| The War of the Great Jewels | |||||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||||
| The Dark Powers of Angband | House of Fingolfin House of Fëanor House of Finarfin Gondolin Nargothrond Edain Doriath Valinor (Late War) | ||||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||||
| Morgoth† (cast into the void) Sauron Ancalagon† Gothmog† Glaurung† Thuringwethil† | Fingolfin† Feanor† (Early War) | ||||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||||
| Millions of Orcs, Balrogs, Trolls, Dragons and other evil creatures | Hundreds of Thousands of Elves, Men, Dwarves, Valar, Maiar and Eagles | ||||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||||
| Near total, only a few survived | Very heavy | ||||||||||
The War of the Jewels (known fully as the War of the Great Jewels) was a war that started when Morgoth stole the three Silmarils from Fëanor, the elf who had created them. Fëanor, subsequently, declared war on Morgoth and vowed that he would not rest until his precious Silmarils were recovered, using even the name of Ilúvatar in his oath. Convincing most of the Noldor to leave Valinor and the "dictatorial" Valar behind, and to journey back to Beleriand, he left Valinor with a great host using the stolen ships of the Teleri obtained from the Kinslaying. From there, the "War of the Great Jewels" truly began and would last five centuries.
The major battles in this war were the First Battle of Beleriand, the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, in which Fëanor was slain, the Dagor Aglareb, the Dagor Bragollach, the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (Battle of Unnumbered Tears), and the final battle of the war, the War of Wrath. In the War of Wrath, the Valar, having been entreated by Eärendil, appeared in person at Angband alongside the largest host of Edain, Elves, and others, and the fortress and mountains of Morgoth were finally destroyed. The whole continent of Beleriand soon crumbled into the sea from the tumult of this battle, and the First Age ended. By this time, all three of the "Great Jewels" had been cast away into the elements, in different instances, by Eärendil, Maedhros, and Maglor.
The span of the war made up the majority of the time covered in Quenta Silmarillion.
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