If I understand this sidebar discussion, Tolkien does say that the
Silmarils were hallowed so that if anything "of evil" touched them, they would
burn and wither.
Yet, when Ungoliant does NOT swallow the Silmarils, the text says "thus the
fear of Yavanna that the Silmarils would be swallowed up and fall into
nothingness did not come to pass", indicating that if they HAD been
swallowed by Ungoliant, her insides would NOT have been burned and withered???
hmmm
one of those little inconsistencies we have to sit with??
Or just that, even if her insides had been burned and withered, like Morgoth's
hand, that still would not have gotten the Silmarils back??
She would have suffered, but kept the Silmarils anyway??
a.s.
"The most beautiful and profound emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger; who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead…" Albert Einstein
