Understand how the Silmaril and the Oath of Fëanor destroyed the most ancient Elven kingdom, and trace the two times it was laid waste.
Chapter guide
The fall of the hidden kingdom
Doriath is the ancient forest kingdom of Thingol and Melian, guarded by the Girdle of Melian, an impassable veil of enchantment. It is destroyed by a fateful treasure: the Silmaril won by Beren and Lúthien.
The first ruin comes from the Dwarves. Thingol has the Dwarves of Nogrod set the Silmaril in the necklace Nauglamír. Pride and greed (the stone inflames the lust to own it) spark a quarrel, and the Dwarves kill Thingol in his own halls. The host of Nogrod then sacks Doriath; on its way home Beren and the Ents (Onodrim) destroy it at Sarn Athrad. Grief for Thingol, and Melian's departure from Middle-earth, leave the realm unguarded: the Girdle of Melian fails.
The second ruin is Noldorin, caused by the Oath. The Silmaril passes to Dior, Thingol's grandson (son of Beren and Lúthien) and heir of Doriath. Fëanor's sons demand it under their Oath and, getting no answer, attack: the second Kinslaying of Elves by Elves. Dior and his wife Nimloth die, and three of Fëanor's sons (Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir) fall. Dior's little daughter Elwing escapes with the Silmaril to the Mouths of Sirion, and the story turns again.
Lesson notes
The fall of the hidden kingdom
Doriath is the ancient forest kingdom of Thingol and Melian, guarded by the Girdle of Melian, an impassable veil of enchantment. It is destroyed by a fateful treasure: the Silmaril won by Beren and Lúthien.
The first ruin comes from the Dwarves. Thingol has the Dwarves of Nogrod set the Silmaril in the necklace Nauglamír. Pride and greed (the stone inflames the lust to own it) spark a quarrel, and the Dwarves kill Thingol in his own halls. The host of Nogrod then sacks Doriath; on its way home Beren and the Ents (Onodrim) destroy it at Sarn Athrad. Grief for Thingol, and Melian's departure from Middle-earth, leave the realm unguarded: the Girdle of Melian fails.
The second ruin is Noldorin, caused by the Oath. The Silmaril passes to Dior, Thingol's grandson (son of Beren and Lúthien) and heir of Doriath. Fëanor's sons demand it under their Oath and, getting no answer, attack: the second Kinslaying of Elves by Elves. Dior and his wife Nimloth die, and three of Fëanor's sons (Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir) fall. Dior's little daughter Elwing escapes with the Silmaril to the Mouths of Sirion, and the story turns again.
The cursed treasure
The Silmaril as poison. The jewel is holy, but in unworthy hands it inflames pride and greed, in Elves and Dwarves alike. Twice it leads to the shedding of kindred blood. This is the book's central motif: a good thing that becomes a cause of evil through possessiveness.
The Oath of Fëanor at work again. Fëanor's sons are bound by a terrible oath to win the Silmarils at any cost, and this oath leads them to slay their own people. Doriath is the second of the three “kinslayings” (the first was Alqualondë; the third will come at the Mouths of Sirion).
A genealogy that leads to the ending. Remember the line: Beren and Lúthien → their son Dior → his daughter Elwing. Elwing, with the Silmaril, will marry Eärendil, and it is their union that will bring salvation from Valinor (chapter 24). So the world's only hope grows out of the ruin of Doriath.
The Nauglamír, “the Necklace of the Dwarves,” is a most ancient work into which the Silmaril is set; this object is the physical “carrier” of the curse, passing from hand to hand.