Breakdown: what matters and what's interesting

This is a turning point for the whole of “The Silmarillion”: here the chief treasure of the legendarium appears — the three Silmarils — and here the knot of future tragedies is tied. Fëanor, Finwë's eldest son and the most gifted of all the Elves, makes three jewels and shuts within them the living light of the Two Trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin. The jewels are holy: Varda hallowed them so that any impure or mortal hand that touches them is burned. Fëanor loves his creations with a morbid, jealous love. Meanwhile Melkor, released from captivity and feigning repentance, sows lies among the Noldor. He whispers to the Elves envy of the Valar and suspicion of one another, and stirs up strife between Finwë's sons: Fëanor on one side and his half-brothers Fingolfin and Finarfin on the other.

— Silmaril — from the Quenya silima, the substance Fëanor invented; literally “radiance of pure light.” The plural is Silmarils. — Fëanor is his “nickname,” his mother-name (amilessë), in Quenya Fëanáro, “spirit of fire.” His father-name is Curufinwë, “skillful Finwë.” Fire is Fëanor's key metaphor: both his genius and his all-consuming pride. — Melkor — “He who arises in Might”; the name Morgoth, “the Black Foe,” was given to him later by Fëanor himself (this happens in the following chapters). — Noldor — “the Wise,” the kindred of Elves marked by a thirst for knowledge and craft; Fëanor belongs to it. Remember the difference: the light of the Silmarils is the last preserved gleam of the Trees. After the Trees die, the unsullied Light of Valinor will remain only in the jewels. So the struggle for the Silmarils is, to a large extent, a struggle for light.

— Light and darkness. The Silmarils are the material embodiment of the Light; Melkor is the embodiment of its corruption. The whole plot from here on is a series of attempts to recover the stolen light. — Possessiveness as sin. The trouble is not that Fëanor made something beautiful but that he refused to give up the jewels even to save the world. Tolkien (himself a Catholic) makes pride and possessiveness the root of the fall. — Link to “The Lord of the Rings.” The same idea appears here as with the Ring: a thing of great power enslaves whoever cannot part with it. A Silmaril, as we will learn later, will rise into the sky as the star of Eärendil — the very star whose light in the Phial of Galadriel saves Frodo in Shelob's lair (and Shelob is a descendant of Ungoliant from these same chapters). — The Doom of the Noldor begins precisely with Melkor's lies: the feud in Finwë's house is the first crack from which the Oath and the Flight will grow.