Aldamir. Lifestone. The Gift of Yavanna. The Green Jewel from the legends. The beginnings of this gem is a mystery even today. Who knows how much truth there is in the old tale from the Elder Days?
It is said that Melian the Maia arrived in Middle-earth to teach its birds to sing, and dwells in the forest of Nan Elmoth. Indeed she was a spirit that escaped from Lorien's gardens before even Tirion was built, and she wandered in the wooded places of the world, and nightingales went with her and often sang about her. In the forest of Nan Elmoth, she meets her future husband, elf Elwë. She gives up the splendor, joy, and privilege of eternal life in Valinor to dwell in the middle-world, a world of shadows as well as light, out of a vast, unreasonable, powerful love. Melian and her husband, now known as Elu Thingol, settled in the area of Eglador in Beleriand, and established a realm called Doriath, which they ruled over as its monarchs.
The Dwarves laboured long and gladly for Thingol, and devised for him mansions after the fashion of their people, delved deep in the earth. Menegroth, the Thousand Caves. But the Elves also had part in that labour, and Elves and Dwarves together, each with their own skill, there wrought out the visions of Melian, images of the wonder and beauty of Blessed Realm beyond the Sea.
In the coffers of the elf king, in Thingol’s deep chests, lay many treasures - gold plate, rings of silver, necklaces from which fantasies of jewel-work hung. His walls wore tapestries wherein could be read the deeds of the Valar, and many things that had befallen in Arda since its beginning. He trod upon floors of marble and all the work of dwarven craftsmen who commanded the worth of a royal ransom for their fee.
In Thingol’s treasure houses lay weapons of finest steel, swords hilted with gold, the grips made from the whole of a precious stone, of emerald and ruby and sapphire and diamond. For his most glittering ceremonies, he had helms of silver, plated in gold and wondrously bejeweled. He was no poor king, Thingol of Doriath.
Many wonders were in the king's treasury. Among them also Aldamir, though not the most beautiful or powerful of them. Some equate the talisman with magic; others believe it was more than that or less than that. The shining stone, a wonder of emerald and silver, cherished and guarded. Down the misty roads of time it had come, from the dawn of the Age, bearing its magic and hope across the ages. Of this two things are said, though which is true only those Wise could say who now are gone.
According to some tales, Melian herself brought it from across the Sea with her other treasures and magic. It appeared to be cut from one whole emerald, but sages, who knew the history of it, knew it hadn't been cut at all. According to another story it had been discovered, uncovered like a living thing trapped in stone and the Dwarf from Belegost who'd found it had never again seen anything so wonderful, and he'd lived a long, long time. He freed it from its rocky prison, chipping away the clutching stone until the emerald itself stood free, a shine risen again to life. No more had he done but polish it and hang it from a chain of silver, the links so tightly woven they ran like liquid. He'd rid himself of it, so the story said, as quickly as he could get a good price for it. Dwarves don't like magic, not at all, and this shining emerald beat with magic the way a heart beats with life: quietly, steadily. It was even claimed to grant some power of healing to its wearer, restoring fresh green to forests.
But Doriath fell, its great halls and royal treasury were plundered, and many of the king's treasures were lost in the darkness of the past. Countless centuries passed and old elven hoard is taken by a Dwarves, Men, Orcs and the dragons. The king’s fortune was believed to be divided among the creatures of the Earth, although some say that more remains unfound, still buried under the ground and the waves of the Sea, alongside the rotting skulls that bear mute witness to the greed and fall of the Shadow over the Elvenhome.
