Here is the terrible
Oath of Fëanor as presented in
Lays of Beleriand:
Be he foe or friend, be he foul or clean,
brood of
Morgoth or bright
Vala,
Elda or
Maia or Aftercomer,
Man yet unborn upon
Middle-earth,
neither law, nor love, nor league of
swords,
dread nor danger, not Doom itself,
shall defend him from
Fëanor, and Fëanor's kin,
whoso hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh,
finding keepeth or afar casteth
a Silmaril. This swear we all:
death we will deal him ere Day's ending,
woe unto world's end! Our word hear thou,
Eru Allfather! To the everlasting
Darkness doom us if our deed faileth.
On the holy mountain hear in witness
and our vow remember,
Manwë and
Varda!
First of all, at best the Oath borders on blasphemy by calling Eru as witness; but it also calls as witnesses Manwë and Varda. I think Manwë and Varda would certainly have sought dispensation from Eru to undo the Oath!
Maglor, I think, was right to break the Oath and suffer the consequences: “the everlasting Darkness” indeed awaited them, but as he said, less
evil would there be in the breaking than in the keeping of the Oath.
I believe the Oath comes from the evil wrought by Morgoth upon Fëanor, fueling his pride and – it would seem – a considerable degree of paranoia: Fëanor believed (wrongly) that
Fingolfin sought to supplant him in their father’s heart and inheritance; he believed that everyone was out to rob him (he built a
fortress at Formenos: from whom was he defending himself?); he readily (and eagerly) believed the
Valar were imprisoning the Eldar in Eldamar; he burned the
ships of the Teleri to prevent anyone from deserting, killing his son Amras in the process.
But a tree is known by its fruit: the Oath produced evil fruit. There were three Kinslayings by the
Noldor: the Teleri at Alqualondë, the ruin of
Doriath, and the assault upon the Mouths of Sirion; then there are the murders of the guards by
Maedhros and Maglor, a fourth Kinslaying; and there was the permanent distrust between the
sons of Fëanor and their followers and the rest of the Eldar of Beleriand. Finally, I think that the ill will of
Celegorm and
Curufin is related to the terrible Oath, first in their betrayal of
Finrod and
Orodreth at
Nargothrond, and then in their attempt first to kidnap
Lúthien and murder
Beren; as well as the famed ill temper of Caranthir the Dark.
Again I say, Maglor was right, and had his brother Maedhros followed his counsel rather than seeking to fulfill the Oath, I believe both would have been released from it. From
The Silmarillion, “Of the Voyage of
Eärendil and the
War of Wrath”:
Maedhros and Maglor ... sent a message therefore to
Eönwë, bidding him yield up [noparse][the Silmarils][/noparse].
But Eönwë answered that the right to the work of their father, which the sons of Fëanor formerly possessed, had now perished, because of their many and merciless deeds, being blinded by their oath, and most of all because of their slaying of Dior and the assault upon the Havens. The light of
the Silmarils should go now into the West, whence it came in the beginning; and to
Valinor must Maedhros and Maglor return, and there abide the judgment of the Valar...
Maglor [noparse][reasoned][/noparse]: “If Manwë and Varda themselves deny the fulfillment of an oath to which we named them in witness, is it not made void?”
And Maedhros answered: “But how shall our voices reach to
Ilúvatar beyond the Circles of the World? And by Ilúvatar we swore in our madness, and called the Everlasting Darkness upon us, if we kept not our word. Who shall release us?”
“If none can release us,” said Maglor, “then indeed the Everlasting Darkness shall be our lot, whether we keep our oath or break it; but less evil shall we do in the breaking.”
They had committed “many and merciless deeds, being
blinded by their oath”, the worst of which were the Kinslayings in Beleriand. I read the clear implication that the Oath of Fëanor fed those ruthless murders of
Elf by Elf, the worst crimes of all the Noldor, falling upon the innocent, particularly when they needed one another and could not spare the loss: it was not only evil, it was senseless and ultimately self-defeating. (Such is the nature of evil: it is always madness in the long run.) “[noparse][T][/noparse]o Valinor must Maedhros and Maglor return, and there abide the judgment of the Valar...” That judgment might have been heavy, but would also have been wise and merciful, I believe. Maedhros rejected it outright; Maglor wandered upon the shores of Middle-earth in alone in grief: he seems to have lost his sanity in his despair.
