Fëanor

Fëanor absorbed a significant portion of his mother (Miriel) life energy during his birth, and her body deteriorated. Eventually, her spirit abandoned her body voluntarily and left her family behind as she went to the Halls of Mandos. Afterward, Finwë took a new wife and begot four additional offspring. Despite loving his father very dearly, Fëanor did not favor Indis (his stepmother) and her children (his half-siblings). Nonetheless, he, therefore, decided to leave his domain to live away from all of them. At an early age, Fëanor discovered his incredible talents for language and craftsmanship. He developed the works of Rumil and established the Tengwar writing system. He then became a student of Mahtan, an accomplished smith who, in turn, learned his craft under the tutelage of the great Aule. He learned a great deal in metallurgy from Mahtan, and eventually took his master's daughter Nerdanel as his wife. Their marriage bore Fëanor seven sons: Amras, Amrod, Caranthir, Celegorm, Curufin, Maglor, and Maedhros. His sons were very loyal to him, and he spent a great deal of his time with them. Other times Fëanor preferred to be alone, busy with his works and ideas. He was somewhat restless and explored Aman as much as he could while crafting new inventions.​

Considered the paramount of Fëanor’s crafting accomplishments was the making of the Silmarils, also known as the Great Jewels. Fëanor somehow caught some of the mixed light in the Two Trees of Valinor, then magically infused that into three big gems of superb quality. Because the Silmarils gave him enormous praise, he valued the jewels beyond all else. Unfortunately, over time, Fëanor became greedily enamored to the gems and began to covet them. He progressively disregarded the reality that the luminescence inside the gems and which provided them their splendor was not due to his skills. Fëanor confusingly alternated between showing off the jewels with vain and guarding them jealously from everybody but his closest family members. Eventually, he reached the point of keeping the gems locked up.​

Melkor, the strongest of the Valar, and the earth’s primordial root of evil misled the Valar with a pretense of repenting after spending three Ages in prison. The Valar pardoned him and let him live in Valinor, where he brewed and increased his hatred and malice for the Elves since they were the foremost reason for his deposition. He quickly discovered that among the main groups of Elves residing in the vales of Valinor, the Noldor were the most gullible and easiest to influence due to their enthusiasm to listen and desire for knowledge. Melkor focused on the Noldor, maliciously spreading rumors that the Valar were intentionally keeping them in Valinor as virtual prisoners so that the race of Men could inherit Middle-earth and claim glory in their stead.

Despite his mistrust against Melkor, Fëanor inadvertently repeated his lies. After some time, Fëanor became the staunchest among the Noldor dissenters that the Valar, ignorant of Melkor’s ruse, considered him as the source for all the unrest. Melkor greatly desired the Silmarils and detested Fëanor, but kept his intentions hidden from the Valar and Nordol as the situation turned for the worse. Melkor’s lies increased and created the disturbing rumor that Fingolfin, Fëanor’s half-brother, was planning to sequester the Silmarils and assume his place as the rightful heir to Finwë’s throne. Easily swayed because of his vanity and pride, Fëanor grew very hostile towards Fingolfin and even threatened him violently.

The Valar, who have been putting up with Fëanor’s rebellious actions, could no longer overlook the offense of breaking Valinor’s peace. Therefore, they summoned Fëanor to appear at the Ring of Doom to explain his actions. Fëanor’s testimony exposed Melkor’s lies and malice, and thus, Tulkas hurriedly left the Ring to arrest Melkor once more. However, although Melkor was the origin of the confusion in Valinor, the crime of breaking the peace was Fëanor’s own doing. As such, the Valar exiled him to Formenos, where Fëanor brought the Silmarils, as well as a considerable amount of other treasures. To show his unconditional support for his son, Finwë renounced his title as king and went with Fëanor to Formenos to remain there until Fëanor stayed in exile. After some time, Melkor suddenly arrived in Formenos, and he attempted to convince Fëanor to join him by declaring he believed the Valars treated the exile unreasonably.

Aware that Melkor’s real objective was obtaining the Silmarils, Fëanor vehemently rebuked the fallen Vala. At this, Melkor retreated in rage and left Valinor. He seemed to head north but eventually veered southward, passing swiftly to the empty Aman shore in the south. Despite Fëanor’s dismissal of the whole incident, Finwë worried about it and reported the strange encounter to the Valar with haste. Unfortunately, the Valar did not find any trace of Melkor.

After some time, gave up the search altogether. Seven years hence, the Valar declared a great feast to be held in Valinor in their sincere attempt to restore amicable relations with the Noldor. The Valar momentarily lifted Fëanor’s exile and invited both he and Fingolfin. The Valar also invited Finwë to attend, but he declined this invitation, electing instead to simply stay in Formenos to rest. At the vital feast of reconciliation, Fingolfin publicly announced his continued recognizance of Fëanor’s status as eldest and heir, extending a hand to his half-brother. Fëanor returned the gesture with grudging enthusiasm.​

Melkor fled to Avathar, an area in southern Aman, where he found the Ungoliant, a spider-like evil creature, and made her his ally. Melkor promised the giant spider to satisfy her ever-persisting hunger if she would help him. Ungoliant agreed, and so on the Day of Reconciliation and festivities in Valinor, as Fingolfin and Fëanor reconciled, Ungoliant and Melkor destroyed the Two Trees, thus plunging the whole area in utter darkness. Ungoliant and Melkor proceeded to Formenos, then Melkor killed Finwë, plundered the treasure chest, seized the Silmarils, as well as other riches. The two escaped by traversing the Helraxe, (or the Grinding Ice) in Beleriand, north of Middle-earth. The Valar tried to pursue the culprits but were ultimately foiled by the Ungoliant’s Unlight that obscured the pursuers’ vision. The Valar sadly realized that their precious light existed only inside the Silmarils in Fëanor's possession because the two trees were dead. In the Valar’s desire to restore the Trees and defeat Melkor, they sent Yavanna to ask Fëanor to offer up the Silmarils to be broken thereby releasing the light inside them. To this, Fëanor emphatically declared that he would not freely give up the Silmarils and stated that should the Valar force him to comply, they are at the same level as Melkor. However, Fëanor’s resistance and selfishness proved futile, as news about Finwë’s death and theft of the Silmarils arrived from Formenos.​

Upon learning of his Finwë’s murder as well as the valued Silmaril’s theft, Fëanor immediately named Melkor as "Morgoth," meaning "Black Foe of the World ("Black Foe" for short). [2] While he did so, Fëanor felt terrific grief and rage in his heart, for he loved his father deeply, thus fleeing from the Ring of Doom. Realizing that the reason he was at the Ring of Doom while his father died was due to the Valar’s summons, Fëanor cursed the Valar and developed bitterness against them. He firmly believed that if he had been in Formenos when Morgoth had arrived, he surely would have done something to save his father.

But his despair kept him from seeing that there was indeed nothing that could have changed the outcome. Fëanor was now “King of the Noldor” after his father’s demise and went back to Tirion, forgetting or perhaps ignoring that he was still an exile, and delivered the most passionate speech ever given in Arda. However, due to his grief, pride, and rage, he inadvertently included many of Morgoth’s lies in his speech. He spoke vehemently against Morgoth but, at the same time, blamed the Valar for the Dark Lord's deeds. He defiantly called out the Valar’s failure to capture and stop Morgoth.

He pointed out that because Morgoth assaulted and badly defaced the Valar kingdom without any harm to the evil being, there was no more security and peace left in Aman. He mentioned the vast kingdoms his people could create in Middle-earth, as well as the glory they could gain when they reacquired the Silmarils. Fëanor then proceeded to swear by an oath in the name of Iluvatar that he would hurt no one, regardless of reason or race, to keep a Silmaril from anyone, and that he would visit violence on anybody who goes against his Oath. His seven sons also took the “Oath of Fëanor” [3] beneath the tower of Mindon Eldalieva in the Tirionian Great Square. Unfortunately, this Oath was the reason for the untold tragedy for Fëanor’s family and the Eldar as a whole.

Fëanor’s great emotional speech convinced most of the Noldor present, but even his excellent oratory skills could not stop dissension from rising due to the question of leadership. Although Fëanor was the High King, he was not particularly liked by the Noldor, and a great number were hesitant to accept his leadership. Many Noldor preferred Fingolfin and his sons to lead them to battle as the populace greatly loved them. Fingolfin was confused and divided by all this and was reluctant to go. On the one hand, he swore to support Fëanor’s right as eldest, but on the other, he didn’t want to place the people at the whim of Fëanor’s egocentric and hasty decisions.

Furthermore, one of his sons, Fingon was eager to join the quest and urged his father to join as well. So, against his better judgment, Fingolfin marched at the head of a second army, more extensive than that of Fëanor’s, as Finarfin led a third, smaller group whose members were a bit reluctant. Altogether, Finwë’s three sons led an army that represented about nine-tenths of the entire Noldor population, with the other tenth remaining behind in Tirion either for the sake of defending the city or for their love for the Valar.​

As they departed for their quest, Fëanor's demeanor changed when he realized quite belatedly that they had no effective means of transportation to take them all to the Middle-earth. In those days, Aman and Middle-earth were linked together by the Helcaraxe, a bitterly cold and treacherous region of unstable arctic ice, considered by many as impassable. Fëanor thought about building ships, but the Noldors did not have shipwrights, and even if there were, building enough ships to transport the whole army to Middle-earth would not only consume so much time but would also be a monumental task at the very least.

Fëanor went to Alqualonde, where the Teleri, a seafaring people, lived. He hoped to persuade them to join their quest, or if not, to get permission to use the ships. Unfortunately, the Teleri did not agree to any of the requests, as they did not want to leave Aman for whatever reason and did not give the Noldor their ships, for they prized them dearly. Slighted by the refusals, Fëanor became angry and reminded the Teleri that they were indebted to the Noldor for teaching them the art of building cities. However, Olwe, the Teleri lord, was unfazed, and kindly declined again given Fëanor’s folly.

Fëanor, refusing to accept the rebuffs, knew that he should act fast, unless cooler heads prevailed among the Noldor, and change the minds of the people he inflamed by his emotional words. He then convinced his army to help him take the ships using force. This course of action they tried three times, and each time the Teleri was successful in resisting them, even throwing some Noldors into the sea, and drove them back regardless of the latter having superior arms than the former. Now, Fingolfin’s army, being less eager to begin the quest, and so was slower in advancing, has just arrived to witness the battle raging. Thinking the Teleri instigated the fight, maybe even under direct orders from the Valar.

Fingolfin’s army charged in support of Fëanor and defeated the Teleri. Fëanor's troops stole the ships and killed several Teleri mariners. After taking over the Teleri ships, the Noldor sailed with a substantially diminished army, and some loss to the previous battle with the Teleri, others to the terrible storms summoned by Osse as retribution for the Teleri. While at sea, they encountered a character called Mandos himself, who spoke a "terrible Doom," foretelling misery and suffering for the coming battle against Morgoth and the eventual banishing of the Noldor from Valinor.

Also, that because of slaying their kin, their wickedness will cause the Valar to forsake them utterly, thus will not be welcome nor receive any help from Valinor in all their travails. The figure ‘believed to be Mandos’ mentioned that Fëanor and his house were well and truly cursed, suffering, and experiencing hardships primarily due to the Oath they made to recover the Silmarils, whatever the cost. Most importantly, the Mandos figure explicitly declared that any war waged by the Noldor against Morgoth would fail epically, simply because the Noldor, being mere Elves, lacked the necessary power to defeat a Vala. Finarfin, on hearing the Doom, and also not having been part of the Kinslaying, turned his army back in anguish and cursed Fëanor.

The Valar accepted and pardoned Finarfin and his army, and Finarfin himself reigned as ‘High-King of the Noldor’ in Tirion. Ever defiant, Fëanor ignored the Doom and ensued onward. As the expedition continued northward, the land seemed to grow darker, and the temperatures started to drop intensely as the Noldor drew near the Helcaraxe. At this instance, many of the Noldor, getting increasingly hesitant to follow Fëanor, started to voice their discontent with his decisions openly. Even though they were successful in commandeering the Teleri fleet, Osse's storms considerably weakened a majority of the ships, so now they no longer have ample ships to quickly transport all of them to Middle-earth.

Moreover, the Doom of Mandos brought the fear of deceit to the Noldor, so no one wanted to remain in Aman while a portion of the army crossed the sea ahead. Fëanor, who was fully cognizant of both the people’s unrest, as well as the problem of transporting everyone to Middle-earth, decided to seek his sons’ counsel. Meanwhile, Fëanor’s most loyal troops still had control over the seized Teleri ships. When the unrest became worse, Fëanor simply decided to leave all those who had even a sliver of doubt, and those with absolute loyalty slipped away with him one dark moonless night. They sailed for Losgar, a place in Lammoth, located in western Beleriand, where Ungoliant and Morgoth had traversed some years before.

When they arrived, Fëanor ordered the ships burned, leaving Fingolfin’s followers behind. As the earth was flat at that time, the other Noldors saw the fires, instantly recognizing that they were abandoned and betrayed. Fingolfin was left with a choice. Either they were going back to Tirion in humiliation or marching on to Morgoth through the hazardous Helcaraxe. Fingolfin, together with the people, decided to risk crossing the frozen wasteland. It was their wish to continue and their desire to challenge Fëanor and his forces about their betrayal. Fingolfin's army endured the long and dreadful journey, and many of the people were lost, thus adding to the hate they felt for Fëanor.​

When Morgoth heard of the Noldor coming, he mustered his troops from his Angband fortress and assaulted Fëanor’s forces in Mithrim. The clash was referred to as the "Battle Under the Stars" or "Dagor-nuin-Giliath." That was during the time before the Moon and the Sun were created. The Noldor were victorious in the battle, having routed Morgoth’s forces quickly. However, Fëanor, full of pride and greatly encouraged by the victory, marched on to Angband with a small contingent. He and his band were way ahead of the main body of the army. When they were near Angband, the orcs saw their few numbers and attacked them. Because the orcs were near Angband, several Balrogs joined the fray and immediately killed many Elves.

Regardless, Fëanor was unfazed, and although suffering many wounds, continued to fight on alone. Eventually, he was struck down by Gothmog, the Lord of the Balrogs. Luckily for Fëanor, his sons arrived with substantial reinforcements that evened the Elves' favor. The Balrogs retreated to Angband, and Fëanor’s sons removed him from the field of battle. However, knowing his wounds were fatal, Fëanor told his sons to halt. He then gazed at Angband and cussed at Morgoth three times, but seeing the vastness of Morgoth's fortress, he finally recognized and accepted the reality in Mando’s declarations that no Noldoran army could ever defeat the Dark Lord’s power. Nonetheless, he commanded his sons to avenge him and keep their oaths. He then perished, his blistering soul living his body and incinerating it completely.​

With Fëanor's demise, his son Maedhros went on to become the High King of the Noldor. However, when Maedhros saw Fingolfin sometime later, he gave his uncle the kingship out of respect and the desire to unite all the people. Maedhros also acknowledges that being the oldest among Finwë's surviving sons, the sovereignty was Fingolfin’s by right of birth. Fingolfin's heirs would rule over Noldor until Gil-galad died some centuries later.

Fëanor’s exploits, a great deal of them being infamous, loomed like a shadow over the relations between the returning Noldor and the Sindar. Thingol, the Doriath King, later learned about the curse of Mandos, the Kinslaying, and the burning of ships at Losgar. Because the Teleri were Thingol’s kin, he was infuriated to know of the cruel slaughter. However, he was able to forgive Finarfin's sons, being of his kin, and had not been part of the evil deed.

As for Fingolfin’s army, who had to endure the horrible crossing of the Helcaraxe in pursuit of Fëanor, he decided that they all suffered enough to deserve more punishment. However, Thingol treated in contempt all those who followed Fëanor, were part of his kin or were associates of his kin. He did not want to have anything to do with them, and so avoided any contact with them. Fëanor’s surviving sons yet had to bear with their Oath to regain the Silmarils.

Unfortunately, Oath would be responsible for two additional Kinslayings to occur, each more terrible than the one before, and would prove to challenge the War of the Elves against Morgoth in several significant means. Several years, hence, the Doors of Durin will exhibit the infamous ‘single star’ sign related to the “House of Fëanor.”​