What are the three jewels at the center of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion?

The three jewels at the center of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion are the Silmarils. Fëanor, the greatest craftsman among the Elves, made them from the light of the Two Trees of Valinor.

The jewels contained the radiance of that lost light, making them uniquely precious. Their creation and theft drive much of the mythology in The Silmarillion, especially the oath sworn by Fëanor and his sons to recover them.

Morgoth stole the Silmarils and set them in his iron crown. The resulting wars affected Elves, Men, and other peoples across the First Age. The story is therefore far older in its fictional chronology than The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.

The name is sometimes confused with other Tolkien objects, such as the Palantíri, the seeing-stones, or the Arkenstone in The Hobbit. Those objects are separate from the three Silmarils.