell Durin that he needs that ore to make sure that Elves continue to live on Middle Earth. In the end, Elrond finds the courage to tell Durin that he came to him so that he could find the Silmaril because if he is unable to, Elves will perish. Durin is a good friend and understands the situation and promises to give him the mineral ore.
Will Elrond and Gil-Galad be able to save the Elves from the darkness? We’ll get to know in the upcoming episodes.
