Favourite 🧝elven kindred

[Confusticated]

Considering that only the Firstborn had awoken and that Melkor had pretty much devastated Arda - bringing them to Aman was a good move. Or at least it must have seemed so in their minds.

I believe it did seem like a good idea, but was it one? And even if every elf went to hide in Aman, what about Men? Didn't the Valar know that these couldn't live in Valinor? And every moment they wait Morgoth would grow stronger.

As for Melkor after his release, could the Valar very well lock him up again on mere suspicion without him even commiting a crime?

No, as I said, I wouldn't expect them to deny him the right of proving he had changed. The point is that one might expect them to been keen enough of mind to catch on to what Melkor was doing among the Noldor.

Feanor could only base his notions of what the Valar would and could do about Morgoth and Ungoliant on what he knew of their past actions, and those past actions indicate the Valar's tendency to towards idle sitting while Melkor builds power and does destruction.

 

[YayGollum]

I was looking at this thread and thinking about employing my creepy moderating powers to move a bunch of the posts over to this thread ---> http://thetolkien.forum/showthread.php?t=18102&page=3, but I figure that it might be annoying or confusing, so how's about I just request that such discussions continue over there? Here, we can continue to see what everyone's favorite elfish sort is. Mine? Still the Nandor, because they're not especially popular, they keep to themselves, they're way better than everybody else at at least one thing, and they weren't as annoying as the others (maybe just because Tolkien didn't write much about them, though ).

 

[Turgon]

I didn't actually vote on this poll until yesterday - and I actually plumped for the Teleri. I'm finding them a more attractive people as I get older.

It's strange to think that I used to be a fervent Feanorian myself - but as I get on in years I find them harder and harder to understand.

 

[Curufin]

Which is exactly the opposite of me...

When I first read the Sil seven years ago when I was 23, I hated Fëanor and his ilk.

Then I saw the light.

 

[Turgon]

Originally posted by Nom

I believe it did seem like a good idea, but was it one? And even if every elf went to hide in Aman, what about Men? Didn't the Valar know that these couldn't live in Valinor? And every moment they wait Morgoth would grow stronger.

Wasn't Melkor captured before the Great Journey? Can't quite remember at the moment - been a while since I read the Silmarillion. As for men - weren't they to come after? Who knows what plans the Valar or even Iluvatar had in mind? Teaching the Firstborn in Valinor and then sending them back out into Middle-earth to nurture mankind and healing the hurts of the world? At least in the beginning. The Valar did get complacent - but that is their character. I've always thought that had been a possibility and that in some ways the return of the Noldor was a version of that which Melkor corrupted.

I'm not trying to defend the Valar at all - Ulmo is really the only Valar I've ever had any time for as I think he was always the better instrument of Iluvatar - and I've often said that Ulmo's music could well have been a different theme in Eru's symphony which is why he stands apart from the other Valar. What I'm saying is the Noldor - and the Feanorian's in particular were rash in the extreme and that left in the Valar's hands the suffering of Middle-earth, in fact all of Arda, would have been much less.

 

[Illuin]

Well, it’s obvious that the Noldor were Tolkien’s favorite, since they were central to the story, but I have to break it down. Finrod Felagund was my favorite Tolkien character in all of his writings (with Anardil - aka Tar-Aldarion, Luthien, and Turin close behind). Fingolfin was awesome; Thingol was a boob; Feanor and sons were mighty Elves, but fools (I liked Maedhros though). Cirdan was one of my favorites. Eol was creepy. Maeglin was a weirdo. Galadriel and Legolas were cool. The literature regarding the Vanyar is too scarce to judge them by, so they are out (nice job during the War of Wrath though). Well, tallying all of this up, I have to go with the Noldor.

 

[Illuin]

by Turgon
I'm not trying to defend the Valar at all - Ulmo is really the only Valar I've ever had any time for as I think he was always the better instrument of Iluvatar

I agree. He was the only Vala that seemed to care for the Humans, not just the Elves. Men were pretty much forgotten it would seem by the rest of the Valar.