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admirable-mairon · 7 years ago

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My thoughts on Fëanor-

-and false claims that piss me off

See, I have been wanting to just sit down and write things about Fëanor for so long now but I’ve never gotten around to actually doing it. What is the purpose of this? Well mainly as entertainment for my followers, but also to clear up some things that I keep seeing repeated over and over again, and oh how many posts I would reblog on here if only they didn’t take a cheap, unfunny jab at Fëanor - The character I love more than any other in any form of media ever.

I will unfortunately be unable to share actual quotes in this piece. I let my friend borrow my english copy of the Silmarillion and so I only have the swedish version here, which is admittedly HILARIOUS occassionally, but it means that if I have a quote - I will have to translate it for you, so it won’t be exact word for word.

I won’t be talking about the different texts and exact words, but rather misconceptions I’ve seen prodding around about him, and direct arguments I’ve seen come from different parts of the fandom. I see the majority of the Tolkien fandom as the gosh darn best people I’ve ever had the joy of stumbling upon - endless amounts of fan-pieces, whether it’s art, music or writing that never seem to go away. They just get better and better and I love you.

But like I said there are SEVERAL things that are always brought up falsely about Fëanor that I just can’t stand for, sort of like the criticism against Thranduil that ‘OH HE’S JUST A RACIST SHITHEAD AND HE’S WRONG’, when in truth he’s the only actually rational and sane character in the movies.

THAT is the type of things I will bring up here. Read on further if you think it might me amusing. If you decide not to I wish you a pleasant evening/morning/day :D

There are many things one might dislike about Fëanor - Hell one might simply not be interested in him? I have several characters that I couldn’t care less about for no better reason than ‘Meh I guess I just don’t?’.

One might dislike his arrogance - he’s the very definition of ‘Holier-than-thou’ in many ways, and his passion can be off-putting for many. Maybe the whole concept of ‘GREATEST OF THE ELDAR WAS HE’ pisses you off on a sheer principle? That’s all well and good - I dislike Galadriel for the same reason (though I would argue there is no basis to claiming that she’s the GREATEST in any way as she hasn’t really done anything worthy of mentioning, but I digress - that is not what I’m here for, and the malcontent I have with her is mainly because of petty arguments on tumblr).

HOWEVER.

When people lie about Fëanor to support their own dislike of him - I get downright pissed off.

To be more direct - Here are the things I will be discussing in this piece:

He was a bad Father / He ruined his children / He forced his children to swear the oath with him

He left His people to the Helcaraxë

He was to blame for all the kinslayings

There was nothing but fire and greed inside him

All of these are so-called critisisms I’ve seen directed towards him during my years on here. I have not seen many of them on here lately, but it is likely that that’s because I’ve made a point to unfollow and potentially block those who spew nonsense like this.

BUT LET’S ADRESS ALL OF THIS SHALL WE? STRAP IN Y’ALL AND GRAB A SNACK - I’M GOING IN DEEP

He was a bad Father / He ruined his children / He forced his children to swear the oath with him

Mostly inspired by things I keep hearing as well as an anonymous ask I recieved this morning

I love feanor too but he sort of brought tragedy on his children

*the heaviest sigh*

Okay. Just. Gimme a moment.

Okay no.

Here’s the thing: The Silmarillion is filled with questionable forms of parenting. There’s Finwë not understanding what had to be done to deal with Fëanor as a child, there’s Indis also lacking in that understanding, there’s parents that seem to give no shits about their children, hell I love Curufin and I do think he adored Celebrimbor more than anything, but he was a little too damaged to know how to handle him, not to mention the fact that a pair of Kinslayers were better parents than Elwing and Eärendil ever were.

But Fëanor wasn’t one of them. How do I know?

His sons would not have done everything they did unless they loved their father with every fibre of their being. They were not copies of him (aside from Curufin) and to me it seems clear that they were encouraged to follow their heart’s desires rather than strictly follow in his footsteps.

When Nerdanel left - or however that went over - ALL SEVEN OF THEM CHOSE THEIR FATHER. ALL OF THEM. ALL SEVEN.

When Fëanor was distraught and coing crazy with agony over losing his father and the Silmarilli - When he swore that oath - his sons wasted NO TIME in getting up to stand there with him.

They stuck with him through thick and thin, they didn’t hesitate to stand there with him and support him fully. They were a family - a close-knitted one at that - and they adored him. That much is clear.

Just because someone is a biological parent doesn’t earn them any form of respect as a parent, nor any love from their children if they haven’t deserved it. Fëanor was loved by his sons and he loved them dearly - He is one of the few parents in these damn series that deserve the title of ‘Actually great and supportive dad’.

Fëanor did not bring tragedy on his children - let’s all be very clear on that. If anything - tragedy was brought unprovoked onto him and his children, who - by the by - were grown men by the time they left Valinor and swore the Oath

Eru was completely alright with all of this. The Valar were cruel, whether they meant to be or not, and Fëanor was used by Melkor. The fëanorions wanted what was rightfully theirs - what their father and grandfather died for - and the whole world suddenly decided to say ‘Hah fuck no finders keepers shitheads!’.

It can naturally be argued that his death fucked them up, and that he shouldn’t have barged forward to take on Balrogs on his own, but TBH if it fucked over them that bad it only further supports the argument that he was an amazing father that they loved so dearly that they would do literally ANYTHING to get back and honor. Furthermore one could naturally point out that burning ships was a Rude AF thing to do, but to be fair every single one of his sons was in on it aside from Maedhros who suffered the loss of Fingon, but perhaps Fingon would still at least be safe and out of harm’s way in Valinor. Burning the ships was arguably and admittedly very ‘rude’, but it was not an ill action directed towards his people or most importantly his son.

Which brings us beautifully to the second subject....:

He left his people to the Helcaraxë

Except he really didn’t.

He left FINGOLFIN’S people - not his own. Seems minor and pointless perhaps, but I assure you it’s of great importance.

After the kinslaying at Alqualondë it was only natural that tensions would grow unbearable. When people break - when people do terrible things - they often regret them afterwards, become angry and need to find someone to blame it on. Given how Fëanor was their king and that he was the one who encouraged them to leave the cage the Valar had put them in, it would be natural to blame Fëanor for the horrendous act they’d all just committed. Because let me remind you - The Nolofinwëans ALSO took part in the first kinslaying.

Fingolfin’s people had long been - for a lack of a better word - talked shit about Fëanor and his people. Ever since Finwë died and they left the safety of their cage, there had been constant nagging about how Fëanor shouldn’t be their king, how he didn’t deserve it, why did they have to do this, it was too far away, this was going too far by now, Fingolfin should lead instead. And Fëanor - Never having been one for taking anyone’s shit - basically said ‘Oh okay then you can WALK BACK HOME YOU PIECES OF SHIT WE’RE GOING TO MIDDLE-EARTH AND YOU CAN STAY BACK COMFORTABLY HERE’.

FINGOLFIN was the one to insist they cross the Helcaraxë, along with his people. There was the option of returning back to Valinor, which I assume Fëanor would assume that they would do, because after all that’s what they had been complaining about for weeks, wasn’t it? Believe me - I love Fingolfin - and it was an asshole move to burn the ships. But Fëanor didn’t leave his own people to the Helcaraxë - He left Fingolfin and his people to do whatever they wished (as long as it didn’t involved the ships they’d killed for), and they chose to walk along the Helcaraxë.

Did they have much of a choice? Could they return or was it more of a 50-shades kind of situation of ‘OH BUT SHE COULD LEAVE WHENEVER SHE WANTED but really she couldn’t’? Finarfin returned just fine, but then again he hadn’t killed any teleri.

That whole part can certainly be discussed and argued about, but the fact remains that Fëanor did NOT leave his own people to the Helcaraxë - He left Fingolfin’s. The dramatic noldor flare version of ‘IF YOU DON’T STOP COMPLAINING I’LL TURN THIS THING AROUND AND YOU ALL CAN WALK HOME’

He was to blame for all the kinslayings

This is - as we all can see - A clear and obvious fucking lie.

Fëanor died before the sun was created. Fëanor died at the very beginning of the First Age.

He was literally not alive long enough to be blamed for any of the other kinslayings.

He created the silmarillis - he and his sons had the only right to them.

The kinslayings post Alqualondë happened because of incompetent leadership, corruption and betrayals within the good ol’ people of Middle-Earth. Need I mention that the only Fëanorion killed by Melkor’s forces was Fëanor himself? The rest were killed by other elves. Not only that but the fëanorions were known to be diplomats - the strongest war-forces out there to be sure, and warlords for the legends - but the Union of Maedhros wasn’t their fault. The fact that Thingol fucked up and told a human to fetch a Silmaril because this human couldn’t understand a simple metaphor for ‘I will never let you marry my daughter’. Sort of ‘I will let you marry my daughter when Hell freezes over’, and he’d take that seriously? Not that I doubt it - Beren seems like the kind of fella who would barge into Hell with buckets of ice because ‘I WILL BE ALLOWED TO SHAG THE FEMALE ELF IF I DO THIS’.

Wars and conflicts such as the ones that raged through the First Age are NEVER black and white. Never. There is no good guy and there is no bad guy (aside from Melkor, but he wasn’t the ONLY bad guy). There were the Fëanorions and their property, and people who thought that they had the right to them.

Overall bad leadership and simple stupidity as well as over-dramatic elves and kings and humans were to blame for the Kinslayings: Not Fëanor.

That would be like blaming the one who made my phone in case it’d get stolen. “OH IF ONLY YOU HADN’T MADE THIS PHONE THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED”

There was nothing but fire and greed inside him

I saw this written in that one post about why Galadriel giving Gimli three strands of her hair was an amazing scene (which it was because that move was SAVAGE).

This is the only place in which I will quote something word for word in this:

“Even when she was young, Galadriel’s ability to see into other’s hearts was very strong, and she knew that Fëanor was filled with nothing but fire and greed”

*muffled shrieking*

ALRIGHT SO LET’S HAVE A LOOK SHALL WE

To be fair - Galadriel is a child of Indis. That is not to say that Indis herself was bad (even though I literally hold no love for her whatsoever, aside from the fact that she gave us great characters through that womb of hers - good job), but rather that Finwë’s family was very heavily divided and separated by an understandable conflict.

Fëanor - understandably - hates that side of the family. Because of that, because they’ve never been given a chance because they aren’t worth his time - it’s natural that they dislike him in turn.

Galadriel is Finarfin’s child, but acts more like a Noldo than he does. It would be LOGICAL for her to be biased against him. Because of that it wouldn’t be surprising if she saw the passion in him and interpreted it as Fire and Greed because of bias - whether she was aware of it or not.

Fëanor was indeed the greatest elf that has ever existed and ever will exist - greatest in both beauty, mind and strength. He did ask for her hair three times because he wanted to capture it's beauty in gems, but that they inspired the silmarilli? Really? Nah. It might have driven him to create them out of spite, but we have a pretty clear case of stroking Galadriel's ego to deal with here if we are to assume that the SILMARILLI - the very gems that caused most of the tragedy during the First Age - were crafted in her image.

But more than that the phrase "she saw that in his heart there was only fire and greed" pisses me off.

No. There was not. There was passion in his heart. Fëanor lived to create - especially things of beauty. Everything - literally everything about this cocky little shit was about passion and creation. He cared for his people - he wanted to share wonders with the world freely and out of the rule of the Valar/Gods. He wanted freedom and he wanted to create, he has three times too much energy in his soul.

If that is what they mean by "only fire and greed", then yes.

All in all this has been amusing and interesting to write and I hope I’ve made at least some lick of sense to you - the reader.

This was really just a long and complicated way of saying that it is OKAY to dislike a character. Not every character appeals to everyone. There is legit nothing wrong with that.

But I lose respect for people - grownups - who can’t even admit that their reason for disliking someone or something is petty. I cannot respect people who go far enough that they end up lying and making things up just to make themselves seem more sensible and mature, when in all seriousness all it tells me is that someone lacks the self-confidence to admit that ‘Yeah. I like this thing but not that. There’s no reason really, I just thing this thing is neat and that one isn’t because I’m a petty asshat’.

No character - Especially not in a masterpiece like The Silmarillion has perfect characters, only ones with different grey areas in what’s okay and what isn’t. There is nothing wrong in liking some and disliking some. But OWN that. if the reason is petty OWN it. Try to have at least some semblence of confidence and insight to know when you’re being petty and when you aren’t.

We’re a great fandom - I truly and utterly believe that.

I love you

( @first-son-of-finwe )

#feanor #the silmarillion #musings #meta #really #just #me talking too much about a character I adore

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