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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silmarillion, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Unity vs. Division
Fate, Doom, and Free Will
Pride and Arrogance
Greed, Jealousy, and Obsession
Inevitable Loss
Myth and Memory
Summary
Analysis
Oromë and Tulkas hunt for Melkor in the north but can’t find him since he secretly traveled south of Valinor to the “dark region” called Avathar where Ungoliant lives. Taking the shape of a monstrous spider, she has the power to consume light and use it to spin webs of darkness. The elves believe she might have descended to Arda from the darkness around the world. She was once a servant of Melkor, but later left him to creep closer to the light of Valinor, which she both hungers for and hates.
Ungoliant is a being of pure greed. She consumes and destroys beauty and light. Like Melkor, she both wants to possess it and hates the sight of it. The elves don’t know where she came from—she might be a Maia, or she might be something else, a being created out of the Void. She leaves Melkor’s service because she isn’t motivated by pride or loyalty—only hunger.
Themes
Back in his old form of a dark lord, Melkor seeks Ungoliant out and bribes her to help him take revenge on the Valar by promising to feed her anything she wants. Ungoliant weaves a cloak of darkness around them both and uses her webs to climb over the mountains that surround Valinor. Melkor sees the light of the Two Trees and laughs.
Melkor and Ungoliant’s inner monstrosity is externally visible. They take forms that frighten others, implying that, while pretending to be good in Valinor, Melkor took on a more pleasing physical form. Melkor’s promise to Ungoliant is doubly a lie, since he has no intention of feeding her after using her, and since she can never be fully satisfied.
Themes
On Manwë’s mountain there is a festival to praise Ilúvatar and celebrate the gathering of Yavanna’s fruit with music and a feast. The Vanyar and the Noldor arrive, leaving both Valmar and Tirion empty. Manwë plans to use the feast to heal the separation among the Noldor and make peace between Fëanor and his brothers. Fëanor comes—though Finwë refuses to meet the Noldor while Fëanor is banished—and Fingolfin forgives Fëanor as he promised. They shake hands, and Fingolfin (not knowing what his words will soon mean) swears to follow Fëanor and let nothing divide them.
The divisions Melkor creates are difficult to mend. Though the Valar reach out to Fëanor to bring him back from exile, Finwë’s pride is injured by the insult of his son’s banishment and he refuses to come. Fingolfin again makes every effort to heal the division between himself and Fëanor, hoping to placate him by swearing an ill-fated promise to follow him. The elven narrator alludes to the trouble Fëanor will lead Fingolfin into because of Fingolfin’s efforts towards unity.
Themes
At the hour when the light of the Trees mingles, Melkor and Ungoliant arrive in Valinor as a dark cloud. Melkor stabs each Tree with his spear, and Ungoliant drains them dry of their sap, then drinks the dew that pools beneath them in the Wells of Varda. She swells so much that Melkor becomes afraid of her. Withered by Ungoliant’s poison, the trees die, and darkness falls over Valinor—darkness that isn’t just a lack of light, but has a malice and will of its own.
The light of Valinor, emblematic of creativity, life, and hope, isn’t only snuffed out by Ungoliant, but consumed and turned into darkness. The more Ungoliant consumes and the more goodness she destroys, the more monstrous she grows physically. Though Melkor is probably the most powerful being in Arda, Ungoliant’s greed is a threat even to him.
Themes
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Varda is the first to notice the shadow, and the music of the festival ceases. Manwë, who can see through the dark, notices an impenetrable darkness (Ungoliant and Melkor) fleeing northward and sends Tulkas and Oromë’s hunters after them. But as they catch up with Ungoliant, her darkness blinds and confuses them. When the darkness passes, Melkor is gone, and his revenge is complete.
When the light of the Two Trees is destroyed, life in Valinor briefly halts; the festival ends, and the resulting darkness stops the Valar in their tracks. Melkor, who envied the happiness of the people of Valinor, has found a way to ruin that happiness in one decisive attack.
Themes
